Wireless streaming Jumpy. Why?

Hi, Just bought the WD TV Live Hub, Connected a Wireless adapter because my computer is on the other side of the room and running a wire across the floor is impractical.  I connected to my computer (through the network) and tried to play videos.  It took about an hour to “Compile Library” (or something like that) but seems to need to do it every time I turn it back on.  The movies also play very jumpy.  The audio is always perfect but the video stops, starts, speeds up (to catch up to audio), jumps a minute or so ahead, stops again.  It’s just unwatchable.  I have since started just transferring files directly to the 1tb drive on the Hub.  But this is a hassle.  Is there some setting to make it stream smoother from my computer?

TIA

Depending on the format and bitrate of your movies, they may never stream correctly over wifi. Just too much data. Check the Networking subforum for tips on improving network speeds, but there are limitations on what you can do via wifi that can’t be overcome. I can stream normal DVD rips just fine, but Blu-Ray rips are impossible unless I lower the bitrate substantially. The best performance can be achieved with a dual-band router and adapter so that the streaming is done on the 5ghz channel and all other network traffic is on the 2.4ghz band. This is what works for me for all my regular and Netflix stuff. The BD rips I have to put on an external drive and connect directly to the Live Hub to play.

I agree with Miami_Son, you’ll never get it wireless to stream smoothly, maybe not as bad as you have it, but never perfect. I have super-duper hi-speed internet, super-duper routers, mac airport, etc. and have the wireless and hub about 10 feet away from each other and it is still as annoying as listening to “popcorn” on old vinyl albums. Figure out a way to run a cable and you’ll be happy you did.

Yeah sorry to keep pushing the point but I just did some testing on your behalf and it’s definitely necessary to use wired ethernet to connect your Hub. Wifi might be alright to load small webpages on a laptop or phone where it only requires a short burst of data. Wifi, however, can’t support constant long-term high-bandwidth demands. It will drop and stutter incessantly, and can be a real pain in the **bleep**. I have eliminated Wifi from my house except for my cell phones and someone else’s laptop and have over 40 devices connected via gigabit ethernet throughout the house. This way I get instant access to everything and am able to stream full-quality, uncompressed bluray video from a network storage drive on one side of the house to my Hub on the other side of the house. Wifi wouldn’t even be able to connect at that distance, let alone support that kind of bandwidth for a short burst, with long streaming definitely out of the question. If your computer and Hub are in the same room, run the ethernet cable through the corner where the floor and wall meet. It will be secure and mostly hidden unless someone carefully expects the corners of the floor and walls. You can staple the across the cable to keep it secured and it won’t ever get in the way. If you don’t want to do that, look into covering it up with a carpet or rug or furniture or something.

In short, ethernet is essential.

Chance wrote:

Hi, Just bought the WD TV Live Hub, Connected a Wireless adapter because my computer is on the other side of the room and running a wire across the floor is impractical.  I connected to my computer (through the network) and tried to play videos.  It took about an hour to “Compile Library” (or something like that) but seems to need to do it every time I turn it back on.  The movies also play very jumpy.  The audio is always perfect but the video stops, starts, speeds up (to catch up to audio), jumps a minute or so ahead, stops again.  It’s just unwatchable.  I have since started just transferring files directly to the 1tb drive on the Hub.  But this is a hassle.  Is there some setting to make it stream smoother from my computer?

 

TIA

If you don’t want to run Ethernet cables you can put the files on a USB disk and then plug it into the Hub. This will be quicker than transferring files over the wireless network to the Hubs disk. You can copy them over from the USB to the internal disk using the Hubs file management option. It also means that you have a backup if something happens to the Hubs disk. You can also use something like the Livewire adapters that will use the normal mains wiring as a network cable. Of course you have to have mains sockets near to your router and Hub. It’s also more expensive than running an Ethernet cable, but the speed should be a lot better than wireless and you don’t have to run any extra cables.

badmem wrote:

If you don’t want to run Ethernet cables you can put the files on a USB disk and then plug it into the Hub. This will be quicker than transferring files over the wireless network to the Hubs disk. You can copy them over from the USB to the internal disk using the Hubs file management option. It also means that you have a backup if something happens to the Hubs disk. You can also use something like the Livewire adapters that will use the normal mains wiring as a network cable. Of course you have to have mains sockets near to your router and Hub. It’s also more expensive than running an Ethernet cable, but the speed should be a lot better than wireless and you don’t have to run any extra cables.

I use the USB drive method of transferring files to the hub or just watching them directly from the drive. As for the Powerline stuff, I also have this on my network, but can’t use it for BD streaming because the Hub is too far from the source. These use your house wiring to transmit signals from your router to an adapter you plug in the wall that connects to another adapter you plug your device into. The problem is that, just like wireless, the further the receiving adapter is from the adapter connection to the router the more degraded the signal becomes. Mine have a 3-color LED to indicate connection quality (speed) and the one connected to the Hub is almost always red and not sufficient for high-bandwidth streaming. If it were closer it would work, but as these devices are using your houses electrical wiring there are so many things that can introduce interference and slow them down. I mostly use mine for streaming Netflix (does great with that) and for firmware updates of my video and audio gear.

Miami_Son wrote:


The problem is that, just like wireless, the further the receiving adapter is from the adapter connection to the router the more degraded the signal becomes. Mine have a 3-color LED to indicate connection quality (speed) and the one connected to the Hub is almost always red and not sufficient for high-bandwidth streaming. If it were closer it would work, but as these devices are using your houses electrical wiring there are so many things that can introduce interference and slow them down. I mostly use mine for streaming Netflix (does great with that) and for firmware updates of my video and audio gear.

That’s interesting. I have the WD Livewire. I use it to connect an old WD TV Live in the kitchen to my router. I mainly use it to stream Internet radio or audio to the kitchen while I cook. The kitchen isn’t too far away from my router, but the apartment is old and so is the wiring. I don’t have any BD disks and I’m not going to watch movies in the kitchen anyway. So if you are going to pay for Livewire to stream video you should make sure that it will actually give you a better bandwidth than wireless.

I use LiveWire for my television that is not in an optimal place to run wire and it works perfectly. It is about 60 feet away from the hub. I highly recommend it.

WiFi can’t sustain a high-bandwidth data-intensive stream for a long time without stuttering. It is designed for shorter data-burst type transfers, like loading a webpage or something, not long-time constant streaming of high definition video and audio. Use Ethernet if you want to use the network or external USB hard drives if you don’t want to wire it up. Ethernet will also allow for future expansion, so it’s a good and worthy investment (and also very affordable).

We just had a similiar discussion in another thread.  Basically to get any semblance to smooth video streaming from DVD’s, you’ll need a good wireless N router, a wireless N adapter, and a descent signal.  Otherwise you will not have the bandwisth required to stream video smoothly.

This might also be something you need to look at…

IF you have other WiFi devices present or other WiFi networks are close by (neighbors in an adjoining apartment etc) you may be getting RFI (Radio Frequency Interference). You may also find cordless phones, wireless speakers, wireless cameras, wireless doorbells, keyboards and mice and tons of other wireless devices that you may not even have given thought about being in use and affecting your wireless network, are present and the cause of the RFI.

You can download, to your PC, a program called “inSSIDer”. It will display other networks that are around you and indicate what wireless channel they are using. Install it to your PC and start it. Turn off ALL other wireless devices in your house as this program can’t display anything but networks. See what channels are being used by networks other than your own. Set your router’s channel to one of the 11 US channels that is at least 2 channels away from the strongest neighboring networks channel. i.e. you see a network using channel 6 and it has a very stong signal indicated. Set YOUR router’s channel to 3 or 4 or 8 or 9 if they are free of other strong signals. The more clear channels you can put between YOUR router’s channel and the strongest channel signal, the better it will be. WiFi channels overlap each other by 2 or 3 channels. This is why you want to get as far away from a channel that has a very strong signal. Then test your speed using speedtest.net or your favorite speed test site. Always test in to the same location so you can get an idea of what their average “good” speed is. Run the speed test several times in a row so you can get an idea of what the average speed is. It should be close to what you’re paying for on a wired (cat5) connected PC. I pay for 18mb service. I usually see, on a wired PC, 16-17mb on speedtest.net. I see about 15-16mb wireless. If I see it’s dropped to 7-8mb then I know something has changed. Once you have established a good speed on your wireless PC, turn on your wireless devices ONE-AT-A-TIME. Each time one is turned on run the speed test and see if it has affected your speed.

I found a wireless rear surround sound adapter was causing me to not be able to play videos smoothly to my Asus tablet.  Lucky for me I can change the channel the speakers transmitter uses and it got my tablet back to it’s normal speed of 15-16mb and movies play fine now wirelessly from my Hub to my tablet.