Tivo IR Blaster -- The Search

This post is going to be a continuing saga...

As you may know, the Tivo works quite nicely with analog cable. I've used it this way since I bought my first Tivo (I own four) when they first came out. Each time I bought a Tivo, I'd unbox it and set it up and each time I'd see this odd little bit of wire and plastic and set it aside. This gizmo is called the Tivo "IR Blaster." It's an ingenious device consisting of an IR LED a bit of plastic to hold it in place, and a wire that extends back to the Tivo and plugs in with a 1/8" phono plug. You can build one yourself, like this guy did.

I've never used them, but when I read about them I had but one thought, "what a kludge." Yet, I'm not the kind of person who likes to needlessly throw things away I might someday use, so I retained at least IR Blasters, just in case. My basement is filled with bits of junk that's retained "just in case."

Now, wait 10 years. Where exactly did I put the IR Blaster that came with my Tivos back when I bought them IN THE LAST CENTURY?

My junk-box is not as well supplied as the person mentioned above, so I went searching...

I do have some semblance of a filing system for my junk. I went through two big storage boxes labeled "Gizmos" without success. I went through bins of "Computer cables." Also without success. Then bins of "Audio/Visual cables." No joy. I went through my son's X-Box junk on the odd chance it had been misfiled. It hadn't.

This search went on during my lunch break, after work, and after supper.

I pulled out bins that held old Ethernet 10Base2 coax cables, BNC connectors and PCMCIA network-adapters respectively. Also without joy.

As I'm putting these bins back on the shelf, I note that they had been sitting on a narrow cardboard box. On it is a glossy label: Tivo.

Maybe I should look in the box marked Tivo for, like, stuff for my Tivo. I found several useless Serial cables, and 2, count-em 2, IR Blasters.

Huzzah, I cried, huzzah!

Now, will they work???