streaming video stored on one pc to my local network

[cougs_83]

I have several pcs on my home network connected to different tv's throughout my home. Basically every tv I have has a pc hooked to it. I use them as DVD's players and to stream from netflixs. My main setup also have a Hauppauge 1212 unit where I have basically recorded everything from my dvr and most of my dvds. Right now I am at 4 tb and eventually plan to go to 10tb raid and have all of my video there.

Anyway I would like to stream all of my video from this pc across my network to play on all my other pc's throughout the house. Everything is shared but with my 8 meg connection the .ts files can't stream across the network. It will try but doesn't work. I am wondering what the best option to accomplish this is?

From what I have found by searching already it looks like orb caster on the main pc with all the stored video and orb live everywhere else. Is this correct? Would this work? If it would work would this be my best option?

[jagabo]

Everything is shared but with my 8 meg connection the .ts files can't stream across the network.

What kind of LAN do you have that can only transfer 8 mb/s? I have Wirelesss N and Gb wired ethernet. Neither has any problems with even the highest bitrate videos.

[cougs_83]

I have a linksys WRT160n wireless router. but some of pc's still have wireless G cards. But my internet connection speed is only 8 meg so I assumed that is as fast as my pc's can transfer Data to each other. You asking that question made me realize that on my local network transfer speed should only be limited by the wireless g cards that are in my pc's. If I upgrade my cards to wireless N should I be able to stream HD video from pc to pc? Or is orb still an option for what I am looking to do?

[jagabo]

I have a linksys WRT160n wireless router. but some of pc's still have wireless G cards. But my internet connection speed is only 8 meg so I assumed that is as fast as my pc's can transfer Data to each other.

No, the speed from PC to PC will run at whatever rate your LAN is capable of. It won't be limited to your internet connection rate. When I had wireless G I could play videos at over 15 Mb/s. Wireless N should be able to play 50 Mb/s Blu-ray rips.

You asking that question made me realize that on my local network transfer speed should only be limited by the wireless g cards that are in my pc's. If I upgrade my cards to wireless N should I be able to stream HD video from pc to pc?

Yes. I would upgrade everything to Wireless N if possible. As long as you have good signal strength you should be fine.

[cougs_83]

One thing that is strange though is I was transferring a movie across the network from one pc to another on the network both had wireless g 54Mbps cards and I was only getting a transfer rate of 1mb/s. Is that normal? If it is as simple as picking up a few wireless n 300Mbps cards from ebay that would be great. I also have an unlimited online storage account that I would like to back uo all my movies with and possibly stream from. That is not going to happen for a while because I don't want to pay a ridiculous amount per month for an internet connection that can upload more than a movie per day (which they always seem to fail anyway due to size).

[jagabo]

Do you really mean 1 mega bit per sec? Or 1 mega byte per second? The former would be horrendously slow. The later is about half what I would expect. How far is it between the two PCs and the router? How many obstructions? How's the signal strength at each PC?

[cougs_83]

One mega byte per second. Pc's are fairly close maybe 20 ft in different rooms. Both have excellent signal strength. Shouldn't be any obstructions unless somehow cell phones could cause problems. Only possible obstruction would be other wireless networks. But I have changed the channel to one not used by other networks around me. Any recommendation as to router configuration? I have recorded all my .ts files anywhere between 5 mega bytes/s up to 11 for HD. From what I have found it looks like I will probably need to do quite a bit of work to get even 15 mega bytes/s with all wireless N and even if I get that it won't be consistent. Thanks for all the help so far!

[jagabo]

It sounds like you've tried all the obvious fixes. You really record TS files at 11 MB/s? 88 Mb/s? That's awful high. You can't even pump that much through 100TX wired.

[edDV]

If you can run Ethernet cable with a Gb capable switch, everything works great. I've now got CAT6 to all computer and TV locations. I can access any disk drive including a central NAS/home server from any location.

[edDV]

...I have recorded all my .ts files anywhere between 5 mega bytes/s up to 11 for HD. From what I have found it looks like I will probably need to do quite a bit of work to get even 15 mega bytes/s with all wireless N and even if I get that it won't be consistent. Thanks for all the help so far!

You must mean Mbits/s

DVD ~ 4-9 Mb/s
ATSC HD ~ 10-19 Mb/s
Blu-Ray MPeg2 ~20-35 Mb/s
Blu-Ray H.264 ~8-28 Mb/s

[cougs_83]

You are right I do mean bits I went back and checked the hauppauge website. For my HD PVR. But considering that I can transfer files @ 1 mbyte/s from PC to PC shouldn't at least my standard files stream that are recorded at 6 Mb/s? I don't really want to replace my router and run cat 6 from room to room in my home. (At least not for right now.)

[jagabo]

You are right I do mean bits I went back and checked the hauppauge website. For my HD PVR. But considering that I can transfer files @ 1 mbyte/s from PC to PC shouldn't at least my standard files stream that are recorded at 6 Mb/s? I don't really want to replace my router and run cat 6 from room to room in my home. (At least not for right now.)

Are your 6 Mb/s streams variable bitrate? If so, the bitrate will often be significantly more than 6 Mb/s. Keep in mind the audio and container overhead are streaming too.

As I noted earlier, I was able to stream over 15 Mb/s (CBR) to my WDTV Live back when I was using 802.11g.

Switching to 802.11n should take care of your streaming problems.

[edDV]

As far as I can see on the web the linksys WRT160n does not support gigabit over Ethernet so you need to use an external switch for computer to computer at Gibabit speeds over wired connection.

[jagabo]

Wired 100 TX will get you about 10 MB/s file copies. Good enough for full Blu-ray rips. Wired 1000 TX will be limited more by the drives than the ethernet bandwidth. I get about 50 MB/s.

[edDV]

Wired 100 TX will get you about 10 MB/s file copies. Good enough for full Blu-ray rips. Wired 1000 TX will be limited more by the drives than the ethernet bandwidth. I get about 50 MB/s.

Me too. Depends on Ethernet traffic. The more simutaneous streams, the higher the probability of Ethernet colllisions, thus resulting in packet send requests.

[cougs_83]

Really don't want to have to go back and set everything up wired. I have now switched everything over to wireless N. After setting to N only and WPA-2 I am running at about 3.5 MB/s transfer if I try to transfer a movie file across the LAN. But if I am trying to stream 6-10 Mb/s video files it is still skipping a bit. A noticeable improvement over the 1MB/s transfer rate. But @ 3.5 MB/s or 28 Mb/s shouldn't I be able to stream 6-10 Mb/s video files? Any other suggestions to improve my LAN speed? I know changing the channel should help. But there are already neighbors that I can see on channel 1 and 6.

I saw someone somewhere else suggest disabling security and requiring approval to access the network??? Does this help? I am sure I could find this setting and make the adjustments.

Am I missing something. I would like to use media player classic. Will use VLC if I have to, but it doesn't seem to be any better.

[cougs_83]

Oh I also saw someone say somewhere else that if a router is using both wired and wireless connections that it will bog down the router or something like that. I do have one PC that I won't really use for streaming that is on a wired connection. Should I change this? Will it improve my transfer speed?

[aedipuss]

the only router i know of that capable of streaming HD video over wireless-N without too many pauses is the apple airport extreme. i've tried others and had no luck. i ended up re-wiring the entire house and detached garage anyway with gigabit cables and routers.

[cougs_83]

So would 28Mb/s not be fast enough to stream a 6Mb/s variable bit rate recording? Seems like it should be. Jagabo you mentioned I should be able to stream 50Mb/s blue ray rips with a complete N system. Any suggestions?

[jagabo]

I was able to stream up to about 17 Mb/s CBR over a wireless G connection -- from a Windows XP computer to a WDTV Live, through one wall, about 10 feet. Whether you can stream a 6 Mb/s VBR video smoothly on a 28 Mb/s (measured, not "theoretical") connection will depend on how high the bitrate peaks are and how much the receiving device buffers. I would think you'd be ok in most situations.

Now with a Windows 7 computer, the same WDTV Live, and a Wireless N connection I can watch up to about 30 Mb/s CBR. The same devices with a 100 Mb/s wired connection (the computer and network are 1000tx but the WDTV Live only has a 100tx port) I can watch up to 65 Mb/s CBR.