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Looking to stream HD to PS3

Krazy4Real

Krazy4Real

Lifer
Hey everyone, I'm hoping to get a little help here. I'm looking to stream HD content to my PS3. I'm using PS3 media server on a windows home server that is hardwired to my WNDR-3700. My PS3 is connected wirelessly with 802.11g and it doesn't handle 720p content very well, let alone 1080p content.

Run a wire if you want to stream HD!!!

I tried to see if I could run a cable, but there are no wire conduits, and I don't have a basement, which makes it extremely tough to run a wire. Plus the wife is afraid of me running cables and she is very hesitant to let me do it. So my hand is forced to try 802.11n.

I already have a dual band wireless router so the hard part is over. I don't have anything connected to the 5ghz network, so I would like to use that network solely for streaming HD. That leaves me with getting some sort of network adapter for the PS3 to get it connected to the 5ghz 802.11n network. The PS3 would be about 20 feet from the router. The router would be on the second floor in a loft and it is wide open to the floor below where the PS3 sits (I hope that makes sense). I should get a pretty decent connection speed I would hope.

I was looking at getting this adapter:
http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Wirele.../dp/B00126V3EI

It is $58.36 shipped from Amazon. I have a $50 amazon gift card so this would work out to be a pretty inexpensive investment to test it out. The reviews are kind of hit or miss though, so I'm not sure if there is another device out there that is better or more reliable. It doesn't have to be on Amazon, but it's definitely a plus if it is.

Let me know if you need any other info.

Edit: There is also this option from Cisco-Linksys:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...7D3S9MQ3X0VWX1

$83.19 shipped from Amazon.
 
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That might work, let me know how it goes. I found when trying to stream HD via wireless that it doesnt work well, even N band. Might as well just wire it. Or just buy a external USB drive and copy files to watch onto it and plug it into the PS3, thats what i do now for video as i didnt want to wire mine either.
 
Yeah, I have an external drive that I use sometimes. It's just such a pain though to copy new content to it and then connect it back up to the ps3 (or maybe I'm just lazy? 🙂 ). Streaming SD to the ps3 works so well that I just want to be able to do the same with HD. I'm going to keep reading reviews and see which one is better, but I guess at this point it's going to be one of the two products I linked.
 
I think I'm going to just go ahead and get the Linksys one. I should get a little over 60mbps of real throughput on the 5ghz band, and enabling video mode on both my router and this device should hopefully make everything stutter free. It's only going to end up costing me $33.19 so if it doesn't work well, it's not that big of a deal. I'm going to order it today. Wish me luck, and I'll post once I receive it and let you know what the verdict is.
 
I received the adapter yesterday. I set everything up and did before and after speed tests using iperf so I will see actual throughput and not just connected speeds.

My throughput averaged around 10.5 mbps on 802.11g which is lower than I thought it would be. I expected it to be closer to around 20 mbps.

I hooked up the wireless n adapter and ran some more iperf tests. My average came out to 26.5 mbps. I was expecting the speed to be closer to 60 mbps. The speed was much more consistent though than on g, and it didn't fluctuate nearly as much. I didn't test the speed before enabling the video streaming algorithms though, so there is a chance that the speeds could be much higher if there was room for error.

The ping times are excellent on 802.11n and the speed is consistent, which should make a good streaming environment. I didn't have any 1080p content available to stream so I tested with 480p and 720p content. The streams worked wonderfully. I was able to play, fast forward and rewind with no issues whatsoever. I was never able to fast forward and rewind reliably with G. With N I can fast forward and rewind at 120x with 720p content. I am very happy and very impressed so far.

I still need to test with 1080p though and that will be the ultimate test. If that works well, then I will be 100% happy. I will keep you updated on how that test turns out.
 
I'm interested in this topic myself.

I too noticed that PS3 Media Server seems to struggle with 720p over 802.11g. I'm not sure what the deal is though since my HTPC running xbmc can stream the exact same files over the exact same network with no problem. Ideally I'd like to consolidate and just use the PS3 so maybe 802.11n is the solution.
 
Your speed tests are one of the reasons why everyone has said run a wire for HD. Wireless simply does not cut it. Even with the WNDR-3700 which is one of the fastest wireless N routers on the market will not push what you need (as you found out). I would think it would have been more like 30-40bmps, but still that isn't going to really cut it. You might be better trying it on the 2.4 GHz N spectrum, even though the 5GHz should technically be faster, it also suffers from a much higher signal loss from objects in the line of sight, like walls, doors, floors, etc..

If you do use the 2.4GHz N spectrum, you will probably want to use the 30Hz signal and not the 60Hz if there are other 2.4GHz non-N devices on the same channel (or several adjacent).
 
Fallen Kell said:
Your speed tests are one of the reasons why everyone has said run a wire for HD. Wireless simply does not cut it. Even with the WNDR-3700 which is one of the fastest wireless N routers on the market will not push what you need (as you found out). I would think it would have been more like 30-40bmps, but still that isn't going to really cut it. You might be better trying it on the 2.4 GHz N spectrum, even though the 5GHz should technically be faster, it also suffers from a much higher signal loss from objects in the line of sight, like walls, doors, floors, etc..

If you do use the 2.4GHz N spectrum, you will probably want to use the 30Hz signal and not the 60Hz if there are other 2.4GHz non-N devices on the same channel (or several adjacent).
Click to expand...
I said in my OP that I cannot run a wire. Trust me... I wanted to. This is why I started my N experiment. The speeds are not what I thought they would be, but my experience has been wonderful so far. I can now stream reliably which is something that I couldn't do before. The 2.4 Ghz spectrum is heavily saturated in my area which is why I wanted to make the move to 5 ghz. I should be able to test some 1080p content tonight though and I'll report back with the results.

In fact... on that note I'm leaving work now and going home. 🙂
 
Keep us informed. It is good to at least do 720p. I couldn't get 1080p to stream to my HTPC on 5GHz N, so I didn't even bother with the PS3. I am content to just do a network copy or use a thumb drive (only takes 20 minutes with the thumb drive for 2 hours of my 1080p recordings from a HD-PVR).
 
Color me impressed. 😛

I downloaded three 1080p mp4 movie trailers. All of them played flawlessly. The biggest file was 172 MB and 2 1/2 minutes long. Bit rates peaked in the 30s of mbps a few times during that trailer. I was able to fast forward and rewind no problem. There was no stuttering or pausing of playback. Everything was butter.

I'm downloading a 7 GB 1080p tv show right now. I'll give that a shot once its done. Does anybody else have any links to anything that they are curious will run or not? As of right now I am 100% happy with 802.11n. This is exactly what I was looking for and the performance delivers. I was hopeful, but doubtful. I'm so glad this worked out. 🙂
 
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