jmk709 Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Does anyone know anyting about this company?www.coloradovnet.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Never heard of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmk709 Posted February 5, 2009 Author Share Posted February 5, 2009 I am in the process of building a house and found that my local Control4 dealer will not do the instal if I prewire the house with Cat5. He wants to do it all or nothing. My builder went to the builders show in LV a couple of weeks ago and came back with the information. I can have a base system installed for much less than Control4 with more touch screens. I just have not heard anything about them. I am not saying I am going to have it installed. I am just feeling out other information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFUG Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Where did these guys come from? This system looks complete. It least VNet is serious about DI/DO control. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmk709 Posted February 5, 2009 Author Share Posted February 5, 2009 I just started to look at it some more. They have free software that allows you to update your IR codes yourself. The issue that everyone has been talking about.I just got a quote from my builder. $2,500 for the equipment and $500 to install. That does not include the wiring. 8 audio zones with speakers, climate control and security. That does not include video servers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFUG Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Does this price include load controls of any large quantity? Any handheld remotes, audio distribution amp, video distribution switch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmk709 Posted February 5, 2009 Author Share Posted February 5, 2009 Not sure yet. I am still trying to find out more information. The one thing I did notice is that I tink Control4 has them beat on remotes. I do not think they have a handheld touch screen. I am also not sure how they intigrate with satellite systems. I was hoping someone on here knew more. It says it does video distribution but that is not included in my quote. My quote was just audio, security and climate. It looks like it exands fairly easliy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 I'm surprised you're seeing touchscreens for less than Control4 touchscreens.Last time I saw VNet at CES (which was not this past one in October), their touchscreens were *considerably* more expensive than Control4's.RyanE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFUG Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 It says you can control Sat sources-http://www.coloradovnet.com/support/faq.aspxAnyways, the SR-250 is the first remote that women in my house can pick up and start using with no instruction ("priceless"!) so if they don't offer something like that, c'est la vie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digital Vision Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 $2,500 for the equipment and $500 to install. That does not include the wiring. 8 audio zones with speakers, climate control and security.Seriously? There is no way you can get 8 audio zones with speakers, climate contorl, and security, even from Wal-Mart, for that price. Buyer Beware.Colorado VNet made a touch screen ethernet distributed audio solution about 4 years ago (it went by a different name, though) and it was about $450-$500 per audio zone for the encoder and touchscreen. It only did audio and the interface was terrible. Now, the newer touchscreens look really nice, but you will not get any in the price quoted to you above....there are some dollars hiding somewhere... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 There's a new forum for vNET apparently, and while the overall specs look interesting, I found a few that are kind of a bummer."They don't natively support streaming from an existing music collection but you can pretty easily work around that with an audio encoder with the source plugged into it.""vNet/Vibe isn't really a remote solution. For this I would recommend RTI or Universal Remote. Or for smaller and simpler needs a Logitech Harmony to save some $$ That's their bread and butter and if you're trying to control a media room or theater area you will definitely want a dedicated remote. There are basic remotes that come with the touchscreens but with limited functionality. It kind of depends on how much you want to do from the remote."Dont get me wrong the UI *looks* sexy, as do some of their products. But I dont see it as offering overall as much as control4. I could be wrong though.And wait, they use IR for everything? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hehateme Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 I nearly posted a question about Colorado Vnet. I already have 3 proposals for Control4 and I was ready to pull the trigger.I stumbled into Colorado VNet at AVS Forum. They are a IP based audio/video based distribution company. They are somewhat similar to Netstreams.They are new and their prices are lower than NetStreams. I do have the pricing information.7 Inch LCD Touch Screen : $1390 : These ship with very basic remotes.250 GB AS2-400 Audio Server with 3 Streams: $1500500 GB AS2-800 : $3200Video Network Player with 1 TB disk: $3999 It does store and distribute bluray 7.1 audioVideo Network Player with 2 TB disk: $4999Video Player : $2199 It hooks up with the Video Network player and can also play local bluray moviesSingle tuner: $900Dual Tuner: $1600IPOD: $500Encoder allows you to hook up existing equipment to like cd player etc to the house system. Price is $470All the software and instructions are available for free. You still have to buy the equpment from a dealer.The installation charges are less because this company put special emphasis on making sure that system is easy to customize.The company has been around for at least 2 years.They did do layoffs in December but their sales were up 132%They also have weather module($1000) for up to 5 touch panelsThey also have beautiful lighting system but it is more expensive than Control 4. It won awards last year.Even their touch panel also won an award for excellent designThey have CCTV and ability to see full motion video on touch screens.For those of you who have desire and the ability to tweak the system on your own vNet will allow you more options to tweak even though you will still have to buy the equipment from a dealer.Drawbacks:Video distribution strategy is OK but not great. First you have to buy $3999 network player, next you have to buy a player for $2199 or you will have to buy the Video matrix and the network player. This will only allow 1 stream. So the only way to watch 2 movies at once is to have both Network/Server and server player.Audio Server cannot read music from network share, they may add it in future but it is not there yet. Audio server cannot show the artist metadata on the TV screen. For that you need Video Server which does both audio and video.Touch Panels are nice but they only come in one size.There is no central amp so Touch Panels have 70 watt built in amps. I am not sure they have enough power. Control 4 has 120 watts.There is no wireless touch panel or good remote.You will have to get a RTI or another remote.There is not much integration with local home theater without buying RTI/Logitech remote.Still new and small company.I have been told that a lot of new announcements are coming with new smaller and touch panels and other new products.I was looking for a 5 zones plus 2 local home theaters. The price of this system for Control 4 install was around $12500. This was with just 2 7 inch touch panels, 1 mini and 2 lcd keypads.For the price I can get a video/audio (bluray) distribution system from Colorado vnet. This system included five 7 inch touch panels. The install cost if the wiring in place was only for 6 hours of work total.I haven't made my mind yet. I like the architectures and potential of Colorado vNet but at present I feel Control4 has a more complete solution.I know this email is long but I hope I can save you guys some time with the research I did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hehateme Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Here are some writeup's about Colorado Vnethttp://www.soundandvisionmag.com/audiovideo/2214/colorado-vnet-vibe-audio-distribution-system.htmlhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/12/05/colorado-vnet-ships-vibe-video-system-for-media-management/http://www.cepro.com/cedianews/showcase/colorado_vnet_cctv/http://www.zigbee.org/imwp/download.asp?ContentID=12382 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 It's not blu-ray storage though, its dvd storage that has a built in blu-ray player. So you get one zone of blu-ray or if the matrix allows it all zones can see the same movie. Or am I seeing that wrong? I dont know that I would like my BR player tied into the media storage like that, considering all the different profiles and player capabilites, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsanf3 Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Does anyone know anyting about this company?www.coloradovnet.comThe floorplan-based software is interesting.Byron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hehateme Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 thecodeman,You are exactly right about the bluray attached to the storage. With a matrix you will only see the same movie in all the zones. This is what I tried to say but I wasn't clear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFUG Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Great, unless my Zigbee issues (or whatever is driving components to go off-line) doesn't clear-up, I'm always going to wonder if there wasn't some better solution for me... Oh well, two sides to every story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Great, unless my Zigbee issues (or whatever is driving components to go off-line) doesn't clear-up, I'm always going to wonder if there wasn't some better solution for me... Oh well, two sides to every story.There's always a better solution to anything, but at what cost? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFUG Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Yes, I don't doubt this for a min. Besides, support for C4 is great and the help here is even better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hehateme Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Check out the forums for Colorado vNet.http://www.vnetforums.com/There is almost no traffic. This means that their user base is very small. No matter how good a new product is it does not become ready for prime time without being used by customers. Coming to Control4 forums make it very clear that it is being used by many people and there is good sized dealer network. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Check out the forums for Colorado vNet.http://www.vnetforums.com/There is almost no traffic. This means that their user base is very small. No matter how good a new product is it does not become ready for prime time without being used by customers. Coming to Control4 forums make it very clear that it is being used by many people and there is good sized dealer network.The domain name was only bought 6 days ago, what kind of traffic are you expecting? Domain Name: VNETFORUMS.COM Created on: 30-Jan-09 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmk709 Posted February 5, 2009 Author Share Posted February 5, 2009 The main reason I am taking a look at vNet or somehting else is becuase my local Control4 dealer will not install on a network thatI have installed in my house. I would be happy to have Control4 installed if it were not for that issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hehateme Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 jmk709vNet will install on your existing network. However they want to use their own router. Their router is cheap. It was on $278 for an 8 port hub and it can be removed after the install if you want to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 The main reason I am taking a look at vNet or somehting else is becuase my local Control4 dealer will not install on a network thatI have installed in my house. I would be happy to have Control4 installed if it were not for that issue.Why not? Why wouldnt they come in and branch off your existing network using a second router and switch after verifying all the cables pass spec? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmk709 Posted February 5, 2009 Author Share Posted February 5, 2009 Has anyone else had an issue with a dealer not wanting to install on an existing network? How can I find a dealer that will? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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