Searched the forums, but not even sure if I am asking the right question.....

Is there an inexepnsive (less than $50) way to read the hex codes directly from a remote? Some sort of IR sensor attached to your PC that reads IR sequences and outputs to a hex file?

Look for the thread on the CaptureIr program in the JP1 forums:
[Link: hifi-remote.com]

You can build the device with a few dollars of parts and minimal soldering (even I did it and I'm totally inept at soldering).

It doesn't generate Pronto Hex. Instead it gives raw timing info and decodes through DecodeIr.dll. For most practical purposes the decodes are much better than generating Pronto Hex directly. You can plug the decode info into MakeHex or Rob Humphreys new MakeLearned program and get clean Pronto Hex, generally better than you could have learned.

It can also capture and decode series of commands (in cases where the original remote does some macro-like sequence) that are too long for ordinary learning or capture systems.

It is designed for the purpose of learning the signals, not for IR control of the PC. It is very CPU intensive. It is intended to be the only significant use of CPU time while it is running. On a single CPU system without hyperthreading, the rest of your computer is barely usable at all when it is running. All that is no real problem for the purpose of learning IR signals. It isn't practical for continuing capture of IR for PC control or relaying to other devices etc. There are other products for that, but I don't know what inexpensive choices are.

Thanks very much for the reply, very informative. I am actually working on an IR converter, which will read one set of codes from an IR Blaster and output a different set on its own IR Blaster.

Your post is an excellent starting place!

As a hardware project (building it around some micro)? Or as a primarily software project (building it around a PC)?

Doing that with a micro is what bvwelch is doing. You might have seen the link to his thread on that [Link: hifi-remote.com] from the big CaptureIr thread.

You might want to add to that thread or start a similar one there to describe more detail of what you're trying to do. There are various experts in that group who know various aspects of that problem and could give you helpful advice.