Netgear 3DHD Wireless Home Theatre Networking Kit
by Cameron Butterfield on February 25, 2011 7:20 PM EST- Posted in
- Networking
- Home Theater
- NetGear
Testing Locations:
Location 1: 5 feet apart "open air"
Devices are placed next to each other without any obstacles at a range of five feet representative of a best-case scenario.
Location 2: One room apart
Devices are placed in separate rooms 15 feet apart from each other with obstacles including heating vents, electrical outlets and standard U.S. plywood / sheetrock based walls. Representative of an average usage scenario.
Location 3: One house apart
Devices are placed roughly 75 feet apart on different ends of different floors of a two story house, direct obstacles include a furnace, two bathrooms, and two additional rooms. Representing a worst case scenario in a common household.
Comparative Testing:
For comparative testing, we used other networking devices that would give interesting comparisons to the NETGEAR 3DHD based on the following criteria:
A) The Device operates on the 5GHz spectrum.
B) The Device is configured to use the same type of encryption [WPA2 AES+TKIP]
Device Pairs Used in Testing:
NETGEAR 3DHD KIT [NETGEAR WNHD3004 -> NETGEAR WNHD3004]:
The pair of devices being reviewed.
LINKSYS WRT610N V2 -> LINKSYS WUSB600N
The LINKSYS WRT610N V2 is a high speed dual band router capable of operating on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz spectrum at the same time; we pair it with LINKSYS' 5GHz USB adapter.
LINKSYS WRT610N V2 -> LINKSYS WGA600N
The WGA600N is also marketed as a bridge device, specifically a dual band wireless gaming adapter. Like the 3DHD kit, it takes a wireless signal and adapts it for use with wired devices.
Testing Software:
Ixia IxChariot 7.10 SP3
We used Ixia IxChariot Endpoint Platform Software for Microsoft Windows Vista / Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2 / Windows Server 2008 – x86 / 64-Bit 7.10 SP3 to collect transmission speed results.
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Solandri - Friday, February 25, 2011 - link
I've asked this before. Aren't we just reinventing the wheel? Why are we trying to come up with wireless HDMI when a wireless format for broadcasting HD-quality video and audio already exists, and nearly every HDTV out there already has a receiver for it?All we need is for the FCC to allocate a few DTV channels for private use and regulate the maximum transmit power like they did the 2.4 GHz spectrum. Then the manufacturers can get busy building low-wattage OTA ATSC transmitters. You just plug it into the video out of your camera, Blu-ray player, HTPC, or computer, and it'll transmit the video and audio wirelessly. Tune the HDTV into the appropriate channel and you're done.
Yeah, it's not going to be perfect like uncompressed HDMI. But it's video. Are you really going to notice the slight imperfections? Especially if your source signal is already a compressed format like a camera, Blu-ray, or DVR?
Exelius - Friday, February 25, 2011 - link
Problem with that is you run into the same issue you do in apartment buildings: you're suddenly in range of 30 other peoples' wireless access. You need some way to secure that so only you can watch it (otherwise you'd end up with some dude watching hardcore porn over a wireless link while someone elses' kid is flipping through the channels...)Also, signal turns to crap the higher density you have... wireless is a bidirectional communication protocol so both sides can correct for it, but that's not possible with broadcast transmission.
phuzi0n - Friday, February 25, 2011 - link
It's nice to see some 4x4 MIMO equipment finally available but I believe that the throughput cap you hit was due to a slow CPU. From my experience with 3rd party firmwares on wireless routers, I would guess that it has a ~300MHz mips CPU inside that can't keep up with the incredible bandwidth that 4x4 MIMO radios offer. Wireless routers have this same problem getting bandwidth capped because the CPU can't keep up, but their radios are mostly all 2x2 MIMO so the problem isn't nearly as severe.Does anyone know the FCC ID or know the CPU inside these?
VeauX - Friday, February 25, 2011 - link
why not adding one to the test?dartblazer - Saturday, February 26, 2011 - link
Agreed. I'd like to see a comparison with something like the "NETGEAR Powerline AV 500 Adapter Kit".mados123 - Saturday, February 26, 2011 - link
Exactly. The XAVB5004 is nice because is has a Gigabit switch on the Home Theater side with 4 ports & QoS packet prioritization.kmmatney - Saturday, February 26, 2011 - link
Good point - I saw a price of $170 for the XAVB5004, which is quite a bit cheaper that this wireless solution, and looks to offer much better performance. I'm in need of something like thiskmmatney - Saturday, February 26, 2011 - link
This looks like a good solution - lots of good reviews, and only $95.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
kmmatney - Sunday, February 27, 2011 - link
Wow - this sold out already. I found a Western Digital unit also for $95:http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Livewire-Pow...
Its even better as it has 4 ports on each end.
ganeshts - Sunday, February 27, 2011 - link
The LiveWire has been reviewed by us before. It is a good unit for getting net access where wireless is not very effective, but I wouldn't recommend it for HD video streaming.