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Control 4 or Crestron question about remote programming

This confused me as well.

There are two "versions" (for lack of a better term) of Co-Star: A software solution, and a software/hardware solution.

The software solution: The Kaleidescape provides a unified interface. (At least on Crestron: The Kaleidescape-provided module provides hooks so you can tell which player is playing the movie. Using this hook, you can tell the Crestron to decide what input to switch to in order to see the movie for NVX or DM switching hardware.)

The software/hardware solution: The Kaleidescape provides the same unified interface. But there's a small hardware box where you plug both players into the Co-Star hardware, and then the output has the proper output. This is controlled, I believe, because the Kaleidescape system turns off the HDMI output on the player that isn't active, and the Co-Star switch just picks the "active" connection.

It turns out that this switch isn't compatible with the newer NVX switcher, but it does work with the older DM switcher.

If your Kaleidescape interface on Control4 can tell you which player is active, you should be able to do switching yourself, just like @Bauer89 is doing with his receiver (in Crestron land).
 
If someone already owns the hardware, but wants to switch to the software version, is there any documentation on how to do that on the K side? I'm not talking about the control system side, but can one simply unplug the Co-Star, connect the KPlayers to an AVR and not need to change anything within K?

If someone owns both an Alto and Strato, but does not currently own a Co-Star, can the software side be enabled within the KPlayer GUIs, or does something need to be purchased?
 
@livitup The software solution is "always" there (unified movie lists, and the Strato player can select any movie to play).

The Co-Star hardware gives you a mechanism to switch inputs trivially (hook it up and you're done).

If you can switch inputs via another mechanism (like the Kaleidescape module telling you what you what player is active so you can control a digital switcher), then you don't need the Co-Star hardware.

That's the current state of the world, anyway. In the past, when the hardware switcher was first introduced, the Kaleidescape module didn't give you signals to tell you which player was "active". Now it does, which eliminates the need for the hardware switch in certain environments.

When I moved to NVX, I needed a newer version of the Kaleidescape module in order to get those signals to control the NVX card.

If you have an AVR receiver, and both players are going to that receiver, you need some way to switch inputs. The Co-Star hardware is one way. A bit of software to tell your AVR which input to use is another way. But one way or another, you need to pick the proper player unless you have the Co-Star hardware to do that for you.
 
@Jeff,

Thanks for that info. I never realized that the software was baked into the KPlayers - I always assumed the Co-star was a necessary ingredient. I'm going to check with @alanchow and see if his Control4 driver for K will do this.

Thanks again!
 
Currently, the only supported configurations for Co-Star are:
1. The Kaleidescape Co-Star switch (Strato and M-Class player connected to the Kaleidescape Co-Star HDMI switcher);
2. Kaleidescape Co-Star for Lumagen (Strato and M-Class player connected to a Lumagen Radiance Pro); and
3. Kaleidescape Co-Star for Crestron (Strato and M-Class player connected to one or more Crestron NVX switcher(s)).
 
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