How much bandwith is needed to stream a TV quality video signal?

[Torghn]

Would an 11mbps wireless connection do it? What I'd like to do (not even sure if it's possible) is stream a video signal from a TV-wonder card to another system on the network. If any one knows how, or knows of any good sites related to this please let me know.

 

[ScottMac]

Depending on the CODEC (on both ends), you can do pretty good quality with a 1-2 Mbps MPEG1. VBrick (a company) has transmitter/receiver CODECs with excellent quality using Mpeg1 (and near perfect with MPEG2).

What streaming software are you going to use? What is the input source? How much "horsepower" does your system have? What will be on the receiving end?

FWIW

Scott

 

[Torghn]

Both machines are pretty beefy (both 1900+s with 512 DDR). As for the software I don't know, as I don't really know too much about it. I've been told WinXP has some built in video streaming software, but I'm not too sure. (Any suggestions would be great). The input would be an ATI TV-wonder card.

 

[Buddha Bart]

First you need to get the file to the format you're going to stream it in (encoder)
Then you need to feed that to a "Streaming Server" (RealServer, Darwin/Quicktime, Windows Media, VideoCharger)
Then you need a network that can handle the traffic (keep in mind 802.11b is actually about 6mbps ideally)
Then you need a client that can play the stream.

Of the four streaming servers I know of, I think only IBM VideoCharger does MPEG1 & 2, and I don't think it can do it "live".
Avoid Real, they are the Debil.
So it looks like Darwin/Quicktime or WindowsMedia for you. I think darwin/quicktime can actually be done for free legally. WMA requires a valid Win2K Server license.

have fun
bart

 

[Torghn]

Thanks for all the help. So will 6mbps be fast enough? Also if anyone has anylinks fell free to post them.

 

[Buddha Bart]

http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/kangaroojack/teaser_300.asx

Thats windows media @ 300Kbps, so you could literally quadruple it with no problem. Only keep in mind its not a linear scale.

there's more stuff at www.quicktime.com if you wanna see how Quicktime would look.

I bet quicktime at like 900Kbps would look phenominal... only you're probably gonna burn a lot of horsepower at the encoding and the viewing end.

bart

 

[spidey07]

I believe 1.5 Mbs on mpeg2 will yield broadcast quality. 3 Mbs mpeg2 will give you DVD. You can get the encoding power with the encoder cards (osprey).

We run 1.5 Mbs channels full screen and it looks great!

 

[Torghn]

Thanks again for all the info. I've never been an apple fan, but this Darwin server is some pritty nice software for open source freeware. So how much "horse power" would be needed to encode then decode a 1.5 Mbs mpeg 2 stream?

 

[mikepeck]

You can stream straight from the windows media encoder machine to your other machine easily over the wireless network. A server isn't even needed. A 2-3 mb WM8 stream is very high quaility, probably better than a typical cable signal. I've played a lot with streaming and windows media encoder is quite easy and very powerful. And the wirless network will not be a bottleneck. Enjoy.