HD100 Buffer?

[djseto]

My new place isn't wired for Ethernet so I am forced to use an Apple Airport Express (802.11n) as a Wireless Ethernet Bridge to connect my HD100 to my wireless network. I also have my SageTV Server connected to an Airport Express for the same purpose. This is not ideal, I know. When I am watching HD content on my HD100 everything seems to playback fine until I open my laptop and start surfing the web. Clearly, I'm competing for bandwidth. Is there anyway to configure a buffer in the HD100 or on the Server Side so that when other people in the house are surfing the web, I can minimize or eliminate stuttering?

I took a packet capture on my Server using some very sophisticated packet analysis software that my employer makes and I'm seeing about 18,000 kilobits/sec of sustained throughput. I would think this would be enough to stream HD video, no?

[reggie14]

18,000 kilobits/sec corresponds to 17.5mbps. That's really not very fast. That's pretty close to what an HD stream is. 802.11n should be capable of much more than that. I can get 90mbps on my Netgear 802.11n bridge.

The HD extenders already use a pretty decent buffer. I've noticed my extenders can go on for several seconds after losing their network connection. You definitely need a faster network connection.

Edit:
The level of performance you're getting is about what I was able to get from an 802.11g router in a crowded environment (in an apartment building). Are you sure it's an 802.11n-capable device? Is it running in 802.11n mode? Can you tell it to use the 5Ghz band instead of the 2.4Ghz band?

[djseto]

My main router is an Apple Airport Extreme (802.11n). There are three floors in my townhouse. The 3rd floor has the Cable Modem + Apple Airport Extreme base station. My SageTV server is located on the 2nd floor connected to an Apple Airport Express (in Bridge mode) and my Sage HD-100 is on the 1st floor with an Apple Airport Express (in Bridge mode). I haven't tried the Airport Express's in 5Ghz but I know on my laptop (which supports 5Ghz) it gets a weak-decent signal with 5Ghz because of the distance from the Airport Extreme.

Are you sure your NetGear is giving sustained 90mbps throughput or does it just say in Windows (or Mac) that it's connected at 90mbps? I only ask because theoretical and real world performance varies significantly especially with distance/floors/etc. involved.

Edit: I just changed my bridges to use the 5 ghz bands and everything appears to work now. I'm getting about 22,000 kbits/sec of sustained throughput now from my server to my HD100. My Apple Airport utility current shows the connection rate at 160mbps. I'm streaming an HD show from my Server and watching a show on ABC.com on my laptop using their HD streaming with no stuttering!

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by djseto

Are you sure your NetGear is giving sustained 90mbps throughput or does it just say in Windows (or Mac) that it's connected at 90mbps? I only ask because theoretical and real world performance varies significantly especially with distance/floors/etc. involved.

That's the actual speed as deployed in my apartment. That's what I got when I benchmarked my network's performance using iperf, and that's pretty much what I get when I do network transfers between machines. However, I do have a very strong signal. I'm only sending the wireless signal from one end of an apartment unit to the other. I only have to go through a couple walls on a single floor.