Client on laptop is choppy, suggestions?

[waltc]

I'm trying to go as cheap as possible with any fixes. I broke down and bought a 100' cat5 cable ($10) and will try this tonight. When there's a break in the rain I'll have the cable wired along side my cable outside the house.

To answer a few questions since my post:

1. Yes I'm using USB 1.1, which would cost me a few bucks and could fix my problem. I didn't think of that.

2. I want to use all qualities of recording. I want to be able to watch a show at the highest quality and archive it if I like it (ie Good Eats). I know lowering the quality will help with making the client run smoother, but I want my cake AND save it for later also.

3. For now I'm recording SDTV. Eventually I would like to record HDTV since cable is moving to that in a few years and I have a nice DLP in my livingroom.

I've read other posts about wireless clients working, but I'm trying to see if I can patch something together for my needs. I get a kick out of trying to piece together things I get for free and make them work.

[bobvoeh]

USB 1.1 is definitely a bottleneck. Basically cutting down your 54g network to roughly 11mb. Even without that bottleneck, I have not tried to stream HD over wireless. I don't know if it is possible, from what I have read, you would need a near perfect signal. But with 54g, SDTV streams just fine as long as you have a decent connection.

[wrwaugh]

Todd33,

Wireless is interesting... not fun necessarily, but interesting. I stream all my video around the house to other computers using various types of G. Its fine. I used to only have B and that worked fine also.

However, I have two laptops... one is slow thing with an 800 Mhz process and it streams the video just fine either on B or G. I have a newer Dell with a 1.4 Mhz processor and it just can't seem to do it. Both laptops were tried using the same USB wireless adapter... they do not have onboard wireless. So, the old slow one works and the other is choppy.


It is not the network in and of itself. It appears to be how the laptop motherboards handle the wireless network.

[wrwaugh]

Walt,

For SDTV on wireless, I have had perfectly good results using a USB 1.1 for a 802.11B wireless adapter. But I must say it works well on my PCs and on one laptop. The other laptop can't seem to do it smoothly. I don't know why.

[waltc]

Well, I'm off to the store to pick up some cables and a usb 2.0 pci card for my free computer. New Year's day, rainy and windy outside - what else is there to do but mess with my Sagetv ! Thanks and I'll keep everyone posted on what my solution is for my problem.

[bobvoeh]

Originally Posted by wrwaugh

Walt,

For SDTV on wireless, I have had perfectly good results using a USB 1.1 for a 802.11B wireless adapter. But I must say it works well on my PCs and on one laptop. The other laptop can't seem to do it smoothly. I don't know why.

What quality setting are you using for the recordings that you are streaming on 802.11B ? I user DVD Standard (3.2gb per hour) and could not get it to stop stuttering on B, but G works fine. Just curious.

[Oats]

I tried streaming live SDTV over my 802.11B network for the first time lastnight. It was a little laggy when I would try to FF/RW, but other than that it was smooth. I'm using 2GB per hour.

[waltc]

I added an USB 2.0 pci card, so using a wireless G Sage runs smoothly at 800x600 on my Samsung DLP at all quality levels. I tried to up the resolution to 1240x800 and it bogs down at some quality levels. I record shows at all qualities because I want to archive some and just 1-time watch others. Would be great to use this setup as an internet browser when family is over. What should be my next upgrade (see specs in earlier post)? I'm thinking of getting a better video card (maybe 64or128M pci).