[Kineticwash]

Hey guys,

My HTPC is in my living room, hooked to my AV receiver/tv. My NAS is in my office, about 40 feet from the HTPC. My question is this: Will I be able to play the movie files that reside on my NAS from my HTPC without running CAT5e? I'd have to do some serious wall/attic cable running if I cant; something I want to avoid.

Thanks

[Orclas]

I've researched it and it's still a bit of a gamble (for 1080), at least it was when I looked into it this spring. The key thing is stability (as in zero dropouts) not actual raw throughput.

My solution was to get a Netgear WNHDB3004 which so far has worked in full - no lag, no stutter, loads fast, skipping chapters forth and back is perfectly fast and stable - but that's under rather optimal circumstances (basically open air and some 30 feet) and it's not a cheap solution...

[Kineticwash]

I guess I'll have to try it and see. If I am going to try wireless route first, would you recommend a PCI wireless adapter or is a USB wireless adapter sufficient? I assume there is no difference, but I'm not certain.

[Orclas]

Before getting the Netgear bridge, I streamed up to 720, mostly quite stable, via a quality USB adapter (I had a Netgear WNDR3700 so minimized the risks by using a Netgear adapter, but can't remember which).

That was with a test HTPC (scrap P4 computer) which couldn't play full 1080p due to CPU limitations and no GPU offload, so I can't say whether the network part would have managed 1080. My general hunch would be that PCI has a slightly better chance, but that's just a hunch.

Have you looked around over at http://www.smallnetbuilder.com? It's a good site for this kind of information.

[MidnightWatcher]

I can stream 1080p perfectly fine over WiFi via NFS. Read more here.

[r1lee]

i have a hard time streaming 1080p over wifi, stutters too much.

Why don't you consider Powerline as another option?

[Orclas]

I can stream 1080p perfectly fine over WiFi via NFS. Read more here.

Interesting.

Spread the word!!