Video over LAN

[Branchd]

Hey all,

I'm having a jitter problem when I am viewing a video from the HDD of one PC to any of the other PC's on my home LAN. There is a pause as if the data needs to catch-up to the video. The LAN is fed through a router using CAT 5 (not E) cables. what do you think?

 

[titanmiller]

What is the bitrate of the video?

I can watch DVDs across my network if I share my DVD drive and that is in the 2-5mbit range.

My best guess is that your processor is too slow on one of the computers to decode the video fast enough.

 

[Branchd]

Ok, so the speed of the CPU could be an issue on this, there's a boat load of memory but the processor is a 500 p3. For some reason I didn't think that the CPU would be too important in this case; I guess I could be wrong. I'll have to check the bit rate of the video's once I get home. They play fine on the PC they reside and only studder over the LAN.

 

[animeguru]

I'm gonna go with your CPU is a bit too slow. I'm guessing that the 500MHz is the machine you're viewing the video on, not the one storing them. For a file server, 500MHz is more than adequate, but for decoding video, you could be a bit stressed. Consider either increasing the CPU speed (easy enough for a low price). The other thing you might try is a different video player. I'm not sure what you're current solution is, but downloading and installing a different player could very well solve the problem for free. Just a thought.

 

[Branchd]

OK, well the windows media player and winamp, either one behaves the same way. The router is a Netgear, the model escapes me a 314 I think (about two years old). The transfer rate is pretty pokey for files to move from PC to PC.

The hesitation on video playback is seen on all the PC's on the LAN, from the wiz bang 2.8G P4 with the 9800pro to the little guys 1800XP with the MX400, they all jitter with the exception of the PC with the HDD's in it and that PC is a POS.

I was of the impression that the speed of the PC holding the data didn't play a big role in the transfer. The HDD PC is a very basic all onboard (vid,sound,lan) with a controller card holding a total of 5 HDD's. I was hoping to use it for storage and run it all the time to make games, software, music, videos and excess storage space availble through the lan. Everything seems good with the exception of the playback of the video (darn it).

 

[Nothinman]

Ok, so the speed of the CPU could be an issue on this, there's a boat load of memory but the processor is a 500 p3.

That's way more than enough for a simple file server.

I was of the impression that the speed of the PC holding the data didn't play a big role in the transfer

Well it's the one feeding the data so it does play a big role, but it doesn't have to be a beefy machine. It just has to be able to keep up with network and disk I/O demands.

They play fine on the PC they reside and only studder over the LAN.

Most likely it's the NIC (or it's driver) or the hub you're using then, if the hard disks can keep up fine it has to be something with the network.

 

[Branchd]

AH HAH! The cable from the HDD PC to the Router was half working, I swapped that and BOOM! Bad cable; well I found a neat speed checker prog here anyway: http://www.analogx.com/contents/dow...network/nsl.htm

Thank you all for your help and Merry Christmas or what ever your into.

Dan

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Branchd
AH HAH! The cable from the HDD PC to the Router was half working, I swapped that and BOOM! Bad cable; well I found a neat speed checker prog here anyway: http://www.analogx.com/contents/dow...network/nsl.htm

Thank you all for your help and Merry Christmas or what ever your into.

Dan

 

[ScottMac]

Imagine that; a cable .... Huh.... go figure...

Merry Christmas, HH, SK ...

Scott