Author Topic: Could I watch movies over a wireless connection?  (Read 4492 times)

CharlieMopps

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Could I watch movies over a wireless connection?
« on: August 07, 2007, 07:52:24 pm »
If I build an LMCE box, I will have to connect it to my network via a Wireless Nic. My router has a speed of 54MB while wireless (I havent tried it before though)

If I get a 54MB wireless nic, will that be fast enough to watch movies that are stored on my main computer on a windows shared drive?

1audio

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Re: Could I watch movies over a wireless connection?
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2007, 07:17:20 am »
Probably not. The hurdles to make it work wirelessly are manifold.
First the 54 Mbps is a "hardware" rate. the best real throughput, and this is over a short hop, is rarely better than 10 Mbps. That isn't quite enough for SD, let alone HD. However I know its possible to make it work, just very difficult and requires work all the way down to the mac level and special hardware.
Then finding wireless support in Linux is difficult. The wireless guys don't seem to know linux exists, let alone support it.
Then booting across a network won't work- the wireless connection requires a booted system to connect.

All solvable but not now. 

nite_man

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Re: Could I watch movies over a wireless connection?
« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2007, 01:22:14 pm »
If I get a 54MB wireless nic, will that be fast enough to watch movies that are stored on my main computer on a windows shared drive?

It depends of desire quality. For ordinary DVD quality it's possible. For example, I have IPTV box in my home. Minimum bandwidth to watch TV is 3-4Mb, maximum - 5-6Mb. The video is delivered via DSL connection. So, I suspect  54MB WiFi access point should allow to watch video. Sure, you can use the 100Mb access point instead. And maybe it'll allow to watch HDTV (720p).
Michael Stepanov,
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totallymaxed

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Re: Could I watch movies over a wireless connection?
« Reply #3 on: August 08, 2007, 01:31:43 pm »
If I build an LMCE box, I will have to connect it to my network via a Wireless Nic. My router has a speed of 54MB while wireless (I havent tried it before though)

If I get a 54MB wireless nic, will that be fast enough to watch movies that are stored on my main computer on a windows shared drive?

Well I have not tried that exact configuration but my home lmce box has a Linksys Wifi router/AP and I regulary use my Laptop booted into Windows XP or Kubuntu 7.04 to watch both live TV and recorded TV at standard PAL quality over a 54g wifi connection. This works fin with only the very occasional dropout. However as ever with Wifi your mileage, interms of dropouts etc, may vary dependent on your location.

Good luck.

Andrew
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