Homeplugs, worth spending the extra?

Devrij

Devrij

Devrij

Soldato
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Hi all, I'm debating the purchase of some homeplugs atm so I can stream media from my PC to xbox, update bluray firmware etc in my lounge. I've got a £50 voucher so that's my budget, which fits in nicely with OcUK's pricing. What I want to know is this: will I notice the diference between the 85Mbps and 200Mbps sets?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-018-TP&groupid=46&catid=1604&subcat=

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-032-TP&groupid=46&catid=1604&subcat=

In an ideal world I'd use a passthrough set, but it seems OcUK don't have any.

So, worth the extra?
 
Go for the 200mbs onse. In reality you'll be lucky to see that kind of speed, but they will be better for copying/streaming big media files about the house. I've had 85mbs Devolo plugs for what seems like donkeys, they are starting to get on my nerves come backup time (PC to NAS in loft) but have been a1 for everythin else!
 
It's worth the extra effort to lay cable.

If you are dead set on home-plugs, get the cheapest possible and prepare for disappointment.
 
Do you live in a house / flat with fairly modern wiring? Just thinking whether homeplugs will work at all.
I live in a flat with wiring from the 70's (some weird black rubber insulated cables with red white and blue (??) cables). The two rooms I wanted to connect were on separate ring mains and so any connection went through the fuse box (ancient asbestos fuses). In short I only got about 4Mb/s which was patchy and I reverted to WiFi.
Fortunately I'd borrowed the homeplugs so didn't buy any in the end.
 
d_brennen said:
Go for the 200mbs onse. In reality you'll be lucky to see that kind of speed, but they will be better for copying/streaming big media files about the house. I've had 85mbs Devolo plugs for what seems like donkeys, they are starting to get on my nerves come backup time (PC to NAS in loft) but have been a1 for everythin else!
Click to expand...

Awesome, just what I needed to hear. Now the debate is whether to get a switch or just have one cable for the two devices and *gasp* manually change them over when I need to update bluray firmware or want to watch BD Live content
 
paradigm said:
It's worth the extra effort to lay cable.

If you are dead set on home-plugs, get the cheapest possible and prepare for disappointment.
Click to expand...

That's not really a fair assessment IMO. For what they do they're grand. If your house isn't from Dickens' time they'll work. They don't like surge protectors btw, but this may have changed.

Yes cable is better, I'm my past gaff I cat 5e most of the rooms but when I moved I really cba ;)

Streaming HD, well I'm not sure. Might be worth checking/asking on AVforums. For Internet/games my Devolo plugs introduced <2 ms latency.
 
paradigm said:
It's worth the extra effort to lay cable.

If you are dead set on home-plugs, get the cheapest possible and prepare for disappointment.
Click to expand...

Eh? Bullpoo.

I run a gigabit network with a pair of homehubs linking the gigabit switch with the broadband router. Works fantastically and much quicker/reliable than wireless.

Although if I had the choice, I would 5e/6 wire the entire house, but it isn't mine to knock holes in unfortunately!
 
Get the 200mb ones, much easier than laying cable and the will be no performance difference for what your doing. The 200mb ones are preferable because they are not just faster they are a newer standard and have more features/refinements behind the scenes.

Homeplug 1.0: 14 Mbits/s transfer at physical layer, "Turbo" versions exist which are rated at 85 Mbit/s at the physical layer.
Homeplug AV: 200 Mbit/s transfer at physical layer.
Homeplug AV2: 1000 Mbits transfer at physical layer (due late 2011).
 
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I grabbed some Solwise ones for my network. Playing games with my girlfriend/partner was awful on our wireless network, I did lots of latency tests and it was all over the place.. Using the Solwise plugs solved this and worked straight away, love it.

I'm simple and still amazed the internet is going through the plugs!!

David
 
d_brennen said:
That's not really a fair assessment IMO. For what they do they're grand. If your house isn't from Dickens' time they'll work. They don't like surge protectors btw, but this may have changed.
Click to expand...

OI! My house isn't from the Dickens Era! :D Clearly the wiring is sub par though.
 
I live in a reasonably new flat, it's tiny so I'm hoping it's all on the same ring. Is there a way I can test this? We are selling a new netgear wireless adapter that works on all new tvs consoles and players, but WiFi is variable at best and I'd rather use my ocuk voucher.
 
You can get a fairly long way with ethernet under carpet if you can't drill holes in walls. Doorways are more difficult, I'm shutting a door on a cable at present.
 
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