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HDTV Over WiFi: Any Hope?
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2013-02-14
01:11 PM
2013-02-14
01:11 PM
HDTV Over WiFi: Any Hope?
I can watch ripped movies that reside on my Ultra-6 using an Android tablet over WiFi, no problem.
But, of course, anything over 480 (720 or 1080....) does not play smoothly.
I'm assuming it's an inherent limitation in WiFi and the only workaround is transcoding from HD down to 480.
From what I've read so far, transcoding takes way too much processing power to be done on-the-fly by a NAS box.
Have I got it right so far?
If so, are there any end-runs to be pursued here? Maybe batch transcoding by some utility that smokes out the HD stuff and converts it in the wee hours of the night - not necessarily running on the Ultra-6.... maybe running on my 24-7 XP box?
Or is this just the way it is until a faster WiFi standard comes into use?
But, of course, anything over 480 (720 or 1080....) does not play smoothly.
I'm assuming it's an inherent limitation in WiFi and the only workaround is transcoding from HD down to 480.
From what I've read so far, transcoding takes way too much processing power to be done on-the-fly by a NAS box.
Have I got it right so far?
If so, are there any end-runs to be pursued here? Maybe batch transcoding by some utility that smokes out the HD stuff and converts it in the wee hours of the night - not necessarily running on the Ultra-6.... maybe running on my 24-7 XP box?
Or is this just the way it is until a faster WiFi standard comes into use?
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2013-02-14
03:00 PM
2013-02-14
03:00 PM
Re: HDTV Over WiFi: Any Hope?
PeteCress wrote: I can watch ripped movies that reside on my Ultra-6 using an Android tablet over WiFi, no problem.
But, of course, anything over 480 (720 or 1080....) does not play smoothly.
I'm assuming it's an inherent limitation in WiFi and the only workaround is transcoding from HD down to 480.
pretty much.
From what I've read so far, transcoding takes way too much processing power to be done on-the-fly by a NAS box.
Have I got it right so far?
depends on the nas box and it's cpu, the pro6 can pretty much handle it, but lower models have less cpu power.
If so, are there any end-runs to be pursued here? Maybe batch transcoding by some utility that smokes out the HD stuff and converts it in the wee hours of the night - not necessarily running on the Ultra-6.... maybe running on my 24-7 XP box?
not aware of any such, and while it may sound nice, that adds a lot of overhead in converted video using storage space.
Or is this just the way it is until a faster WiFi standard comes into use?
pretty much yes.
There are newer technologies that may help, apples airplay, wireless HDMI, etc.
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2013-02-15
05:13 AM
2013-02-15
05:13 AM
Re: HDTV Over WiFi: Any Hope?
PeteCress wrote: I can watch ripped movies that reside on my Ultra-6 using an Android tablet over WiFi, no problem.
But, of course, anything over 480 (720 or 1080....) does not play smoothly.
Perhaps I do not understand the setup, but it appears to me that you are asking your Android tablet to convert the over-480 movies on-the-fly. That's could very well be the problem then, not WiFi per se.
I'd check this by seeing if a powerful laptop, or a faster tablet, plays your movies any better.
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2013-02-15
05:23 AM
2013-02-15
05:23 AM
Re: HDTV Over WiFi: Any Hope?
Transcoding involves the NAS converting the video on the fly to play on a device.
The advantage of newer faster client devices like newer tablets is that if they can play higher quality video not as much CPU power is needed to convert video to play on the device. Obviously you can only stream at a quality that your network connection can handle too.
The advantage of newer faster client devices like newer tablets is that if they can play higher quality video not as much CPU power is needed to convert video to play on the device. Obviously you can only stream at a quality that your network connection can handle too.
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2013-02-15
06:53 AM
2013-02-15
06:53 AM
Re: HDTV Over WiFi: Any Hope?
mdgm wrote: The advantage of newer faster client devices like newer tablets is that if they can play higher quality video not as much CPU power is needed to convert video to play on the device. Obviously you can only stream at a quality that your network connection can handle too.
I'm pretty sure it's the network because the tablet plays a test recording a-ok if the recording is first copied to the tablet's SD card - in fact, it's kind of astonishing how well it plays (Android, FX Player, Samsung 10.1" Note). I really couldn't ask for anything more in that respect.
Right now, I'm looking in to concocting sort of scheme where my 24-7 XP box sniffs out HD recordings and transcodes them to 480 (or whatever the largest rez that works over WiFi is...) in the wee hours of the night and ques them to a "Transcoded_HD_TV" share on the Ultra-6.
This is obviously not a religious issue.... and may be symptomatic of somebody who had too much time on their hands.... -)
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2013-02-15
10:28 AM
2013-02-15
10:28 AM
Re: HDTV Over WiFi: Any Hope?
Yeah but we've all been there and obsessed over stuff like this. I don't have any Android devices but have a jailbroken iPad and it seems to me that you can get apps for your Android that will test the WiFi thruput. Maybe there's something that can be tweaked to make this work.
I used to say "no way" re: WiFi and HD material but that was in the G/SuperG bad old days. BTW I had no idea the newer ReadyNAS devices could do transcoding. I wonder how the NAS knows what to transcode to...but I'll just slink away for now.
😮
I used to say "no way" re: WiFi and HD material but that was in the G/SuperG bad old days. BTW I had no idea the newer ReadyNAS devices could do transcoding. I wonder how the NAS knows what to transcode to...but I'll just slink away for now.
😮
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2013-02-15
11:43 AM
2013-02-15
11:43 AM
Re: HDTV Over WiFi: Any Hope?
generally, you need both a specialized client and server to transcode on the fly with any type of success.
for readynas, plex server is probably the best (along with the android/ios plex app), but I think there is also 'airserver' or something like that provides similar function.
readydlna can stream content as well, but does not do any transcoding, meaning the client must be able to handle the content directly.
Max touched on something, that you could test wifi thoroughput.
You can also use some programs to check the video files bit rates and such, which will tell you how much bandwidth you need to stream a particular file.
Sometimes changing your wifi channel, or using the 5ghz "N" bands (instead of the more typical 2.4ghz "G" bands) will improve wireless throughput sufficiently to stream whatever particular files you want to stream.
Something else to consider, given a file plays perfectly on a tablets local storage vs stream wifi, is that local storage requires less cpu overhead, and that trying to stream a huge hd file over wifi could tax the processors more than it can handle to play it acceptably.
Yet another thing to understand about WIFI, is that throughput is never static, meaning it varies over time and even between packets dependent upon how much other wireless traffic is in the airspace.
Just because you may have a '54gbs' connection showing, doesn't mean anything to actual throughput, in most ideal situations you will get half that, and more often 1/4 to 1/3 that.
for readynas, plex server is probably the best (along with the android/ios plex app), but I think there is also 'airserver' or something like that provides similar function.
readydlna can stream content as well, but does not do any transcoding, meaning the client must be able to handle the content directly.
Max touched on something, that you could test wifi thoroughput.
You can also use some programs to check the video files bit rates and such, which will tell you how much bandwidth you need to stream a particular file.
Sometimes changing your wifi channel, or using the 5ghz "N" bands (instead of the more typical 2.4ghz "G" bands) will improve wireless throughput sufficiently to stream whatever particular files you want to stream.
Something else to consider, given a file plays perfectly on a tablets local storage vs stream wifi, is that local storage requires less cpu overhead, and that trying to stream a huge hd file over wifi could tax the processors more than it can handle to play it acceptably.
Yet another thing to understand about WIFI, is that throughput is never static, meaning it varies over time and even between packets dependent upon how much other wireless traffic is in the airspace.
Just because you may have a '54gbs' connection showing, doesn't mean anything to actual throughput, in most ideal situations you will get half that, and more often 1/4 to 1/3 that.
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2013-02-15
12:54 PM
2013-02-15
12:54 PM
Re: HDTV Over WiFi: Any Hope?
TeknoJnky wrote: Yet another thing to understand about WIFI, is that throughput is never static, meaning it varies over time and even between packets dependent upon how much other wireless traffic is in the airspace.
If anybody doubts this and has an Android device, try installing "WiFi Analyzer" and watch the graphical representation of signal strengths change by the minute.
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