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Composer 3.0


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@Elephant_Man I'd recommend you pick a different career path. You can make better money elsewhere. Also, respect the elders in your field of work. This is a very small world. You can't possibly understand this at 17. You just have to trust it.

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6 hours ago, ARDU said:

....and there is nothing wrong with wanting that.  Don't get me wrong, most people want to get the most out of the stuff they buy, me included.  Its when useful electronic lifespan meets latest and greatest software, then something has to give.  In the case of OS 3, it's C4's right to EOL their products even if they are still useful.   Humans will always see the cynical side as forcing customers to upgrade hardware to get the latest software.   There is probably truth on each side of the legacy hardware vs latest software argument, based on what has been said in last 18 pages of this thread....  In the end, it is still a business and seems this was a business decision.  You cannot make everyone happy all the time.  That is impossible.  You also don't have to upgrade and your existing system as it will still work, until eventual hardware failure forces the upgrade on you. 

I agree. There are many contradictory statement on this site -- I want better functionality but please have it work on 7 year old equipment. Hard to reconcile those two bits and I don't know how anyone can expect C4 to upgrade software and functionality, keep adding drivers to make sure many (many!) devices work in concert, and have it all function smoothly on a Pentium processor! IMO C4 is doing the right thing most of the time -- maintain a compelling user experience, keep it reasonably priced, keep it compatible, and keep response times short. So I'm going to be an outlier and say that while I'm as eager for increased functionality as any geek, I understand that evolving equipment and software takes time and money.

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42 minutes ago, penn65000 said:

I agree. There are many contradictory statement on this site -- I want better functionality but please have it work on 7 year old equipment. Hard to reconcile those two bits and I don't know how anyone can expect C4 to upgrade software and functionality, keep adding drivers to make sure many (many!) devices work in concert, and have it all function smoothly on a Pentium processor! IMO C4 is doing the right thing most of the time -- maintain a compelling user experience, keep it reasonably priced, keep it compatible, and keep response times short. So I'm going to be an outlier and say that while I'm as eager for increased functionality as any geek, I understand that evolving equipment and software takes time and money.

Sending IR/RS232/Audio/Relay/Zigbee signals shouldn't require updated hardware.  There is nothing revolutionary or evolutionary about that function and Control4 has already shown that OSD can be disabled.   

There are a lot of ways to make money but forcing your customers to replace equipment that adds nothing to the customer experience is disingenuous.  

 

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Sending IR/RS232/Audio/Relay/Zigbee signals shouldn't require updated hardware.  There is nothing revolutionary or evolutionary about that function and Control4 has already shown that OSD can be disabled.   
There are a lot of ways to make money but forcing your customers to replace equipment that adds nothing to the customer experience is disingenuous.  
 
We get it.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

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1 hour ago, chesterwilson said:

Sending IR/RS232/Audio/Relay/Zigbee signals shouldn't require updated hardware.  There is nothing revolutionary or evolutionary about that function and Control4 has already shown that OSD can be disabled.   

There are a lot of ways to make money but forcing your customers to replace equipment that adds nothing to the customer experience is disingenuous.  

 

Stating that “There is nothing revolutionary or evolutionary about that function” tells me that you have some in-depth knowledge about Control4 hardware and software that I’m not aware of.  I know that what C4 does may seem trivial and could easily be done on hardware as simple as a Raspberry PI but I assure you, it is not.

 

Having worked at Control4 for over a decade, I’ve been in many meetings where product managers are desperately trying to figure out how to NOT deprecate hardware.  Sometimes the problem is limited engineering resources and sometimes it is the result of hardware limitations that can’t be overcome.  

 

I can confidently tell you that the decision to deprecate hardware is never taken lightly and has never been done with the intent to sell something new and better.

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17 minutes ago, jakblak said:

Stating that “There is nothing revolutionary or evolutionary about that function” tells me that you have some in-depth knowledge about Control4 hardware and software that I’m not aware of.  I know that what C4 does may seem trivial and could easily be done on hardware as simple as a Raspberry PI but I assure you, it is not.

 

Having worked at Control4 for over a decade, I’ve been in many meetings where product managers are desperately trying to figure out how to NOT deprecate hardware.  Sometimes the problem is limited engineering resources and sometimes it is the result of hardware limitations that can’t be overcome.  

 

I can confidently tell you that the decision to deprecate hardware is never taken lightly and has never been done with the intent to sell something new and better.

I stand by my comment that there is nothing revolutionary or evolutionary about sending RS232/IR/Relay signals. The Control4 system as a whole is both revolutionary and evolutionary, sending basic signals by a slave controller, not so much.

I'm glad that Control4 does everything in its power to not deprecate hardware.  However, for whatever reasons some of which you have outlined, the HC250 is now useless beyond 2.10, 7 years after it was sold as a behind the TV I/O and OSD device.  So what next?  Buy an EA1 so it's EOL'ed in 4 years, again and again or just a buy a third party device that is less expensive and will perform the basic set of functions that people use the HC250 for?

As to your comment:

"tells me that you have some in-depth knowledge about Control4 hardware and software that I’m not aware of."

I have been a Control4 customer for nearly 8 years and have referred many other people to Control4.  A quick perusal of my posting history would have given you an idea of how much dumber I am then a Control4 engineer.

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7 hours ago, Gary Leeds UK said:

But going forward could limit the HC800 and any introduction of Siri or Apple Based Drivers in OS3.1/2

Just a Guess 

Probably a good guess.

If Apple integration isn't supported on the HC800 now, if there's additional Apple integration, it likely also won't be supported on the HC800.

Most other drivers likely wouldn't be an issue.

RyanE

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10 minutes ago, RyanE said:

Probably a good guess.

If Apple integration isn't supported on the HC800 now, if there's additional Apple integration, it likely also won't be supported on the HC800.

Most other drivers likely wouldn't be an issue.

RyanE

YES PLEASE to SIRI integration, now that is worth a controller upgrade.

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This thread is amazing  

My project has been running a 250 since the license shipped with it (5/2013?) I got one of the first ones. The only time it’s been off is because I moved, power went out longer than my backup lasted, or I manually reset it. I have not had ANY other tech device longer, expect my PS3 and NES. 6 years of flawless operation, upgrades and additions (adding labor to it with IP drivers and new proxy’s) 

NEVER HICCUPED ONCE

 

i have no reason to get rid of my 250.  I do, however happen to have a leftover EA1 which I may upgrade to this weekend.  

 

Long Live C4 (and my 10” T3!)

 

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4 minutes ago, msgreenf said:

It is in the dealer kb behind auth. I cannot post

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
 

ok,  folks have posted hardware conflicts and some driver comments so was figuring this wasn't privileged information.  Thanks for the response though.

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4 hours ago, chesterwilson said:

YES PLEASE to SIRI integration, now that is worth a controller upgrade.

I agree that'd be nice, but obviously can't comment on whether / when that could possibly happen, as Control4 doesn't pre-announce functionality or timelines for functionality.

RyanE

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ok,  folks have posted hardware conflicts and some driver comments so was figuring this wasn't privileged information.  Thanks for the response though.
Control4 as a company does not like to talk to the end user, it's usually all via the dealer.
Hence we don't get release notes, bug tracker and public betas.
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Not total true - Correct about the notes 
They amphasize its dealer based and the dealer is ur 1st point of contact - however if u shoot c4 an email they take care of it, but it's not their primary business practice :-)
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13 hours ago, chesterwilson said:

I stand by my comment that there is nothing revolutionary or evolutionary about sending RS232/IR/Relay signals. The Control4 system as a whole is both revolutionary and evolutionary, sending basic signals by a slave controller, not so much.

I'm glad that Control4 does everything in its power to not deprecate hardware.  However, for whatever reasons some of which you have outlined, the HC250 is now useless beyond 2.10, 7 years after it was sold as a behind the TV I/O and OSD device.  So what next?  Buy an EA1 so it's EOL'ed in 4 years, again and again or just a buy a third party device that is less expensive and will perform the basic set of functions that people use the HC250 for?

As to your comment:

"tells me that you have some in-depth knowledge about Control4 hardware and software that I’m not aware of."

I have been a Control4 customer for nearly 8 years and have referred many other people to Control4.  A quick perusal of my posting history would have given you an idea of how much dumber I am then a Control4 engineer.

C4 is offering a 15% discount on new hardware. I don't think paying $425 for an EA1 (or three) should be burdensome for a few years of functionality -- that said I suspect they'll be useful for 5-7 more years. Have you been to a hotel with 5 year old Crestron (or other hospitality-focused) equipment? The stuff is virtually unusable -- even to simply change TV channels and even at high end hotels! I'd say C4 does a much better job of integrating devices and keeping functionality robust and response times quick even  five years after the hardware has been launched..

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On 5/29/2019 at 8:50 PM, RyanE said:
  • Standardization of MSP driver parsing / business rules across UIs (much less likely to find an MSP bug in *only* iOS or *only* Android, etc.)

RyanE

:unsure: I have a bug with one of my drivers where search works on iOS & Android & T3s, but not on OSDs. The OSD literally crashes and restarts when I press the Search icon and there's no debug info in the LUA output :unsure:

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2 minutes ago, Drake0508 said:

Can you just load Google Play store and do it now? Or does the Amazon version of the app have any benefit?

Doubt there's any benefit other than that I've been away from the house for the past couple of days and you can probably guess the response from my wife if I ask her to side-load the Google Play store on there. :)

I'll go that route when I'm back home this weekend if nothing is out. 

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On 5/30/2019 at 9:56 AM, RyanE said:

It's *very* unusual for a DriverWorks driver to be controller/platform-specific.  The Apple Bridge driver (and the new AppleTV drivers for the same reason) is only available on the EA series controllers due to an OS incompatibility on the HC800, which causes the HC800 to be unable to run the apple daemon, which the bridge driver uses for Apple connectivity.

RyanE

OK, I'm curious now.  I'm running the Varietas homebridge appliance with the Control4 driver.  I had thought that the references in this topic to the Apple Bridge Driver were references to Varietas.  Can someone explain what the Apple Bridge Driver is for me?  Also, does anyone know if the Varietas applliance (Raspberry Pi) and the Varietas driver have any issues under 3.0?

Thanks,

David
 

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