I just purchased an rfx6500 and so far I am quite disappointed in its performance.
I placed the blaster about 12-13 feet from my A/V devices. The blaster controls all but two of my components (which are in the middle of the stack) from that distance. I have the blaster sitting on the top of a wooden display case. If I use my Pronto tsu3000 from the exact same location I want to place my rfx6500, I have no problem whatsoever controlling all components.

Is it unreasonable to expect the rfx6500 to have the same effective range as the 3000?

btw, in order to get the 6500 to control the two difficult components, I have to place the 6500 within about 5 feet of them.

I have tried changing codes and i.d.'s on the 3000 and 6500 with no improvement.

Thanks,
Rick

What's wrong with using the stick-on emitters?

The blaster in the extender is more meant for mass close-range use, such as use in an equipment closet. Due to this, if the emitters were TOO powerful they would overwhelm more sensitive devices.

And, on the other hand, some devices have horrible IR receivers in terms of off-angle or distance performance. For instance there's something called "tunnel vision" where the IR sensor on a device is placed on a circuit board far back into the chassis and ends up looking down a long tunnel to the outside world. The further back it's placed, the less off-angle range and overall sensitivity it has. I seem to recall a few years ago some company selling stick-on IR collectors designed to redirect off angle IR in such cases.

Also, look in the manual - it recommends that the blaster be placed no more than 16 feet horizontally or vertically from your components, while the remote itself is rated to operate from 30+ feet. Also note that the blaster has emitters pointing out the TOP - which means if the blaster is sitting on top of a bookcase as you say it is, you should really trying having it upside down and hanging out a bit.

Otherwise, it was really meant to be used with the stick-on emitters.

I would like to have the blaster facing my equipment since my Mits rptv has the ir receiver behind the screen and I think sticking an emitter on the screen would be "tacky". ;-)

1. If the original remotes AND the tsu3000 both work from the same place I want to situate the 6500, I do not believe that the equipment has "tunnel vision." The two pieces of equipment I am having problems with are an Onkyo receiver and a Panasonic DVD recorder.
2. As I believe I stated in my original post, the location I would like to use is only 12-13 feet from my equipment. I have to bring the blaster to within about 5-6 feet before I get a response.
3. I will give the "upside down" a try, but because of point 2, I have little faith that will work. Also, the blaster does control components both above and below the two pieces it does not control.
4. For using only the emitters, the 6500 offers the option of turning off the blaster.

I guess all I am really looking for is whether other folks have had success using the 6500 from in front of their equipment. If others are using it this way successfully, it would lead me to believe that the blaster may be defective. It seems to me that the IR signal is just too weak.

When I researched the product, the on-line manual showed that it could be used this way.

I was using the 16 foot reference to point out that it is officially rated at HALF the distance as the TSU3000, so I would not expect it to have the same performance in the same location as the TSU3000.

Things to check:

1) What sort of codes are you working with - database, learned, borrowed from another file... the frequency could be slightly off.

2) Use a digital camera or camcorder to check that all IR emitters on the blaster are functional.

How do you do that?

Why not control the TV via IR and hook emitters to the 6500 to control the rest of the equipment via RF? I have done several setups with the 6500 and have been very pleased. You can also extend the antenna seveal feet if need be.

Saying all that, I did have an enviroment where the 6500 would not work consistantly at all.

My suggestion would be to use the stick-on emtters for everything else, but your RPTV. Control your RPTV via IR, not RF. For this to work you'll need to load your PCF up in the editor and set the device containing your RPTV IR codes to transmit IR, while setting all other devices containing IR codes to transmit RF.

My projector was the only part of my setup controlled via IR for the longest time. Everything else was running off my RF extender. My projector was not even in line of sight. It is underneath my coffee table. The IR would bounce off the wall my screen is on back to my projector without skipping a beat.

I third the IR and RF mix.

Greetings,

I am also running a mix of RF and IR. I have my RFX6000 mounted on the side of my DVD cabinet with the top facing my equipment rack. It has no problems controlling the gear in the rack. My front projector is ceiling mounted. The IR signal from my TSU3000 bounces off of the screen and controls the projector with no problem.

My solution to this problem was to slide off the screen and feed an emitter into the tv through the back then stick the emitter next to the IR receiver. Works perfectly, however mine is a Pioneer RPTV so I don't know whether you can do that to a Mits.