I really hate to advocate for a company or a product, but I have to say that this thing is just awesome!
My tuner (VIP211k) is the only Dish tuner I own, I didn't want individual tuners in each room, just one tuner for the whole house.
Additionally, I have an FTA STB tuner and a Home Theater PC with FTA and ATSC tuner cards in it. All these tuners reside in my 'office' aka the cr*p/craft room.
The three tuners are connected by HDMI into an HDMI three way switch that is IR remote controllable.
The output of the switch is fed into a four way HDMI splitter which feeds two screens currently and in the near future I will be adding two more screens for my kitchen and living room.
For years I've had those stupid RCA remote pyramids that are supposed to relay remote controls from other parts of the house to the room with the tuners.
It's ~sort of~ worked but it's been extremely troublesome. EXTREMELY troublesome. It has lights on it that indicate when something is interfering with it.
The lights stay on steady, 24/7. That's why it barely works. I get so mad at that thing I want to smack it with a hammer!
So when I bought my Dish tuner I also bought three additional remotes so I can leave one remote in each room and it can be programmed to control the volume of the TV in that room only.
But how to get the signals from each room to the tuners? Arrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!!!!!
I looked at the kit that Dish sells, the UHF to IR pro kit, I think it's called something like that.
Well, it may work great but it only works with it's own unique remote control, it is not compatible with any other existing remote controls so if you need more remotes you have to buy them too and I'll bet they are like $30 each, I don't know, just guessing because I have not found anywhere online where the 10.1 remotes alone are listed for sale.
So that wasn't a good solution for me.
Then I stumbled upon this weird gadget, it looks like a little UFO flying saucer and it proclaims to convert ANY remote control to UHF operation. Really????
You have to have a remote that uses either AA or AAA batteries. If your remote doesn't use one of those two battery types this thing WILL NOT WORK.
You remove one of your existing batteries and replace it with one of these special batteries. It's a little tube with an odd little 2/3 AAA battery inside it and a UHF transmitter.
Somehow there's some magic in it too. I don't understand how this thing works but I assure you, IT DOES. It picks up signals from your IR remote, transmits them by UHF to the UFO gadget that you place in front of the things you want to control and TADA!! MAGIC!! It works..
Oh, did I forget to mention, IT WORKS ?? Well just in case I did forget, it does work. Really..
I found it on Amazon, I also bought two additional battery/transmitters so that I could convert additional remotes.
The blaster wire that plugs in to the UFO was broken out of the box. I don't know if the blaster wire is bad or the UFO is at fault, I have no way to check without another wire at hand.
So until I can get a replacement blaster wire I just have to put the UFO in front of the tuner. The wire is very, very thin and fragile looking, I can't imagine what they were thinking when they designed that part of it to be some dinky and fragile. For that part of it, I give just the blaster wire a thumbs down. But just the blaster wire only, the rest of the device is awesomesauce! Perhaps when I get a replacement all will be well. But that it was broken out of the box, Hmmmmm.....
Still, that wasn't a deal breaker and doesn't deter me from future purchases! I would buy another of these and very likely will.
They make them in two different frequencies so you can have two independent systems operating in the same location.
I for 1000% certain will be buying some more of the UHF battery/transmitters because I have other remotes I want to convert. I have four Dish 20.x remotes and three Hauppage HTPC remotes I also need to convert.
For now I have three transmitter units (and one spare battery), this allows me to convert two Dish remotes and one Hauppage HTPC remote which takes care of my immediate needs.
Next month I'll buy one more transmitter for another Hauppage remote then when I buy additional TV's I'll buy two more transmitters for them.
You have to be very careful about the battery/transmitter gadget, it looks EXACTLY like a normal, disposable AAA battery and if you don't pay careful attention you could end up tossing one in the trash when you change the other batteries! IMO, they should have made the things like, bright orange so they stand out as different from normal batteries. I would suggest putting a brightly colored sticker on them just in case. I will probably do that myself.
As for setup or configuration, there is none. You charge the batteries for 24 hours as they strongly suggest, put the thing in your remote and start using it. Nothing at all changes, the remote works as it was originally designed except now it works through walls, floors, ceilings, on the patio, whatever..
I also programmed my Dish remote to control the A/B/C HDMI switch so that from anywhere in the house I can switch video source between my different tuners..
Now I can throw away those STUPID RCA pyramids that I hate so badly! Those things are absolute JUNK. Don't bother with those things because this device will cost you about the same amount of money but this one really works and you don't have to put repeater pyramids all over the house or worry about aiming your remote at anything.
I totally love this thing and I highly recommend it if you need to have your tuner hidden inside a cabinet or you need to have the tuner in another room, basement, etc..
And it will convert ANY IR remote that uses standard AA or AAA batteries. There are a few exceptions, a small list of certain remotes that it does not work with, people seem to complain that it won't work with ~some~ Harmony that have built in, non-standard battery packs or remotes that use really large LCD screens so do your homework before buying one!
I can confirm with 100% certainty that this thing works great with my VIP211k, a 20.0 Dish remote and a 21.0 dish remote that is switched into IR mode.
It also works great with my Hauppage HTPC remotes (as pictured above). I don't know about any other remotes but I wouldn't be surprised if it works with pretty much anything.
On Amazon this thing had over 900 positive comments and almost 700 of them are given 5 star ratings.
If I can make this thing work, and I'm an ijjit, then anyone can.
Believe me, I rarely ever say anything positive about a product so when I say this is good stuff, you can take it to the bank..
My tuner (VIP211k) is the only Dish tuner I own, I didn't want individual tuners in each room, just one tuner for the whole house.
Additionally, I have an FTA STB tuner and a Home Theater PC with FTA and ATSC tuner cards in it. All these tuners reside in my 'office' aka the cr*p/craft room.
The three tuners are connected by HDMI into an HDMI three way switch that is IR remote controllable.
The output of the switch is fed into a four way HDMI splitter which feeds two screens currently and in the near future I will be adding two more screens for my kitchen and living room.
For years I've had those stupid RCA remote pyramids that are supposed to relay remote controls from other parts of the house to the room with the tuners.
It's ~sort of~ worked but it's been extremely troublesome. EXTREMELY troublesome. It has lights on it that indicate when something is interfering with it.
The lights stay on steady, 24/7. That's why it barely works. I get so mad at that thing I want to smack it with a hammer!
So when I bought my Dish tuner I also bought three additional remotes so I can leave one remote in each room and it can be programmed to control the volume of the TV in that room only.
But how to get the signals from each room to the tuners? Arrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!!!!!
I looked at the kit that Dish sells, the UHF to IR pro kit, I think it's called something like that.
Well, it may work great but it only works with it's own unique remote control, it is not compatible with any other existing remote controls so if you need more remotes you have to buy them too and I'll bet they are like $30 each, I don't know, just guessing because I have not found anywhere online where the 10.1 remotes alone are listed for sale.
So that wasn't a good solution for me.
Then I stumbled upon this weird gadget, it looks like a little UFO flying saucer and it proclaims to convert ANY remote control to UHF operation. Really????
You have to have a remote that uses either AA or AAA batteries. If your remote doesn't use one of those two battery types this thing WILL NOT WORK.
You remove one of your existing batteries and replace it with one of these special batteries. It's a little tube with an odd little 2/3 AAA battery inside it and a UHF transmitter.
Somehow there's some magic in it too. I don't understand how this thing works but I assure you, IT DOES. It picks up signals from your IR remote, transmits them by UHF to the UFO gadget that you place in front of the things you want to control and TADA!! MAGIC!! It works..
Oh, did I forget to mention, IT WORKS ?? Well just in case I did forget, it does work. Really..
I found it on Amazon, I also bought two additional battery/transmitters so that I could convert additional remotes.
The blaster wire that plugs in to the UFO was broken out of the box. I don't know if the blaster wire is bad or the UFO is at fault, I have no way to check without another wire at hand.
So until I can get a replacement blaster wire I just have to put the UFO in front of the tuner. The wire is very, very thin and fragile looking, I can't imagine what they were thinking when they designed that part of it to be some dinky and fragile. For that part of it, I give just the blaster wire a thumbs down. But just the blaster wire only, the rest of the device is awesomesauce! Perhaps when I get a replacement all will be well. But that it was broken out of the box, Hmmmmm.....
Still, that wasn't a deal breaker and doesn't deter me from future purchases! I would buy another of these and very likely will.
They make them in two different frequencies so you can have two independent systems operating in the same location.
I for 1000% certain will be buying some more of the UHF battery/transmitters because I have other remotes I want to convert. I have four Dish 20.x remotes and three Hauppage HTPC remotes I also need to convert.
For now I have three transmitter units (and one spare battery), this allows me to convert two Dish remotes and one Hauppage HTPC remote which takes care of my immediate needs.
Next month I'll buy one more transmitter for another Hauppage remote then when I buy additional TV's I'll buy two more transmitters for them.
You have to be very careful about the battery/transmitter gadget, it looks EXACTLY like a normal, disposable AAA battery and if you don't pay careful attention you could end up tossing one in the trash when you change the other batteries! IMO, they should have made the things like, bright orange so they stand out as different from normal batteries. I would suggest putting a brightly colored sticker on them just in case. I will probably do that myself.
As for setup or configuration, there is none. You charge the batteries for 24 hours as they strongly suggest, put the thing in your remote and start using it. Nothing at all changes, the remote works as it was originally designed except now it works through walls, floors, ceilings, on the patio, whatever..
I also programmed my Dish remote to control the A/B/C HDMI switch so that from anywhere in the house I can switch video source between my different tuners..
Now I can throw away those STUPID RCA pyramids that I hate so badly! Those things are absolute JUNK. Don't bother with those things because this device will cost you about the same amount of money but this one really works and you don't have to put repeater pyramids all over the house or worry about aiming your remote at anything.
I totally love this thing and I highly recommend it if you need to have your tuner hidden inside a cabinet or you need to have the tuner in another room, basement, etc..
And it will convert ANY IR remote that uses standard AA or AAA batteries. There are a few exceptions, a small list of certain remotes that it does not work with, people seem to complain that it won't work with ~some~ Harmony that have built in, non-standard battery packs or remotes that use really large LCD screens so do your homework before buying one!
I can confirm with 100% certainty that this thing works great with my VIP211k, a 20.0 Dish remote and a 21.0 dish remote that is switched into IR mode.
It also works great with my Hauppage HTPC remotes (as pictured above). I don't know about any other remotes but I wouldn't be surprised if it works with pretty much anything.
On Amazon this thing had over 900 positive comments and almost 700 of them are given 5 star ratings.
If I can make this thing work, and I'm an ijjit, then anyone can.
Believe me, I rarely ever say anything positive about a product so when I say this is good stuff, you can take it to the bank..
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