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Congrats to my friends at Video Storm


dogdvr

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It depends on how many inputs you want. Like chesterwilson is saying, it's really troublesome when a product manufacturer doesn't publish/establish suggested retail pricing. Very few companies go down that road, and the ones that do won't get my business.

Sent from my Droid MAXX via Tapatalk.

Sure.. but say a 4 source HDMI input to 4 zone output? So I can run a blu Ray player, my XBMC QNAP server, My Cable box and my DVR out to 4 zones?...

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I agree, I do think you care for your customers.  You help out alot of people here who aren't your customers.  Let me ask you this and just pretend it's a fact, tell me what you would do:

 

1.  You sell a 8x8 Video-Storm setup to a customer (lets assume it costs $6K).

2.  1-2 years from now part of the system starts failing due to an unforseen manufacturing issue.

3.  Video-Storm due to slow sales or some other disruptive technology folds shortly after you sell the system.

4.  Customer calls you and tells you half the sources don't work and you need either in or out of warranty service.

5.  Video-Storm items are propietary.  No replacement parts or interoperability with other products exist.

 

Now what do you tell the customer?  Do you offer to change out to a HDMI matrix at dealer cost, for free, for full cost?  

 

When he asks you why would you install something like this if it hasn't been tested, what do you say?

 

When he says to you so I spent $6k and now I have to pay all over again, what do you say?

 

Let me tell you, unless you have a great deal of goodwill with this customer he will only forgive you if you take care of this for him at no cost or minimal cost.  Any other resolution and you will have a pissed off customer.

 

Thats what I foresee.  This is not a low cost alternative and is clearly a premium price to HDMI Matrix's.  It's a big investment and I just offer a buyer beware.  Not trying to be hostile.  

Awesome summary of the issue... very well put Chester.... It's never about the bling of the technology in the original product as it is released on day one....

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Ok guys,

 

I am doing this with the utmost respect.

 

HDMI to Videostorm comparison??

 

Not good

 

 

Dan,

With your snapav matrix, how many separate xbmc devices do you get?

 

None

 

If you have a receiver in X amount of rooms,

 

How many tunein, Pandora, blah blah sources do you get?

 

None

 

 

If you don't want these, then fine but compare capabilities to capabilities

 

 

Brent.

 

 

I will come back for more

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Ok guys,

I am doing this with the utmost respect.

HDMI to Videostorm comparison??

Not good

Dan,

With your snapav matrix, how many separate xbmc devices do you get?

None

If you have a receiver in X amount of rooms,

How many tunein, Pandora, blah blah sources do you get?

None

If you don't want these, then fine but compare capabilities to capabilities

Brent.

I will come back for more

Maybe your friends should design a brochure that explains all the things that the system does. It might help.

Sent from my Droid MAXX via Tapatalk.

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I'm surprised dealers would want to install this in people's homes.  Seems like it could require a lot of support.  Furthermore, if the company fails you are basically left on your own.  What will you do then cloning your own raspberry pi's?

 

As a customer I would be pretty mad if some of my system fails and I find out that there are no replacement products.  

 

Of course maybe some dealers don't care if there customers are mad.

If you think you can buy a PI and duplicate this you are sadly mistaken.

 

 

If you think that companies that go out of business and still provide support you are mistaken.

 

C4 could have gone out of business.

 

They did not.

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Maybe your friends should design a brochure that explains all the things that the system does. It might help.

Sent from my Droid MAXX via Tapatalk.

Funny,

 

I read the website.

 

Maybe I have magical reading skills?

 

who knows

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Maybe I have magical reading skills?

 

 

You certainly have better reading skills than many of us.  HTML1.0 formatted websites with no images etc are seriously tough going.  That is reading a technical briefing, not a marketing summary with the ability to dive into the detail.

 

I gave up on the link and would like a diagram in addition.

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Funny,

 

I read the website.

 

Maybe I have magical reading skills?

 

who knows

^....that is a bit rich.. there are some pretty smart switched on guys contributing to this thread and if they can't work out the full capabilities of this product (which does I admit seem pretty darn cool... so cool, that I'm thinking I want one badly...)....then there is a bit of a problem with the marketing don't you think?

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If you think you can buy a PI and duplicate this you are sadly mistaken.

 

 

If you think that companies that go out of business and still provide support you are mistaken.

 

C4 could have gone out of business.

 

They did not.

 

Exactly, you can't buy a pi and duplicate this.  So if the company goes under your screwed.

 

When did I say companies provide support when they go out of business?  Perhaps it's the magical reading skills?

 

C4 is a publicly traded company that turns a quarterly profit, provides a 10k and has a credit rating.  

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Hi everyone,

 

Thanks for all the interest.  I'll try to clear up some of these questions.

 

1.  Video Storm has been in business for more than 10 years.  We have very stable financials and highly dedicated staff.  You can definitely rely on us to support our products and even add customization for you.

 

2.  NetPlay video is an OPEN technology.  We use industry standard H.264 video streams.  This means our encoded streams can be displayed by all mobile devices and some smart TVs.  Our decoders can decode virtually any video format, which is why they DIRECTLY support IP cameras, web streams, and NAS files.  This in UNLIKE our competition which do use proprietary formats.

 

3.  NetPlay video is often configured as a Virtual Matrix (similar to Just add power, but without VLANS).  This is done to simplify the integration with control system which expect video distribution to be handled that way.  NetPlay can do much more, but this is how we roll out the technology today.

 

4. Our decoders do use the same chipset as the PI.  However, it is modified to allow for HDCP support and live video playback without compromise.  Our encoders are entirely made in the USA.

 

5.  We write and support our C4 drivers and are Certified C4 partners.  In fact, our NetPlay audio devices are sold by Control4 directly.

 

6.  NetPlay Video INCLUDES full NetPlay audio at every TV.

 

7.  Our IR & RS232 outputs at each TV are exposed in Control4 like an extender  (not feedthroughs)

 

8.  Our pricing model was based on the requests of our dealer base.  We recognize no model is perfect, but the majority of our dealers preferred no retail pricing.

 

Please let me know what else I can do to help :)

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I agree, I do think you care for your customers.  You help out alot of people here who aren't your customers.  Let me ask you this and just pretend it's a fact, tell me what you would do:

 

1.  You sell a 8x8 Video-Storm setup to a customer (lets assume it costs $6K).

2.  1-2 years from now part of the system starts failing due to an unforseen manufacturing issue.

3.  Video-Storm due to slow sales or some other disruptive technology folds shortly after you sell the system.

4.  Customer calls you and tells you half the sources don't work and you need either in or out of warranty service.

5.  Video-Storm items are propietary.  No replacement parts or interoperability with other products exist.

 

Now what do you tell the customer?  Do you offer to change out to a HDMI matrix at dealer cost, for free, for full cost?  

 

When he asks you why would you install something like this if it hasn't been tested, what do you say?

 

When he says to you so I spent $6k and now I have to pay all over again, what do you say?

 

Let me tell you, unless you have a great deal of goodwill with this customer he will only forgive you if you take care of this for him at no cost or minimal cost.  Any other resolution and you will have a pissed off customer.

 

Thats what I foresee.  This is not a low cost alternative and is clearly a premium price to HDMI Matrix's.  It's a big investment and I just offer a buyer beware.  Not trying to be hostile.  

1 OK

2 See 3

3 If that happens I will already have replaced or worked out something with said client

4 See 3, also this would be sold as a solution not individual parts. The solution gets a warranty treatment as far as I'm concerned.

5 Sure

 

Worst case scenario in 3 and the unit is in and not otherwise arranged for, a new switch goes in. Assuming it all falls under the normal warranty period, that means yes - I'm eating that. I've replaced a number of other manufacturers POS units that way - for reasons quite similar to what you've described.

 

You also assume it 'isn't tested'. That's a BIG assumption - both from VideoStorm, potential beta testers and assuming I install things before knowing how they work.

On top of that you still seem to assume VideoStorm is some unstable company - it is not. It's been mentioned time and again that they've been in business for a long time - to good review.

And all of this could happen to ANY company, anytime, anywhere - no reason to point that at VideoStorm specifically. Could happen to JAP, could happen to Control4, could happen to Snap, Atlona, HydraConnect, Leaf, need I go on?

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Going to install one of these systems tomorrow.  relatively small scale (4-5 sources, 4 displays), but I'll at least get to see the system and IP driver in action.  I'll let everyone know how it goes.  I also have several more encoders/decoders on the way as well as their audio matrix.  I'll be setting up a much more robust system in our office with several sources/displays as well as using their audio matrix as the audio endpoint for the "rooms".  pretty excited to see how the two systems work together.

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