Best inexpensive router for wireless XBMC media streaming
#1
I recently bought a Raspberry Pi to serve as a temporary "no-frills" media PC, using RaspBMC. I was actually really impressed with the quality of HD (720p) video on the Pi when I first got it running. It is playing all media from a SMB share on my Windows 7 server.

When I first hooked it up, both the Pi and my server were both hard-wired through my router (Ethernet/CAT5/1000Mbps), and even the highest quality videos played on the Pi without a hitch. I then moved my server to another part of my house and connected to the router wirelessly, and my problems begun.

The ONLY video that I can play with minimal buffering and skipping is DivX/XviD SD 480p video, and that is hit and miss. I obviously need to be able to increase the speed of data transfer between my server and the router (Netgear WGR614), which means replacing my rather old router.

Can anyone recommend a low-to-mid price range wireless router than will do this job? I feel like I'm just playing Russian Roulette by picking one that may or may not be able to do what I need it to do.

Thanks in advance for the help!
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#2
I'd use powerline.
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#3
mr.sparkle, I'd considered that, but never used powerline networking, and I wasn't sure what to expect as far as performance goes. I guess I don't really understand the technology behind it -- seems too easy and too good to be true. You have personal experience?
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#4
Depends on how new your electrical wiring is, I believe, and whether the outlets are on the same circuit.

Running cat cable along the walls as far as I possibly can, I use the dlink 500/501AV line of adapters and switches and get ~30MB/s transfers across my house, pretty tough to beat with wireless, I think.

YMMV
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#5
I know using a wired connection would be preferable, but it's just not physically practical in my current location. Would require a lot of holes in walls when we are not looking to stay in current location for that long... considering the powerline option.
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#6
Wireless is inferior to powerline in my experience. The newer 500M netgear stuff is what I use. (500M is purely nominal, but way better than wireless).

It's not pure speed that is the only important parameter either. Latency in wireless networks is too high for reliable streaming.
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#7
I agree with the above too. Powerline can't touch wired connections but is generally faster and more consistent than wireless, especially if you have wireless stuff like cordless phones or baby monitors in your house already that can interfere with wifi. Note that they should be plugged directly into a wall receptacle and not into a power bar.
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#8
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-PA411KIT...478&sr=8-2

I recently got these, very impressed they beat my dgnd3700 anyway and they are cheap. I just bought an extra one for my raspberry pi.
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#9
can a powerline adapter be plugged into a power strip or does it have to go directly into a wall socket? Never used these as well but interested in it
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#10
It can be plugged into a powerstrip but it isn't optimal. Alos bear in mind if this is an upstairs/downstairs affair that the sockets need to be on the same ring-main.
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#11
I live in a one story home so that should be ok. The problem being that my computer is set up far away from any wall socket because of how the room is situated. I currently run a long power strip out to where the desk is to connect it. Thanks for the reply, I might try some of these out and see how they are.
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#12
(2013-01-18, 19:36)rip_king Wrote: can a powerline adapter be plugged into a power strip or does it have to go directly into a wall socket? Never used these as well but interested in it

Not a good idea but if you have to use the cheapest one you can buy. Anything with even the most basic surge suppression or 'conditioning' features should very effectively remove the the signal you're trying to pass.
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#13
In my experience, powerline is ok, but it maxes out at about 25-30Mbit/s, which is fine for most 720p and 1080p rips. However, the 1:1 bluray rips tend to spike up above 30Mbit/s during certain scenes and causes buffering. It also depends on your existing wiring and speeds could be much lower in some houses due to interference.

I since switched to MoCA, which uses the coax cable that most houses are already wired with, and the speeds are much higher and the connection is more reliable due to less noise.

http://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Ethernet...B008EQ4BQG

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#14
that's interesting, now I have a new question. We are currently wired for FIOS for internet (thru coax) and DirecTV for television (also thru coax). Are these two wired together? I'm not really sure how to reflect what I'm asking but basically, if I put one of these adapters onto the coax going into my FIOS router, and then another one in my room where there's DirecTV coax, should it work or not at all?
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#15
Smallnetbuilder.com is a great place for info reviews and forums on this stuff.
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