Consumer infrared (CIR) systems typically are used in remote control systems. Most CIR systems expect a known carrier frequency and encoding scheme. However, there are many applications of a universal CIR receiver which can receive and decode CIR signals regardless of the carrier frequency or encoding scheme. A CIR receiver circuit is disclosed which can both decompose a received CIR signal into run length representation and detect the carrier frequency. The result can then be supplied to a host device for further processing, interpretation and/or actions.