Jarod Wilson [off-list ref] writes:

There are quite a few available IR options that are NOT tied to a
video capture device at all -- the mceusb and imon drivers submitted
in my patch series are actually two such beasts.

Precisely. This also includes the parallel and serial port receivers,
I'm under impression that they are, or at least were, the most common,
due to their extreme simplicity.

And particularly with the mceusb receivers, because they support damn
near every IR protocol under the sun at any carrier frequency, using a
remote other than the bundled one is quite common. Most people's set
top boxes and/or televisions and/or AV receivers come with a remote
capable of controlling multiple devices, and many bundled remotes are,
quite frankly, utter garbage.

This is precisely also my experience.
-- 
Krzysztof Halasa