MVP Over AC Lines?

tmiranda · #1 03-02-2006, 08:46 AM

I read a month or two ago about a product that uses a house's electrical system to carry network traffic. Two questions:

1. Who makes the product and what is it called? I know they have been around for some time but the product I am referring to is new and reaches sustained speeds in the 30-50 mbps range.

2. Anybody using this type of setup successfully with an MVP? I gave up waiting for the wireless MVP and purchased a new wired MVP. Now I've got to figure how to get it connected to the network.

Regards,

Tom

JUC · #2 03-02-2006, 08:53 AM

not sure but i recently saw that Belkin (i think) was trying to come out with a product that can reach 200mbps using the houses electrical system. Now--if that comes out that would be great. But--if a system that is currently available can sustain speeds at 30-50mbps i believe it should work fine. The only ones i have seen are only 11mbps
JUC

dbfresh23 · #3 03-02-2006, 10:22 AM

The technology you're thinking of is called Powerline. Currently it's able to do 14mbps, I haven't seen or heard of anything faster - could be a new spec they are working on.

tmiranda · #4 03-02-2006, 10:26 AM

Thanks to both of you. I know about the HomePlug 1.0 stuff but I know I also saw a newer product/standard that was shipping that has a much higher sustained transfer rate. I'll have to look for the info when I get home tonight....

pjwerdna · #5 03-02-2006, 12:30 PM

Devolo do 85Mbps versions for the UK, not sure about other countries.

I used a pair over christmas with the standard sage client with no trouble. All the recording were only at 1.6GB per hour, but the adapters seemed capable of at least 1MB per second.

PGPfan · #6 03-02-2006, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dbfresh23

The technology you're thinking of is called Powerline. Currently it's able to do 14mbps, I haven't seen or heard of anything faster - could be a new spec they are working on.

Might want to try THIS, it's 85 Mbps over the powerline. Have never tried one with Sage though, sorry.

-PGPfan

tmiranda · #7 03-02-2006, 12:54 PM

PGPfan, That's it. I'm going to try the XE102 since I do not need the router functionality. I'll report results here when the MVP and these babies arrive.

kkoz · #8 03-02-2006, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmiranda

PGPfan, That's it. I'm going to try the XE102 since I do not need the router functionality. I'll report results here when the MVP and these babies arrive.

I have a set of the XE104's (85 mbps) and they don't work very well so I don't think you'll be very happy with the XE102's at 14 mbps. With the XE104's when I start watching a video the stream is very choppy for the first 30 to 60 seconds, and then things start running smoothly. But every 10 minutes or so, I'll get 5 to 15 seconds of studder.

I've stopped using them, and have went to Wireless G Bridge which works much better, but still not as good as 100MB Ethernet!

I'm going to try the 200MB HomePlug devices when they come out. Hopefully those will give the extra throughput needed. The XE104's are close, but not quite good enough in my book.

-Kevin

tmiranda · #9 03-02-2006, 07:48 PM

Arg, I didn't see the difference in speed, I though the XE102 was the same as the XE104 minus the switching capability. The XE104 is also pricey. Time to look at a wireless bridge.....

dagar · #10 03-02-2006, 08:04 PM

You may want to search around some for reviews. The few I looked at were less than flattering about the units throughput (rated and actual). FWIW the HPNA 1.0 14mbs Powerline gear is great (I have a multivendor setup) but it's a CSMA-like Ethernet bus, unsuitable for video streaming.

tmiranda · #11 03-03-2006, 06:42 AM

I've seen mixed reviews. Some say it streams video just fine, others say they get stuttering. I was going to give it a shot since I record at low bitrates (0.9 GB/hr) and the MVP will be located in an area really difficult to get CAT5 to.

Wireless is of course a possibility but that is unreliable. I can stream to my laptop running Sage Client but it stutters badly when the microwave is on or the cordless phone is in use. This generates an unacceptable WAF ....

dagar · #12 03-03-2006, 07:32 AM

Throwing out that many bones, you may want to wait on the ~200mbs powerline gear that's coming down the pipe... name eludes me right now.

I think Netgear has a product using those PHYs, is supposed to support 802.1p frame-pause "QOS" as well. Though I wonder about how well it will work or help as the bus will still be (I think) CSMA (with no CD). Basically, 2 or 3 nodes would be max from a max bandwidth perspective.

tmiranda · #13 03-03-2006, 02:26 PM

I am considering that as well but the reviews say to expect it to be expensive.

LostInSpace · #14 03-14-2006, 03:25 AM

I'm using the Devolo 85mps but it does not work with the MVP. The picture is stuttering...

Is it possible to reduce the transcoding bitrate of the stream to the MVP?
I saw some parameters in the sage.properties file and tried to change them without success.

Ferdinand

gplasky · #15 03-14-2006, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LostInSpace

I'm using the Devolo 85mps but it does not work with the MVP. The picture is stuttering...

Is it possible to reduce the transcoding bitrate of the stream to the MVP?
I saw some parameters in the sage.properties file and tried to change them without success.

Ferdinand

What type of file are you watching? If it is a Sage TV recording that's a standard mpeg2 file and the MVP wouldn't transcode it. It has a hardware mpeg2 decoder on board.

Gerry

dagar · #16 03-14-2006, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LostInSpace

I'm using the Devolo 85mps but it does not work with the MVP. The picture is stuttering...

Is it possible to reduce the transcoding bitrate of the stream to the MVP?
I saw some parameters in the sage.properties file and tried to change them without success.

Ferdinand

How many nodes are you running on it? Just 2? Not using any surge bars are you?

pjwerdna · #17 03-14-2006, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LostInSpace

I'm using the Devolo 85mps but it does not work with the MVP. The picture is stuttering...

Have you used the microlink informer utility that comes with the devolo to check what speed the connection is. Plugging into extension leads etc can make a considerable differance.

I think I got 72mbps, which was about 1MB/sec real rate, and had no trouble playing 1.8BG/hour mpegs using the sage client. (Not sure what rate the MVP lpays though)

tmiranda · #18 03-14-2006, 05:43 PM

As far as I know the MVP will play at whatever bitrate the MPEG was recorded. The MVP just receives an MPEG stream and plays it as is. I think the max rate is something like 12mbps.

I'm still torn between getting a wired MVP from eBay and trying out the XE102 (or perhaps a wireless bridge) and waiting for the wireless MVP which is likely to have its own issues.

Anybody have any guesses on the price of the wireless MVP? I'm thinking it will be (relatively) expensive, say $179 - $199. I have no evidence whatsoever to support this, it's just a guess.

gplasky · #19 03-14-2006, 06:03 PM

It's suppose to list at $149.00. And it will also have a wired ethernet port too.

Gerry

LostInSpace · #20 03-15-2006, 07:10 AM

I have 3 nodes on it.
But if I connect only 2 nodes: used to connect Server to router.
If I connect the MVP to the router with an Ethernet cable : NOK but SageClient is ok... Strange.

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