• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

wireless chokes on streaming media

B

BKLounger

Golden Member
my setup is 2 modded xbox's running xbmc connect to an ubuntu file server. They all connect into a d-link dir-655 router. File server has a gigabit nic, 1 xbox is hardwired and has no issues, the other xbox is wireless using a wet54g linksys wireless ethernet adapter. It absolutely chokes when trying to stream any kind of divx or xvid file. router is 2nd floor, adapter is first floor, construction of the house is just wood frame and sheet rock. maybe a total distance of 10-15 feet from point to point through the floor. What could i possibly try? I was thinking maybe mount the adapter away from the entertainment center since possible interference from other electronics. Any other ideas?
 
Thats SOHO wireless for you, It should be ok, But all kinds of things can interfere, Microwaves, Phones, ect....
I would try to get a wire to it.
Or use powerline which some people in this forum have been loving.
 
11g isn't very good at streaming video.

You should be using 11a or 11n. The XBox wireless adapter runs a/g.

The easiest thing to do is to replace the WRT54G with a router that has 11a. I use the Linksys WRT55AG router to stream to multiple 360s but it seems to be hard to find these days.

Using that router I can stream video to two 360's at once with the router on the first floor and both 360's on the second floor on either side of the house. Originally, I was using a WRT54G but video streaming to the 360 was terrible with it so I switched to the 11a router and it worked fine.

A quick check on newegg and I saw:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16833127254

Running 11a on it should meet your needs, but It's $80 and I have no idea how good or bad this specific router is.
 
i think you may be confused griff. I don't use a wrt54g router on the xbox i used a wet54g which is an wireless ethernet adapter. The router I have is a model up from the one you are suggesting except it doesn't do a , but it does b, g, and draft (n).
 
Yeah it isn't likely much interference, it is probably mostly that 11g is not so good for streaming video. Although if neighbors are using WLAN in the area that amount of interference will reduce your transfer rate to make the problem even worse.

It can get marginally better if you install some antennae and orient the units for maximum clear reception. Even so, though, during high motion / high definition scenes it may well stutter just due to the 15MBit/s to 30Mbit/s rates not being very solid in their availability and due to the peak bit rate demand of the source video and due to the occasional lost data et. al.

I'd switch to 802.11n if there aren't many strong or moderate strength signals in your area due to other users. (A) on 5GHz is also an option though one might expect the N equipment to be cheaper and just as / more effective in most cases.

If you can find a software setting to get the Xbox to buffer more time of video before the current playback moment to allow for data stream rate variance / latency, that might just solve your problem. 10-20 seconds of advance buffering will be enough for most cases, 45 would be enough for virtually anything if it is even workable at the effective average bit rate you get at all. Even 5 seconds would help in many cases.

 
I got a N router and NIC just so I could stream to my Media Center and it would always choke.

It wasn't the speed that was the issue (was getting 308Mb/s) it was the consistent connection that was.

Any little thing could interfere with that signal and then there goes your movie you're in the middle of.

If you have a Fry's near you, they sell 25' flat Cat6 cable for $15, which is what I ended up using to run under my carpet to my Media Center.
 
Do some file transfers 3 times in a row of like a 100MBy file from your PC to the other PC over wireless and check the effective transfer rate (it should be the best on the 2nd or 3rd try when it is in the cache of the server PC).
Also check the WLAN status to see what bit-rate it is effectively able to use given link conditions.
If it is consistently over 40Mbit/s you should be able to get reasonable HD video and SD video at over 25Mbit/s or so.

Adjust your cache / buffering settings for the playback to maximize them
http://xbmc.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-23019.html
 
Originally posted by: BKLounger
i think you may be confused griff. I don't use a wrt54g router on the xbox i used a wet54g which is an wireless ethernet adapter. The router I have is a model up from the one you are suggesting except it doesn't do a , but it does b, g, and draft (n).
Click to expand...

Ok, I just assumed you were using the 360's wireless adapter sold by Microsoft. That's the one I use which is a a/b/g adapter.

If your wireless adapter doesn't support a or n, you may be out of luck with that adapter. The b/g is fine for music and on-line gaming but not for anything more demanding.

 
Originally posted by: lokiju
I got a N router and NIC just so I could stream to my Media Center and it would always choke.

It wasn't the speed that was the issue (was getting 308Mb/s) it was the consistent connection that was.

Any little thing could interfere with that signal and then there goes your movie you're in the middle of.

If you have a Fry's near you, they sell 25' flat Cat6 cable for $15, which is what I ended up using to run under my carpet to my Media Center.
Click to expand...

One of the reasons 11a is recommended for streaming video is because it uses the much, much, much less crowded 5.8 Ghz band it uses.
 
just for some closure to this thread the thing that ended up working was i moved the adapter about 3 feet from it's original location and I also bumped up all the cache settings on the xbox and now it is perfect I was able to play Video media for 3 hours nonstop without a glitch. Thanks for all the help and suggestions everyone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top