Looking at the following setup to stream 1080p to all TVs in my household.
WD Livewire [two sets for 3 TVs]
WD MyBook NAS [3TB]
WD TV Live [3 Players at each TV]
Thanks.
-Todd
The Livewire is a nice unit, but it transfers data at 200mbps. There are newer 500mbps units around now that cost near the same, and they give you some much needed headroom. There can be quite a bit of loss in the house wiring.
What you need to know is the bitrate of your videos, not their resolution. You can encode 1080p resolution videos at a wide range of bitrates depending on the quality you want (Google “1080p minimum bitrate” to find some discussions about resolution and bitrate). Videos sourced from bluray discs can be over 40Mbps. I was unable to reliably stream such videos using either wifi-n or “500Mbps” Dlink powerline units, even with both supposedly receiving near maximum signal strength. DVD sourced video is more like 10Mbps, and that streamed fine.
I was able to achieve higher throughput with the powerline units than the wifi, but I also lucked out with the two wall plugs I wanted to use. The performance of the powerline units depends on many aspects of your home wiring, so you may achieve VASTLY less throughput than you expect. I tried another wall plug for one end–at the far end of the house–and was not able to even reliably stream audio. While it might seem like a “500Mbps” networking technology should have not the slightest problem handling 40Mbps video, that is not the case. 500Mbps refers to maximum physical layer signaling rate, not minimum/typical effective data throughput rate. While this is standard, it is fairly useless for consumers who only care about data throughput. Note also that if you intend to be able to watch video simultaneously on two TVs, your bandwidth per stream will generally be even less than half of your single stream rate.
Since I wanted to be able to stream bluray quality video, I was finally motivated to figure out how to run Gigabit Ethernet to most of the house. While that was a bit of a pain, it is simply wonderful to have completely reliable, fast video and audio streaming throughout the house–to say nothing of much faster Internet upstairs now.
Quote “Will This Work”
define work, will it connect, yes
will it stream dvd’s, probably
will it stream blu-ray’s, maybe
will it stream netflix, probably
etc …
there’s a lot of additional network details that can affect all of this
in theory, you’d actually be better with 2x or 3x wifi N
power line is 200 Mbps
2x max is 300 Mbps
3x max is 450 Mbps
but your router better be up to the task and your network configured correctly
also have you given any thought to protocol
smb
nfs
media server
what is that NAS connected to, and what does it support
I’d guess a 3TB NAS is actually just a hdd with an RJ-45 port
maybe smb & media server support
@ toddincharlotte
I agree with what my fellow forum members said above, and when I responded last night, I only had time to give you the “short answer”, AND I wanted to check out in the morning, the efficacy of a new Trendnet TPL-402E2K 500mbps Powerline AV adapter Kit w/Bonus Outlet. I have had it for a couple of months sitting sealed in the box, unused. So, thanks for nudging me to check the darn things out.
I don’t actually need it – I have gigabit wired ethernet throughout the house that came pre-wired for ethernet. I have it because I had bought the 200mbps version for my daughter; I tested it out, it worked (not so well for streaming video, but it did work in many instances) so when I knew it worked, I gave it to her. Later on, when I saw Newegg had the 500mbps kit on sale, I bought it.
OK so first of all, the new units (there are 2 in the box) are not DOA; first test passed! (Whew, I was past the return period.) Secondly, they do work a bit better than the 200mbps model.
Now, for the “real world” test results just completed. (BTW, right now I am connected to them while writing this message).
1. How good is the connection?
It depends upon the outlet the receiver unit is plugged into. The house wiring and it’s multi-circuitry affect the quality of the connection. The “best” (but impractical connection is to connect one unit into the other unit – or second wall outlet) to totally eliminate house wiring for testing purposes. The speed of my connection was super – same as plugging into my ethernet. Using speedtest.net I got over 60-70mbps either way. I changed to another outlet in the same room and results are same. I tried two adjacent rooms and in one, the speed reduced to 35mbps, and in the other it was down to 11mbps. As the saying goes, “Your results will vary”.
2. How well did they stream videos from the WDTV’s drive?
They did not do so well except at the best connection. Regular DVD ISO files streamed/played just fine to the PC. MKV files made from blu-ray discs had stutter and pausing, so unuseable. These same MKV files streamed well when I reconnected the PC to the router’s ethernet.
Bottom line: Anyone who wants to stream 1080p videos of high quality bit rates should use wired ethernet, or at the least, a very high quality wireless signal from a modern N router of gigabit speed, preferably at the 5Ghz connection, although a good 2.4Ghz signal works ok, too. This is how we successfully stream wirelessly to the iPads, iPhones and Kindles in our house. Powerline AV Adapters are best reserved for a last resort situation.
OK, that covers it, unless I forgot to mention something. I am going to disconnect from these plugs and reconnect back to my router’s ethernet directly; soon as I hit send for this message!
