To be more precise:
After the update I did, for what reason ever, change the settings for the player and experienced problems with
a) the ir
b) stuttering
Searching for a solution regarding the stuttering I stumbled across this and so I just reverted this change and voilà: The stuttering was gone AND the ir issue was also solved…
What maybe of interest as well: Both players were selected in the settings at the same time before I finally switched off omxplayer…