HD Streaming via EOP

[Trojan]

Due to the way my house is laid out I am completely unable to connect my PC to my router via standard ethernet. Therefore for the last few months it's been connected by wireless N.

The wireless connection is fine for day to day net browsing, casual online gaming etc, however it's a complete non-starter when it comes to streaming media to my 360. SD is, for the most part, ok though it does have it's moments. HD though just isn't really possible. Because of this I currently copy the media to a USB stick and plug that into the 360 rather than attempting to stream.

Well, I'm sick of this and am looking for a solution. Being in a rented house I can't run ethernet up through the ceiling, rip the carpets up, or anything like that. I've therefore been looking into ethernet over power. Price-wise it seems pretty reasonable for the 200Mbps versions, however are they capable of streaming HD consistently, without judders or drops? Assuming the wiring in the house is up to scratch of course. If the 200Mbps items aren't capable of HD streaming, are the 1000Mbps versions any better?

I'm open to any other suggestions people may have.

Cheers

 

[silworth]

Due to the way my house is laid out I am completely unable to connect my PC to my router via standard ethernet. Therefore for the last few months it's been connected by wireless N.

Why, is your router in a sealed vault or something?

I find that powerline adapters are pretty much hit and miss (although mainly miss) when it comes to throughput, and you'll never get anywhere near the quoted speeds, unless your two plug sockets are less than a meter apart. They are a substitute for wireless, but not really for ethernet.

 

[Trojan]

Why, is your router in a sealed vault or something?

My router is at one end of the house, my PC at the other with a 360 between them. There's simply no way to connect them all via ethernet without having cables trailing all over the floors.

I find that powerline adapters are pretty much hit and miss (although mainly miss) when it comes to throughput, and you'll never get anywhere near the quoted speeds, unless your two plug sockets are less than a meter apart. They are a substitute for wireless, but not really for ethernet.

What speed adapters have you used? I imagine the earlier 85Mbps ones would be quite limited these days. The 200Mbps, and especially the 1Gbps adapters though I'm not sure. I know I won't get the quoted max, but will I get enough for HD streaming?

 

[silworth]

I've used the Belkin 200Mbps ones and probably sustained around 60Mbps throughput at best case.

I actually get better throughput through wireless N.

 

[Trojan]

60Mbps should be enough to stream HD though, shouldn't it? It's not really the speed of the wireless that's the problem with the streaming now, it's the spikes/dropouts that cause the problems. I'm assuming these are reduced massively with EOP?

 

[thebandit]

I have a pair of belkin 200Mbps homeplugs and trying to stream HD from my NAS in the same room to my WDTV live through them I get juttering in the movie. This is actually quite odd as they are connecting (according to the homeplug utility ) at 150Mbps (they are quite close) and yet if I use a long ethernet cable instead of the homeplugs its fine. I actually just don't get this, I'm playing ripped HD content, file sizes around 9GB. Assuming the movie is 1h30m long, that means I only need 1.6MB/s throughput. I also tried using an N wireless adapter in the TV live and that was juttery as well. At the moment I actually don't have an answer to this, cable works homeplug and wireless don't and I can't run cable without lifting the floor and cutting holes in my media cabinet.

 

[Schizophonic]

Been there done that. You cannot stream fullHD content (1080 / DTS) over wireless N or homeplugs. If you have wireless N with the dual band (5Ghz) then your in a better position.

I beleive HD content streams at 5+MBs

 

[Trojan]

Damn, not what I was wanting to hear

Cheers for the responses guys, do you think that the 1Gbps versions will be the same? How about with 720p rather than 1080p?

If still a no, I'm pretty much stuck

 

[Zarf]

I find that powerline adapters are pretty much hit and miss (although mainly miss) when it comes to throughput, and you'll never get anywhere near the quoted speeds, unless your two plug sockets are less than a meter apart. They are a substitute for wireless, but not really for ethernet.

It's worth remembering that the Powerline speeds quoted are not full duplex. I have no problems getting 11MB/s over my 200Mb/s set (software notes they are syncing at 197Mb/s). This is more than enough to stream 1080p MKV's.
My set (the £40 TP-Link kit that OCUK stock) are at opposite ends of the house, probably around 15m apart as the crow flies.

From what i recall, the Gigabit sets are the same inside as the 200Mb/s sets, but they have 10/100/1000 UTP ports rather than 10/100. So with a good line you might be able to get near 25MB/s in one direction over them.

 

[thebandit]

It's worth remembering that the Powerline speeds quoted are not full duplex. I have no problems getting 11MB/s over my 200Mb/s set (software notes they are syncing at 197Mb/s). This is more than enough to stream 1080p MKV's.
My set (the £40 TP-Link kit that OCUK stock) are at opposite ends of the house, probably around 15m apart as the crow flies.

From what i recall, the Gigabit sets are the same inside as the 200Mb/s sets, but they have 10/100/1000 UTP ports rather than 10/100. So with a good line you might be able to get near 25MB/s in one direction over them.

Do you actually stream content or are you just saying theoretically its enough to stream ?. My experience is that whilst I get plenty of bandwidth with a copy and paste over the homeplugs, they stutter when I'm steaming 1080 mkv's. I use Belkin homeplugs btw, maybe others are better as I generally find belkin stuff sub par.

 

[Zarf]

Do you actually stream content or are you just saying theoretically its enough to stream ?. My experience is that whilst I get plenty of bandwidth with a copy and paste over the homeplugs, they stutter when I'm steaming 1080 mkv's. I use Belkin homeplugs btw, maybe others are better as I generally find belkin stuff sub par.

I actually stream stuff. The homeplugs provide connectivity to my lounge, where I have an HTPC running XBMC hooked up (as well as a wireless AP and some consoles/set top boxes). Most of my stuff is 720p, but it's not had any problem with 1080p.

My old 85Mb set of homeplugs could do 720p fine but struggled with 1080p, I was only getting around 15Mb/s sustained performance over them, but my 200Mb set are brilliant.

 

[Trojan]

Ok, now that's more reassuring. I may have to purchase a set from a money back guarantee type place and try them out. If the streaming is a no then I can just take them back.

Thanks for the responses guys