Streaming video from laptop to media players

mathie

Hi

I am aiming to stream video from my laptop to two media players.

I've a laptop, an Eircom Motorola Netopia 2247-62 router and two WDTV Streaming Media Players (one in the sitting room, one in a bedroom)

The laptop is in one corner of the sitting room and the WDTV SMP is in the other corner. The WDTV is connected to the router via an ethernet cable.

I am able to stream big files no problem in the sitting room but when I try the same with the WDTV that is in the bedroom (also wired to the router via ethernet) the file plays but stutters repeatedly. Totally unwatchable.

I am not watching media in both rooms at the same time. Just one at a time.

any ideas?

Thanks
m

PogMoThoin

Is the laptop connected wirelessly? Wireless is poor for file transfer. The source of the files would need to be connected by ethernet

mathie

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Is the laptop connected wirelessly? Wireless is poor for file transfer. The source of the files would need to be connected by ethernet

Yes the laptop is connected is wirelessly.

But I don't understand how the sitting room WDTV player works fine and the bedroom stutters if both players are connected via ethernet.

PogMoThoin

Could be a cable issue, is it a factory made cable? My suspicion is that it's running at a lower speed or in half duplex. Swap the WD boxes and see if you still have an issue

witnessmenow

mathie wrote: »

Yes the laptop is connected is wirelessly.

But I don't understand how the sitting room WDTV player works fine and the bedroom stutters if both players are connected via ethernet.

Does the laptop remain in the same place for both tests?

mathie

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Could be a cable issue, is it a factory made cable? My suspicion is that it's running at a lower speed or in half duplex. Swap the WD boxes and see if you still have an issue

I got a new ethernet cable. Same problem.

witnessmenow wrote: »

Does the laptop remain in the same place for both tests?

Yes stays in the exact same position.

witnessmenow

mathie wrote: »

I got a new ethernet cable. Same problem.



Yes stays in the exact same position.

Where is router?

You say both points are wired, what exactly is the infrastructure? (is it one long cable from WDTVs to router, is there lan ports ,any switches along the way, homeplugs etc?)

Have you tried swapping the two WDTVs as Pog mentioned?

Make sure you disable the wireless on the WDTV (is it defiantly using the wired connection)

mathie

witnessmenow wrote: »

Where is router?

You say both points are wired, what exactly is the infrastructure? (is it one long cable from WDTVs to router, is there lan ports ,any switches along the way, homeplugs etc?)

Have you tried swapping the two WDTVs as Pog mentioned?

Make sure you disable the wireless on the WDTV (is it defiantly using the wired connection)

Router is in the sitting room.
Right beside the WDTV.

Yes one long cable from WDTV in bedroom to router.
No lan ports. No switches.

I swopped the WDTVs and the problem is the exact same.
So its a network issue not a device issue.

I disabled the wireless on the WDTV in the bedroom and chose wireless.
It helps but seems to be getting around 2.5 mb per second.

Couild I expect higher?

thanks for all the help
m

witnessmenow

mathie wrote: »

witnessmenow wrote: »

Where is router?

You say both points are wired, what exactly is the infrastructure? (is it one long cable from WDTVs to router, is there lan ports ,any switches along the way, homeplugs etc?)

Have you tried swapping the two WDTVs as Pog mentioned?

Make sure you disable the wireless on the WDTV (is it defiantly using the wired connection)

Router is in the sitting room.
Right beside the WDTV.

Yes one long cable from WDTV in bedroom to router.
No lan ports. No switches.

I swopped the WDTVs and the problem is the exact same.
So its a network issue not a device issue.

I disabled the wireless on the WDTV in the bedroom and chose wireless.
It helps but seems to be getting around 2.5 mb per second.

Couild I expect higher?

thanks for all the help
m

When the laptop is on wireless it wouldn't surprise me if that's the max. The netopia is a 10/100 etherent device, so the max transfer rate you could possibly get is ~12mb/s (from one wired device to the another).

Throwing wireless into the mix will drop the speed considerably.

Plug the laptop in with a wired connection, see if that helps (you'll no for sure what the problem is then.)

How are you measuring that speed? Are you. Transferring a file over? If so What storage does the WDTV have?

Are you transferring from the laptop hard drive or an external?

mathie

witnessmenow wrote: »

When the laptop is on wireless it wouldn't surprise me if that's the max. The netopia is a 10/100 etherent device, so the max transfer rate you could possibly get is ~12mb/s (from one wired device to the another).

Throwing wireless into the mix will drop the speed considerably.

Plug the laptop in with a wired connection, see if that helps (you'll no for sure what the problem is then.)

How are you measuring that speed? Are you. Transferring a file over? If so What storage does the WDTV have?

Are you transferring from the laptop hard drive or an external?

Thanks

Ill try connecting the laptop to the router via ethernet to get the wireless out of the equation.

Yes measuring speed by file transfer.
The WDTV has an external drive plugged in to it.

Files coming from laptop are also on an external drive.
So I guess its not going to be as fast as copying from an internal drive?

witnessmenow

No Problem

Yeah it probably is working as fast it can so.

Reading from USB would be much slower than an internal ok, but should be fast enough to keep up with your network.

I reckon your first bottle neck is the wireless.
I'd say the WDTV writing to the external might not be the fastest either.

At a guess, I'd imagine the speed your getting is fast enough to stream though.

Say you get a constant 2mb/s

That's 7gb/ hour which is well under most file sizes for movies or whatever.

mathie

Thanks again
Ill try tonight and let you know.

Would a better router help the situation?

Should Eircom be giving me an updated router?
I've had this one for years

PogMoThoin

mathie wrote: »

Thanks again
Ill try tonight and let you know.

Would a better router help the situation?

Should Eircom be giving me an updated router?
I've had this one for years

There is no such thing as a better router, all wireless is poor for media streaming. Best off spending your money on running cables to everything static and leave wifi for mobility only.

witnessmenow

Well a Wireless N router would probably help if your laptop supports it.

Eircom will not give you a new one, they wouldn't even replace mine when it broke (€50 for a new one from them, i bought one in B&Q of all places for €10 instead Although that was a pretty old model )

I agree with Pog though, if you can wired is the better option, but not always viable.

Those homeplug things are quite good imo if wiring is impractical.

You are probably at a stage now where you have weigh up the price:benifit ratio. Streaming over the wifi is probably going to work now (as long as there is not much else going on with the Wifi). Will wiring make streaming any better, probably not, but it would improve transfer speeds. Is improving transfer speeds worth the extra money? We cant answer that one for you

mathie

Thanks for all the help guys.

I got it working!

Connected ethernet cable from laptop to router and from WDTV to router.
Getting roughly 3 1/4 mb per second which (as you said Witnessmenow) is enough for my high def stuff.

I was looking at buying an extra 3TB drive to have in the other room but now I can stream from the PC to both rooms.

Thanks very much you saved me a fortune