Streaming 720p and 1080p media slow and choppy

[ivan]

Just wondering if anyone can help me out here.

Let me explain my setup. I have my PBO with firmware ES-51-283G-PCMPBO25-P61 (bootcode 23), it is hardwired via a CAT6 ethernet cable to a TP-LINK 300M wireless N gigabit router (WR1043N). The wireless router is then wireless to my Dell Studio 15 laptop (Win7 x64, Core i7, 6 gigs RAM, 1 gig vid card), which has an Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 AGN wireless network card. The router is literally 6 feet in front of me, and I get full signal strength. I just got the router yesterday, and set this up, and I think I may need some networking help.

Now my problem is this, when I try to stream media, 720p or 1080p mkv movies or 25 minute shows, onto the PBO, it lags. It will play fine for a minute or two, and then just freezes up for a minute, or becomes all choppy. I see my AV receiver lose the connection and then get it again, in regards to the 5.1 sound. Considering we got the PBO so I could stream media onto it, this gives me a major problem.

When I check the wireless speed under Wireless Network Conection Status on my computer, it's jumping around between 200Mbps and 36Mbps. Is this the problem causing the lag? Why isn't is 300Mbps?

Now is it the router or network cards fault? (I just bought the router and can still return it).

How should my router be set up, in the terms of settings, to get the best streaming?

How should I set up my advanced settings for my network card?

Is there anything else I can do, other than hard wiring it in?

[aasoror]

When I check the wireless speed under Wireless Network Conection Status on my computer, it's jumping around between 200Mbps and 36Mbps. Is this the problem causing the lag? Why isn't is 300Mbps?

Indeed, this sums up the reason behind your problem, as you have noted above your wifi connection isn't consistent (which is typical and might not be an issue with your hardware).

Here is couple of tricks to try:
- have you checked for conflicts with other wifi networks (neighbors), try changing the wifi channel you are using (from the router setup).

- Do you have other activities going on the network ? like P2P ? try to find a QoS (quality of service) setting on your router and set it so media streaming would have priority even on a busy network.

- How about interference with household appliances ? like a microwave ?

- You might want to avoid uploading over wifi (this is what you are doing now and is way worse than the typical scenario where the PBO is downloading over wifi) by using the USB port on your router for storage (I think it has one).

- How about trying a better firmware for your router ? TL-WR1043ND (v1.1 and v1.4) is DD-WRT compatible. DD-WRT is feature rich and if you have only N devices in your network you can set to only connect and maintain 300mbps connection (not sure if you can do this with the stock firmware on your router)

[ivan]

I bought a new router (D-Link DIR825). I am streaming over the 5GHz band. I used the program InSSIDer to make sure there were no neighbours with a similar channel to me. I also changed around some settings in my Advanced network card tab.

It's streaming great now, even 1080p movies.

[aasoror]

It's streaming great now, even 1080p movies.

Thanks for the update, enjoy your PBO.

[odoug]

Ivan, what settings did you change in the router?

[ivan]

In the router?

Just made sure the 5 ghz band was on its own channel, without any interference from the neighbours (check wikipedia about channel overlaps), made so that it was only transmitting in a/n mode and NOT b/g. Make sure the security is WPA2/AES, and that it was auto 20/40Hz. Make sure QoS and WMM is enabled.

I think that was about all. Seemed to work ok. Watched a 12 gig mkv movie yesterday, maybe 2 or 3 half a second pauses through it, which is acceptable.

[tourist]

I just got another cheap 300mbps N router ($24AR). I have the PBO connected to an even cheaper Rosewill 150mbps N router in client mode which in turn wireless connected to the new router. I know the performance of the Rosewill router is poor as I can only get 72mbps connection with my laptop. Now my laptop can connect to the new router at 144mpbs (Intel 4965AGN require 5GHz band for 300mbps connection). I can stream 1080p video from my laptop to the PBO smoothly except for the very high bitrate files (e.g. the highest one in the benchmark clips). The network speed test before playing file is around 12000. Videos in 1080p mkv or 720p mpg that were stuttering in stream play before using G connection are now very smooth. Streaming video from internet is also improved. I am happy with it. :)

[barbecuy]

Ok, so I spent 3 hours trying to make my PBO work at home and finally it works perfect for what I need:
DLINK n300 router
Wired PBO
Freenas server that contains all my media(wired)
Toshiba 40 in. 1080p.
I upgraded to firmware 61 right away(by the way I still don't know how to make the IMS work but I don't care about that for now)
All media files worked ok but not the mkv 720p or 1080p. They chopped every 2 seconds, awful, I was packing the thing back to memory express(Canada). Read a lot of posts about this same issue and nothing pointed to a PBO setting problem, only network issues.
In my last attempt to play 1080p I reminded I had a small ethernet hub sharing my internet with my playstation and my PBO, just disconnected the hub and plug my PBO straight to the router and it started playing 1080p 90 GB files like a charm. Tried 4 mkv movies and they were all perfectly played, no chopping at all. I bought a switch to replace hub and all done.
So I think that PBO is capable to play 1080p mkv large video files over a 10/100 network with no problem(it does it for me), if it doesn't work for You, You should check your network and all devices You use along your network (including switches, hubs, repeaters, etc).
I have to mention that the HDMI cable included on the pbo was giving me some problems with my tv settings, I tried different tv systems, 1080p enabled and disabled and never got the perfect display for my TV( I was missing around 5 pixels from the left side of the screen), so I changed the cable for another that I already had and now the picture fit nicely on the full screen( I was hoping the cable will fix the video chopping problem but it didn't). didn't try wireless and I won't even try, I don't trust wireless connections, at least not for now. Any manual or HOW TO for making the IMS work will be highly apprecaited. I just got an unable to connect error message everytime i tried one of the services. What about Canadian weather??? Come on PATRIOT, I know is always cold, We just want to know how cold.
thanks and I hope it helps

[tourist]

Do a search in forum and you will find how to add Canada to the weather link.

[snappy46]

What about Canadian weather??? Come on PATRIOT, I know is always cold, We just want to know how cold.
thanks and I hope it helps

Here you go!: http://www.patriotmemory.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4552

[mansat]

What 5ghz wireless adapter did you get to work with the PBO?