Powerline Networking Adapters - Need 3 for Two WDTV Live Streamers and One Router

gigahertz20

Golden Member
Apr 30, 2007
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I'm trying to setup my cousin's house so he can stream between his two WDTV Live boxes. One box is downstairs and the other (brand new) is upstairs, both are currently connected wirelessly to his router. The box downstairs has two USB 2.0 external hard drives plugged into it, that is what stores all the content he has. I went over to his house yesterday and we tried to stream a movie from one of the hard drives attached to the downstairs box to the upstairs box and it was just constantly freezing every few seconds, not even watchable.

I was looking at the newer 500 Mbps powerline tech but I wasn't that impressed with it after reading the article link below, 500 Mbps loses throughput pretty quickly once you get some distance between adapters while the 200 Mbps tech stayed the same for the most part.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanw...eplug-av-500-adapter-roundup?showall=&start=2

So I started looking at these since they have pretty solid reviews on both Amazon/Newegg and Anandtech gave them a positive review not too long ago if I remember.
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digita...cm_rdp_product

The only thing is I need to buy 3 units, 1 downstairs, 1 upstairs, and 1 connected to the router. And from everywhere I've searched (including eBay) these are only sold as pairs. And from what I could tell, most powerline products look like they are only sold as pairs. So I guess I'll have to buy 4 units even though I'm only going to use 3 units......ugh :rolleyes:

So what kind of powerline adapters would you guys recommend and would they be able to stream 4-15GB 720P/1080P h264 mkv's without any problems?
 

JoeMcJoe

Senior member
May 10, 2011
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I have a Zyxel Kit - PLA4225KIT, which includes 1 PLA4225 Switch and 1 PLA4205 Single Port Adapter.
Also have a pair of the PLA4205.

I get between 80 Mbps and 144 Mbps continuous, which is way better than any wireless I have tried. I use it between 3 buildings.

Most of the different manufacturers use the same chip set, so they should all perform similar.
 

ViviTheMage

Lifer
Dec 12, 2002
36,189
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madgenius.com
I have the 200 Mbps Netgear stuff, it works well even jumping breaker boxes.

The only issue I have had was pretty high packet drops, which is notorious for EoP.
 

thestrangebrew1

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2011
3,761
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I used a 200mbps Zyxel's that were onsale during a Daily Deal on NE and they didn't work very well streaming from Router to my ps3. These are only 15-20' apart max. i had an older wrt54g router, so I upgraded to an e3000 and I still don't see any major improvements in my wireless speeds. I'm going to pick up a 25' gbit ethernet cable to hardwire the two and see if that makes a difference.
 

JackMDS

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 25, 1999
29,516
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Try the Zyxel.

Just make sure that you buy it from a vendor with liberal return policy.

PowerLine Networking is very iffy. What works on one specific set of lines might not work on another.



:cool:
 

FireWire2

Junior Member
Mar 7, 2012
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Streaming A/V, there are two important things you need to look at:
the SOURCE and the network components.
if any of those TWO fail, you will have constantly freezing.

I would recommend you to test the SOURCE transfer-rate 1st.
Using IOMeter to check it - remember runs the test-setup as RANDOM read, because this will be close to the real life usage

Note: Connect directly to your computer to ensure you're testing the SOURCE.

If the transfer below 15Mb sustain transfer rate, then do not try to stream from this device

H264 codec used in MKV, MP4, AVI (HD)... bitrate around 5~10Mb+audio so 15Mb is a rule of thumb. Where M2TS from BD is another issue. It requires much higher bit rate


Once you can confirm the transfer rate, then test then PoE device to see can it really transfer.

Take JackMDS advice - PoE is very iffy, buy only place allow you to return

Hope my 2cents help!

FireWire2
 

gigahertz20

Golden Member
Apr 30, 2007
1,118
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Thanks everybody so far for the info, anybody else have anything to add? I'm probably going to just buy something from Best Buy to see if powerline adapters work in his house first, that way if they don't I can return them easily. And even if they do work...I'll still return them and buy cheaper online since BB is always over priced.
 

JoeMcJoe

Senior member
May 10, 2011
327
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I get ping times of less than 1ms, a lot more reliable than wireless, but it depends on your house wiring.

Get the 500 Mbps version using the Atheros chip set, Newegg has them on sale a lot.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,570
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I've got four of the Zyxel 4-eithernet-port powerline 200Mbit/sec units.

I would prefer to sell all four, and not just three, but I would be willing to offer your a money-back trial guarantee, so you could test if they worked for you.

You would have to pay shipping both ways though (once for me to ship them to you, and then return shipping to me if you wanted your money back).

$150 for all four, plus ship. They are still BNIB, I got them from Newegg some time ago.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833181063

Actually, not that one, this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833181108
 
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gigahertz20

Golden Member
Apr 30, 2007
1,118
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I've got four of the Zyxel 4-eithernet-port powerline 200Mbit/sec units.

I would prefer to sell all four, and not just three, but I would be willing to offer your a money-back trial guarantee, so you could test if they worked for you.

You would have to pay shipping both ways though (once for me to ship them to you, and then return shipping to me if you wanted your money back).

$150 for all four, plus ship. They are still BNIB, I got them from Newegg some time ago.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833181063

Actually, not that one, this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833181108

Meh, I'll pass, thanks for the offer though.
 

gigahertz20

Golden Member
Apr 30, 2007
1,118
2
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Found a really good deal on slickdeals, two of these for $47.

http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Power...1371848&sr=1-1

Smallnetbuilder had them in a roundup and they perform as well as the other 200Mbps powerline products.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanw...-homeplug-av-adapter-roundup?showall=&start=5



The only thing I'm not sure about is if these will be fast enough to stream HD content, that review link I just posted shows these transmit and receive at around 40Mbps which is 5Mb/sec (Megabytes). I wonder if a 6-15GB 1080P h264 mkv will stream from one WDTV Live to another without any stuttering?