HC-1000v3 is available for order with a lower price than the v2

[ILoveC4]

Right, but if you were to get an HC1000, you could use the HC1000 as the master, and keep your Media Controller for it's I/O. Also, with the price reduction of the HC1000, you can better afford to get I/O extenders.

I'm guessing (I'm not a product manager, nor do I wish to be) that the cost for Control4 to make I/O to fit a standard x86 motherboard would push the HC1000 to more than the cost of the 1000 plus the cost of an I/O extender.

RyanE

I understand, and I am obviously thrilled with the new lower price. The only reason the Media Controller is still around is to serve up audio and utilize the Contacts/Relays, and I don't plan on getting rid of it. It is just nice to have all that in one unit.

If the Media Controller ever dies, I will simply get an I/O extender and it should work great.

[dgbrown]

Right' date=' but if you were to get an HC1000, you could use the HC1000 as the master, and keep your Media Controller for it's I/O. Also, with the price reduction of the HC1000, you can better afford to get I/O extenders.

I'm guessing (I'm not a product manager, nor do I wish to be) that the cost for Control4 to make I/O to fit a standard x86 motherboard would push the HC1000 to more than the cost of the 1000 plus the cost of an I/O extender.T

RyanE[/quote']

I understand, and I am obviously thrilled with the new lower price. The only reason the Media Controller is still around is to serve up audio and utilize the Contacts/Relays, and I don't plan on getting rid of it. It is just nice to have all that in one unit.

If the Media Controller ever dies, I will simply get an I/O extender and it should work great.

the only issue with that strategy is the io extender seems to have lost it's audio betwwen CEDIA and it's market debut Dissapointing because the 1000+extender would have been the killer pair.

[tebery]

Got mine today! Yeah!!

[ILoveC4]

Got mine today! Yeah!!

I'm jealous...I am not getting mine until the first of the year. That is of course unless I decide to get myself an early Christmas present.

[mercedes]

Got mine today! Yeah!!

When did you order? I have had mine on order for about 3 weeks now.

[tebery]

Got mine today! Yeah!!

When did you order? I have had mine on order for about 3 weeks now.

I ordered it Nov. 6th.

[tebery]

Got my HC-1000v3 installed. My system was never slow (aside from some zigbee slowness), so really can't see any increase in speed. I am ready for 2.0 though!

This is how I have my system running:

Navigator on one hc300

zigbee on a second hc300

director on the hc1000.

rest of system:

MC (for I/O's)

100+ dimmers, switches, wireless outlets.

v2 amp

v3 amp

2 C4 audio matrix

B&K video matrix

2 Sony 777 changers

Netgear NV+ NAS w/ 20,000+ songs

C4 tuner

3 MTS's

6 10 btn LCD (zigbee)

card access motion sensor and a relay

3 v2 remotes

2 v3 remotes

4 Directv HD DVR's

Dell PowerConnect 3424P

Linksys RVS4000 router

Axis 4 channel video server

[ILoveC4]

Got my HC-1000v3 installed. My system was never slow (aside from some zigbee slowness), so really can't see any increase in speed. I am ready for 2.0 though!

This is how I have my system running:

Navigator on one hc300

zigbee on a second hc300

director on the hc1000.

rest of system:

MC (for I/O's)

100+ dimmers, switches, wireless outlets.

v2 amp

v3 amp

2 C4 audio matrix

B&K video matrix

2 Sony 777 changers

Netgear NV+ NAS w/ 20,000+ songs

C4 tuner

3 MTS's

6 10 btn LCD (zigbee)

card access motion sensor and a relay

3 v2 remotes

2 v3 remotes

4 Directv HD DVR's

Dell PowerConnect 3424P

Linksys RVS4000 router

Axis 4 channel video server

Just curious, how many audio zones do you have? It sounds like you are setup for 32 zones?

[tebery]

I have 21 or 22 zones of audio.

[CanisMajor]

If the new HC1000V3 is more powerful than the previous version then why not design it to do more, ie

why doesn't include ZigBee so that it can directly control all of a home's ZigBee devices as well as

the Ethernet devices? It seems like the power of an HC1000 is wasted, for one is forced to still put

much of the controller functions (ZigBee, WiFi, audio D/A decoding, video interface display, IR output)

on another "less powerful" controller.

If one has audio files stored on the 500GB disk of an HC1000V3, how is the data transmitted

to an HCXXX that would output that audio via its line level audio outputs?

Does it share the files via CIFS or NFS?

Does it stream the files?

Does the HCXXX cache the audio file data locally?

Does it make more sense to keep all audio files on an internal or external drive of the HCXXX?

[thecodeman]

If the new HC1000V3 is more powerful than the previous version then why not design it to do more, ie

why doesn't include ZigBee so that it can directly control all of a home's ZigBee devices as well as

the Ethernet devices? It seems like the power of an HC1000 is wasted, for one is forced to still put

much of the controller functions (ZigBee, WiFi, audio D/A decoding, video interface display, IR output)

on another "less powerful" controller.

If one has audio files stored on the 500GB disk of an HC1000V3, how is the data transmitted

to an HCXXX that would output that audio via its line level audio outputs?

Does it share the files via CIFS or NFS?

Does it stream the files?

Does the HCXXX cache the audio file data locally?

Does it make more sense to keep all audio files on an internal or external drive of the HCXXX?

The HC-1000 makes a significant upgrade in performance of your system. All programming commands and "heavy lifting" by the project are done there. Ask anyone who has installed an HC-1000 in their project - everyone I've heard says it's "night and day difference" or "like a brand new system".

The HC-1000 streams the music stored on it's hard drive via it's ethernet port. Audio streams are UDP and are not cached locally by the secondary controllers - the 200 & 300 have no hard drives to do so.

If the 500gb of storage is enough, you can certainly use the internal drive. I recommend a NAS, since you can store music & videos on it, and have some expansion & redundancy options. Plus, that's one less thing the HC-1000 has to do.

In versions 1.8 and later, the Zigbee Server process is moved to the HC-1000, taking the high CPU cycles there instead of the slave controllers. This way, the controllers are now just an "access point" to talk to the devices in the field.

[CanisMajor]

If the new HC1000V3 is more powerful than the previous version then why not design it to do more' date=' ie

why doesn't include ZigBee so that it can directly control all of a home's ZigBee devices as well as

the Ethernet devices? It seems like the power of an HC1000 is wasted, for one is forced to still put

much of the controller functions (ZigBee, WiFi, audio D/A decoding, video interface display, IR output)

on another "less powerful" controller.

If one has audio files stored on the 500GB disk of an HC1000V3, how is the data transmitted

to an HCXXX that would output that audio via its line level audio outputs?

Does it share the files via CIFS or NFS?

Does it stream the files?

Does the HCXXX cache the audio file data locally?

Does it make more sense to keep all audio files on an internal or external drive of the HCXXX?[/quote']

The HC-1000 makes a significant upgrade in performance of your system. All programming commands and "heavy lifting" by the project are done there. Ask anyone who has installed an HC-1000 in their project - everyone I've heard says it's "night and day difference" or "like a brand new system".

The HC-1000 streams the music stored on it's hard drive via it's ethernet port. Audio streams are UDP and are not cached locally by the secondary controllers - the 200 & 300 have no hard drives to do so.

If the 500gb of storage is enough, you can certainly use the internal drive. I recommend a NAS, since you can store music & videos on it, and have some expansion & redundancy options. Plus, that's one less thing the HC-1000 has to do.

In versions 1.8 and later, the Zigbee Server process is moved to the HC-1000, taking the high CPU cycles there instead of the slave controllers. This way, the controllers are now just an "access point" to talk to the devices in the field.

Adding an HC1000 make it all better...I've read this before. I don't want the HC1000 to do less, since it has more processing power than the other controllers, it make sense to have do more work. But the lack of communications ports beyond the GbE doesn't allow for it take on the functions that I've listed.

OK. So they've moved one ZigBee Server process to the HC-1000 from the other controller. It still has to instruct the secondary controller that actually has the ZigBee communications hardware to transmit the command to the remote dimmer/switch/keypad devices. This comsumes CPU of the "lesser" controller. This could be solved by adding a ZigBee transciever into the HC1000.

You don't descibe what is in the audio stream UDP packets, is it chucks of MP3 or FLAC files that must be decoded by the lesser controller or is it some other format that's easier for it to "digest" an output via its analog audio outputs?

[Rori]

Related question abt the HC-1000, is there a way to determine the version (v 1, v2, v3) of the unit?

Thanks!

[tebery]

The sticker on the bottom of the unit will tell you. Can't go by the MAC address because some (all?) of the v3's show up as a v2.

[Rori]

Could anyone expand on this (HC 1000 version determination)? I looked at the stickers at bottom of my unit but do not see a reference to the version number.

Thanks.

[thecodeman]

Could anyone expand on this (HC 1000 version determination)? I looked at the stickers at bottom of my unit but do not see a reference to the version number.

Thanks.

You probably have a v2. The v3s are new, and started shipping this month, I believe, in conjunction with the announcement. There are quite a few that are back ordered as well. Unless of course you ordered one the day they were available for order and you were lucky enough to get it in the first batch that were shipped.

[henniae]

Adding an HC1000 make it all better...I've read this before. I don't want the HC1000 to do less, since it has more processing power than the other controllers, it make sense to have do more work. But the lack of communications ports beyond the GbE doesn't allow for it take on the functions that I've listed.

C4 is designed to be a distributed system. It is not always necessary or advisable to have all functionality in a single hardware device.

OK. So they've moved one ZigBee Server process to the HC-1000 from the other controller. It still has to instruct the secondary controller that actually has the ZigBee communications hardware to transmit the command to the remote dimmer/switch/keypad devices. This comsumes CPU of the "lesser" controller. This could be solved by adding a ZigBee transciever into the HC1000.

Putting a ZigBee radio in the HC-1000 really would not provide that much of a benefit. The HC-1000 is usually in the main equipment closet of the house. The main equipment closet is usually not in the best location for optimal RF dispersion around a house. The better design is to have multiple ZAPs (ZigBee Access Points) throughout the house. The benefit of multiple ZAPs is better ZigBee coverage in the house as well as a failover mechanism. If one of the ZAPs goes down for some reason the other ZAPs will still be able to handle the ZigBee traffic.

You don't descibe what is in the audio stream UDP packets, is it chucks of MP3 or FLAC files that must be decoded by the lesser controller or is it some other format that's easier for it to "digest" an output via its analog audio outputs?

The streams are MP3 or FLAC. They must be decoded. Again, I might want to have a local device in one room decode the file to play on a local source. Example, I have a detached garage with an old receiver in it. I can use a controller attached to that receiver and beam music over to the controller wireless. I might have a local audio system in my master bedroom. I can use an HC-200 there attached to my local TV. One ethernet cable to the controller and I now have control of my master bedroom system, an on screen display and music.

It is a lot cheaper to use an existing hardware device like an HC-200 to provide these features that it would be to design and build and program cards to add the the HC-1000.

[RyanE]

Alan's got a lot of good points, not to mention that designing PC cards to do those tasks are going to be a *completely* different set of requirements for PCI bus / engineering and testing parameters for FCC emissions, etc.

A lot of thought goes into Control4's product offerings, and I personally think the HC1000 is a good deal, and I even thought that when they were twice the price for half the speed (ok, not quite, but you get my drift)...

RyanE

Edited because I can't spell at this time of night...

[wappinghigh]

Could anyone expand on this (HC 1000 version determination)? I looked at the stickers at bottom of my unit but do not see a reference to the version number.

Thanks.

You probably have a v2. The v3s are new' date=' and started shipping this month, I believe, in conjunction with the announcement. There are quite a few that are back ordered as well. Unless of course you ordered one the day they were available for order and you were lucky enough to get it in the first batch that were shipped.[/quote']

I got one of these this week It has the V3 E B sticker on the bottom, so I assume it's a genuine V3! It also has 4 USB ports on the back (as apposed to the details on the pdf from the C4 website, which states the V2 has 2x USB ports. The picture of the HC1000 (on the older pdf) also has a grill air inlet on the front of the controller. Mine doesn't have a grill on the front....like the picture on the webpage itself. So perhaps these are the (physical) ways you tell...

Certainly there is no way to tell using my.control.com...it comes up as loaded with V2...

Anyway. Cody, you mentioned it has better cooling. My HC 1000 certainly speeds up my system dramatically , but it's quite noisy. Not a real problem, cause it's under the stairs, but is this extra cooling a faster/bigger fan? Don't get me wrong, I'm real happy with the purchase, but future users need to be aware, if you don't have an equipment closet, you'll need to find somewhere to hide this thing away from any bedroom or living areas. And don't forget where you locate it will need power (obviously) and a cat6 run (to take advantage of it's gigabit ethernet)...