Hello Mr. Jeff Corr,

You wrote:
Noting the IR demodulator systems for remote controls use the manchester encoding scheme (the start bit is 2.62msec low, a 1 pulse is .79msec, and a 0 pulse is a 1.33msec pulse; both actively low) how would one go about detecting the length of the pulses?

This sure sounds like a popular Sony decoder called RC5. See the following web site for description http://www.ustr.net/infrared/sony.htm

Another web site I found which has a good description can be found at the following web site address. http://www.ustr.net/infrared/infrared1.shtml

Another web site which shows how to build one using a 89C1051 (Has a schematic and hex dump of assemble code available) IC can be found at http://www.rotgradpsi.de/mc/etc/rc5decoder.html

Hope this helps.

Good luck,

Charles Bannister