Mailing List Archive

> 1) if I wanted to run a separate front-end from the backend, could I do
> it using a wireless (802.11b) card? Would that give enough bandwidth to
> play the movies and watch live TV?

Nope.

I tried it, as running cables under the house is one of my least favorite
things to do. It really wasn't up to it, unless you use a really low
resolution capture. So I bit the bullet and ran a cat 5 cable.

802.11g or 802.11a may work better.

Larry

Yeah, FWIW I got a 54G wireless card and a base station (Broadcom chipset
in the client, dunno about the base station (Belkin)), and get anywhere
from 2MB->3MB/s transfer rates on average. In my experience that's about
five or six times what a 802.11b setup will get you.

I'm not sure how myth streams its packets, but latency may be the thing
that kills you. Wireless networks tend to have semi-random latency
problems (in my experience), so even if the bandwidth is there it might
not be enough.

The wife is just going to have to compromise--if she can take a PC sitting
in the living room, she can tolerate a tiny little cat5 cable :)



----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry Matter" <mythtv@matter.net>
To: <mythtv-users@snowman.net>
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 7:39 PM
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Wireless


> > 1) if I wanted to run a separate front-end from the backend, could I
do
> > it using a wireless (802.11b) card? Would that give enough bandwidth
to
> > play the movies and watch live TV?
>
> Nope.
>
> I tried it, as running cables under the house is one of my least
favorite
> things to do. It really wasn't up to it, unless you use a really low
> resolution capture. So I bit the bullet and ran a cat 5 cable.
>
> 802.11g or 802.11a may work better.
>
> Larry
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@snowman.net
> http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

I'm doing wireless with an Linksys USB 802.11b
connected to my mythbackend. I'm running the
mythfrontend on my system which is hardwired into
the Linksys 54G router. /var/video is NFS mounted
onto my frontend system. Works great!! I'm doing
MPEG4 at 640x480 resolution.

BTW - are you doing 54G on a Linux system? Which
drivers are you using? I did the 802.11b because
I could not find any 54G drivers. Most ( if not
all ) 54G cards seem to use the Broadcom chips.

Thanks,

Mike

--- William Preston <bpreston@networkusa.net> wrote:
> Yeah, FWIW I got a 54G wireless card and a base
> station (Broadcom chipset
> in the client, dunno about the base station
> (Belkin)), and get anywhere
> from 2MB->3MB/s transfer rates on average. In my
> experience that's about
> five or six times what a 802.11b setup will get you.
>
> I'm not sure how myth streams its packets, but
> latency may be the thing
> that kills you. Wireless networks tend to have
> semi-random latency
> problems (in my experience), so even if the
> bandwidth is there it might
> not be enough.
>
> The wife is just going to have to compromise--if she
> can take a PC sitting
> in the living room, she can tolerate a tiny little
> cat5 cable :)
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Larry Matter" <mythtv@matter.net>
> To: <mythtv-users@snowman.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 7:39 PM
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Wireless
>
>
> > > 1) if I wanted to run a separate front-end from
> the backend, could I
> do
> > > it using a wireless (802.11b) card? Would that
> give enough bandwidth
> to
> > > play the movies and watch live TV?
> >
> > Nope.
> >
> > I tried it, as running cables under the house is
> one of my least
> favorite
> > things to do. It really wasn't up to it, unless
> you use a really low
> > resolution capture. So I bit the bullet and ran a
> cat 5 cable.
> >
> > 802.11g or 802.11a may work better.
> >
> > Larry
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > mythtv-users mailing list
> > mythtv-users@snowman.net
> >
>
http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@snowman.net
>
http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users


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I'm running video over wireless for my laptop. I don't have a TV in the
bedroom so I've taken to using myth. Granted I have a pretty strong
backend box and I'm doing MPEG4 compression. I think that's the key. I
have it around 3mbps MPEG4 at 480x480. It works great. The picture
quality could be better, but it suits my needs just fine. If you want to
use rtjpeg or need to due to a slower frontend box, wireless probably
isn't a real option. I get some definite choppiness with rtjpeg, however
my cpu usage is down around 30% even when displaying video at the same
time. Hope this helps.


Jason Schloer


-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces@snowman.net
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces@snowman.net] On Behalf Of Jason Dinkelmann
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 8:02 PM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: [mythtv-users] Wireless

Hi:

I am just getting started collecting all the hardware that I need to set
up
my first Myth box. I am fairly new to the whole Linux thing, but not too
new.

Couple of questions:
1) if I wanted to run a separate front-end from the backend, could I do
it
using a wireless (802.11b) card? Would that give enough bandwidth to
play
the movies and watch live TV? I currently have an iBook and a win-PC on
the
network so I thought I could add another AP if it would give enough
bandwidth. I'd prefer (the wife demands) not to have wires all over the
place.

2) For the front end, would a PII 333 be fast enough?

3) here is my current thoughts on a backend set up:
1.7ghz Celeron
256 DDR
80GB WD HDD
PVR-250 W/remote
WinTV (404)
On board sound (might get a sound blaster Live!)

4) I need an good, inexpensive TV out card, any suggestions on that?

I guess that is it for now. Just wanted to say thanks to all the
developers
and especially Isaac for all the hard work that has been put into this
project. As some people have pointed out recently, this project
outshines
most any commercially available PVR. Keep up the great work!

--
Jason Dinkelmann
jason@thedinks.org

_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users@snowman.net
http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

> 1) if I wanted to run a separate front-end from the backend, could I
> do it using a wireless (802.11b) card? Would that give enough
> bandwidth to play the movies and watch live TV?

It works fine for me, however your 802.11b has to be negotiating a 11MB
connection (if it downgrades things get really jerky). I personally was
never able to get 802.11b working with a resolution greater than 480x480.
On the other hand I can't really tell the difference between 480x480 and
the higher resolutions anyways.

I normally use 352x240 and it looks fine on my laptop and doesn't drop
frames if I use the wireless to get mail and stuff like that.

On Thu, 2003-05-15 at 10:25, Dwight Hubbard wrote:
> > 1) if I wanted to run a separate front-end from the backend, could I
> > do it using a wireless (802.11b) card? Would that give enough
> > bandwidth to play the movies and watch live TV?
>
> It works fine for me, however your 802.11b has to be negotiating a 11MB
> connection (if it downgrades things get really jerky). I personally was
> never able to get 802.11b working with a resolution greater than 480x480.
> On the other hand I can't really tell the difference between 480x480 and
> the higher resolutions anyways.
>
> I normally use 352x240 and it looks fine on my laptop and doesn't drop
> frames if I use the wireless to get mail and stuff like that.
>

I have run two streams of MythTV over a single 802.11b network without
any problems. I'm using 640x480 2200kbit MPEG4, with default quality MP3
audio. I ran iptraf on my router and it was pushing about 5Mbit, and
receiving around 400kbit. Still well below 11Mbit used. My machines at
the time were about 80 and 90 feet away from the AP, both with around a
75% signal quality and an 11mbit link.

Maybe you are using higher bitrates? Unless I'm missing something, when
you're talking about network usage, bitrate is far more important than
resolution.

--
Clint Byrum <cbyrum@spamaps.org>

Clint Byrum wrote:

>On Thu, 2003-05-15 at 10:25, Dwight Hubbard wrote:
>
>
>>>1) if I wanted to run a separate front-end from the backend, could I
>>>do it using a wireless (802.11b) card? Would that give enough
>>>bandwidth to play the movies and watch live TV?
>>>
>>>
>>It works fine for me, however your 802.11b has to be negotiating a 11MB
>>connection (if it downgrades things get really jerky). I personally was
>>never able to get 802.11b working with a resolution greater than 480x480.
>>On the other hand I can't really tell the difference between 480x480 and
>>the higher resolutions anyways.
>>
>>I normally use 352x240 and it looks fine on my laptop and doesn't drop
>>frames if I use the wireless to get mail and stuff like that.
>>
>>
>>
>I have run two streams of MythTV over a single 802.11b network without
>any problems. I'm using 640x480 2200kbit MPEG4, with default quality MP3
>audio. I ran iptraf on my router and it was pushing about 5Mbit, and
>receiving around 400kbit. Still well below 11Mbit used. My machines at
>the time were about 80 and 90 feet away from the AP, both with around a
>75% signal quality and an 11mbit link.
>
something to remember though, is that there is ~5Mb overhead with an
802.11 connection. so, even though you were only pushing through 5Mb,
you were pretty much at the limit there.

personally, i just ran a cable for the time being. when the G stuff
starts selling for prices similar to the B stuff, i'll upgrade my router
and buy G cards for anything new, including the mythtv box.

cheers,

CraigL->Thx();