You will ideally want a USB IR receiver which fully conforms to the microsoft media center standards. There is one issue i feel needs highlighting here - you will see some USB IR dongles sold on their own and think 'brilliant, i've found what i need!' - these are usually IRDA receivers and will NOT work with any remote controls - IRDA is the protocol older mobile phones, laptops and PDAs used to send data through IR - these are designed to 'pair' with another IRDA device for transferring files, not for changing channels and will not work with remote controls, so don't waste your money. There are a lot of different problems you need to look out for when looking at IR receivers and remotes - these problems are different depending on if you want to use the remote that comes with the receiver or are planning on using a different remote. There are a lot of USB IR receivers out there which either won't work at all without their specific remote, some which look like odd devices to vista/xp (eg keyboards or worse generic device types) and some which although receive IR signals don't actually work with remotes at all.

Well no, it's not that simple unfortunately. Maybe you have a logitech harmony remote or another all-in-one remote brand which you want to be able to use.Īll you need is a USB IR receiver - simple yes? You have a HTPC and want to be able to control it with a remote control (a decent remote comtrol at that). The situation in the US is slightly better as newegg does have some compatible remote/receiver sets which work fine (although you may want to read down to make sure you get a microsoft media center compatible one). Now note that i am in the UK where etailer availability is non-existant for decent remotes/receivers. My problem is that i need a simple dongle or usb device which can be placed neatly under my TV which is in a room below my HTPC, so a front bay module or receiver integrated into a usb/pci/pci-e TV card wouldn't work. I've come to write this thread as over the past few days i have had a nightmare trying to get a USB IR (infra-red) receiver for my HTPC.

Human_error's guide to USB IR receivers and media center remotes

Windows media center for xp for non mce