I used to have a PVR-350 which supports an onboard remote. I now have a PVR-500 to replace the old one, but I need a replacement remote and IR receptor as well... Does anyone have any suggestions that work excellently with Knoppmyth (and I assume the critical program here is lirc)?

I just got a Snapstream FireFly last wekend, and love it. It's RF instead of IR, so you don't have to worry about pointing it in the right direction.

It works great.

I use the mce remote.

It works pretty well for me after a small tweak to the lirc settings.

I will say that some users have reported that their remotes stop working after a bit and they have to reset the remote etc...--but I haven't seen any issues like that.

I picked up the USB IR module and remote for around $35.

--my 2 cents