eggzlot

Just leave your cell phone - @msgreenfwill call you directly 🙂

Would love a FAQ/BEST Practices section that newbies could be directed to, rather than rehash it each time.
Dedicated threads or guides for things like MyQ, AppleTV, 4sight, composer, etc.

Great stuff
I’d like to see a larger forum to foster a better community - less verbal attacks, etc.  To help, some other successful forums I participate with offer sub forums totally off topic like sub forums on things you are cooking, home renovation tips (non c4 related), travel tips/advice, sports talk, etc.  Helps forum members get to know each other a bit more and in general makes the forums less hostile.  Not that this is a very hostile forum but we all know we get our flare ups from time to time.

which is only available with Composer Pro, not Composer  Home Edition 
Just an FYI to the original poster

The usual answers to these are:
1) There are a lot of dealers on these forums that will make changes for homeowners who have equipment installed (or will install the equipment themselves).  Most have pretty good reputations for following up within a reasonable time, and charging reasonable rates.
2) You can purchase ComposerHE (Homeowner's Edition) to make many programming changes.  It does nearly everything that ComposerPro will do, with the exceptions of: you can't add new device drivers, you can't make bindings between device drivers, and and a handful of other things that are rarely used.  If an online dealer does those things for you, ComposerHE can do the rest.
RyanE

Well @dinom when a mommy T4 and a daddy T4  love each other very much...

I just wanted to share my experience with YoLink products and Control4 for anyone that may be interested in quick/easy/cheap integration without having to set an appointment with a dealer. I have a really good Control4 dealer but many times I have found myself wanting a new door or motion sensor etc. and I don't want to call them out just for that.
Since I had been working with the Chowmain IFTTT driver, I started looking on Amazon for sensors etc. that connect with IFTTT and came across the YoLink brand. They have door sensors, gate sensors, motion sensors, water leak detectors, temp/moisture monitors, electrical outlets, etc. They even have a water valve. They were very inexpensive so I figured why not give it a shot. 
I have been really surprised at how well these things work and with very little delay as compared to the ones that are directly integrated with Control4. I now have 15-20 of their devices within our system and am about to start using their outdoor motion detectors as well. I would highly recommend considering them with your Control4 integration.
I would like to be clear that these aren't going to be as fast as the ones that are directly integrated so you wouldn't want to use them for things that are ultra time sensitive (e.g. motion detectors to turn on lights when waling in a room). However, they are fantastic for gate notifications, "door still ajar" type alerts (e.g. attic door), mailbox open detection, leak monitoring, etc.
I searched the forums and didn't see any reference to YoLink and that is why I decided to post. I hope this will be helpful for users that are in a situation like I am that like to do things yourself and aren't very patient.

Got my wife an analog heated blanket for the bedroom. Used a Kasa outlet switch I had lying around and programmed it to turn on every night at 8pm as long as house isn't set to vacation. She's a very happy wife right now. 

Nope.
i gave them a product that works, has a 10 year warranty and does what the client needed ( decode Dolby and DTS).
Your $60 doodad certainly does not do that.
My product costs more because, you know, they have to pay license fees.
And if you really want to know, I made 5 points on the product and was also given a cash tip.
You can point your finger at others all you want, I don’t care, but just know that most here see right through your BS!

Either or
can change dealers - let them sell you HE - then change back
or let him finish then switch
you can change your dealer daily if you want
personally if the install is going well and this is the sole hiccup I’d let them finish and then buy HE after the fact.  

If you have a dealer who doesn’t know where to access HE you need to fire them… They clearly are not knowledgeable about basic things with the brand

I am in the camp of BI
You can get a used Dell Business PC for $400 or less that is likely well suited to run BI (and Composer Home Edition for someone like me who is mostly on a Mac).
You can use 1,000's of cameras.
You can integrate into C4 for free, or via a paid driver for more features
Their app is easy to use to get live feeds or recorded clips (it is a paid app per device, not per BI Account so be aware it can add up quickly)
I've had an Asus computer running for years with a 6TB Hard Drive running BI and it has been fine.  Now grant it I've now jinxed it so I'll be looking for a new PC but in all seriousness the computer has been up and running 24x7 for 5-6 years without a hiccup.  I have a script on there so when I lose power the PC will boot up and BI will launch automatically so I don't have to worry about power outages, etc.
It just plain old works and I am using cameras from 4 different manufactures around my house but they are all ONVIF work and flawlessly in BI.

A dealer can sell you PC based software called composer home edition. It is different than composer pro that the dealer uses
you can do 95% of the programming your dealer can do - but you cannot bind hardware and you cannot add hardware
its $149 one time fee and it comes with 1 year if 4sight which is $99 so really it’s like $50

I mean from what I read large companies like Venmo, DoorDash, Roku, Southwest, Toyota, Spotify and Banks all had issues yesterday - so it is not just C4 of their lack of architectural planning and design.  Heck even Amazon had to stop a few warehouse/processing facilities.  Is it annoying sure it is but those companies likely have way more money invested in talent to design their systems and they all went down too.

I mean from what I read large companies like Venmo, DoorDash, Roku, Southwest, Toyota, Spotify and Banks all had issues yesterday - so it is not just C4 of their lack of architectural planning and design.  Heck even Amazon had to stop a few warehouse/processing facilities.  Is it annoying sure it is but those companies likely have way more money invested in talent to design their systems and they all went down too.

I mean from what I read large companies like Venmo, DoorDash, Roku, Southwest, Toyota, Spotify and Banks all had issues yesterday - so it is not just C4 of their lack of architectural planning and design.  Heck even Amazon had to stop a few warehouse/processing facilities.  Is it annoying sure it is but those companies likely have way more money invested in talent to design their systems and they all went down too.

I mean from what I read large companies like Venmo, DoorDash, Roku, Southwest, Toyota, Spotify and Banks all had issues yesterday - so it is not just C4 of their lack of architectural planning and design.  Heck even Amazon had to stop a few warehouse/processing facilities.  Is it annoying sure it is but those companies likely have way more money invested in talent to design their systems and they all went down too.

For audio:
single tap of the button cycles the auto preset room control driver to pick 1 of 5 pre sets.  If a stream is already playing, a single press will skip to the next of the 5 presets.  
double tap mutes the stream
triple tap turns it off
I use the up/down arrows for audio volume control
When there are lights on the same keypad my dealer bound the load to that button so I can press/hold to ramp the lights up/down freeing up the arrows just for audio control
 
for a few rooms that are highly used I have some additional logic - if the room is off and music button is single pressed pick its own preset, if room is off and double press is selected, join to Room X.  I only did this for rooms that are close to each other where may move back and forth like kitchen/dining room and bedroom/bathroom/walk in closet in the master suite.  Otherwise if I want to join to an already playing stream I'll use my phone or c4 touchscreen.

problem is given their lower sales volume than other Android boxes and the dealer mark ups it will never be price competitive.  If you are installing a "high end luxury" system then sell that, not an Android flashed rebranded box. 
Just my $.02

The Roku API is public, so there's not really much more a paid driver *could* do vs. the Control4 driver.
RyanE

Maybe. Maybe that is why I can buy tp link kasa open box items for $10

A good savant dealer will make a better savant install compared to a bad C4 dealer who will put together a poor C4 system.   The opposite is true as well a bad Savant dealer will put together a crummy system and a good C4 dealer can put together a good system
i only have 2 degrees though so maybe I am wrong. 

aligned with that... Basically a bad dealer can screw any system up!

good grief!   Have had similar experiences and did some testing since the DS2 is just a rebranded 2N door station.
Rang Doorbell 12 times approximately 1 hour apart from each other  6 Times was to test with C4 and 6 times to test with Josh Had my phone with me at all times with the most recent C4 iOS update and current Josh.ai app version.  Have Josh notifications and C4 notifications turned on.   Have Josh Micros set to give audible announcement that someone is at front door when bell rings The results were: Control4 app 2 out of 6 times the C4 app launched the notification and allowed me to answer Of the 2 times 1 time the screen stayed blank for over 30 seconds before finally showing image 4 out of 6 times the app did nothing, no notification no launching of the app Josh.ai app 6 out of 6 times I received the notification 6 out of 6 times it gave the audible command to thru the Micros of someone at the front door 4 out of 6 times it loaded the image after pushing the notification within 3 seconds.  The other two were between 6 and 10 seconds From that rudimentary test it provided me with enough detail to take back to the dealer.  We've submitted requests to Snap/C4 a few times and no one responds.   We know it's not the lag based upon hardware since I'm running both a EA-5 and CA-10 and have no throughput issues on other wired devices in the home. This is further verified when comparing it to Josh app.  I The only downside to the Josh app at present is it doesn't allow me to do an intercom interface for speaking to them or a macro to unlock/lock the door.  
From this test it's evident the problem is with the C4 app itself and its inconsistency or ineffective programming and testing before releasing.

there is no range with Blue Iris.  It is software that runs 24x7 on your PC.  There are many threads on other forums that show the specs needed, but a ~$300 refurbished Dell PC is usually more than sufficient for a set up with 4-6 cameras.  Since it is ONVIF Compatible you can literally use 1,000's of IP cameras.
If you want cheap Wifi look at Foscam or Amcrest.  Most even have built in SD storage.  Even with wifi you still need to give them power so at that point if you can get ethernet its better to do PoE for the more reliable network connection