I have an IR repeater based on a 18F4320 PIC, an Osram SFH 5410-38-Z IR 
or equivalent detector that filters the 38 KHz carrier modulation, and 
an IR LED transmitter. The PIC modulates the output. This all works good 
with most IR (TV, VCR, DVD, etc.) equipment, but the Directv (older RCA 
and new HR-21) equipment doesn't use modulation. If I replace the IR 
detector with a plain photo detector, I can't get a range of more that a 
couple of feet where I need 10 feet. The unit has 6 channels and 
everything needs to be controlled from everywhere which prevents 
programming a signal from 1 channel to output a modulated or not signal. 
I haven't tried amplifying the photo detector output, but seem to think, 
the noise from lights and sunlight will become a factor and not be usable.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
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