Jfizzle

Fwiw you can set up monitoring with https://www.alarmclub.com/ for like $10 a month. And you just program it yourself, no installer  

For me, I chose to have it monitored to get the homeowners insurance deduction for having monitoring. 
 

I also have it through c4 panel but sometimes my wires the cars that sits between the alarm panel and the c4 panel get jacked up and I lose c4 control over it. 

Come in when the building crew leaves and install your own conduit runs.

14 hours ago, Jakelay said:

Thanks for all of the feedback! I may not have a choice but to switch (no satellite dishes at the new place - it’s legally possible to fight but I don’t want to) so I’m thinking about Xfinity with extra boxes and extra charges or just going with streaming. I don’t like the lack of direct channel access either but we barely watch TV anyway, we mostly stream everything so why not give this a try? We might see how it works for a month or so and see how we like it. No free trial any longer but at least there is no contract.

Thanks again - other thoughts welcome!

We cut Xfinity Tv last year and replaced with Hulu/Disney+/ESPN bundle via 4K AppleTVs behind each TV and have been pleased.
 

We kept the Xfinity internet and upgraded to the highest data plan.

The direct connection to each appletv and direct Ethernet connections are great. Dropping the Xfinity boxes saves $$ and hassle from having all the Xfinity boxes in the rack and relying on distributed video.

The standard c4 remote is OK. Being able to use the TVs remote itself opens up voice search which is nice. 
 

I’d suggest try the streaming option first before trying the Xfinity boxes option. 

As I mentioned above, the US Copyright Office was looking at this issue and has now issued updated rules relating to Right to Repair and did so as exemptions to the DMCA anti-circumvention provisions.

https://www.natlawreview.com/article/us-copyright-office-expands-rights-to-repair-software-enabled-devices

No it’s not going to entitle you to obtain manufacturer software. The state laws are probably preempted by the federal DMCA for stuff we care about in this forum. FTC is looking at right to repair now in this sense. When it goes through at federal level it probably does so in the form of an exemption under the DMCA from liability for circumventing access controls or using a third party software to, for instance, get into c4 or John Deere software. And exempt people from reverse engineering it to be able to make their own type or compose pro. And probably prohibit c4 and others from locking stuff down in certain ways. 
 

I can’t imagine anything compelling manufacturers to give out software or turn over source code or things like that. 

Can you say Alexa, set volume to X. And figure out ahead of time what your favored numbers are. 

Last night all my thermostats randomly adjusted and lights changed settings. 

This morning I realized mysterious schedules had appeared in my Thermostat settings for all days of the week.

Any ideas how this could have happened? There were some power flickers last week, none today, that turned the equipment off so perhaps somethings got reset but I've never experienced this before. Password to log into my c4 is long and complex.

3 hours ago, eggzlot said:

Also make sure they were manufactured around the same time.  They made some hardware adjustments in 2017 and backlighting was impacted

Thanks everyone, I’ll have someone remote in and check my settings / profiles. My switches were installed in 2014 so if there’s a hardware limitation it is what it is. I ordered the engraved covers in 2021 (I move slowly…) and can see these have the darker colored sensor cover fwiw. 

I have engraved light switches. The brightness seems to vary across some of them. Sometimes it is noticeable with separate switches on the same wall one will be a nice bright readable blue and the one next to it not so much. Is there a best-practice for dialing in the brightness level?  

I suspect the differences are related to the individual switches auto-adjusting brightness level rather than this being a manufacturing defect in the engravings, although I have searched the forums and found various posts related to that being an issue for some people. 

Yes. I had @Matt Loweprogram a few switches to turn on ceiling speakers or outside speakers and tune to a specific audio source and channel with a double tap. Some other switches are programmed to turn all lights in the house off or all lights on with a triple tap. 

On 12/17/2020 at 7:03 AM, C4 User said:

You have that backwards. He is saying the Apple TV price difference didn’t matter to him.

Correct!

I cut the cable cord and use Apple TV 4ks at all the TVs. I use the Apple TV’s to launch Netflix, Hulu etc apps instead of the native apps built into the TV. I have hundreds of movies and songs in iTunes. FWIW I think it is easier for my wife and kids to navigate through the Apple TV’s with the C4 remote than to connect other devices and go back and forth. I like the consistency. The price differential didn’t really matter to me, we’ve got iPhones and iPads and going with Apple TV’s made sense. 
 

On another note I guess I need to unload my c4 8x8 video matrix, IO extender, and baluns now. 

I have a Luma 510 DVR (LUMA-510-DVR-8CH-OT) with 5 wired cameras. I'd like to add two cameras to my garages without running wires back to the 510, is this possible? Are there wifi cameras that can integrates?

I have two wifi Logitech Circle 2s in my garages right now, Ring doorbell on the front. Looking to consolidate down to one interface. I suppose other option is to add two Ring wifi cameras for the garages and just call it a day.

3 hours ago, jfh said:

The problem appears to be related to the recent 510 firmware and an issue with the camera driver’s authentication.  Here are my notes after a support call this morning  I still have a minor issue in the iOS ap with an old Wirepath camera and haven’t verified that the Android ap displays the cameras but I get my live feeds on T3s faster than ever.

 

In a nutshell the extreme delay on the 710s was because the Third Substream was not active and C4 would go to mpeg after multiple attempts at H.264 and the latest firmware changed how the streams were served (I don’t really understand those details).

On the 710 we changed:
System Settings/Hardware settings - checked enable third stream.  This requires the camera to reboot.
Video/Audio - Change the main stream to H.264 video encoding and H.264+ to off.  Third stream is now selectable and video encoding is H.264.  

Also changed a bitrate setting down from the camera default to 8192.

Then In Composer properties for each driver change authentication type from Basic to Digest.  Then go to Camera Test, get the H.264 URL and run test.   If it gets past “Calculating frame rate”, all is good.   (This is the step where he originally thought there was a firmware issue but coworker said try changing to digest).

Verify in Advanced Properties that Stream type was Third Stream and Connection method was LUMA NVR (they were).

The cameras now pop in in 1-2 seconds, which is the best it’s ever been.

Brilliant, thank you! I had some issue, I could see all the cameras tiled on the C4 GUI but when zooming into an individual camera it would hang on the circle of death. I'm on a Mac but was able to use the Luma VMS for Mac app and go into each camera and change it from H.265 to H.264 and set bitrate to 8192 and now everything works as you describe. I did not need to do anything in Composer, fwiw.

Thanks again for sharing.

You have summoned Cthulhu and all is lost. 

I had a similar issue when we installed it and it turns out to be the power supply box for the cameras that was next to the dvr. The plug was a bit loose and if it wasn’t pushed up against the side of the cabinet to create some tension it would beep. Crappy project box by my installer. 

If you have an under cabinet rack you can add rack fans, I've had these mid-atlantic ones for 6 years and they're still working good. I cut out the center panels of the cabinet doors and replaced with speaker grill painted flat black to vent the air out.

It's not super noticeable next to the regular cabinet doors.

FWIW, I just ripped out my video matrix and went with an Apple TV 4k at every major TV. I got rid of all Cable STBs and went with Hulu, Netflix and Prime Video as apps on all the AppleTVs. A 4k matrix can be upwards of $10k so I think the cost savings + easy of use at each TV is better than this way.

If you go with an EA controller you do not need the wireless music bridge. I just took a wireless music bridge out of my system because I switched to EAs.

If you think you might do cameras later, go walk around your house and pick spots in the eaves where you might want to see a camera and run some more Cat6 there so you aren't trying to do it later when the insulation is all in.  If I were doing my cameras again I'd have added two more spots, basically wanting coverage wide front, wide back, driveway, front door, front yard, and the ones I didn't think about were the access gates into the backyard.

Since you're pre-electric install, if you plan on doing a whole home generator later, or an interlocking kit or power transfer switch for a portable since those would go near the main panel anyway.

Good luck with the new construction, it sounds exciting!

Wild guess here but I see suggestions on here from time to time to make sure HDMI-CEC is turned off. On the Samsung it might still be called Anynet+. If an AVR is involved you may need to turn CEC off on the AVR as well. I see above you double checked on the TVs but I've seen threads where it mysteriously came back on like the below:

Good luck.

On 7/31/2020 at 1:56 PM, mastor said:

Interesting, so you switched from the web interface to the standalone app?  I may have look at that VMS again.  I think I tried that at one point but could not get it to add my NVR or something.  My first impression of the VMS software was it was unwieldy an counter-intuitive but maybe it has improved.

Yes, for changing the NVR configuration, drawing zones, etc.  I still have a LUMA app on my iPhone and iPad for just viewing the cameras and playing back remotely or I can go through c4 app for live view-only. The iOS app is version 4.6.0 build 20190814. 

@mastor I have a Mac running Catalina 10.15.6 and this Luma VMS for Mac program works for me (I think this is the right link. The version is 2.0.0.10 and the build is 20191107):

 https://www.snapav.com/wcsstore/ExtendedSitesCatalogAssetStore/attachments/documents/Surveillance/SoftwareAndFirmware/LumaVMSReleaseNotes.pdf

9 hours ago, chudel said:

How do you figure? The bits are being exchanged at 2.4 or 5Ghz, so 20 or 40 feet shouldn't make a difference?

Just my home experience hence the YMMV comment. My office is next to the front door and when I had an AP in it, ring would quickly snap to live, allow me to talk on the microphone, etc. 

Since then I have relocated the AP to various distances and any further away than in my office, the live connectivity has sucked. Spinning circles, delays, etc. The sweet spot in my experimentation was within about 20 feet, so in my office or in the dining room area. If it had to connect to living room or to an upstairs AP it was slow getting into live and working within live. 
 

YMMV but IMO, the Ring needs an AP within 20 feet (and not the Chime) or the lag will make it suck for live interaction. And nest sucks. 

@Sooner Congrats! I also just got a UDM-Pro and my kids are also big streamers and xbox users so I'm looking forward to dialing it in, if you have any tips or tricks let me know!

Thanks @ejn1I was just googling for RJ45 to SFP adapters lol.