The remote and tuner combinations are two different things.
With what you said though, I recommend instead of buying an HVR1300, to get an HDHomeRun, it is fully supported by LinuxMCE, and is plug and play..
As for IR transcievers, please.. do yourself a favour and buy a USB UIRT with a Xantech 286 double emitter.. Again, plug and play integration, and you gain the ability for IR learning, so that you can control your IR gear.
-Thom