I have figured out my issue converting IR to audio . Irscrutinizer is pretty nifty, and 44100 Sample freq 2 channels 8 bits works well and keeps files small.

One question that maybe you could answer for me, Going through the LIRC database I see two different formats if you will. In one (usually in LIRC 0.6 or earlier) codes are very long, like this:
KEY_1 0x0000000000000144 # Was: 1

But in the newer LIRC format (usually 0.8 or higher) codes are expressed like this:

KEY_1 0x8877 # Was: ONE

Audio encoded as is, I know the top format works (tested it on my tv), but I am not sure the bottom format works...is the bottom format a shorthand to get rid of all those zeros?

As a side note, if you would like to add this to pierogi, I am willing to share my audio files (and would like to convert your files for my own personal use, not for distro)