Powerline Adapters

[tdenton1138]

I am trying to figure out what is really needed for networking to an HR20 without wired access to my network. I have seen powerline adapters ranging in speed from 85 -> 200mb/s with the 200s costing about 2x the 85s.

My worry is that the 85mbs might not be enough reliable bandwidth for streaming HD content from my pc to my receiver... Has anyone had any experience with a "slower" speed adapter?

Is the throughput consistent enough on the 85s or should I step up to the 200? Also, I have been having trouble finding specs on the DirecTV version but assume its not 200 as its too cheap for that (Is it 85?).

Thanks,

Tad

 

[ramimac]

I have a wireless bridge setup for my brother and he is running directv and xbox 360 ate the same time on the 56mbs wireless connection..

 

[tdenton1138]

Does that setup involve streaming HD content from some device (xbox360?)? That's really the linchpin of my need. I want to be sure I don't starve for bandwidth by bumping up against a powerline or wireless limitation as compared to the theoretical throughput of a particular network adapter.

 

[Bob Nielsen]

Remember that you will be streaming compressed video. MPEG2 is supported currently for Media Share and possibly other formats will be used later. Typical OTA MPEG2 is up to 19 Mbps (Directv's MPEG2 channels use a lower bit rate). Either 54 Mbps Wireless G or 85 Mbps HomePlug 1.0 Turbo should be more than adequate (as will wired 100 Mbps ethernet). The powerline adapters sold by Directv are 85 Mbps and are less expensive than other equivalent adapters I have seen. They work fine for me but Media Share itself seems to have some issues above ~5-8 Mbps which hopefully will be resolved soon. Multi Room Viewing (DVR-DVR) will be the real test.

Here is the spec for the Directv adapter: http://www.tiinettech.com/datasheets/Home_Networking/HNX-ET_IDS.pdf

 

[Phoenix1]

The real data throughput of the 85Mbps powerline adapters is about 30-35Mbps and the 200Mbps HomePlug adapters max out at about 90Mbps. Be careful because some of the 200Mbps powerline adapters on the market are not HomePlug and have terrible performance (the ones from Netgear - HDX101, and D-Link - DHP-300 for example).

 

[tdenton1138]

Ok, then I think I'll give those powerline plugs a shot. I've also been trying to get TVersity to stream straight 15 Mb/s AVCHD (.m2ts) which has been somewhat of a challenge. Haven't quite figured out the right cocktail of renaming the extension and/or transcoding, but I have managed to get some other HD files to work (mkv)... Its quite amazing to watch my core2 @ 3.2 working 60 - 75%. Now I need to figure out how much of the transcoding I'm doing is really necessary... I hope I can pare down some of the workload.

Thanks for the info!