Issues with Leaf Video Matrix

[Dr. Venkman]

Hi, all.  I'm hoping I can get a little advice on what may be wrong with my LU-862.

We have had four TVs hooked up to it for several years, and all has worked well (3 over HDBaseT, 1 on an HDMI output). The other day, two of our TV's quit working.

Our dealer swapped things around enough to decide that:

• 1 of our 3 HDBaseT baluns is bad
• The only HDBaseT outputs that work on the LU-862 are outputs 2 & 3 (if you put a known good balun on output 3, it works fine, but not on output 4).

Any idea what could cause something like that or how it can be fixed?

Thanks much.

[mstafford388]

Make sure the firmware and driver are both current (really important).  Also make sure the system is calibrated with all sources and displays turned on.  There is also the possibility you are indeed just having hardware issues.  If those baluns were ever hot swapped that is known to blow ports.  

[Dr. Venkman]

Thanks.  The firmware is up to date, and my dealer calibrated it after the firmware update this week. He also made sure the driver was up to date (version 325).

It quit working properly out of nowhere - at the time, it had been probably two years since a cable had last been touched.  I can't 100% guarantee that my dealer never hot swapped back when the rack was set up, but that would have been years ago (they probably didn't - I just wasn't watching 100% of the time).

Three of the HDBaseT ports that aren't working have never had a cable plugged into them. 

I cannot, for the life of me, think of a reason four HDBaseT ports and one balun just quit working. Nothing in the entire C4 system had been touched, changed, etc. in months. I think the last change was an update to 2.10.6 quite some time ago. 

Do you know how long the warranty is on the unit?

[Topfox]

I think it’s 2 years. 

[cdcllc]

I’ve had an LU-862 for 4 years and for the most part I’ve liked it.  I’ve had 1 HDBaseT port go out on the back (one of the indoor TVs) and 1 specific balun that I’ve replaced 3 times (same outdoor TV).  When I replaced the balun the last time (about 2 weeks ago), I replaced with Atlona TX and RX baluns and switched to an HDMI out port vs an HDBaseT port.  We’ll see how long that lasts.  The outdoor TV is an old 35” Sony 1080p and it’s mounted outside under our lanai.  If the balun goes again, I’m getting a new TV because I also have a 4yr old LG mounted on the opposite wall for 4yrs and I’ve never had a problem with it.

[Dr. Venkman]

I don’t mind a piece of equipment being expensive, and I don’t mind it being complicated or finicky to set up, but Control4 should probably find another solution if they’re going to be this fragile and prone to permanent failure. 
 

Maybe failures like mine and yours are one in a million, but it sure doesn’t sound like it. 
 

If there’s not a solution to be found, 4 of 6 HDBaseT ports have permanently failed (inside of four years) on a several thousand dollar piece of equipment that has been professionally installed and serviced, as required. It sits in a rack in a closet and is never touched. If that sort of failure is anything other than shockingly rare, they should probably not be selling the product (or they should be standing behind them when they do fail).

Again, maybe I’m nearly the only case like this, but I would guess if that were the true, they would probably have a longer warranty. 

[lippavisual]

Is the switch being power protected?  Do you have surge suppression in all the HDBT lines?

stuff quits all the time and 90% of the time it is electrically related. 

[videostorm]

The fundamental issue is sending a ground wire from a central location to all your TVs.   HDMI, HDBT, and POE baluns do this.  This creates another ground network that "competes" with your existing home ground network.  Whenever there is a large EMF event near your house, significant current will be routed back through your equipment rack via that unintentional network.  And that breaks stuff, badly.....

That said, if your home is VERY good about only having a single earth ground at the main breaker you can avoid this most of the time.

Or you can just use standard non-POE ethernet to distribute your video.  It is ground isolated which completely prevents this.  POE ethernet is fine for cameras or anything that isn't connected to other equipment which is AC powered.

[Dr. Venkman]

7 hours ago, lippavisual said:

Is the switch being power protected?  Do you have surge suppression in all the HDBT lines?

stuff quits all the time and 90% of the time it is electrically related. 

The switch is plugged into a Panamax power conditioner/PDU that sits behind a UPS. 

The individual Cat6 HDBT runs just go straight from the matrix to the balun, as directed in the instructions. Again, though, three of the ports that failed didn’t have anything plugged into them. 

If surge suppression on the individual HDBT lines is needed, you would prefer that be built into the matrix, but at a minimum, the instructions shouldn’t explicitly state that nothing should be between the matrix and the balun. 

I understand that things happen, and if I just got super unlucky, I can live with that, but I’m getting the sense that my experience isn’t as rare as it should be.

[mstafford388]

On 6/26/2021 at 11:33 PM, Dr. Venkman said:

I don’t mind a piece of equipment being expensive, and I don’t mind it being complicated or finicky to set up, but Control4 should probably find another solution if they’re going to be this fragile and prone to permanent failure. 
 

 

They already have.  They know of the struggles of that piece. 

[pkkaiser]

What is the new solution?

[Control4Savant]

44 minutes ago, pkkaiser said:

What is the new solution?

Binary, Atlona, MoIP

[msgreenf]

AV edge pro