Video Distribution Questions

[dougw246]

I am moving from Comcast to DirecTV and need some help understanding video distribution. I have read all of the posts, but still have some questions. I would like to distribute 3 HD boxes to 8 TV's around the house. I do not have the budget to spend thousands of dollars.

1. Can you cascade 4x4 matrix switches via C4 to create 4x7, 4x14, etc? (looking at the Monoprice 4x4 HDMI Matrix)

2. How does C4 select the "proper" input for a given TV? Does C4 know which inputs are in use and select the next available or do you have to know which ones are being watched? Basically how do you not change the kids channel upstairs?

3. Any suggestions on best practices for this?

Thanks.

[Mongo]

Hey Dude,

I am relatively new at this, so I figured I would give you some insight as I had questions like this about 2 months ago.

1. Your going to want more than 4 inputs. It doesnt seem like it now,but your going to want it. Bluray player, Media players ( this is a must have if you have kids), plus cable boxes - go with an 8X8 matrix. ( it doesnt have to be an HDMI matrix, start of with streaming HD via component, but make sure you wire enough to grow into HD later on. (2cat6 lines for HDMI in future)

2. I believe the TV's switch imputs and power toggle via IR. ( make sure you wire a cat5 for this to all TV's as well

3. I would talk to a dealer heck I talked to about 10 in my area until I found the right team. This is the most important step of C4. This can be an incredibly "buggy" system, its takes a lot of "tweeking" to get it to perfection. Your going to want a dealer you know will be there when your in a jam. I can not emphasize enough how important your dealer is.

so in short - find an awesome dealer in your price range, look into a media player ( i use C4 media player, but a lot of guys use the EVA9150), and get as many inputs as you can afford.

[3fingerbrown]

I am moving from Comcast to DirecTV and need some help understanding video distribution. I have read all of the posts, but still have some questions. I would like to distribute 3 HD boxes to 8 TV's around the house. I do not have the budget to spend thousands of dollars.

FYI, it doesn't appear that you have the budget to make this happen.

1. Can you cascade 4x4 matrix switches via C4 to create 4x7, 4x14, etc? (looking at the Monoprice 4x4 HDMI Matrix)

Basic HDMI switches like the Monoprice have enough trouble on their own, cascading them would be problematic (if not impossible) to function reliably.

2. How does C4 select the "proper" input for a given TV? Does C4 know which inputs are in use and select the next available or do you have to know which ones are being watched? Basically how do you not change the kids channel upstairs?

3. Any suggestions on best practices for this?

Control4 controls it all. But you need IR control to each TV and each source. Each zone is controlled by a remote control that only can operate one zone at a time. So your control4 remote will say "family room" and it will change the channel or turn on a source in the family room. You would have to change your zone to "kids" to control that zone.

[dougw246]

2. How does C4 select the "proper" input for a given TV? Does C4 know which inputs are in use and select the next available or do you have to know which ones are being watched? Basically how do you not change the kids channel upstairs?

3. Any suggestions on best practices for this?

Control4 controls it all. But you need IR control to each TV and each source. Each zone is controlled by a remote control that only can operate one zone at a time. So your control4 remote will say "family room" and it will change the channel or turn on a source in the family room. You would have to change your zone to "kids" to control that zone.

I understand the room selection functionality. I am actually interested in the logic C4 uses to select the HDMI input on a matrix switch. For example, if I hook up 4 DTV boxes to 4x8 matrix, when I go to a room and select a TV channel, which input will it select? Are the inputs bound to certain rooms or does C4 select the next available? An explanation of this logic would be helpful. Thanks.

[Rsmolo]

in composer when you make your connectios, you are telling c4 which box is connected to in 1,2,3 etc and which room is connected to out 1,2,3 etc. by making connections in composer c4 builds macros for you, you just need good, working drivers to execute macros correctly. You can lable each dtv box ( his, her, kids etc ) and you should be able to view them all. If you want a list of fav channels, there is "cloud" attached to a dtv ( you select which one) and when you select channel from a list it will change it on that box. You can to multiple clouds, and have different fav attached to different box.

edit to

I have dirrect tv, dish network (international channels for wife) and std cable (just incase). 3 clouds: dirrectv, dishnet and cable, all fav channels show up in one place but system knows where each channell is comming from so for espn it goes to dirrectv box, for polsat it goes to dish box and for local cbs it goes to tv tuner.

makes sense?

[henniae]

I understand the room selection functionality. I am actually interested in the logic C4 uses to select the HDMI input on a matrix switch. For example, if I hook up 4 DTV boxes to 4x8 matrix, when I go to a room and select a TV channel, which input will it select? Are the inputs bound to certain rooms or does C4 select the next available? An explanation of this logic would be helpful. Thanks.

You would first select one of the 4 DTV boxes and then select a channel. If you were to select a DTV box that someone else was using and decided to change the channel the channel would change for both you and the other person. If you were to name the DTV boxes for each family member (for example) you could pick your DTV box and not have this problem as long as someone else did not decide to watch your DTV box.

[RyanE]

If you're making a 'media' selection, and that media can be fulfilled by multiple sources, Control4 will try and choose an unused source, but there's no guarantee that if there is not an unused source, that it won't switch to a used source, and start your media playing.

RyanE