videostorm

i think all end users on this site want the platform to "open up" more.  I wouldn't be shocked if some dealers would be happier if a customer could enter their own new TV and swap it from an older TV.  I cannot believe there is much margin in that work for dealers (hence the online dealer but that is another story) even if they get to sell the TV and then do the C4 binding/install.
But when you hijack every thread about opening up the platform and the HDMI cartel....you become Wap
again I think most of this could easily be solved by some sticky's here on the forum.  Have an entire one dedicated to ideas about opening up the platform. stickys for new users, stickys for people moving into a home with c4 and what are their options, etc.  there could even been a static first post in that sticky that the admins keep relevant as new hardware is released, older stuff has to be removed, etc.  its a little work but I think would keep things way more civilized 
cheers

Ha - just solved it.  Restart of the Rpi. That autostarts Camerabridge.  (I'd already edited /etc/rc.local but it needs a reboot to get things going)

Personally i like having a fully integrated media system in Control4.  Its definately the showpiece at my house when guests come around and I select a movie on my T3 in-wall touchscreen and have the magic of automation dim the lights (if they are on), close blinds (if they are open), turn on the receiver, turn on the projector, etc and bam movie is playing.
Media players (and software) that work well for this are (in order of my preference
Kaleidescape - https://www.chowmainsoft.com/kaleidescape Zappiti - https://www.chowmainsoft.com/zappiti-control4 Kodi - https://www.chowmainsoft.com/kodi-xbmc-full-driver-for-control4 Plex - https://www.chowmainsoft.com/plex-full-driver-for-control4 Here are some screen shots of the various solutions above
Kaleidescape

 
Zappiti

 
Kodi (old screenshot)

 
Plex (old screenshot)

 

I know you looking for the best way to navigate your video library INSIDE the C4 gui.....
However, my suggestion would be to instead just use the Plex or Kodi mini drivers in C4 and then use the on screen APP (Plex / Kodi) interface to select your media.
Unlike Music, you are actually going to be watching the TV screen when you select a movie.  So IMO there is no sense in trying to find the right media on the small screen of your remote.
Also, the Plex or Kodi interfaces for browsing your (often huge) libraries are WAY better than C4s.
Anyway, my opinion on this was formed a few years ago so maybe things have changed.  I would be interested in learning if they have.....

Looks like I figured out the QLaunch commands:
 
SoPlayer
QLAUNCH android-app://com.sotv.android#Intent;component=com.sotv.android/com.setplex.android.StartActivity;end 
Youtube 
QLAUNCH android-app://com.amazon.firetv.youtube#Intent;component=com.amazon.firetv.youtube/dev.cobalt.app.MainActivity;end
Youtube Kids
QLAUNCH android-app://com.amazon.firetv.youtube.kids#Intent;component=com.amazon.firetv.youtube.kids/dev.cobalt.app.MainActivity;end 

My original solution to the garage door problem was just a trigger if the thermostat in the garage was more than 4 degrees off target.  Not specific to the door, but it always triggered if the door was left open for more than a few min.  Plus it was super easy to implement.

Apparently I'm not the only person who has an issue with leaving the garage door open 😄
This exact scenario is in our C4 notifications demo video   
 

The two issues are lightning and surges. Lightning is thousands of volts and thousands of amps. Surges are hundreds of volts and hundreds of amps.
The best defense against lightning is proper grounding just like video storm mentioned above. A single ground or properly bonding your grounds with 6awg copper is the way to go. I would engage an electrical engineer to validate your grounding and I would the. Engage an electrician to audit your panel(s)and pop off a few wall plates to verify the house was wired properly. If you have antennas for any reason (tv, wifi, satellite, ham radio etc) those should have a gas passivated lightning arrester with replaceable cartridges. The cartridges are like a neon bulb and will conduct a lightning level strike to ground and destroy the capsule in the process. Please keep in mind that a direct strike will blow apart concrete, blow the Sheetrock off your walls etc... I've seen it blow a vcr out of a rack and embed it in the opposite wall... proper grounding will bleed down charge on your devices and minimize this risk.
The other concern are surges in the form of 200-500+ volts on your AC line. There are several causes but grounding won't help with this. Mov or PTC based arrestors are the best defense here. A good example of this is a quality "surge strip" like a tripplite isobar. Cheap surge strips might have a circuit breaker or just an on/off switch which are both useless for protection purposes. There are whole house versions an electrician would be delighted to install on your panel. These work by having a sacrificial element (I.e. MOV) that starts conducting at a voltage higher than line level and it shorts the over voltage to ground. If the device triggers and protects it will literally be fried and you have to throw it away and replace it. They are very effective and I personally have one but I also made sure I had a properly grounded electrical system in the house first.
if you have high dollar gear it's worth the investment as typical homeowner policies will only cover $2500 in damages from lightning...you can also inexpensively add a rider fir your high dollar gear...

By far, the most common reason your equipment gets electrically damaged is multiple earth grounds.
Your home / building should have a SINGLE earth ground, located where service enters the building or the main electrical panel.  The "ground" wire in your home should be connected to actual earth ground only at that point.
Unfortunately, building often have other earth grounds.  Usually this is extra ground stakes (sat dishes, cable feeds, etc) or the ground wire physically connected to metal building frames or water piping.
If you do have the dreaded multi earth grounds, you will suffer damage from strikes anywhere near your property.  The current travels through the ground water and will take a "shortcut" through your house because of the multi ground contacts.

Absolutely!  SplashTiles can be used standalone ($25/year for 5 devices) or as part of a NetPlay video distribution system.
We view it as different tiers based on what you need.  This doc is a little outdated (things are even better & cheaper now), but shows the ideas https://video-storm.com/Downloads/why_netplay_c4.pdf

NetplayTV 4.0 has just been released.  Here are the highlights:
Fully Universal overlay PIP or transparently overlay any NetPlay source over whatever is playing Any other App (Netflix, Prime, etc) or Home screen Any source connected via a local HDMI port Configurable size, position, transparency, and more Start & Stop PIP is non disruptive to your main program Support for local HDMI inputs  OTT (over the top) box support with new Z9X decoders Full support for Android and Fire OS TVs with HDMI inputs Overlay and PIP anything over your local HDMI signals Redesigned User Interface Improved contrast and transparency for maximum usability Local UI is now fully synchronized with remote control APIs Easy selection of Audio in Tiled mode This is a FREE upgrade to all NetPlayTV customers.   From a hardware perspective, this enables the newest OTT boxes (Over the top, meaning they have HDMI inputs and NetPlay can directly display over the HDMI input).  The one we recommend which supports 4Kp60 HDMI input to output is Z9X     https://www.amazon.com/Zidoo-Player-Android-Quality-Engine/dp/B08M3JSWZX/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3VFHUIP0NF3CR&dchild=1&keywords=z9x+zidoo&qid=1619012727&sprefix=z9x%2Caps%2C237&sr=8-2

Yes correct, Just HDMI overlay.  It would be nice to see push notifications while I am watching a movie or TV.  Also could this include sports scores, Camera overlay if the Chime doorbell is activated. etc.?

Maybe a little off topic, but it brings up an interesting point or two.  
People are often debating if automation really saves us any time at all.....
For people in the household who never program, maintain, update/upgrade, etc   the system.   Yeah, it actually makes their life go a little faster / easier. For the person(s) who are responsible for the former, it is either    They are getting paid to do it (ie, your dealer).   So basically you are paying for convenience, which is exactly what you would expect.   (provided you have a good dealer and are happy with the result) It is a hobby you enjoy.  In this case you are converting time spent on boring repetitive stuff to time spent on tinkering with your HA system.  Not going to save you time, but does change HOW you spend it. So maybe a good decision flow chart would be:
     [Likes tinkering, Likes paying for help]   =>   Buy a C4 system.  Then buy a 3 other systems.  Constantly compare them on all the forums
     [Hates tinkering, Likes paying for help]  => Buy a C4 system.  Just be happy.
     [Likes tinkering, hates paying for help]  =>  Don't buy C4  (or maybe become a C4 dealer yourself).  Buy whatever gear catches your eye.  Enjoy making them work.
    [Hates tinkering, hates paying for help]  =>  Go back to re-posting stuff on Facebook.  Forget home automation, you will hate that too.  

FYI our Splash-tiles.com tool is very similar to Dakboard.
Except it has some nice C4 integration built in  (and is less expensive overall).
Runs on your Android TV / Fire OS devices   (you can also run on a pi if you like) Complete cloud control is actually included in the FREE version Free C4 driver with a lot of integration features Push data / control from C4 to your displays Transparent overlays & such Authenticated Camera support with popup Full WebGl graphics applications built in Personally I like Dakboard as well.  It was in part the inspiration for SplashTiles.  SplashTiles has much more of an automation focus
Also, it works really well with a touch screen bezel (touch control is designed into our app).  I have a 45" Samsung in my office with an Aliexpress touchscreen bezel attached (~$150).  It is awesome       I even put it on a rotating wall mount so I can spin it to landscape if needed (normally it is mounted portrait).

Yes, same as the current feature on Android.  You can send a command via our driver to pull up any of your screens for display (full screen).  Your screens can have any content (including data pushed from our driver).

I may have spoke too soon.    
   Overlay over HDMI     <=  looks like it could be done   Overlay over other applications    <=  definitely a firm NO  
How are you using your Samsung TVs?   Just using the HDMI input or are you using the apps on the TV?

This is a new feature of our splash-tiles.com tool.  
The live sports scores are free (subject to a reasonable use quota).   To get started with March madness scores, just add the "World Basketball" tile and set the League to NCAA.   Documentation for this tile:  https://splash-tiles.com/help/apibasketball.php
For C4 control, the driver is https://www.video-storm.com/downloads/npcloud.c4z
 
The score cards can be configured to automatically POP UP as overlays only when the scores you are filtering on change (and then automatically dismiss)

Thanks for the feedback.  If Android ever changes to allow us to remove the full screen launch on boot it will certainly be removed.
The only thing that ships with the IRUSB hardware is the card bundled with the device that says, "Video Storm LLC   IRUSB,  For setup instructions visit www.video-storm.com".  Physical instructions just aren't practical for this device.  Plus the online ones are always up to date.
Leaving the IRUSB device plugged into a Shield that DOESN'T have the IRUSB app on it:  Yeah, that isn't a good idea.  It isn't going to break anything though.  The "ghost key press" you observed is actually the device requesting our app, which it must do to ensure the app is always running even if the OS hits bugs or memory issues.
It is hard to anticipate everything users will do.  Funny story (ok, funny to me anyway):  Last week a customer called us to say his IRUSB stopped working.  After going through the basic questions, it turns out he had cut off the IR end of the device "because he doesn't use IR, only IP".  After I explained he just destroyed his device, he was upset that we didn't have a warning in our instructions not to do this.  I then asked him if he had read our instructions, and he said no because he doesn't have time for that. 
We do add things like this to our instructions / FAQs when several people encounter the same issue.  For IRUSB in particular, the most important "do not do" is "Don't use the Amazon ethernet adapter (for Fire stick)".  We put this all over the instructions, and yet 25% of the support tickets for fire stick are this issue.....

VideoStorm also provides direct access to the colored buttons, plus the ability to add commands for direct app access in case there is an app that doesn't have a Universal Mini Driver. 

Just got some Heattrak heated mats for walkway and patio. Got a kasa kp400 outdoor double outlet. Got chowmains openweather agent. Now if predicted snow or actual snow it will turn on the mats for 24hrs. Every 15 mins when app polls weather if still snow or rain w temp below 34F it will restart the timer. Can't wait to see how it goes!

We have verified a new 4Kp60 HDCP2.2 encoder by Kunuomagic.
Excellent performance and full 4Kp60 H265 encoding.
The latest updated list is at https://video-storm.com/proddetail.php?prod=netplayready

Awesome!
Given that it is Android, you could also run our SplashTiles app / tool to add live sports scores, stocks, or traffic maps.  Probably other ways to do it as well if it supports widgets.
 
 

Awesome!
Given that it is Android, you could also run our SplashTiles app / tool to add live sports scores, stocks, or traffic maps.  Probably other ways to do it as well if it supports widgets.
 
 

Awesome!
Given that it is Android, you could also run our SplashTiles app / tool to add live sports scores, stocks, or traffic maps.  Probably other ways to do it as well if it supports widgets.
 
 

Thought I would share a few pics of a new install I did changing out my Truck Radio and Controls with a 12.1 touchscreen.   The screen uses an Android based operating system and you can download most apps available for android to the device.   Downloading the C4 app was seamless and allows for full control while on wifi or wifi hotspot.   Also, does Carplay and has an HDMI input for use with a streaming device like Apple TV (shouldn't do while driving of course).   All of the trucks AC controls move to touchscreen as well.