Network speed - fast enough for straming?

[NotAGolf]

I'm thinking of getting a WDTV Live media player. Currently, the only way I can get media to it would involve some wireless connection.

I could use an ethernet cable to connect the media player to the router (Sagemcom F@ST2304), and then my PC is connected upstairs using a Linksys WUSB54GS wireless adapter.

Would the connection between the media player and my pc be fast enough to stream audio/video smoothly? It wont be high-definition content, the vast majority is 700MB-1GB avi/wmv files.

I know cat5/6 wired would be faster, or just connect a USB drive directly but wired would be a right pain, and I can't justify buying a NAS/external hardrive right now!

Thanks for any help.

 

[Zarf]

At SD quality xvids, wireless 54g will be fine, you'll need less than 2Mb/s for that. With a reasonably stong connection You could probably do 720p too (that needs around <=15Mb/s), but 1080p is very unlikely to work without a lot of buffering, you need roughly 25Mb/s to ensure smooth playback at that quality.

If you do eventually want to do HD video, Powerline is usually pretty good, I got around 80Mb/s with my set of 200Mb/s TP-Links which handled anything I could throw at my HTPC. Recently ran another cable through the attic though (bungalows have their advantages) and got a proper gigabit link back to the rest of my network now.

 

[Craig321]

I'm thinking of getting a WDTV Live media player. Currently, the only way I can get media to it would involve some wireless connection.

I could use an ethernet cable to connect the media player to the router (Sagemcom F@ST2304), and then my PC is connected upstairs using a Linksys WUSB54GS wireless adapter.

Would the connection between the media player and my pc be fast enough to stream audio/video smoothly? It wont be high-definition content, the vast majority is 700MB-1GB avi/wmv files.

I know cat5/6 wired would be faster, or just connect a USB drive directly but wired would be a right pain, and I can't justify buying a NAS/external hardrive right now!

Thanks for any help.

I have attempted to watch ~700MB-1GB films over wireless-N and it tends to play continuously (normally) without a problem, but if you want to rewind, fast forward or skip then you've got no chance, it would always ruin the audio sync and usually end up crashing.

That's with a 100% signal as the WAP is in the next room.

 

[HangTime]

I stream to my PS3 over wireless-G and as the signal isn't great sometimes it stutters during video playback. Signal isn't great though as it has to come down diagonally from the office and pass through a couple of walls and probably an armchair.