Wireless networking & HTPC question

[SLCentral]

I'm setting up a wireless network between my PC in the basement, and my HTPC in the living room one floor above. The router is on the top floor, and it has to be there for multiple computers which need direct ethernet access to it.

I have a 802.11b bridge on the main floor, about 15 ft. away from the living room. This bridge connects wirelessly to the router upstairs, and then wired via Cat5 to my computer in the basement.

The HTPC is connected to the router wirelessly via a 802.11g USB card. The router is a Westell 802.11g card.

I'm trying to stream media files from my PC to the HTPC, but playing back DVD's in ISO format are too jumpy, I assume because of the 802.11b bridge connecting the router to the computer with the media stored on it (in the basement). How can I get smooth playback on the HTPC (without compressing to DivX, etc) WIRELESSLY? Get a 802.11g bridge?

HERE is a completely POS diagram I made in Paint of my house. Should give you a general idea as to what I'm talking about.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

The throughput is too bad. Remember that under the BEST of circumstances, one only get 12MB of throughput on a 10/100 connection. You can get 6MB on 802.11b. Which means you need to compress your videos enough to be less than 6MB/sec. In other words, unless you switch out to gigabit on your wire run, and 802.11n on your wireless run, you wont have enough throughput without compression. Nero MPEG4 is the way to go. I was experimenting last night with it. I could compress Men In Black II to just 768Kb a sec. And still have full quality stereo, and near perfect picture. Since you have up to 6MB to play around with, compressing to x.264 MPEG4 would leave you with full quality. It would only need to be 2MB a sec for more than enough quality.

 

[SLCentral]

Originally posted by: thecoolnessrune
The throughput is too bad. Remember that under the BEST of circumstances, one only get 12MB of throughput on a 10/100 connection. You can get 6MB on 802.11b. Which means you need to compress your videos enough to be less than 6MB/sec. In other words, unless you switch out to gigabit on your wire run, and 802.11n on your wireless run, you wont have enough throughput without compression. Nero MPEG4 is the way to go. I was experimenting last night with it. I could compress Men In Black II to just 768Kb a sec. And still have full quality stereo, and near perfect picture. Since you have up to 6MB to play around with, compressing to x.264 MPEG4 would leave you with full quality. It would only need to be 2MB a sec for more than enough quality.

How much throughput do I need to get DVD playback working, and is there ANY way (such as 802.11n) to get that throughput wirelessly? There's no way we'll be able to run cables, but wireless is a possiblility.

EDIT: Re-read your post...why would gigabit be necessary if:
"Maximum video bit rate is 9.8 Mbps. The "average" video bit rate is around 4 Mbps" (Googled it). Does Mbps = MB/s? If not, what kind of conversion are we talking about?
I'm surprised that 10/100 wouldn't be able to handle DVD's, HDTV I can understand, but even just DVD's? Damn.

Compression is impossible because my 60+ father will be using this setup, and he isn't too computer literate. I want it to be as simple as possible.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I'm saying about the only way to do it would be to take the PC where all the videos are stores, and turn them into MPEG4 videos. And also latency over the network line can be a point. The more stuff that signal has to go through, the choppier it can be. Streaming full DVD's over wireless would be a pipe dream. You'd have to use some sort of compression. Doesn't the HTPC have a DVD drive in it? Why not just load them directly?

 

[SLCentral]

Originally posted by: thecoolnessrune
I'm saying about the only way to do it would be to take the PC where all the videos are stores, and turn them into MPEG4 videos. And also latency over the network line can be a point. The more stuff that signal has to go through, the choppier it can be. Streaming full DVD's over wireless would be a pipe dream. You'd have to use some sort of compression. Doesn't the HTPC have a DVD drive in it? Why not just load them directly?

All the hard drives are in my PC downstairs, and I also want to be able to access the movies on both computers, since they are both MCE 2005 systems, and the PC has a 30" Apple display on it, and the HTPC has a 50", they're both ideal media centers.

If the only way is compression, do you know of some software that'll make it VERY easy and fast to compress (something a very illiterate computer user can do)?

 

[thecoolnessrune]

For that I dont know. Compression is never easy really.

 

[orion23]

You need much better equipment if you want to see better results. Wireless "B" is not enough for video streaming. You need at least "G" or "A" (A being better because of less interference from other devices)

I have a netgear WGU624 Double 108MBPS wireless router which supports "A" and "G". There is a media center extender 1 floor below the router which uses wireless "A"
Each recording by the media center edition is at least 1.5GB (30 minutes) or 3.xxGB for 1 full hour.
I stream these show with no problems through the network.

 

[SLCentral]

Originally posted by: orion23
You need much better equipment if you want to see better results. Wireless "B" is not enough for video streaming. You need at least "G" or "A" (A being better because of less interference from other devices)

I have a netgear WGU624 Double 108MBPS wireless router which supports "A" and "G". There is a media center extender 1 floor below the router which uses wireless "A"
Each recording by the media center edition is at least 1.5GB (30 minutes) or 3.xxGB for 1 full hour.
I stream these show with no problems through the network.

Excellent; this is what I wanted to hear. 802.11a is 54Mbps, right? So theoretically, other then interference, 802.11g should perform similar to 802.11a? If so, I should have no problem streaming a DVD, since 3GB for 1 hour of TV is way higher bitrates then a DVD.

 

[orion23]

Yes, A is 54mbps.

Remember, many things can cause interference with a wireless device. Cordless phones, microwaves.... "B" is part of your problem, "G" is supposed to do the job. I guess you would have to try it.

 

[SLCentral]

Originally posted by: orion23
Yes, A is 54mbps.

Remember, many things can cause interference with a wireless device. Cordless phones, microwaves.... "B" is part of your problem, "G" is supposed to do the job. I guess you would have to try it.

Yeah, I think I'm going to grab a G wireless bridge, and just return if it if doesn't do the job. The BRIDGE is what I need to replace, correct? The router, USB card, antennas, cables, etc. are all fine?

 

[DaCurryman]

Just out of curiosity....in your pic you mention you can't go through the cieling since it's too thick near yout HTPC. But if you already have a wire going to the closet next to the HTPC, is there a reason you can't extend that wire to the HTPC?