I tried this sometime ago on my x5 - it did work (but only if I got up and bent down by the tv about 0.5m away). Which didn't seem like such a great plan.
In the end I got
Digiguide which you can link with avantgo to update...I just get the listings but it works well for the money.
And until I decide to purchase something to improve the ir on the ax I'll stick with using my standard tv remote