wappinghigh

So true. What you say is about a NAS and external players is so true.. So Why would you want a HTPC? Simply because you can push the boundaries... Why do anything? Why get up in the morning? All good dude. W

Dude I know all that! Dude we are all good. Whether or not "the customers" want it... is totally irrelevant. OK? The issue here (as always) is pushing the boundaries. Ya gotta support the enthusiast and early adopters because the filter down effect to the 99% of (other) control4 customers (as you call them) in the end is totally massive... That is just what I don't get about this company.. It's an attitude thing. Anyway. Lets not go there! W

This is a superb question and I am glad you have raised it again Zaphod! As to why C4 itself hasn't come up with (and provides ongoing support of) a simple little Windows control driver solution is astounding to say the least given the sheer market penetration of Windows and the enthusiasts use of the HTPC never really going away.. and the reasons for that are simple. The ever changing requirements of the home media library and the ability to easily swap in and upgrade graphics cards. The HTPC is the ultimate flexible product. Of course enthusiasts will have one and it is likely enthusiasts will also have something like a Control4 setup in their home... So yes if someone could finally come up with a simple control solution that is robust and works and stays working ie is supported ongoing... that would be awesome! Then maybe AlanC could incorporate it into his XBMC driver? - a bit like he does with the Android/XBMX swap solution. My oh my now that sure would be SWEEEEET! Rock on C4 w

It means the ability to not wake you up at 3am when the IP control goes down or the delinquent kid can’t turn on his Game Station or any other myriad of other countless random events that pop up in everyone’s “normal” lives. Life ain’t always a happy singing church choir on a hill somewhere in SLC Utah. I’m definitely done here. It’s become near on impossible to pass back any useful feedback. I’ve got better things to do Happy New Year all W.

^ And using the excuse that it’s other manufactures blocking integration is also a lame excuse. That’s life. They will always do that. If Control4s motis operandi is to “control” things then that’s Control4’s problem - so give the platform *any* alternative (like Bluetooth) to make that happen. Who cares what the solutions are to get users out of tricky sticking points. Just do it. W.

^ Sure but you have the knowledge and ability to sort problems on the fly. Late at night or on a weekend. Customers don’t.

They don’t implement Bluetooth in Controlers Zaphod, same resaon they don’t implement IR blasters in their remotes - because it is a bloody good practical and useful idea! And bloody good ideas never seem get implemented in Control4 because a lot of dealers think they have all the answers, think the platform is perfect (particularly IP control) - but don’t necessarily actually live with the platform 24/7 and *really* put it thru it’s paces in the rough and tumble of the everyday “modern family”, Or give it to a wife and a bunch of daughters to operate. Or a kid playing on a PS4. By living with the platform I mean using it the *exact same way* a home user would without .... (saying the obvious)... Also there seems almost an obsessive belief in IP control- that somehow it’s perfect. Or that an IP driver is “coming”. Backup plans like IR and Bluetooth control of devices that will never be IP controllable (for reasons stated), or for use when IP control fails, just get left flapping in the breeze to be somehow miraculous “sorrted” by enthusiasts or dedicated dealers or third parties - all at their own expense. These “sorting out problems when IP doesn’t work or there is no IP or IR driver expenses” of course get passed down the chain to the end user in dealer time charges, or even the dealer themselves if they have a fix contract. And even *if* dealers got feedback from the likes of you that Bluetooth would be awesome, or believed in their heart of hearts as well that it would be useful - there is no feedback channel from dealers or from here back to C4central to make change happen. That has now been confirmed on this forum. That is pretty sad. W.

This amongst many other things is what makes Alan's driver so darn good and why you would pay for something rather than just use a free copy or another "free" different driver. It's all about useful exisiting features like this but more so about ongoing development and support of the driver. Alan has been around supporting third party devices like Kodi for years within the Control4 platform. This platform would not be nearly as powerful as it now is without dealers and programmers like Alan. Anyway. I get so much sh!te frankly suggesting new things around here I have decided to take another break from this Forum for a while. I just wanted to throw my last 2c for a while that we all should pay for stuff and support dealers and driver coders who make the platform better. Happy 2018! Cheerio

Lol Zaphod haha your a hoot man.... :"heard of HDCP" that cracked me up.. Go to Israel and get yourself a VBox and use that into the Vbox XMBC pluggin.. or maybe that will work with Sage? Anyway there is always JRiver remember that? Now wait - where is the development of that JRiver driver again? But sure a Sage driver? why the heck not! .. Happy new year! (And to you as well Nitro if you are still out there) Damn I miss all that What a guy. W

^ I tried it once years ago Z on your recommendation but it looked like it was dying so I dropped the idea. Thanks for the wiki now I see Google bought it and has taken over the baton. Is Sage having a bit of a resurgence? Just curious if things are on the up with new players/extenders/4K support etc??

That is AWESOME!

Great Diagram!!! Nice one.

Yep STEAM is awesome... Sure ... it's all about choice of content distribution (as always)

LOL You got it! RAZER is the go Check out the add on TB3 gamecard enclosures that future proof the gamenotebooks

Point I was making is if you are going to go 4K HDR gaming, you need to spend the dollars ($2-3,000) on a game machinePC/notebook running in the background, that streams to the shield so might as well just buy a gamenotebook and plug it in direct via HDMI and be done with it. But sure each to their own. All good. W

Actually you need a pretty good game machine for 4K HDR with at least a Pascal game card in it (details are on the Nvidia website).. but sure 2-3K would get you a decent Geoforce 4K HDR capable game machine or laptop right now. Sure.

Say "shield streams steam" 50 times quickly

Which Steam "player"? Don't think the shield streams steam. To do with DRM no doubt W

Ah OK got it. We can't get the gaming streaming service here unfortunately which is a bit of a blow!! (and what its all about I think)

Hey agree with you man.. yep bring on a decent PS4 driver for 4sure!!! The new PS4 4K pro is one heck of a beast. and superb gaming value.. is it any wonder you have had a myriad of requests! W

Hey that's pretty cool.. would go in any linux box right?

But back to topic why would anyone put in a nVidia shield? I have investigated this add infinitum.. Not that I don't think it is one heck of an awesome streamer and these drivers are great solutions for Kodi and droid control etc.. If you want Kodi, there are way cheaper boxes out there and running Linux (Openelec or Lireelec) that a super stable... If you want PC games, why not just run Steam on a gaming laptop out via HDMI (with laptop in the game room itself)? Just curious why folks are getting them and how they are using their "shields"..for 4K games? Geoforce Now? what? Cheers.

Nah nothing on a modded Commodore64 with a brand new german engineered C64reloaded MK11 board, two stereo chips and svideo> HDMI convertor..

Sage is pretty awesome but FYI if folks need an alternative, You can now do this using the Vbox Gateway streamer front end and the Vbox Kodi PVR back end within Kodi... The streamer is from Israel. It converts FTA streams and broadcasts them on your network (and there is a STB/cable TV/Satelite TV version as well I think.. check the details to get the exact right one you need for your partic TV signal and needs) The PVR Kodi app picks up the streams and populates Kodi with a TV section and a PVR/recording section.. It's pretty cool actually as everything -> Live TV/"TV Guide"/PVR/music/Video/Movies is all on the one tiny Kodi loaded device... Goodbye Coax cable to any new TV location... including Live TV and PVR access right up on your desktop PC/Mac or ipad/ tablet ... basically anything that runs Kodi works... but you need enough video processing power.. There are now 4K Versions of the gateway i believe and 4K Versions of Kodi box's (check the specs as you need decent video processing)... I am doing this right now... though obviously no 4K FTA TV yet.. A Nividia Shield would do it on it's ear and AlanC has now said this is his preferred box but it's expensive and Android .. and there are way cheaper DIY Linux based solutions out there as mentioned... Vbox is pretty easy, the gateways are cheap and you only need one of these... nothing that someone who can configure and load Kodi onto a media player isn't more than capable of doing.. W

Kodi is F'n awesome and this I guess "ups the anti.." Huge Kodi supporter and huge supporter of the Alan Chow drivers. Happy to pay for drivers as long as they are better and they continue to be supported... which has been the case with the A Chow drivers for a very long time now.... There is now ZERO excuse for anyone not to switch to Kodi.. At least no excuse to not give it a tinker and try.. a complete DIY media streaming zone for well under 100 bucks...I mean why not?!!! I have had huge success with Libreelec or Openelec. Being linux they are real robust... if the thing stops working, just pull the power plug and it boots right up like an AppleTv no probs.. so like I have said, I prefer these out at the zones where you can get to them as you go to watch a channel or stream.. rather than one in the rack> No Tv or Kodi? Network has stuffed you around?.. No worries! Just pull the plug!... though as Ilove has rightfully said you can get around the rack issue with a hard power GPO cycle device...