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3fingerbrown

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3fingerbrown last won the day on January 13 2014

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  1. Anyone with experience in installing the rackmount transmitter? Is it worth the extra $250 to have the transmitters rack mounted? (it used to be $400 extra, but JAP appears to have raised their prices on the transmitters from $300 to $350).
  2. Why not just use a component switcher, like the one Sony and many many manufacturers make? Component technology is sunsetting in a few years, and I doubt JAP would want to invest in it, and it goes against their entire concept of "HDMI over IP."
  3. I follow the "Home A/V Distribution & Networking" Forum over on AVS, and I've noticed the same thing, they didn't pay any attention to this technology and you still see a post every day wondering/arguing over which company makes a cheap and reliable HDMI matrix switch: Gefen? Octava? (Answer: None of them!!!!). They are a hard-headed lot, as Ed suggests, but I think it is also a group of DIY'ers that generally scoff at any dealer installed technology like Control4, and you need some type of home automation system to run HDMI-over-IP. I also follow the Dedicated Theater Design and Construction Thread, and you would be amazed at how almost every one of these guys will spend a ton of cash and time on their theater, only to control it all with a piece of crap Harmony remote (or even just a stack of remotes!). Its definitely a more open-minded mentality over here...
  4. I agree. All control4 products are custom installed, but they all have a list price. Whether the dealer wants to discount the products to somewhere in between his cost and the list price is up to the dealer. It appears that $1299 is the MSRP, or list price, or whatever you want to call it. Not only is Markertek selling them for $1299, but TecNec, which is JAP's distributor, says that the "list price" for the rack mount transmitter is $1299. http://www.tecnec.com/Product.asp?baseItem=VBS-HDMI-338A&cat=HOMETHTRE&subcat=&prodClass=HDMIOVERIP&mfg=Just+Add+Power&search=0&off= Maybe some dealers will discount from the $1299, but it doesn't sound like they will be able to discount very much with that high of a list price.
  5. We don't need to go into the advantages of the HDMI-over-IP versus component switching. They are numerous, and that is why we are are all excited about JAP in the first place. I'm just saying that this $1299 rack mounted version will need to come down in price before you see it anywhere except high-end installations. Although initially excited about the rack version, it looks like the $400 premium is too much for me to justify. I am planning 6-8 sources for my house, so for me it would be a $800-$1200 premium just to rack mount!!! Instead I'll spend $20 on a rack shelf or two and spend the $800-$1200 elsewhere.
  6. I know someone who uses the keydigital component switcher with control4 and is very happy with it. And 3 rack-mounted JAP HDMI-over-IP transmitters would be a 9x9 system at about the same price (3 x $1299 = $3900) as the key digital. I'm rooting for JAP, being that it was the first, and has been very good to the C4 community, but from the consumer perspective, a little competition would be a good thing. And I'll also add that I don't see this technology going into many homes at any of these prices. A 6 zone system, with the rack mounts, assuming the $1299 price, would be $2600 for the transmitters, $500 for the switch, and $1500 for the recievers, or a total of $4600. That is nearly twice the cost of a Sony component video switcher. So here's to hoping that a little competition stirs the pot in 2010, and that Just Add Power comes out on top...
  7. Ed, this is just what the Dr. ordered! And POE on the docket to boot! Its great that your company is quick on its feet and responsive to customer input. It says "call for pricing", can you give us a hint on what the price will be? I'm hoping that the price will be less than the price of three separate transmitters.
  8. If the home theater reciever is on the rack, running speaker wire to the speaker locations, and a good HDMI balun from the home theater reciever to the TV, that shouldn't be a problem unless its well over 100 feet. Or you could just put the home theater reciever in the TV room, and run the HDMI over IP to the home theater receiver in the room, which then connects to the TV via HDMI and to speakers directly. You may want to start a separate thread in the "best practices" forum and give some information about your floorplan, and others can give you specific advice about your situation.
  9. why not just send one cat5 signal from the switch to one JAP receiver, which then goes into the Home theater receiver, which then connects directly to the TV via HDMI and to the speakers? Why are you forced to use two JAP recievers? Ed can comment on this, haven't implemented this yet in my house. Reports of JAP technology have been good, though it probably shouldn't be used for a high end home theater. In my home theater, I will likely have a separate blu ray player for the home theater reciever. Picture quality may not be an issue, but JAP won't do 7.1 sound anyway.
  10. You have a lot of options, but this technology works best where the video sources (cable boxes, blu ray players, etc) and the managed ethernet switch are located in the same location, like a rack/shelves in a media closet, etc. Then if you have a home run cat5 to the room, you run HDMI over IP to the reciever in the room, which then directly connects to your speakers and TV. With control 4, you could also put the reciever on the rack as well, to keep everything hidden, and have the JAP switch send HDMI over IP directly into the reciever on the rack, and then run speaker wire to the room, and using an HDMI balun run to the TV.
  11. Okay, so there is a C4 driver for the JAP technology and the Cisco 2960 series switch. Could this driver be modified to work with this Lynksis managed switch? http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/546522-REG/Linksys_SRW2024P_24_Port_Managed_Gigabit_Switch.html#specifications I want a managed switch with gigabit ethernet capability, for future proofing reasons and certain gigabit compatible things (besides JAP, which I understand is only 100baseT). A cisco 24 port 2960 series gigabit switch is very expensive, over twice the cost of the linksys. Will the Linksys perform up to par? Will getting a C4 driver for the Linksys be difficult? Any thoughts?
  12. Has anyone tried this yet? Does this create any programming or operational issues? Any particular brand of component-hdmi converter that is recommended?
  13. With the JAP technology, you can switch between hdmi sources and send them to the TV over IP. But let's say you have a "control room" with a rack, and various TVs throughout the house. To get the control4 graphic user interface to a distant TV, you need to run component video from the control4 controller to the TV. That means running a separate component video over cat5 using baluns. I suppose a better way would be to use a component video to HDMI converter such as those made by startech or gefen, and then input that signal into the cisco switch as a source with a JAP transmitter. So the signal would go like this: c4 controller + startech component video to hdmi converter + JAP transmitter + cisco switch + JAP receiver + TV. That's a heck of a maze for a signal to go through. I'm excited about JAP HDMI over IP, but using it with the control GUI is kind of fitting a round peg in a square hole. At least until control4 gets their act together and comes out with a controller with an hdmi output. I don't think the unreleased media player accomplishes this, does it? Has anyone tried this? Does it work reliably? Is it tough to program? Is there another way to get the c4 GUI to the TV that I'm not thinking of?
  14. Pardon my ignorance: If you use, for example, a Cysco 2960 switch for a distributed video system using JAP technology, does that Cysco switch need to be only used for the JAP distributed video? Or can some of the unused ports be used for IP security cameras, IP phones, etc.? Anything to consider here?
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