# insufficient wifi utilization



## techjunkie (Jul 19, 2010)

Hi,
I'm trying to stream media to my tv. Most videos work fine with no stutter. However there are certain videos that stutter, mainly HD ones. My initial conclusion was that my wifi bandwith wasnt enough(54mb). But when I checked network utilization on the task manager it shows 20% or less during streaming. 

Is windows limiting my use of bandwidth ? How do i fix this ?

Thanks 

edit : my signal strength is at 100%


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## slyfox2151 (Jul 19, 2010)

u cant fix it.



you have to either get Wireless N or wired for streaming HD blu ray, as it can peak upto 10-15MBps (80-140mbps).





maybe thats not the problem tho, what are you steaming with? whats your CPU utilisation? maybe your cpu is not strong enough.


EDIT:


i think my blu ray bit rate may be slightly off. correct if wrong.


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## techjunkie (Jul 19, 2010)

so 54mbps is not 54mbps ??


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## slyfox2151 (Jul 19, 2010)

54mbps is 6.75MBps.  (megabits vs megabytes)... i still think the problem is not with your network... but your CPU.


what % of cpu is being used when you try to stream the HD Videos that stutter?


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## techjunkie (Jul 19, 2010)

less than 10%. I understand the difference between bits and bytes, and I monitored the bandwidth using a program and it read around 1.1MBps.


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## slyfox2151 (Jul 19, 2010)

also as a side note, Wifi speed is halved, 54mbps is really 22mbps one way. so u can upload and download at 54mbps. but if your only downloading or only uploading then 22mbps is the highest speed you will see.

seing as you said its only doing 1.1mbps, there is still plenty of bandwidth left. so i cant see this being a wifi problem unless your dropping packets or losing signal.








What program are you streaming with? maybe you need to incress the buffer....


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## techjunkie (Jul 19, 2010)

Program is called "ps3 media server" and I've set the video bandwidth at unlimited.


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## AsRock (Jul 19, 2010)

It will help to tell people your setup.

Like yesterday i was watching a HD movie's ( Not 1080 ) though netflix though a wireless laptop without issue and at the same time my wife was watching some old ass program in 480p both streaming from netflix at the same time all day.

Laptop is a i5 were ass the other system was a PS3.

Maybe it's the drivers for your wireless net work card or even your ISP limiting you. Your connection is 16Mbs \ 2Mbs.

And ever thought it MIGHT be the source ?.


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## techjunkie (Jul 19, 2010)

yes it could be the drivers but i've updated them recently so if they are at fault, im screwed till they make new ones. 

The streaming is done within my home network from my laptop to a ps3, not via the isp. Laptop is a 2.5ghz c2d which should do fine streaming i think


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## mrhuggles (Jul 19, 2010)

on my 54mbit wifi i get about 23mbit, not an inch more, the highest ive ever seen a sustained transfer rate was only around just shy of 3mb/sec, if you have all broadcom hardware you can use speedbooster, if you have all atheros hardware you can use superG i think it was called? i dont recall for sure, and i wonder how much it actually helps anyhow, or you can upgrade to N, with as cheap as it is now i would just upgrade to N, im not spending any money myself since im happy with 23mbit.


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## slyfox2151 (Jul 19, 2010)

here is a simple test you can do, 


steam a HD video that skips or stutters... for 5 mins... once done, Plug in the PC and the PS3 with network cables so they are not wireless and run the same video, 

if wireless is the problem then you will have no skipping or stuttering when they are plugged in.

if it still stutters then the wireless is not the problem.


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## newtekie1 (Jul 19, 2010)

Wireless G just isn't fast enough to allow this, especially not if both systems are using the wireless.

You have to understand some things about wireless.  

First realize you are never going to get the full speed, it just never happens.  On a really good setup, with a Cisco access point and a Cisco wireless card sitting right next to eachother, I've seen at best about 3.5MB/s(28Mb/s) transfer rates.  On standard home equipment, it is usually closer to the 2.0MB/s(16Mb/s).

Now, also realize that the bandwidth is shared.  So, if you have two devices using the wireless at the same time.  It is going to be even worse.  So if you laptop is wireless and your PS3 is wireless, then you will probably only see ~1MB/s between the two of them.

One fix is to plug one in with a wire, but even still, I've found for streaming media to my PS3, wireless just isn't fast enough.  Even for SD content, it still breaks up and stutters from time to time.


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## techjunkie (Jul 19, 2010)

maybe its my mediocre router that is to blame. it is an old dlink wireless router. I'll try hooking up one device wired and see what happens


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## slyfox2151 (Jul 19, 2010)

its unlikely its the router causing it, even the cheapest routers should be able to stream. (with a good signal)


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## Mussels (Jul 19, 2010)

techjunkie said:


> maybe its my mediocre router that is to blame. it is an old dlink wireless router. I'll try hooking up one device wired and see what happens



is any other wireless devices connected? have you tried changing the channel the wireless is running on?


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## techjunkie (Jul 19, 2010)

How do i change the channel wireless is running on ?

There are none other devices connected. Just the lappy and the ps3


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## Mussels (Jul 19, 2010)

techjunkie said:


> How do i change the channel wireless is running on ?
> 
> There are none other devices connected. Just the lappy and the ps3



in the router/AP's settings. try channels 1, 7, 11 or 13 - see if they work better.


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## techjunkie (Jul 19, 2010)

so i wired the ps3 and tried. Success ! Was able to stream roughly 2.6MBps. Seems like my old router is at fault. 

Thanks everyone


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## mrhuggles (Jul 19, 2010)

erm, on my setup im able to stream high def video, ive never tried it from wireless to wireless but definatly from wireless to the xbox360.

using windows media player 11, no clue what kind of bandwidth that uses tho.

high def as in 720p, never tried 1080i


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## Hybrid_theory (Jul 19, 2010)

Wireless is always a bit screwy when transferring video. Lots of things that can cause interference and lost packets. Wired is a good choice, stick with that


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## slyfox2151 (Jul 19, 2010)

mrhuggles said:


> erm, on my setup im able to stream high def video, ive never tried it from wireless to wireless but definatly from wireless to the xbox360.
> 
> using windows media player 11, no clue what kind of bandwidth that uses tho.
> 
> high def as in 720p, never tried 1080i



720P takes more bandwidth then 1080i does.... 1080i is half of 1080p. so it works out to around 540p vs 720p


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## newtekie1 (Jul 19, 2010)

slyfox2151 said:


> 720P takes more bandwidth then 1080i does.... 1080i is half of 1080p. so it works out to around 540p vs 720p



See, this is why just using the vertical resolution as the identifier becomes confusing.

1080i still requires more bandwidth than 720p, even though 1080i is only half the frame at a time.  The reason being that 720p has a horizontal resolution of 1280, while 1080i is 1920.

So each frame of 720p is 921,600 Pixels, and each frame of 1080i is 1,036,800 Pixels.


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## slyfox2151 (Jul 19, 2010)

well guess i was slightly wrong 


off by 100 000 pixels.... so it would take aprox. 10 % more bandwidth?


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## newtekie1 (Jul 19, 2010)

slyfox2151 said:


> well guess i was slightly wrong
> 
> 
> off by 100 000 pixels.... so it would take aprox. 10 % more bandwidth?



Yeah, in threory about 12.5% more bandwidth.  Of course that depends on the content also, as different content takes up different bandwidth.  It is very possible for 1080i content to use less bandwidth than 720p content at times, but generally it is slightly higher.


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## Easy Rhino (Jul 21, 2010)

wireless g simply is not enough bandwidth to stream HD movies. if you are using PS3 Media Server make sure you adjust the bit rate to match the appropriate level.


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