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HD Streaming: N or G?

B

Bhowell

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 13, 2008
9
0
Austin, Texas
What is the minimum network speed needed to stream HD content from and AirDisk attached to the AEBS to the AppleTV without hitches?

I currently have an AEBS with N wireless with two AEs with G wireless participating in a WDS network to bridge ethernet and AirTunes. Will this cause me to fall to a G network and kill my ability to stream 720p content?

Thanks,

Brett
 
I have experimented with wired, N and G connectivity with the AppleTV, and a wired approach is definitely the most consistent. While technically N is faster than 100Mbit ethernet, I have found that the wireless signal sometimes hiccups, and can cause an HD stream to stall for a few minutes. Forget about G.

The AEBS can only run in G or N singly. So it will not bridge to your AE in G, and connect to the AppleTV in N. Try to hard wire the AppleTV.

Hope that helps.
 
N is the best, since it is faster with built in MIMO (multiple in multiple out) technology. Since you have devices (AEs) with a band lower than N, the whole network will slow down to that speed. The AEs maximum is G, so the leftover potential in the AEBS is gathering up dust.
 
TurboLag said:
I have experimented with wired, N and G connectivity with the AppleTV, and a wired approach is definitely the most consistent. While technically N is faster than 100Mbit ethernet, I have found that the wireless signal sometimes hiccups, and can cause an HD stream to stall for a few minutes.
Click to expand...

Any insight into why it performed better on the weaker wired setup? Variability maybe?

SnowLeopard2008 said:
N is the best, since it is faster with built in MIMO (multiple in multiple out) technology. Since you have devices (AEs) with a band lower than N, the whole network will slow down to that speed. The AEs maximum is G, so the leftover potential in the AEBS is gathering up dust.
Click to expand...

I technically only need one AE to bridge internet to my Xbox360 and serve airtunes to the stereo. Could I use the other one to create a separate G network attached to an ethernet port on the AEBS and bridge that connection to the xbox as well as use for the Girlfriends laptop? (massive runon; sorry)

On Edit: It seems to be somewhat detailed here on page 48.
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Des....5-Windows.pdf
 
I stream HD content over my G network perfectly fine. Took a few seconds to buffer, and then played flawlessly.

They are only 720p files though, my tele doesn't do 1080p.
 
Bhowell said:
Any insight into why it performed better on the weaker wired setup? Variability maybe?



I technically only need one AE to bridge internet to my Xbox360 and serve airtunes to the stereo. Could I use the other one to create a separate G network attached to an ethernet port on the AEBS and bridge that connection to the xbox as well as use for the Girlfriends laptop? (massive runon; sorry)

On Edit: It seems to be somewhat detailed here on page 48.
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Des....5-Windows.pdf
Click to expand...

wired is more stable, remember, the AEBS or AE is using wireless signals which are not always consistent. sometimes a few conditions can knock the stability threw the window. hardwiring kind of sucks because of the wires, but its more stable.

Answer to your question, I think so, but since I'm only running an AE that serves as the central base station for my family, I don't know how...
 
SnowLeopard2008 said:
wired is more stable, remember, the AEBS or AE is using wireless signals which are not always consistent. sometimes a few conditions can knock the stability threw the window. hardwiring kind of sucks because of the wires, but its more stable.

Answer to your question, I think so, but since I'm only running an AE that serves as the central base station for my family, I don't know how...
Click to expand...

I've never at all, in having my Apple TV, had a problem streaming SD or HD content wirelessly using my Airport Express G or Airport Extreme N (configured in G mode so flatmates could use their laptops) with stutters or pauses in the playback. Or inconsistency for that matter.

Works perfectly fine for me, and that is having one flatmate connected to the network wirelessly and downloading a severe amount.
 
Picture your basic 2 story house with a basement. The Extreme base station is on the 2nd floor right corner (home office) and your media room is in the basement lower left. The signal has to travel 50+ft and through a few walls (drywall), 2 floors and around typical basement duct work. Any issues there? Would I need to add a AE as an extender?
 
CMD is me said:
Picture your basic 2 story house with a basement. The Extreme base station is on the 2nd floor right corner (home office) and your media room is in the basement lower left. The signal has to travel 50+ft and through a few walls (drywall), 2 floors and around typical basement duct work. Any issues there? Would I need to add a AE as an extender?
Click to expand...

you could.. it would help the entire signal reception throughout the house.
 
Kilamite said:
I've never at all, in having my Apple TV, had a problem streaming SD or HD content wirelessly using my Airport Express G or Airport Extreme N (configured in G mode so flatmates could use their laptops) with stutters or pauses in the playback. Or inconsistency for that matter.

Works perfectly fine for me, and that is having one flatmate connected to the network wirelessly and downloading a severe amount.
Click to expand...

I can't get mine to stream hd and it is driving me nuts. What set up do you have and what settings are you using on your aebs. When i stream from my airdisk to my mbp it seems fine but at times just keeps stuttering and frezzing. It seems to be at certain parts of films as if maybe the bitrate is higher??? Help please
 
jeb1 said:
I can't get mine to stream hd and it is driving me nuts. What set up do you have and what settings are you using on your aebs. When i stream from my airdisk to my mbp it seems fine but at times just keeps stuttering and frezzing. It seems to be at certain parts of films as if maybe the bitrate is higher??? Help please
Click to expand...

Try using VLC Player.
 
Kilamite said:
Try using VLC Player.
Click to expand...

I have tried vlc and boxee but to no avail it stutters at the same point in the film everytime yet it is fine if i plug the harddrive straight into the mbp. This is the same with loads of my films. They are only 720p and no bigger than about 4.3 gb. It's as if the bitrates are maybe a bit higher in these points of the film. So many on here seem to be streaming hd fine. Where am i going wrong??
 
jeb1 said:
I have tried vlc and boxee but to no avail it stutters at the same point in the film everytime yet it is fine if i plug the harddrive straight into the mbp. This is the same with loads of my films. They are only 720p and no bigger than about 4.3 gb. It's as if the bitrates are maybe a bit higher in these points of the film. So many on here seem to be streaming hd fine. Where am i going wrong??
Click to expand...

Are you or anyone else doing anything else on the hd at the same time?
 
Kilamite said:
Are you or anyone else doing anything else on the hd at the same time?
Click to expand...

No, Its just my mbp connected to the aebs and i have it set to 5ghz n. May i ask what set up you have? and what settings you have your aebs set to?
 
I found wired to be the most stable for HD streaming. Having said that, I've found the ATV to be pretty flaky and inconsistent at times, so if you are having problems, try to eliminate each piece of the jigsaw so to speak, from computer through to ATV.
 
ascender said:
I found wired to be the most stable for HD streaming. Having said that, I've found the ATV to be pretty flaky and inconsistent at times, so if you are having problems, try to eliminate each piece of the jigsaw so to speak, from computer through to ATV.
Click to expand...

I'm not using apple tv im just trying to play the hd movies stored on the airdisk on my mac but it keeps stuttering.
 
Maximum video bitrate for a Blu-Ray disc at 1080p is 40 Mbit/s, most video on PCs is much more heavily compressed than that, and I would also imagine that most Blu-Ray movies are compressed to maybe 75% or less than that (<30 Mbit/s). Many consumer level HD camcorders record at around 15 Mbit/s.

802.11g TOPS OUT at 54 Mbit/s, under 100% ideal circumstances and full-on signal strength.

802.11n can be much faster, but a wired connection will always give you better, more reliable, lower latency connection.

So basically, if you're working with, say, a 15 Mbit/s video signal, plus an audio stream, you really shouldn't have a problem streaming it over 802.11g.

Now, obviously with either wired or 802.11n, you have more room to do other things, like downloading or whatnot, but at this point in time, 802.11g should be sufficient for most HD format videos that are streamable over a home network.
 
HOORAY, After many painful hours i have solved the problem. Like with most things i could have sorted this in minutes but didnt think basics. I was using a usb hub (some cheap freebie from a gadget show) to connect both the hd and a printer to my aebs. I unplugged this and hey presto. It works. I am exstatic. and to think i tried so many different things and all along it was the ****** usb hub causing me problems.

On that note. Anyone know of a descent usb hub??
 
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