There is software for Palm OS devices to become "Universal Remote Controllers" which implies that the work of decoding/encoding has been accomplished on that platform. See http://www.irda.org/use/sharesoft.asp


>>>Whoa. "ordinary" TV or VCR remotes are far removed from true IrDa devices.
>>
>>
>>whinny !! ok, maybe i misunderstood what Nuno was trying to do (as
>>described in his original post). i thought he was trying to use
>>the serial infrared port on his laptop to read the "characters"
>>which were being emitted by a "ordinary" remote control.
>>
>>i was of same opinion as you, that the "ordinary" remote control
>>pulse-train patterns are not ASCII patterns, and that he should
>>not expect to be able to read any 'characters' with that setup.
>
>Yep. While the IR/serial port might detect the pulse stream, I doubt anything sensible would come out of it. Now, could one write a bit of software to decode it? Sure. It would work great for one model of TV/remote ONLY.
>
>I have 'probed' the IR LED before on a TV remote just to satisfy my own curiosity. I didn't learn very much. :>)