Try to search the web for tv remote control standards. You'll find out that there are two often used standards (Philips RC5 and one from Sony) and a bunch of less used ones.
I use a Hauppauge tv card, which uses RC5 at 38 kHz. The receiver just one of these infrared receiver ICs (like TSOP1738 from Vishay).

So try to find out which coding your remote control uses, then you can design a circuit after that.

A good RC5 circuit can be found at http://www.robotroom.com/InfraredTransmitter.html

Jörg