XP MCE -> XBox 360 Live TV streaming

[catretriever]

I've been playing around using to MCE extender functionality of my spangly new XBox360 and have been mucho impressed with it so far. The only fly in the ointment is that streaming live TV from the PC is choppy at best. I'm pretty sure that this is down to my crappy 11b wireless network adapter on the PC, but before I go and shell out for a new 54g adapter I was wondering if anyone could advise on wether that would be enough to cope with the live streaming.

Sorry, I know it's all a bit touchy-feely, but it's worth an ask

[slinky]

I know it's not the 360, but when streaming video to my (original) xbox on my old 10mb network it was crap! I've upgraded my network to 100mb (cabled) and the streaming is faultless...

I'd say for the amounts of data involved you'd be better off with a higher speed network..

HTH,

slinky

[catretriever]

Thanks. I'm sure you're right. I'm just wondering wether 54Mbps will be enough, or if I need to get under the floorboards with the CAT5

[UpTHeIron]

catretriever said:

Thanks. I'm sure you're right. I'm just wondering wether 54Mbps will be enough, or if I need to get under the floorboards with the CAT5

I went from wireless to gigabit wired between my media server and my MCE PC and the difference was huge. Worth the effort IMHO.

[catretriever]

OK....so the next question must be....

Where's the best place to buy a decent length of cat5 cable? Maplins will sell me a 25m length for about £25, but £1/m seems a bit expensive to me (although admittedly no more expensive than a 54g wirelss adapter...)

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

www.toolstation.com/index.html?r=a&feature=72918&rr=WguP69yaT9rh9ACB

[Plotloss]

54g should be able to cope with one live video stream.

Its never going to be as good as wire, but for a tenner or so I'd try it first.

I've seen a live 1080p stream streamed over 54g through an Xbox (admittedly next to each other) so it should work.

As for wire, how much do you want?

[catretriever]

Plotloss said:

As for wire, how much do you want?

ooh...erm...I was going to get a 25m cable.....

[Plotloss]

Its about half that for a USB 54g adaptor and £16 for a PCI one.

Depending on how much you need then I may have some lying about but I'm not sure how much is left on the reel.

If you wanted 305m CAT6 its about £80 so a lot less than the £1/metre...

B&Q or their ilk may do bulk cable for a lot less than you've been quoted.

[catretriever]

Thanks for the help/offer Plotloss.

I've found www.hardware.com will do a 30m length for 12 quid which seems pretty fair to me, although I may have to order some extra goodies to make the £10 delivery charge worth it...

[lake]

Screwfix normally do very cheap cable. Maybe not the best in the world but will be good enough I am sure.

www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?cId=101872&ts=67381&id=19581

£25 for 300+ meters

Lake

>> Edited by lake on Thursday 29th December 14:43

[Neil_H]

The problem with wireless is even with 54g you aren't guaranteed to get full speed unless you have a perfect signal. I've got a Netgear 54g router and a Netgear 54g USB adapter and it rarely connects at full speed even though they're only a few feet apart seperated by a wall. It's great not having wires running everywhere but I'd rather use a nice Cat5 cable if I could.

[catretriever]

25m cat5 cable arrived today... fun w/e of drills, carpets and floorboards ahead

[slapmatt]

catretriever - when you';ve finished can you post a blow-by-blow account of your network. I think it would make interesting reading!

[loafer]

I had a moded xbox on my wirless network and never had trouble streaming films from that but the computer was in the room next door so had a good signal.

[catretriever]

Well, I finally got the CAT5 laid and barring a bit of carpet that refuses to go back quite as it should everything is dandy! I'm streaming live tv from my MCE PC to my xbox in the bedroom like a good'un, and what's more it affords me full PVR stylee functionality so I can pause/rewind/record live tv to my hearts content.On top of that I can access all the other media center stuff like my mp3 library and pictures. Cool!
All I have to do now is add a second tv-tuner card to the PC, so that I can record one channel and watch another, and beef up my storage a bit and I should be able to kiss goodbye to mean uncle Murdoch and his nasty SKY-tax.