Video Storm Netplay Video Distribution Review

[mstafford388]

Sorry....kind of a long read....

 

 

Video Storm’s Netplay video distribution review

 

Finally got my hands on Videostorm’s new Netplay video distrubiton product.  I just installed a pretty basic system with 6 sources going to 4 displays.  If you haven’t heard about the product it is all network based.  You feed HDMI sources into encoders, which then dumps the stream onto your home network (H264).  Then at each display you place a decoder on the network which translates the stream back to HDMI.  It is supposed to solve a lot of the issue related to hdmi distribution.  So here are my thoughts

During the physical install of the product I must say I was pretty unimpressed with the hardware.  The encoders come in a chassis that fits nicely into a rack.  You can put 2 encoders in each chassis, with each encoder having 2 HDMI inputs on it.  I put it on a 2U shelf and that gave it plenty of room.  I need to check to see if rack ears are available.  My guess is yes, but my wonderful office girl neglected to order any J.  Nevertheless it was fine on the 2U shelf (the piece is only 1U high but the depth would be an issue on a 1U shelf).  My one complaint with the encoders is they are a bit noisy.  Not a big deal for an install like this where they are all sitting in a rack in a closet, but I could see that as a slight nuisance if you wanted to put one in an entertainment center for a local Blu Ray player or something.

                The decoders were where my hardware complaints lie.  They are plastic and are powered by your typical USB power supply (Micro USB input on the decoder).  Of the 4 power supplies and cords I received, 1 of the power supplies and 1 of the cords were dead (they looked like they were pretty cheap, straight from China).  Not that big of a deal since they are just cell phone chargers you can get at any gas station, but a bit annoying none the less.  The other thing about the power is the way the micro usb sits in the decoder, a light breeze would knock that thing loose.  I used a bunch of electrical tape on each one just so the power cord isn’t constantly falling out.  Video Storm acknowledged this and I was told new metal decoders are being made which will fix this issue.  The other small thing I didn’t like was there are no mac addresses on the devices anywhere.  This forced me to bring them online 1 at a time so I knew which device was placed in each location.  I would have preferred to just jot down the last few digits of each mac when I installed them, and brought them all online together.  Once I had them identified though this was no longer an issue.

                Set up of the system was ok.  You have to web into one of the decoders, then create a “virtual matrix” in which you assign each encoder and decoder to an input/output “number”.  I’ll be honest, when I pulled up the instructions on how to do that I was a bit terrified, as there were a ton of steps.  Once I got going though it really wasn’t that bad, and I’m pretty confident I could breeze through it on the next install.  Once you have the virtual matrix set up you can configure the Control4 driver.  This part was very easy.  It’s a full IP driver, so you just enter the IP address of the decoder you set up as the virtual matrix just like you would connect any other device in C4.  At that point you just connect your sources and displays to the input/output “numbers” you created in your virtual matrix and you are all set.  That part was indeed very simple.  I did spend quite a bit of time dialing everything in, which now that I’ve done it once I feel would go much more quickly in future installs.  There is an order in which you need to do things and I naturally didn’t, so I had to redo things a few times, reboot devices, etc.  I’ll mark that time down as a learning experience. 

                As much as I wasn’t blown away by the hardware, the performance is what won me over.  Once you tweak the resolutions/aspects of each source and TV the end result is a very clean user experience.  I spent several hours today just playing with the system and didn’t see any of the common HDMI issues (edid, flashing, synch issues, etc).  I could add and remove the same source in several rooms without effecting the stream in any of the other rooms.  Switching from source to source on a display was quick and clean as well.  One thing I did want to add is there is a built in 800ms delay on all of your streams.  This creates a slightly less desirable user experience because it effects the way you see the control of each source.  For example I hit channel up while watching a cable box, and even though the cable box responds to the command right away, there is that 800ms delay before you see it pop up on your display.  Something that will take a bit of getting used to for sure.   

                Overall I’m pretty pleased with the system, and as a company we will probably move toward this type of video distribution.  I have another set of encoders/decoders coming in this week and will be setting up a bigger system in my office that will also have an audio matrix involved as well.  This will let me set up speakers as end points so that I can test synching the video through the Netplay system with audio through a whole house audio set up.  I’ll be sure to let you all know how that goes as well.

[ichbinbose]

this reveiw has great timimng!  I just spoke to video-storm yesterday about this product.  I'm planning on ordering a demo unit later today. 

btw, rack ears are available - at least accourding to the website.

[Cyknight]

The audio synch would be the big thing after reading this - looking forward to hearing more.

[lippavisual]

Me too!  I've been using the NetPlay Audio unit for a while now and that's been great.  The setup instructions do look daunting at first but are pretty easy once you figure things out.  Please keep the review coming.

[turls]

Thanks for the writeup.  800ms?  How does that compare to JAP?

[ILoveC4]

The delay sounds like it might be a little frustrating. That would also make any sort of gaming IMPOSSIBLE. Why the delay? Encode/decode time I guess?

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[LSDave]

I think jap latency is around 100ms. It's just enough to notice it if you are using a computer that is running through a jap matrix. When you move the mouse there is a slight delay in the cursor movement.

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[ichbinbose]

The delay sounds like it might be a little frustrating. That would also make any sort of gaming IMPOSSIBLE. Why the delay? Encode/decode time I guess? Sent from my Droid MAXX via Tapatalk.

just online gaming.  that being said, just running the game system thru a receiver can put you at a disadvantage when playing online against other people. 

[Cyknight]

Receiver, scaler, even HDBaseT can cause you to be just that fraction behind - not something I'd be worried about (though obviously something to remember in case it's asked) - my main worry really would be if there is some methodology where you can keep, say, a stereo feed to a Control4 amp and the video in synch well enough.

Without that - this setup would be severely limited and usable only where speakers are never intended to be used for video sources (receivers excepted). In my case, that is virtually never.

[mstafford388]

That audio synch issue was my biggest concern as well, as we do tons of installs where whole house audio speakers are the audio endpoints for rooms with TVs.  Video Storm's audio matrix is supposed to fix this.  It has the capability to build in audio delays, so you can just go room by room and match up the audio delay with the video delay.  This is what i'm hoping to test in my office next week, although I'm starting to look at the schedule and fear that might get pushed back a bit.  

[Cyknight]

The audio switch is a great piece, and if it fixes this, good - but it's also more expensive, sometimes a matrix switch isn't required at all etc - if it needs to be included every time, that just pushed up the price rather considerably.

[mstafford388]

Yeah, it def does raise the price, especially if you have 8 zones or less.

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[videostorm]

Thanks for the review!  Detailed feedback like this helps us continously improve our product.

 

I'll add a little to the points raised here:

 

1.  Encoder hardware

      Rack ears are available

      With the ears installed, the case fits nicely in a 1 RU space.  The case is actually a little smaller than 1 RU to give ventilation on the top/bottom when installed.

 

2.  Decoder hardware

      We are switching to the metal cases on VRX010.  All devices shipped in late May or later will have the metal cases.

      We are also switching to a low profile USB power supply that fits tightly (also late May)

 

3.  Latency

      Video latency affects two areas:

      A:  Audio lip sync:  When using centralize (rack mounted) audio, you need to use an audio matrix like our CMX-A2 to automatically correct the lip sync delay.  For smaller installations, we recommend using distributed audio instead of rack mounted.  Our decoders outputs automatically correct lip sync AND provide a full distributed audio solution, allowing you to target low cost systems.  Another option is to use our encoder audio outputs which are delay corrected (this feature will be released by software update soon)

 

      B:  User feedback:  This is the delay from using the remote to scroll your dvd/cable box menu to seeing the scroll take affect on the screen.  Our current 800ms is certainly noticable, but still usable.  We do plan to optimize this in the future by reducing our delay to ~500ms.  Less than 500ms would cause a decrease in video quality.

 

4.  Gaming

     NetPlay video should not be used to distribute gaming systems.  Gamers complain about as little as 30ms latency, 800 isn't going to work

     Gaming systems should be local to the display in our opinion.  This gives the best experience, as well as enabling the camera/mic/motion feedback that all the newer systems support.

[malelan]

Is there a solution to correct lip sync for rack mounted audio with the c4 audio matrix? Even if I backfeed analog audio from the netplay decoder located at the TV into the matrix. C4 doesn't handle multiple inputs for the same source gracefully. If I'm watching cabletv in two rooms its likely c4 will just give me the same matrixed audio feed for both rooms. Instead of the individual delayed one for each.

[mstafford388]

The video storm audio matrix is the solution since you can build in delays on the audio.  Using a C4 matrix will not work.  I've got a video storm's audio matrix sitting in my office waiting to be tested with their netplay video for this very thing.  I'm hoping to get time to test this in the next week or two.  If you did split out the analog audio at the TV and backfed it into the c4 amp you could in theory just have a dedicated input on your amp for each room.  That would quickly take up your inputs and not leave room for other audio only sources (ie sonos).  Also i'd still be concerned with the lip sync issue since you'd have to add a module to strip the analog audio from the HDMI, then likely an audio balun to send it back to the rack.  I feel like you'd still end up with sync issues, although they would be much more manageable than 800ms.  Possibly not even noticeable.  

[malelan]

Wasting inputs isn't an issue for me because there is 16. You don't need to pull audio out of the hdmi stream either because the net play decoder does that for you. (Outputs analog) my main issue is how to make sure my c4 system uses the right input for each room. To control4 all these inputs will look the same. Unless there is a way to individualized them on a per room basis.

[mstafford388]

You'd have to manually connect inputs to outputs through programming. I'm with you thinking control4 would get confused, so you'd literally have to do each source in each room manually.

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[malelan]

Be sure to post your experience with the vs matrix. I've never used one. Concerned that if the delay is on the output end that all output of that room would be delayed.

[troyfrezze]

I'm still trying to find someone in my area who's a dealer for the company. I've got a few here in the springs who are listed as dealers and I've emailed them and left voicemails for a quote and nothing back yet. Two of those companies I contacted before for some other 3rd party stuff and never heard anything back then either. At this point if they finally contacted me I'd not even go through them. May have to reach out to someone up in Denver and see if they can help me out.

[Audio Obsessions]

The delay on the Videostorm is adjustable for both input and output. I have used the switch in every project over the past two years. NOTHING can compare to its feature set. With NAB embedded, you can delivery pandora, siriusxm, spotty, AirPlay(fully integrated, with programming to launch room, control volume). Cover art, feedback, meta data, etc. it all works! 8 streams simultaneously, but every room can be published as its own instance. I am excited about net play video, I will be using it on everything soon as well.

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