[plug] LIRC & Irman anyone

[Mark]

Hi all

I am hoping to have access to my wife's mp3 collection  available by ir
remote control
on her PC and I guess LIRC is the way to go for the software component.

The LIRC site offers plenty of advise on ir receiver hardware from
simple home-brew serial port units 
to off the shelf units. 

I kind of like the idea of the Universal Remote Control (aka Irman)
universal unit.
Especially the idea you can build it yourself and it reduces CPU loads. 
The soldering component 
I could probably manage but the idea of programing the Micro processor
is a bit intimidating.

Has any one in the group tackled this type of project and if so which
route did they take?

Does anyone know of any off the shelf ir receivers/ir receiver
transmitter combinations
available locally? Preferably one that has worked for them or someone
they know running Linux.

Hoping for plenty of good ideas from the group.


Mark