[pondorpool]

I've searched as best as possible but haven't found the info I was looking for so I apologize in advance if this has been discussed before...

I recently switched over to Rogers and now have an 8642 and 4642 for my 2 TVs. I found this site by searching Google for answers about the weak IR reception these boxes seem to have and having read a number of threads on this board it seems to be a common comment by many.

After a few calls with Rogers I was told by several folks that the IR port on the back of the boxes IS now active. I then did some research and found that Cisco makes an IR Extender Cable for these units. I then talked to a friend of mine who is a Cisco reseller about getting me 2 of these cables and while he did find the product in his Cisco price books we discovered a puzzling question that no one seems to know the answer to...

What Frequency do the remotes/ recievers operate on? There are 2 variants of the IR Extender cable with the only difference being that one has 38Khz in the product description while the other says 56Khz. I've talked to Rogers technical support and they couldn't come up with the answer, I've talked to end user support at Cisco and they can't seem to tell me the answer so, I'm looking for the bright minds on this board to help me out. Is it possible that Canadian units operate on a different frequency than the ones in the US? The only clue was that the 38Mhz cable description also has the length listed in metres while the 56Khz cable description is in ft. Having said that, I don't want to go and buy 2 $50 cables on a hunch and then not have them work.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[57]

Before purchasing the extender cables, you may wish to be aware of the following IR interference thread:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=64463

You can then test to see if your TV is an issue by turning it off, etc.

Here's a previous thread on the IR Extender, but for the 8300, so it may not help, but it does provide some background information and the difficulty of getting these in Canada and possible workaround using other extenders/repeaters.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=49882&highlight=extender

 

[csks]

57,
Backlight leaking IR...is it an issue with CCFL LCDs only or do LED LCD TVs have the same problem?

 

[57]

Interesting question. I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that the issue is not limited only to CCFL LCDs. I've seen plasmas, CFLs, sunlight and even one DVD player (yep, an older DVD player) causing the problem...

Usually easy to find the source of the problem by turning off devices, lights (or blocking the sun). If the problem is IR (leakage)-related, then sometimes a "repeater" may not solve the problem, unless you can place the repeater eye so that it's not affected - I've been able to do that at most home theatres where I've run into the issue..

 

[csks]

I don't know if this is true but some say that IR leakage will show up as white light via camcorder viewfinders if the camcorder is set to 'nightlight' mode.
If someone can try this and share their findings that would be great.

 

[17671]

if you look at your camcorder viewfinder, you can definitely see IR light in there but not with your human eye. so I dont see why this is not valid..

good point man.