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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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.