Optimizing watching videos over home network with wireless connection

[dzachau]

I am wanting to watch videos via a wireless connection to my home network using Windows Media Player on my laptop. I have videos stored on a networked computer and am accessing the videos via the wireless connection on the laptop. The video plays fairly well, except that every minute or so there is a stutter. This video "stutter" does not occur with the computers connected to my network using a cable. Is this a buffering issue?? Is it a function of the amount of data the wireless connection can accomodate?? Are there settings in Media Player I could tweak to maximize performance of watching a video over my home network via a wireless connection?

Thanks!

Dave

[videomaniac]

Streaming video wirelessly is problematic and usually does not work unless everything is just right.

1. Make sure your wireless setup is at least G or pre N, and that means everything in your setup.
2. The lower the bitrate the more smoothly the video will be sent
3. No microwaves or cordless phones with the same frequency as the wireless network
4. Minimize distance and walls. You may need to try different locations to see what works best
5. MPEG2 at low bitrates is the easiest to send and play, wmv is probably the hardest
6. I think video card and HD will play a role as well

My advice is to forget wireless video streaming. It can be done but if you want robust...hassle free video over your network...then go wired!

[gotnotime]

I've also explored this issue with streaming. I agree with the above to minimize problems. However, I believe that there must be a way to improve streaming and buffering is likely to be the answer as you mentioned. If I copy an entire video over a wireless net it takes much less time then the movie length. Therefore banwidth is not the issue.

With WMP you can increase the buffer to 60 seconds, but I'm not sure this has any effect over wireless since the program thinks it is reading from a hardrive as opposed to streaming from the internet.

Does anyone know of any other video player progs that allow buffering with wireless?

[bits]

I am not sure but VLC might help.

[gotnotime]

Thanks for the tip, I tried VLC, but encountered the same problems. I suppose the solution lies with a faster wireless system. I curretly have "G" with consistent 48-54MPS speeds. Again it seems strange that if I just copy the file I can transfer an entire DVD quality 2 hour movie (4.7GB) in under 60 minutes. Therefore my throughput stream is averaging twice the speed I need. Even at the highest birate portions of the film and should have plenty extra bandwidth available. The problem clearly lies with buffering.

I tried adjusting the buffer to one minute (60,000ms) and it appears to have no effect on the "chopiness" of the film. The statistics window shows dropped frames. It appears that the buffering does not work.

I had similar results with WMP. The buffer can be set to max 60secs. I thought there was some improvement, but the difference ma be subjective.

I don't have a solution here, maybe the "Gurus" in ths forum can help.