tdougray Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 Ok when I first had C4 installed I only had a 2K HDanywhere matrix system which I have to be honest has been faultless bar a few receiving baluns going down. I’m now at a point where I think it’s time to make the jump to 4K. I have had endless therapy to make me realise getting rid of the pioneer Kuro is a good thing but I’m soooo split between another matrix vs video over ip ( in the uk I’m tempted by ( blue stream)As used by @Crustyloafer but would love to know in an age of streaming what everyone would choose if they had to choose a system from scratch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouthernSmarthome Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 Depends on how many displays and sources. How many of each do you haveSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 I am generally not a fan of distributed video since local video sources are so cheap. Like a Roku ultra SMHarman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloC4 Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 I love having the option to have TVS scattered around my home play the same source. Great if you bounce around your house like I do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdougray Posted January 12, 2020 Author Share Posted January 12, 2020 4 displays and really only 4 inputs.Mitch that is my other option as most things nowdays are streamed., should I just get ea1 ‘a and sky q minis at each display. I really don’t know which way to turn. Especially as some of them are a big investment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 I love having the same display on a bunch of TV’s, and being able to move throughout the house and take the show with me. Video distribution rocks. msgreenf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 Oh yeah, and I feel your pain. I have 2 Pioneer Elites left...down from 4. The first 2 were the hardest. The time for these last 2 is drawing near. tdougray 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 4 displays and really only 4 inputs.Mitch that is my other option as most things nowdays are streamed., should I just get ea1 ‘a and sky q minis at each display. I really don’t know which way to turn. Especially as some of them are a big investment. Why do you need ea1s for each tv? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdougray Posted January 12, 2020 Author Share Posted January 12, 2020 At the moment I have at the displays Ir control is through the baluns. If I got rid of the matrix would I not need a ea1 to fire ir at the display? Please excuse me if I’m being thick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 At the moment I have at the displays Ir control is through the baluns. If I got rid of the matrix would I not need a ea1 to fire ir at the display? Please excuse me if I’m being thick You can use a z2ir or z2io for local ir for much lower cost then ea1s tdougray 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crustyloafer Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 As suggested, you do not necessary need EA-1s at every TV location, you can use Z2IO for IR control or even just splice the IR output from the main controller in the rack to a spare pair on a CAT5/6 cable going to the TV location. The key advantages of having an EA-1 at the TV locations are: 1) ZigBee coverage extension - In larger properties we tend to put an EA-1 at each TV location so each SR260 has its own mesh to connect to, especially where there are no ZigBee keypad dimmers/switches to extend the ZigBee from the main controller in the rack. This meets with ZigBee best practices as recommended by Control4 themselves. 2. OnScreen Navigator on TV for streaming of audio, viewing of cameras, locks, stats etc. With an audio return feed from the TV itself back to main audio distribution this helps to ensure you have plenty of audio streams available for each zone without the expense of having an EA-5 or two in the rack just for audio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crustyloafer Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 9 hours ago, tdougray said: Ok when I first had C4 installed I only had a 2K HDanywhere matrix system which I have to be honest has been faultless bar a few receiving baluns going down. I’m now at a point where I think it’s time to make the jump to 4K. I have had endless therapy to make me realise getting rid of the pioneer Kuro is a good thing but I’m soooo split between another matrix vs video over ip ( in the uk I’m tempted by ( blue stream)As used by @Crustyloafer but would love to know in an age of streaming what everyone would choose if they had to choose a system from scratch? The key advantages to a centralised video distribution system is it allows sharing of sources/content between multiple displays at the same time and easy continuity between live TV sources, for example you can be watching a live broadcast on Sky Q in one room, pause it, move to another room and then resume playback from the same device without interruption or losing your place or missing broadcast content. There are advantages to both video over IP and HDBaseT solutions. Here is an overview of both. If you want to contact me to discuss in more detail, please feel free to PM me. tdougray and Neo1738 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 Many of these advantages are available in other ways without dropping >$10k for hardware alone (never mind having to run additional wiring) for video distribution - especially now that the world has moved towards streaming services. I have had a SageTV system for over a decade with a centralized server that records cable TV plus OTA and also has ripped movies, etc. Each of my nine TVs has a SageTV extender connected via ethernet. I can start playing in one room, pause and then pick up in another room. The only thing I can't do that you can get from distributed video is synchronized playback on multiple TVs at once. You can do something similar with Kodi, Plex, etc with Rokus, Fire TVs or Nvidia Shields at each TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 Those solutions all require additional hardware and wiring too, and playing across multiple displays simultaneously is awesome. You don’t have to spend $10k+. You can, but definitely don’t need to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 What I am using is down over regular ethernet or wifi, although I only use ethernet, and moca to get to part of my house. But you can do it with one LAN drop per room, rather than needing a separate LAN and networking hardware for your video distribution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crustyloafer Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 38 minutes ago, zaphod said: What I am using is down over regular ethernet or wifi, although I only use ethernet, and moca to get to part of my house. But you can do it with one LAN drop per room, rather than needing a separate LAN and networking hardware for your video distribution. It depends on what sort of video performance you are after and what type of video/audio signals you need to be able to transmit. If you want to distribute 1080P or 4K signals in a visually lossless manner with 5.1 or Dolby Atmos then some of the lower cost solutions will not have the required bandwidth to do this on top on a data network already in use or if they do it will be at the severe detriment of the data network performance. The Blustream Multicast solution squeezes 4K/UHD down into a stream just under 1Gbps using a visually lossless compression method. HDBaseT transmits an uncompressed 4K/UHD signal with zero latency and bi-directional control signals, audio return and ethernet into a 10Gbps stream max. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMHarman Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 4 displays and really only 4 inputs.Mitch that is my other option as most things nowdays are streamed., should I just get ea1 ‘a and sky q minis at each display. I really don’t know which way to turn. Especially as some of them are a big investment. Where are they in the home. How often are they displaying the same content. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lippavisual Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 VidoIP and HDBT are all compressed, one way or another. Problem is most people are concerned over specs than the actual image quality. Most will not see a difference between 10g and 18g pictures. eggzlot and SouthernSmarthome 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMHarman Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 VidoIP and HDBT are all compressed, one way or another. Problem is most people are concerned over specs than the actual image quality. Most will not see a difference between 10g and 18g pictures.As was the source that was sent. Without wanting to sound too Wapping, the whole HDMI transmission is insane. Take a 20Mbps transmission and turn it I to an 16gbps datastream. Of course you can compress it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggzlot Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 29 minutes ago, lippavisual said: VidoIP and HDBT are all compressed, one way or another. Problem is most people are concerned over specs than the actual image quality. Most will not see a difference between 10g and 18g pictures. agree here 100%. I have video distribution in my house (using Video Storm) and we host big parties all the time for sporting events, new years, etc. People ask to come over because they enjoy watching games on my Sony OLED. maybe 10% of my friends realize I have a distribution system, yet none of those 10% (or others) have a clue about compression or anything of the like. Sometimes people just get lost in the #'s and data and not real world applications. Heck the Sony is 4k, prior to that I had a Panny VT Plasma that wasnt 4k, and I can barely notice any difference even with 4k content and that includes using the built in apps for 4k so 100% no compression. There are diminishing returns to the human eye after a certain point. Its a different hobby, but same deal with higher end SLR cameras, full frame vs cropped sensors, 24 mega pixel for 30 megapixel, etc. The difference is basically only in data/labs, not in real world viewing. msgreenf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anon2828 Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 Poor man's video distribution: TiVo. I love TiVo. There, I said it. Cannot play same source on all TVs at once, but works PERFECT when you watch something in one location and then want to pick up in the same spot in another location. TiVo Mini behind each TV ($150 each - beat that), and the TiVo Bolt+ or newer Edge in the rack. Works great. The interface, TV guide, season pass, and commercial skip, and fast playback mode (great for sports at 30% faster without chipmunk voices) are all miles ahead of anything else out there. msgreenf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggzlot Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 19 minutes ago, anon2828 said: Poor man's video distribution: TiVo. I love TiVo. There, I said it. Cannot play same source on all TVs at once, but works PERFECT when you watch something in one location and then want to pick up in the same spot in another location. TiVo Mini behind each TV ($150 each - beat that), and the TiVo Bolt+ or newer Edge in the rack. Works great. The interface, TV guide, season pass, and commercial skip, and fast playback mode (great for sports at 30% faster without chipmunk voices) are all miles ahead of anything else out there. $150 behind a TV is cheaper than Netplay but not buy a ton - a Shield + IRUSB + 1 time license will set you back about $275-$300 for all 3 components. Still gives you IR control at the TV, all the apps on the shield plus ability to share centralized sources. It is certainly comparable. You need encoders for your devices but that would be the same as buying Bolts or the Edge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 Poor man's video distribution: TiVo. I love TiVo. There, I said it. Cannot play same source on all TVs at once, but works PERFECT when you watch something in one location and then want to pick up in the same spot in another location. TiVo Mini behind each TV ($150 each - beat that), and the TiVo Bolt+ or newer Edge in the rack. Works great. The interface, TV guide, season pass, and commercial skip, and fast playback mode (great for sports at 30% faster without chipmunk voices) are all miles ahead of anything else out there.+1 for TiVo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lippavisual Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 But you didn't include the licenses needed for Tivo either. Plus, I'll be surprised if they are still in business within 2 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 But you didn't include the licenses needed for Tivo either. Plus, I'll be surprised if they are still in business within 2 years.There is no licensing for TiVo mini. It's a 1 time cost. The death of TiVo has been coming for a decade but it's still the best imho Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.