Streaming video through local network = choppy playback

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I recently purchased an airport extreme card to install in my 2nd computer, an eMac 1,25 G (used in living room for apple tv-type media center setup). I can now send files over network, then play them on VLC on that computer, saving me the hassle of dumping media onto a usb key & manually transferring it. Then I tried streaming video through local network (opening movies from mounted network disc & playing them with VLC &/or Quicktime ) but the result is pretty choppy playback, with glitches/dropped frames every 10 seconds or so. It seemed surprising as that i am able to transfer large files from my iMac to my eMac quite quickly. Could this be a buffer issue with VLC or quicktime? Does anyone have a similar setup that works sufficiently?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions! :Confused:
 
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I recently purchased an airport extreme card to install in my 2nd computer, an eMac 1,25 G (used in living room for apple tv-type media center setup). I can now send files over network, then play them on VLC on that computer, saving me the hassle of dumping media onto a usb key & manually transferring it. Then I tried streaming video through local network (opening movies from mounted network disc & playing them with VLC &/or Quicktime ) but the result is pretty choppy playback, with glitches/dropped frames every 10 seconds or so. It seemed surprising as that i am able to transfer large files from my iMac to my eMac quite quickly. Could this be a buffer issue with VLC or quicktime? Does anyone have a similar setup that works sufficiently?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions! :Confused:

Hey Funky poodle. I have the a similar setup and stream video wirelessly without any problems. Are you doing anything else on your connection while you are trying to stream video? Perhaps you are getting interference and you should try switching channels on your wireless router.

There has to be something that is causing the playback to be choppy, but I know it CAN and DOES work for me.

Good luck!
 
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Thanks Tkim! I initially tried unplugging the cordless phone in my office (didn.t help) the i went into my router settings to try & change channels....a Linksys WRT-160N btw...& managed only to screw up my internet settings..so I used the Linksys set up cd & reconfigured the router & voila - back to square 1. While in my router sttings i didn,t see any settings for changing channels. Is there another term for this on Linksys routers? I,m a newbie to wireless (always been ethernet hardwired). Thanks in advance for the help!
 
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Thanks Tkim! I initially tried unplugging the cordless phone in my office (didn.t help) the i went into my router settings to try & change channels....a Linksys WRT-160N btw...& managed only to screw up my internet settings..so I used the Linksys set up cd & reconfigured the router & voila - back to square 1. While in my router sttings i didn,t see any settings for changing channels. Is there another term for this on Linksys routers? I,m a newbie to wireless (always been ethernet hardwired). Thanks in advance for the help!

Ya know, I have that same exact router. Have you tried streaming the video again since you reconfigured your router? Using the default settings on that thing should give you decent (non choppy) video playback.

Do you have it locked down and password protected? I'll need to poke around on my own router when I get home to see if there is another term for the channels. In the mean time try to see if you can stream video and if it's any better and let me know.
 
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I ended up calling linksys in order to change channels (the default 'automatic' configuration setting has no link to channel changing) . I have tried a few different channels ( now using Ch 11) but the only solution i've found so far is to open movie files in quicktime then go to movie properties & to cache the files from there (unfortunately for each movie watched, a temp fix at least). I.m curious though, Tkim, about this interference issue & possible solutions. Thanks Again ( :
 
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I ended up calling linksys in order to change channels (the default 'automatic' configuration setting has no link to channel changing) . I have tried a few different channels ( now using Ch 11) but the only solution i've found so far is to open movie files in quicktime then go to movie properties & to cache the files from there (unfortunately for each movie watched, a temp fix at least). I.m curious though, Tkim, about this interference issue & possible solutions. Thanks Again ( :

Looking back at you config. It may be due to the emac? How much RAM do you have in that thing. The 1.25 Ghz processor may be producing a bottle neck?

I have a 2.2 GHz C2D macbook with 4b of RAM and don't see any choppiness in video playback...odd.
 
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I only have 512 Megs in the emac, but hardwired to my tv & running under 10.3.9 video playback isn't choppy at all. I managed with a little digging to find a version of mplayer that runs under 10.3.9 & I set the cache to 12 mbs. It takes a few seconds to buffer, but runs nice & smooth. Funny enough i have to do this from my emac to my new imac intel (2 gigs of ram), so I'm not really sure it's a ram issue...?
 
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I only have 512 Megs in the emac, but hardwired to my tv & running under 10.3.9 video playback isn't choppy at all. I managed with a little digging to find a version of mplayer that runs under 10.3.9 & I set the cache to 12 mbs. It takes a few seconds to buffer, but runs nice & smooth. Funny enough i have to do this from my emac to my new imac intel (2 gigs of ram), so I'm not really sure it's a ram issue...?

Yeah I guess not, just trying to think of what it could possibly be. That router should be fine for streaming video because I have the same one. If I can think of anything else, I'll let you know. If you figure it out, let me know. ;D
 

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