[MDA, XDA, 1010 Accessories] felcas:
Here is what I discovered with my experience using the Total Remote:

1st- Yes it is like a ball with two (they claim) powerfull IR trasmitter (see site)

2nd - Yes it goes on the earphone jack

3rd - Yes you lose the sound while using it. But the you just need to lose the conector a little not take it all off.

4th- Since the conector in the XDA II is proprietary, you will need to buy a special adaptor. I found one at expansys and it work pretty well, plus it is small and is curved, so if you use the standard XDA II case you can bend the wire and conector to the side of the case and plug the TR module, you then can adapt some kind of tape or leather on the side of it to keep it protected and tight with the case.

5th - The software promises to be far better then the pronto from philips. In a matter of fact it comes with a module that let you use the files used on the pronto software but they don´t appear to be as good as thee Total Remote one.

6th - The module and software will work very fine to TRANSMIT and also from a good distance (large rooms)

BUT NOT EVERYTHING IS A SEA OF ROSES: Lets enumerate the bad points.

1st - And most important, the XDA II is not capable of receive any IR signal from any remote controle and I tryed more the 15 , with diferent distances (even with the IR window of the XDA II and the remote controler windows touching each other) and diferent time pressing the buttons. If it can´t receive it cant learn, if it can´t learn it useless, unless you use any of the pre determined profiles, wich I do not because I bought this for customization. And no the module will not work to receive the signals only the IRda port of the XDA II.

2nd - By needing the adaptor you rise the cost of the entire package.

3rd - The Techsupp of Griffing technology is very bad. They do not read my emails with attention, they do not have much interest to solve problems or they are really dumb regarding the matter including their own software and module and they do not force themselves (creativity and imagination) to try a workaround with their customers. Plus they are rude.

BUT there is a possible way around the learning problem. But that involves more then only the Total Remote software and hardware and the XDA II.

I did not tested this yet but I really think this can work.

As I already told you, the Total Remote let us use the pronto files, in a matter of fact it emulate the pronto software.

If you have the software to design the pronto pages, you can do it and also get the right IR codes from the Remotte Central site. There is a very good chance you can get exactly the IR code you will need for each button on your virtual control. So it is not as pratical as learning directly from the remote control, but it is a solution.

But there is a higher level of solution for this too.

If you have a Pronto, Marantz or any other remote controler that use those files on Pronto software and hardware, you can just use it to learn all the IR signals from other controls and then load it on the computer, after that you can access the IR codes from the Pronto design software and aply them to the pages of your new virtual remote that will be loaded to the XDA II and used with Total Remote.

Unfortunatelly you will not be able to use Total Remote, but only the Pronto emulator, wich I think there is some disvantage points like lower page resolution.

If at least the people in Griffin let us aply the IR code from the software , this would make things much better. But I think they are not inclined even to take suggestion.

Hope this helps.

Any questions?

Felipe