Dr Shafty

Eggz the only other dealer is the one that did my last house. 

You're right, relying on someone new to a particular technology is risky. The new guy is someone I've known from other walks of life, I've seen his work with Crestron and its impeccable. 

I'm going in eyes open and fingers crossed..

16 hours ago, zaphod said:

The OP was talking about glichy video - maybe he had HDCP handshake issues with his matrix?

Don't know if it was a handshake issue. Most of the video issues involved mismatched rooms/audio/video, ie selecting a video source in one room and having the audio come on in another. This was maddening and persisted through 8 years of ownership and multiple efforts by the installer/integrator to de bug. Which by the way they never rewrote the original code so.. 

49 minutes ago, lippavisual said:

Netplay is AV over IP, so if all sources are centrally racked, AVoIP will add delay for the encoding and decoding process.

Audio delay built-in helps with tuning the audio and video sync. 

Understood.

My installer is Crestron certified; only recently has begun retailing and installing Control4. How steep is the learning curve for Netplay integration?

As previously noted my last home was all Control4; I believe now that the issues I had with the system were primarily due to shoddy initial coding

14 minutes ago, eggzlot said:

Sure will work with those items.  But make sure you are spec’ing a video storm audio matrix or another audio matrix with audio delay.  Don’t think triad matrix has audio delay 

Id also steer clear of the shineco units.  I’ve had one and it is a glitchy nightmare.  The older vtx100 are fine. And there is a new 4k hdcp 2.2 device but I haven’t used it.  The vrx040 should be rock steady.  For clean integration use as many Sony TVs - can use the Netplay app built in and you only need Ethernet for the tv to control the tv and netplay - no IR, no hdmi cables etc.  though if you have a local avr you could do audio off the tv to the avr so would require a second cable.  I hate Hdmi cables so as few in the chain is better if you ask me 

to clarify; my last system had an 8 zone audio matrix, and an 8 zone amplifier, both Control4. The Netplay video solution causes some issue with sync? and that the audio matrix needs a compensation. And that the Triad is not accordingly suitable.

If I understand your reply you'd use the Control4 EA5 or similar for backbone, but for the rest of the system use Video Storm components?

8 minutes ago, eggzlot said:

The biggest factor with centralized systems is ability to sync video and audio to various zones.  Streaming boxes per tv are cheaper and sure can be hidden easily but you can not sync the video between several TVs. 

so if you have used centralized and like it - stick with it

i have video storm.  Any specific questions?

Just how well it integrates with the EA5, and the Triad TS-PAMP8-100

My primary issue with my prior Control4 install was glitchy video.

45 minutes ago, RAV said:

Why do you want centralized?
With so much streaming today and cheap little boxes per TV. What's your desire?
Centralized support, still using cable boxes but have lots of TVs, party events wanting one station/source on a bunch of TVs, expensive sources like Kaleidescape?

Not saying centralized/matrix/MOIP is wrong, but it's less and less common now, start with your layout and goals.

Then based on those goals will help decide which transport medium to use; HDMI, HDbaseT, NetPlay, MOIP, etc.

Sorry I didn't read this completely.

I like a completely uncluttered wall. Also, having a single remote device is great. When playing a video source, having the audio playing through the built in 5.1 speakers is also essential

We have a large closet set aside for AV rack, pulling CAT6 to every room.

Centralized is definitely what we like and want. Our experience with a full Control4 rack was mixed. That said it was 10 years ago, I'm sure things have improved a bunch.

The most annoying aspect of our previous install was the glitchy video matrix. Most of the time it worked ok, from time to time we'd get ghosts that were really hard to exorcise.

We have planned distributed audio to 8 locations, distributed video to 4. Various other Control4 applications including lighting, HVAC, and security.

Just trying to decide whether to spend ~$8k on a video matrix, or trying out a software based distribution.

Been discussed elsewhere, but we are starting construction on our new home and need to make a decision on where to spend our $$.

Our last home (10 years ago) we built with full Control4 install, it was buggy and we never were really happy with it. Our new home will have a Control4 backbone, but our prior experience with Control4 video matrix issues has led me to seek alternatives.

Everything I've read about Netplay video distribution is compelling. thoughts, advice?