Ive downloaded a few HD films onto my laptop, but they are very jittery when they play.

I have been looking at getting a remote media player so I can play music and videos in my living room on my big tv and stereo. A few of these play HD content and use a HDMI connection. I take it wont matter the spec of my laptop as the remote media player is just reading the files off my laptop not actually using it play them.

I have a G band wireless router and wireless USB dongles (only hooked up to USB 1.1 ports) what sort of connections speeds will i need to stream HD media succesfully?

Thanks

Chris

I've got stacks of films on my main computer.

I tried to stream them over my wireless network to my laptop in the bedroom - result was crap!

Just purchased some AV Homeplugs - upto 200Mbps - result brilliant

After some quick calcs...

If a 2 hour WMV-HD movie is 8gb

That is 1.1 mb/s


My connection is running at 54mbps (or so the little network icon says in the taskbar) this equates to 6.75mb/s

So in theory I should be ok. If not I can always get some home plugs.

Or is it not as simple as this?

[Edited on 2/12/2007 by greggors84]

Not as simple as that calculation. I too have struggled to stream HD over 54g - it uses a lot of the bandwidth for security and packet integrity. I noticed some of the new Wireless routers are now mentioning HD streaming if you use kit from one manufacturer...

I take it that was streaming HD from one computer to another instead of from the internet SeaBass?

I saw something from DivX that looks good for this kind of thing. It does XviD as well so it should cover most of the internet based stuff. I think it was about £130 in the email so if you watch a lot of internet stuff it's reasonable I think. Here on the DivX site.

[Edited on 2/12/07 by Peteff]

I stream Divx HD videos across G with no real issues, but still occasional pauses.

The problem is that there is no QOS on 54 g so you will get pauses etc, for streaming media you need wires. Atomfun solution is best if you don't want to get a drill out

quote:

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Originally posted by greggors84
After some quick calcs...

If a 2 hour WMV-HD movie is 8gb

That is 1.1 mb/s


My connection is running at 54mbps (or so the little network icon says in the taskbar) this equates to 6.75mb/s

So in theory I should be ok. If not I can always get some home plugs.

Or is it not as simple as this?

[Edited on 2/12/2007 by greggors84]

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your bottleneck could be the USB1.1 - around 1.5MB/sec at best...

also any PC still running with USB1.1 I would have serious doubts is able to play back HD?

James

James,

Its my laptop running 2.4ghz P4, with 739mb of Ram. Its about 5 years old which I guess is why it only has usb1.1

The video card is only 16mb which is why I cant play HD videos directly from my laptop, but if the media streamer just reads the files off the harddrive then it shouldnt matter the spec of the laptop.

Looks like I will have to get some homeplugs or use a cable for HD streaming then.

ah OK, yes - or use a PCMCIA wireless card? Will have a far higher throughput compared to usb1.1

James

[Edited on 6/12/07 by cloudy]

Had this problem before when I wanted to buy a external HD, no PCMCIA slot! Strange for a laptop i know.

Ended up getting a firewire one, shame it seems there are no firewire WiFi devices.

[Edited on 6/12/2007 by greggors84]

You might find GeeBoX interesting it is a bootable Linux cd that turns x86 or Power PC Mac computer into a media player and streaming media server.

Boots off CD without using the hard disc, I tried it as a media player and found it quite good if a little raw.

http://geexbox.org/en/index.html

[Edited on 6/12/07 by britishtrident]