IF you need good standalone IR decoder, you should consider this one. It’s hardware is really simple to build. All you need is to upload PIC program that are separate for for different IR standard and you can inspect IR code on 4x seven segment LED display.

Decoder is built around PIC16F84 microcontroller which drives LED displays and reads IR signal by using two IR receivers that are tuned for 36 and 38kHz carrier. You can download asm and hex files for analysing different IR protocols from here. Right now there are JVC, NEC, NRC-17 and RC-5 standards supported.