microcontroller for led dimming
I think a microcontroller must be used. You want to use a TV remote, which outputs a digital pulse stream encoded into a typically 38KHZ carrier. Once this IR stream is detected, digital logic must be used to decode the result. Sure it can be done with individual digital ICs, but the circuit size would be huge.
If you don't want to develop the microcontroller yourself, then you have to adapt other people's existing work. For example, I could do this job by using X-10 lamp control modules. These are designed to dimm 110VAC light bulbs. The output from these modules is a chopped sine wave at 110V. Therefore, I would need to follow that with a rectifier and a filter to produce a DC voltage. Finally, I need to scale that DC voltage with dropping resistors to a level that the LED can handle. I can buy the X-10 lamp control modules and I can buy special remote to control them, so I do not need to design any microcontroller code. However, I am limited to certain special remotes and my dimming capabilities are limited to the step sizes provided by the X-10 stuff.