Powerline - Homeplug

[steeb]

For anyone running home network's over powerline adaptor's v interesting

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/20...01-range/1

my home network all on Devolo devices (no dedicated CAT stuff) this should up the game!

Steeb

[SickBoy]

That'd be nice. I found out this weekend, the hard way, that my HDHR can't get a solid HD video signal over the bandwidth that my current powerline network adapters provide.

[steeb]

I think these new protocols if accepted by the manufacturer's (like it looks they will be) should now be able to handle HD stuff with no dropout/glitching! Won't be cheap for now but watch the space

Steeb

[ReggiePerrin]

I'm using 4 Devolo 200AV powerline adapters in the house at the moment. Streaming HD video/tv has been smooth, with no glitches, but reading about other peoples experiences it seems powerline adapters either work faultlessly or they're a bit of a mare.

If this new standard takes off and it makes them better able to cope with 'dodgy' wiring/appliances, then it's good news. Although 500Mbps is a bit of a wierd speed, it's far faster than wired fast ethernet (100Mbps), but half the speed of gigabit (1Gbps)

IMHO powerline adapters are a great medium for streaming media around a house, you just plug them in to a free socket, no wiring, no mess and you can move them around as and when you need.

Out of interest steeb/Sickboy what spec homeplugs are you using ATM, 85AV or 200AV?

[martint123]

I use the BT vplayer ones that appear on ebay regularly as they came free AFAIK (can't get BT here).
They work a treat for getting the network down to the garage and to plumb in the IP security camera.
I haven't had a problem with HD material. I may well be wrong, but isn't BBC HD bit rate not all that much greater than SD mpeg ??

[imilne]

Yeah, it's currently only around 8-9mpbs I think, although it's VBR, so I'm not sure what it's maximum rate is.

[SickBoy]

I've been using Panasonic HD-PLC models, not sure which standard they operate on but the product specs list the throughput as about 72Mbps.

http://www2.panasonic.com/consumer-elect...tabsection

[imagn]

I am interested in setting some of these up and wanted to know what i should lookout for in regard to getting these to work well.

Senario, 3 level house, want to take internet up from basement to 3rd floor bedroom for a reliable HDTV streaming connection via GBPVR

I guess my main question is, does the way the house is wired matter, ie if house electrical for each floor is on a different breaker, will this affect speed

Thanks

[ReggiePerrin]

Hi imagn

I just spotted that you're in the US of A, so what I've written below is probably of no use to you!

cheers

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to the marketing for homeplugs they work across different rings without effecting speed. Issues can arise if the wiring is old, or the wiring is loose on the sockets (tightening the screws on the back of sockets fixes this, with the mains turned off of course), and if there's any 'noisy' appliances. A 'noisy' appliance being an old fridge with a duff motor.

It's also advised to plug the Homeplug directly into a wall socket, not an extension lead.

As I said earlier the 200AV Devolo product has worked flawlessly for me, and according to the network monitoring utility supplied with the gizmos I'm getting a data transfer rate of about 163Mbits/s (approx 20Megabytes per second). Allegedly Blue-ray Discs have a maximum a data transfer rate of about 54Mbits/s for video and audio. So plenty of bandwidth for HD movies...

I've not done any latency testing, mainly because I've not experienced anything that looks like a latency related issue, but apparently Homeplugs have QOS (Quality of Service) features which prioritise time sensitive protocols like voice.

If you go down this route stay clear of the older 85AV models, they don't don't have the bandwidth for HD.

[steeb]

Reggie,

I'm all on 200AV's. 4 rooms, no trouble ever in 3 of them, 1 sometimes just plays up in delivering video, I've never worked it out, network monitoring on all 4 always just falls slightly lower than your 163Mbits/s

Steeb