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.

12 hours ago, jfh said:

Confused.  If I already have an Alexa driver (native or Epic Systems) why would I want the virtual push button service when I can already have Alexa activate C4 programming?  This seems like an unnecessary (and potentially costly) add on.  

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.

1 minute ago, DLite said:

Thanks a lot. Is there a difference between an HDMI Extender and a balun?


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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. 

On 6/8/2020 at 9:23 PM, DLite said:

OMG, I wish I had gotten that advice 3 years ago, when we were doing our remodel!  Dealing with baluns has been a huge pain.

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. 

2 hours ago, msgreenf said:

There is an echo dot driver that shows the icon. These are called no control drivers. There are bunch in composer

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

5 hours ago, mujtaba.khokhar said:

 

When video selection changes 

         Set LED on Keypad to off colour 

 

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".

12 hours ago, turtle2472 said:

How does Control4 handle an actual alarm system?  Every time I check out security all I see are cameras.  What about actual monitored alarm systems?

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. 

1 hour ago, storm7 said:

As someone to to C4, this is good info.

I have 2 HC-250 controllers. One is master. If I upgrade to HC800, is it easy to replace the HC250 with 800?

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.

34 minutes ago, HRT said:

Sure that is pretty simple, but you said However, the two zones fed through the Denon will not be able to play separate sources from the Triad simultaneously.

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.)

3 minutes ago, HRT said:

Mainly the sentence in bold, but more your explanation of it not working. Personally I would never set a system up that way but it does work. Even when the didn't have the ability to make it work, you could use a separate zone 2 driver  to alleviate the path issues (lots of our old jobs from the mid 2000's used zone 2's and 3's for entry level condo systems)

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!

4 minutes ago, HRT said:

This isn't true at all.

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?

16 hours ago, Jakelay said:

Regarding the connections - I figured we would run a 2 channel AV out from the Triad 24x24 matrix and run it into one of the RCA inputs (CD Player for example) and use that as the source.  Then just use the extra 2 speaker connectors on the Denon directly to the speakers in that zone and select that source (i.e. CD) to power those speakers.  In my mind (which is where I may be wrong) I would think that the audio matrix feeding into that input source would allow me to listen to whatever is going through the matrix and the installer would just program that zone to work off of that amp with the matrixed source going into it.

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.