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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phuzi0n - Monday, February 28, 2011 - link
WNR3500L's are 2x2 MIMO 2.4GHz wireless routers (that can be used as bridges) whereas these are 4x4 MIMO 5 GHz wireless bridges. The WNR3500L has a 480MHz CPU so it should have better throughput at close range, and higher maximum range because it's on the 2.4GHz band, but worse performance at mid-range than these.The 4x4 MIMO on these should give much better throughput than the tests showed but I believe that these have a slow CPU that is inhibiting them as I explained above.
Shadowmaster625 - Monday, February 28, 2011 - link
Why would anyone pay $220 when a cable costs $3? I guess that's a rhetorical question... the real question is why would you want to pay $220 for yet another carcinogenic box. Just go down to the corner store and buy a pack of smokes. I feel sorry for the children of the yuppies who buy crap like this. To be born and raised in a microwave laden world...Quidam67 - Monday, February 28, 2011 - link
Because logistcs often precludes the use of a cable. but you would already know that if you bothered reading the article. As for microwaves, why don't you just strand yourself on a desert island and eat bananas and talk to coconuts rather than trolling the internet? rhetorical.shamans33 - Monday, February 28, 2011 - link
I've always enjoyed Anandtech for the reason that it has articles on interesting new products or topics (unlike the article about Apple upgrading their MBP line).I have a few comments though:
1) What about distances more than 1 house apart?
2) You need comparative pricing on the other products you mentioned.
3) You need a percentile minimum throughput chart. (ie. the throughput was at least 5.3 mbps 40% of the time).
4) You need to run the interference test on the other products mentioned.
5) Some comments about the difficulty of setup on the other products mentioned would be nice.
Discombobulated28 - Friday, March 4, 2011 - link
For 3 months last year I went through a dozen routers trying to be able to perfectly stream and playback high bitrate blu-ray and mkv files (30GB + files)... I think I'm on my Local Fry's Electronics watch list now due to all the returns...because I have yet been able to sustain 30Mbps + streaming using wireless-N streaming to my media players to playback on my HDTV...valhar2000 - Monday, March 21, 2011 - link
Can these devices be connected in something other than pairs? Could I have three of them, one connected to the ADSL modem and the other two on different floors and all connected to each other, or would I need to buy two pairs and use them in pairs?kcc651 - Thursday, June 23, 2011 - link
The wireless 3DHD seems like an interesting concept. I wonder if it's something I could try out in my home theater system. I wonder if it will interfere with the system I had installed by a <a href="http://www.creativesound.info/audio-video.html&quo... video company phoenix</a>. I don't know the intricacies of the system they put in.