Netgear 3DHD Wireless Home Theatre Networking Kit
by Cameron Butterfield on February 25, 2011 7:20 PM EST- Posted in
- Networking
- Home Theater
- NetGear
1080p and Blu-ray Content Streaming:
So we have seen that the NETGEAR 3DHD Networking kit is capable of pushing some very consistent throughput numbers. However, NETGEAR has also marketed this device as being capable of streaming high quality content over the air. At the CES show booth NETGEAR was showing multiple video streams being played at the same time.
It was possible to duplicate this during testing: three instances of a 1080p copy of Big Buck Bunny were streamed wirelessly to three separate devices using NETGEAR's 3DHD solution (see image below). The playback had no frame dropout issues on any of the devices, and frankly it was impossible to distinguish that the files were being played over a wireless bridge and not via a standard wired LAN configuration in terms of responsiveness and load time.
Blu-ray Content:
It is one thing to play 1080p content that has been optimized for low file size and easy distribution and quite another to handle full quality Blu-ray content with streams as dense as 54Mbps (max data transfer rate for Blu-ray). Testing was performed playing fully featured Blu-ray content (including menus) via mounting ISOs in virtual clone drive.
At Locations one and two, the NETGEAR 3DHD pair was entirely capable of distributing Blu-ray content. After watching four separate Blu-ray titles over the device, I encountered only one instance during an exceptionally detailed and scene with a lot of movement where the video playback stuttered.
At location three, the worst-case scenario, skipping was more frequent during high detail scenes. However, in general the playback was acceptable, which is actually quite a feat considering that the two devices were at other sides of the house, and the fact that none of the other 5GHz devices could produce performance at that range that would be considered acceptable for any respectable amount of time.
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ganeshts - Sunday, February 27, 2011 - link
The problem with powerline adapters is that it is not easy to guarantee QoS. Imagine watching a movie streamed over powerline, and suddenly, someone switches on the hair dryer or a fluoroscent bulb. The throughput goes kaput. Depending on the powerline adapter, it can recover, but the time taken is too long to guarantee real time HD video streaming.That said, we also run powerline reviews concurrently. So, look out for our Ixia Chariot tests on those. (The Netgear 500 Mbps kit is up next, but it will be reviewed sometime next month).
beginner99 - Saturday, February 26, 2011 - link
I use the wusbn600 from the test with my wdtv live and it works fine for me. But I don't stream bluray quality stuff.This might be useful if you have multiple devices like a wdtv, an xbox, maybe soemthing else in your living room.
astroidea - Saturday, February 26, 2011 - link
Does this enable remote desktop gaming? 80MB/s is incredible.It would be awesome to play Crysis on my $100 used laptop from ebay via RDP.
JarredWalton - Sunday, February 27, 2011 - link
80Mb != 80MB. It's actually 10MB/s. As a comparison, uncompressed each frame of a 1366x768 display would be 4MB. Of course, with highly compressed JPG images, it would be down to around 75KB per frame, so you could potentially do 1366x768 (or 1280x720) over a 10MB/s connection.As an interesting corollary, OnLive! is doing something like this with remote servers. I think they're sending 720p (probably at 30FPS) and the bandwidth requirement is under 1MB/s. The games sort of look like crap (low to medium at best details), but it's better than not running at all on older Intel IGPs.
yottabit - Saturday, February 26, 2011 - link
"I encoutnered only one instance during an exceptionally detailed and scene with a lot of movement where the video playback stuttered.":(
Conficio - Sunday, February 27, 2011 - link
If I spend any money today on network gear I'd like to know if it is IP v6 capable.And at this price point, I think it would have been wise to actually include Gigabit ports, because it does increase its utility. Because stable throughput is a good thing not only for Video streaming, but for all sorts of network bridging. http://gettys.wordpress.com/bufferbloat-faq/
ol1bit - Sunday, February 27, 2011 - link
I use powerline adapters for my 2 story 2500 foot house and could not be happier!What this review needs to to compare tech, powerline versus 3DHD wireless.
ganeshts - Sunday, February 27, 2011 - link
Great :) Nice to see a powerline success story. But, do you stream HD videos across? Is the throughput sustained? We will be using Ixia Chariot in our future powerline reviews.GTVic - Sunday, February 27, 2011 - link
I just bought two Netgear WNR3500L v2 Rangemax routers to accomplish exactly this. They look identical to these. Would be nice to know what the difference is. The price on these has dropped below $100 depending on the discount so you can save quite a bit (Newegg WNR3500L = $70 x 2 = $140 vs. $215 for this package).GTVic - Sunday, February 27, 2011 - link
By "price on these" I meant the WNR3500L units. Also the WNR3500L have gigabit ports so I use one as my main switch/firewall and the other for my home theatre components.