Streaming expectations

I  have recently upgraded my home network with a Netgear N600 dual band router.  The primary reason I upgraded is that I bought a WD Live Plus and want to stream HD movies via the 5 ghz connections from my external drive connected directly to the router. The 5 ghz usb wireless adapter for WD TV is on the way as my current adapter only connects at 2.4 ghz and stutters/lags. Once I get the adapter it will be the only device connecting at 5 ghz. I am hoping this fixes the problem, does anyone have experience with this? I have heard the file size matters as well when it comes to streaming HD movies.

Also on a side note, as mentioned I have a external hard drive connected to the router which I have movies, pictures and music stored on to keep it off my laptop. I have my laptop connected to the wireless network at 5 ghz so my question is what transfer rate should I be getting when I am transferring data off the external to my laptop? For test purposes I am sitting my laptop right beside the router for max signal and I am transferring at 4 MB/s. Good or bad?

Thanks for the help in advance.

JJ

4 Megabytes (MB) is good.  When talking networks and video files though you should refer everything in Megabits per second (Mbps) where 1 MegaByte per second = 10Mbps.  Your average blu-ray runs at a bit rate between 20 to 40Mbps so with your test setup you should be able to play a full blu-ray rip without any caching or bufferring though it would stutter if the bitrate goes above 40Mbps.  A downloaded 1080p MKV from “the internet” is usually of a smaller file size and bit rate than a blu-ray and should play no problem.

I have a dual band wireless N dongle connected to my WDTV LIVE with a dual band access point in the same room at 100% signal strength and have no problems with most HD media.  Though, as soon as I move the access point somewhere else the signal drops off pretty quickly .   

For Blu-Ray rips I use PS3 Media Server because it does buffer the stream to eliminate stuttering video.  For everything else I just access the network shares directly.

Hope this helps.

1 Like

Thanks for the help…I guess I will have to wait and see once the adapter gets here.  Is there anyway to make it faster?  Having the laptop besides the router is the ideal condition but my WD TV is in the adjacent room.  I notice the 5 ghz signal drops off pretty quickly once I get away from the router on my laptop.  I hope it works.   If not I guess I will have to stick with direct connection via my portable HDD.  Thanks again.

Depending on how wedded you are to wireless streaming (in terms of $$), you can get an N repeater to keep your signal strength up, or you could try (I haven’t yet) the different powerline products that use your household electrical wiring as ethernet.  If you try the latter, keep your box and receipt because the functionality can be glitchy (according to the Internet) depending on the age of your wiring, circuit design in house, etc.

Ok after spending the whole day reading about this stuff on the internet, I cannot believe that 40 mbps is the max data transfer rate I can achieve when I am connected to an N router at 5 ghz with connection speed showing 270 mpbs under network settings.  Something has to be wrong…right?

Are you sure that you neighbour does not have 5GHz

Check out your WiFi with this program (freeware)

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider

1 Like

I will check out the software to see if it helps.  Sorry this is sort of off topic here.  I am waiting on a 5 ghz N adapter for my WD TV and I am praying I can stream wirelessly without stutter.  I am hoping this problem with slow speed is only arising from my laptop.  Basically what I am doing is transferring movies from my laptop to a WD 2tb hdd attached to a dual band netgear router.  My laptop says I am connected to the network under optimal conditions at 270 mbps but on hitting a max of 40 mbps (4.8MB/s) and usually only steady around 28 mbps (3.5MB/s)  under standard windows file transfer.  Don’t know if it is my laptop card, windows or the router but something is not right or I just am stupid about these things.  Funny thing is that my wireless card on my comp doesn’t have any options for N for broadband capability, only abg.  But it clearly states it is a draft N  card and on dell’s website states that it can handle 20 or 40 mhz connections on band N and it shows I am connected at 270 mbps.  I am about to give up since I have literally spent 8 hours trying to figure out what is wrong.

Yea I just ran the software, it shows my 5ghz has RSSI of -40 and 2.4 ghz is at -44. 

edit:  Just changed channels and I am at -47 on 5 ghz…which way am wanting this to go???

I don’t have personal experience with this since I am only using a g network, however from what I have read by default the Live+ uses SAMBA, which has a max transfer rate, which if I remember right is 40 mbps, though I could be wrong. I do not know if this is an issue in your situation however just thought it might give you a new idea.

Also I do not know what firmware you are running, but I have never had much luck streaming anything past .avis (wired or wirelessly) with anything newer than 1.03.49. However using this firmware I am able to stream 720p mkv even over a wireless g network.

Hope this helps

1 Like

Well I guess I have high enough mbps rate to get the max streaming effect so that is good news.  Thanks for that input.  But I still don’t know why my other devices don’t have a higher transfer rate between.  I am going to be a little disappointed when all is said and done and the money is spent  on network upgrades and I am still going to have to hardwire to transfer movies between my HDDs/laptop and then hardwire them to the WD TV.  Most of my HD files are mkv in the 1-2gb.  I have others that are vob files which are broken into 1 gb segments.  The only avi files are DVD quality and are usually around 700mb.  I will cross my fingers.

After all this at least I am going to be an expert at home wireless networking.  I am trying to explain this to some of my friends and wife and they think I am speaking latin or something.

Is there anyway in Windows to view how I am connected to the network ie N at 40mhz or G at 20mhz?

jayjasu wrote:

I will check out the software to see if it helps.  Sorry this is sort of off topic here.  I am waiting on a 5 ghz N adapter for my WD TV and I am praying I can stream wirelessly without stutter.  I am hoping this problem with slow speed is only arising from my laptop.  Basically what I am doing is transferring movies from my laptop to a WD 2tb hdd attached to a dual band netgear router.  My laptop says I am connected to the network under optimal conditions at 270 mbps but on hitting a max of 40 mbps (4.8MB/s) and usually only steady around 28 mbps (3.5MB/s)  under standard windows file transfer.  Don’t know if it is my laptop card, windows or the router but something is not right or I just am stupid about these things.  Funny thing is that my wireless card on my comp doesn’t have any options for N for broadband capability, only abg.  But it clearly states it is a draft N  card and on dell’s website states that it can handle 20 or 40 mhz connections on band N and it shows I am connected at 270 mbps.  I am about to give up since I have literally spent 8 hours trying to figure out what is wrong.

 

Yea I just ran the software, it shows my 5ghz has RSSI of -40 and 2.4 ghz is at -44. 

 

edit:  Just changed channels and I am at -47 on 5 ghz…which way am wanting this to go???

Its more to see if there are any other WiFi units interfering with your signal. However the lower the number the stronger the signal. Click the tabs on the lower graph and see if there are any other signals near you on the same channel.

You want RSSI to be HIGHER, or rather CLOSER to ZERO.  Since it’s NEGATIVE, you want the ABSOLUTE value to be SMALLER.

Just to be clear. :slight_smile:

Alright after trying a couple bands I am at -37…I don’t see anything around me either.  I live in a pretty rural area in North Carolina so I did not figure it was interference. 

Is there anyway to check the connection between WD TV and the router in terms of mbps?

The whole streaming wirelessly is hit or miss after all of this.  Works with smaller files but stutters on larger ones.  I guess I will just run everything off my WD passport.  Thanks everyone for the help.