WholeHomeControl

Depending on the specific drivers used, you might be able to set the power management to "use macros" and then put delays in the On macro.

Suppose you want a keypad button in Control4 that turns on your bathroom light and starts playing a news update on your Echo. You cannot do the second part of this scenario within C4; you need C4 to tell Alexa to do that thing.

The Alexa driver lets you have Alexa activate C4 programming. However, what about if you wanted C4 to activate an Alexa routine? That's where the virtual buttons come in.

There is no difference. Actually, the term “balun” is not technically correct, as it implies a conversion from a balanced to unbalanced signal, which does not happen with HDMI extenders. However, it is very common to use the term balun when referring to extenders.

If you’ve been having reliability issues, try AV Pro HDMI extenders. They are pricey, but seem to be the most reliable performers on the market.

Unless I misunderstand, the Echo Dot and other no control drivers still present the transport/remote screen in Navigator.

I don't believe this is quite right. If you are watching a video source and then switch to music, the video selection change event will trigger and cause the keypad LEDs to turn off, which is not what you want. I suggest installing the Room control driver and using the event "Entered Watch Mode".

If the alarm system has a Control4 driver - and there are many that do - then you can control and monitor the alarm system through Control4 (via the GUI and/or programmatically.)

Are both your Satellite and DVD directly connected to your TV? Is there an AVR or soundbar involved? Was everything work find for a while and then suddenly stopped working? When did the DVD volume last work? Any changes made to your system since then?

The Control4 amps are dumb (ie there is no communication with the amp through drivers.) Any system design that uses a C4 amp (not to be confused with a matrix amp) can instead use any other dumb amp with RCA inputs and suitable specs to drive your speakers.

The HC-800 is no longer available (unless you purchase one used.) In the new controller lineup, you would want to look at the EA-3 or EA-5. What version of Director are you running? The latest version (3.1.3) does not support the HC-250. If you can describe your current system and upgrade goals, you can gather guidance on your upgrade options

For the AVR, if your dealer likes Denon then it would be good to stay where they’re comfortable. I don’t sell Denon (I lean to Sony for AVRs), but for what you describe I would look at the X1600H (or perhaps the X2600H for the better video processing/options.) I’m just thinking that you don’t need any more channels/zones; you don’t need the extra HDMI output; and you don’t need lots of power, etc, for a room with lousy acoustics. So, why trade up from there? Maybe ask your dealer what you’d be missing with that model.

Just to be sure, if I understand correctly, you already have the AVRX4500. If not, you could certainly go with a more modest unit to save some bucks.

Read above my statement in the response I was quoting. The proposed configuration I was was responding to involved a single connection from the Triad. If you read my whole post, the only thing you actually are disagreeing with is my statement that it may not work reliably with two separate feeds. I've avoided implementing things this way so cannot say from experience that it would be unreliable. However, I can say that the AV pathing functions, though much improved in the 3.x redo, have been a bit of a weak link in the system. So, I would advise against pushing things this way. It's a form of double matrixing (even with the path setter driver.)

The explanation was this: if you have a single connection from the Triad to the Denon, then you cannot simultaneously play two separate sources through the Triad to the two zones connected to the Denon. This is categorically true. It's just simple physics!

What, exactly, isn't true at all? Are you referring to the entire post or the last sentence?

Thanks, could you compare this architecture for Siri integration to the Varietas driver that uses HomeBridge? Are there any advantages/disadvantages in comparison?

There is one minor limitation here that may not impact you practically, but you should be aware. Generally, every zone connected through the Triad matrix has the ability to play its own separate source. That is, zone A can listen to source X, zone B can listen to source Y, etc. However, the two zones fed through the Denon will not be able to play separate sources from the Triad simultaneously. That is, if you are playing source X (via the Triad) in the Denon's main zone, you cannot play source Y (via the Triad) in the Denon's zone 2. This is for the simple reason that you have only one physical path from the Triad to the Denon. If the receiver has two analog audio inputs, you could in theory run two connections from the Triad to the receiver to overcome this limitation. However, this is seldom done in practice and may not work reliably.

I am particularly interested in the Siri/HomeKit integration. How can I get more information about what’s required to get this setup (ie parts and process?) Does this integration rely on HomeBridge?

Yup, I get nothing but 2 channel from YouTube via Apple TV.

Sorry, I reread your first post and see that clearly your optical is carrying Dolby. I've had trouble getting Dolby from YouTube on my setup as well (Apple TV direct to receiver.) Let me recheck exactly what I get from YouTube.

There are several settings in Composer that control LED behavior. There is the “On Color”/“Off Color” setting, and there is the “LEDs Follow Load.” Try playing around with those settings. You can also try to recommission the device; factory reset the device; or delete and readd driver.

Some TVs only support PCM through optical out when passing through an HDMI source. Another possibility is that your TV’s optical out is configured to send PCM in your TV’s audio settings. What model TV do you have?

Woah, I would not have guessed the problem was a failure of the EA-3 relay to completely break the circuit. Perhaps installing a resister in-line (anywhere in the circuit) would make the difference.

Don’t forget all the other factors that will impact clarity of dialog: speaker selection, speaker position, room acoustics, etc.