Do I need a Gigabit router for live streaming?

[jbaugh]

I'm embarrassed to show my ignorance by asking such a simple question. But here goes.

I am doing live broadcasting using a Vixia HV30 camcorder attached to a Mac Mini with dual i7 processor and 8GB RAM. The Mac Mini is connected by a 75 foot ethernet cable to my Linksys WRT54G router running on Tomato firmware. I can only stream at about 850 mbps before the streaming falters. My internet upload speeds measure between 2.8- 4.2 Mbps. Is my Linksys router acting as a bottleneck in my streaming? Would I benefit by upgrading to a Gigabit router? I would like to try some HD broadcasting at a higher bit rate if possible.
Thanks.
John

[edDV]

I can only stream at about 850 mbps

You mean 850 Kbps I assume.

Ethernet 100baseT should max around 30-50 Mbps for a steady stream but that will be reduced by any downstream traffic or other network traffic. I suspect the problems are in the router or you don't really have 2.8 Mb up from the ISP. Often they throttle heavy users especially the cable companies. For cable, your whole neighborhood must share 38 Mbps up. Who is your ISP?

Best to get a new router anyway.

[jbaugh]

Of course you are correct– it is 850 kbps. I'm using Comcast Business Class internet. I'd like to get a gigabit router that is compatible with Tomato firmware. I've read reviews about the Asus RT-N16 router that seem positive. Do you have any suggestions about routers I should check out? Tomato compatibility is not an absolute requirement.
Most of the gigabit routers are gigabit on the LAN side only. Is this OK? Do I need a router that has gigabit connection on the WAN side?
Thanks for your help.
John

[edDV]

Of course you are correct– it is 850 kbps. I'm using Comcast Business Class internet. I'd like to get a gigabit router that is compatible with Tomato firmware. I've read reviews about the Asus RT-N16 router that seem positive. Do you have any suggestions about routers I should check out? Tomato compatibility is not an absolute requirement.
Most of the gigabit routers are gigabit on the LAN side only. Is this OK? Do I need a router that has gigabit connection on the WAN side?
Thanks for your help.
John

I'm not up to date on Tomato. Start with the modem specs . See what it maxes at for sustained bit rate.

In some areas, Comcast has high uplink options. Best to talk to them about what you can expect in your neighborhood. The "blast" rates they advertise are for short data bursts not sustained.

Remember that a T1 from the phone company only gets you 1500 Kbps up so you are getting better than 1/2 T1.

[aedipuss]

you can get comcast compatible cable modems that are gigabit wan. i use a motorola 6120 and a gigabit trendnet router with gb switches throughout the house. the entire network runs at gigabit speed(and some devices here with double gb nics are running at 2gbps).

what size, type and kbps video are you trying to stream from the hv30.

[edDV]

and what streaming app on the Mac?

[redwudz]

You won't get gigabit speeds from the internet anyway. I have a all gigabit LAN system and my VDSL internet connection is 20Mb/s, capable of 40Mb/s. But within my LAN I get sustained speeds with hard drive transfers of about 65MB's to 85MB/s, depending on LAN traffic and HDD and controller speeds. Big difference between Mb/s and MB/s.

I use a gigabit router, along with several gigabit switches. And the computers are all wired with CAT5E and CAT6 cables. I would recommend CAT6.

I think Tomato was more for older routers. This from a Wikipedia article: Tomato is compatible with many Broadcom-based routers, including Asus routers, BuffaloAirStation, and the Linksys WRT54G series.

The article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato_(firmware)

[jbaugh]

Thanks for the multiple responses and questions. Since I have Comcast Business Class internet account I am required to use their combo modem/router. As far as I can tell from querying the router it is a 10/100Mbit router. So it seems to me it wouldn't help to put a Giabit router inside the Comcast gateway to control my LAN since the Comcast device would be the limiting factor in throughput to the internet. Am I correct in this assumption? Would I really gain any advantage in live streaming over the internet by having a gigabit LAN which is connected to a 10/100Mbit gateway?

My streaming ap is Wirecast with the optional HDV plugin that allows HDV streaming. Currently I have my Vixia HV30 set to the DV setting for SD quality streaming. My encoder output is set to 640x480 Flash h.264 with "Average bit rate" setting set to 850kbps. This works well as long as I don't increase the "Average bit rate" setting. As a trial I switched the camcorder to "HDV(PF30)" setting to see if I could get a better quality video stream. The encoder output was changed to 640x360 and the "Average bit rate" was left at 850. To my pleasant surprise the resulting video was dramatically improved with these settings. Unfortunately, since the audio input is via a line from the Profire 610 Firewire interface to the computer line in and not from the camera there is major dys-synergy between video and sound when trying to stream this relatively high definition feed.

I would love to be able to stream live broadcasts form the Vixia using the HDV(PF30) setting but I have not yet solved the audio synchrony problem yet. If I upgrade to the Wirecast Pro version it has a feature to allow delaying the sound and re-synching the A/V. But I am not sure I want to put out another $350 for that upgrade.

Right now I barely squeak by with the current data bit rate. I had hoped that something relatively simple like a gigabit router might allow higher data rates.
John

[edDV]

Thanks for the multiple responses and questions. Since I have Comcast Business Class internet account I am required to use their combo modem/router. As far as I can tell from querying the router it is a 10/100Mbit router. So it seems to me it wouldn't help to put a Giabit router inside the Comcast gateway to control my LAN since the Comcast device would be the limiting factor in throughput to the internet. Am I correct in this assumption?

No, not if you use a switch to isolate your modem from a gigabit LAN network. The internal LAN can run gigabit but the Comcast connection can go at whatever speed it can do.

[aedipuss]

looks to me the limiting factor is the comcast account. to be able to stream at higher bit rates may require upgrading to a faster comcast account.

if a router is part of the cable modem what do you have the wrt54g for?

[edDV]

Would I really gain any advantage in live streaming over the internet by having a gigabit LAN which is connected to a 10/100Mbit gateway?

No, the uplink will be far slower limited by Comcast.

[jbaugh]

if a router is part of the cable modem what do you have the wrt54g for?

I have much better ability to configure my LAN with my router. I have a considerable number of port forwarding settings that allow me to do things such as remote management and remote file sharing. The Tomato firmware on the Linksys router makes it easy to assign static DHCP addresses, adjust QOS settings for VoIP, etc. I don't think some of these things can be done in the Comcast gateway. And I had the Linksys router up and running at least a year before signing up with the Comcast Business service. I was very familiar with its functionality.
John