hi, u might get a better awnser in the PIC forum, thou u might get flamed for mentioning the word STAMP.
The remotes are seriel, and if ur an impoverished student such as myself ur time is cheaper than a remote kit! Some good googling and the brand name of the remote, will eventually yeild information about how it sends data (failing that u can always try and borry an Oscilloscope!).
Basically u would need to feed a IR sensor into the input, there are many TTL IR detectors with all the amplification and such taken care off (saves messing about with an Op-Amp).
I've not used stamp BASIC scince i was in a first year at secondary school, and i didn't like it then! but its not too hard to a simple on - off pin controll with a stamp and a couple of darlington pairs.
Your first port of call should be finding the serial format used by your remotes. Then learning a little stamp basic!