Movie streaming with ASUS RT-N13

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Northstar
dinjo said:
Would rather advise to go for Asus RT N13U flashed with dd wrt provides way better range than most router in same price range.
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You said two things there which i want to seperate out.

First, it's true that the N13 is the most competitive in range for its price point and this is with stock f/w.

Second, flashing isn't necessary if you want better range, more features or increased functionality perhaps. I doubt range can be improved much with flashing. Range by itself isn't all that useful, throughput is what really matters. You might get more range but did you get a measurable increase in throughput as a result of flashing is the question.

I created this thread because many people have this router and would like to read comments from members about its movie streaming performance. What is and is not possible with this N300 router in terms of streaming is what i want to know. Provided a capable N300 client is used then a throughput from 20-40Mbs is feasible at some distance.

That is the theory, but what is the reality.

How far have people pushed it and what is the biggest file size you managed to stream without issues ?

720p, 1080p how well does it work and from how far away ?
 
Never tried it.. Good thought.. Will keep a watch on this thread.

This is what I follow,
Use N13 for all T download on USB thumb drive
Once USB is full, move 5-6 movies to HDD, Connect empty USB back to N13.
HDD is always connected to Asus HD2..
Watch movies. If I find them good. Burn 6 of them (700 MBs) into 1 DVD.
DONE.
 
I was able to stream a 12Mbps video file flawlessly on my tablet upto 100 feet with D Link DSL 2750U.

DD WRT increases range as well as throughput
 
Can someone post some screenshots of a 720p/1080p video streamed via the router in wireless mode showcasing the bitrate that the video is running at.
 
dinjo said:
I was able to stream a 12Mbps video file flawlessly on my tablet upto 100 feet with D Link DSL 2750U.
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Your tablet is a N150 client, which got a link speed of ~65Mbs, giving you a real throughput of 15-20Mbs. Possibly lower speeds given the distance. If the avg bitrate was 12mbs, peaks could have been upto three times as high. So your player has a buffer that could compensate.

A N300 client could potentially handle more data than your tablet.

When you say flawlessly, you watched the entire movie from start to finish and there was no issue ?

Would you be able to repeat this experiment again ?

If yes we can look at tweaking things some more.

dinjo said:
DD WRT increases range as well as throughput
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By how much ?
 
I can provide statistics for N13U b1 running firmware DD-WRT v24-sp2 (07/20/12) std.

12mbps (megabit/sec) in nothing. I can easily stream 1080p 40mbps movies and they play flawlessly on my nexus 4 over wifi.

In the 3rd screenshot you can see that actual throughput crosses 6mBps (megabyte/sec) while streaming.
File transfer speeds (FTP) are usually around ~4mBps (megabyte/sec) between PC and phone.

DLNA Library : TVersity Media Server (wired @ 100mbps)
DLNA Control point & Viewer : Nexus 4 (wireless @ 72mbps link speed)
DLNA Control point & Viewer : Bubble UPNP & MX Player (HW+ with custom neon decoder)
Router Settings - WPA2, 802.11n only, 40Mhz width with greenfield mode. Check screenshots
Distance - About 20 feet with two 11 inch walls in between



40mbps 1080p video : 'Birds' - http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/
Link for custom neon decoder for nexus 4/mx player - http://www.dropbox.com/s/qd4qjkuwy5uew0u/neon.zip
 
V1 of router, stock Asus firmware, I can confirm 300Mbps link speed but mild stuttering with even 720p video (1080p unplayable). File transfers peaked at 8-9MB/s so it wasn't a throughput issue.

Didn't spend time troubleshooting, simply upgraded and repurposed the router as a repeater. Didn't have the time and didn't need the frustration.
 
What was sending and receiving device's link speed w.r.t to the 8-9MB/s file transfer speed?

cranky said:
V1 of router, stock Asus firmware, I can confirm 300Mbps link speed but mild stuttering with even 720p video (1080p unplayable). File transfers peaked at 8-9MB/s so it wasn't a throughput issue.

Didn't spend time troubleshooting, simply upgraded and repurposed the router as a repeater. Didn't have the time and didn't need the frustration.
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m0h1t said:
12mbps (megabit/sec) in nothing. I can easily stream 1080p 40mbps movies and they play flawlessly on my nexus 4 over wifi.
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m0h1t said:
40mbps 1080p video : 'Birds' -http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/
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These are small samples. I've got that clip btw and it is 40mbs avg with a peak of 72mbs but its only a few seconds long. I wonder if Dinjo also used a small sample like this in his post as well.

People, the challenge is to stream a full length show or movie of at least half hour's duration and longer. So what was the biggest file size movie you managed here with your current setup.

Can you post the avg & peak rates of the biggest movies that successfully streamed using the following utility.

m0h1t said:
In the 3rd screenshot you can see that actual throughput crosses 6mBps (megabyte/sec) while streaming. File transfer speeds (FTP) are usually around ~4mBps (megabyte/sec) over the same network, PC to nexus 4.
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32mbs is pretty good for a mobile N150 device. Again, with a N300 it should be even better.

Did you notice any improvement in throughput using dd-wrt over the stock N13 firmware ?

m0h1t said:
DLNA Library : TVersity Media Server (wired @ 100mbps)
DLNA Control point & Viewer : Nexus 4 (wireless @ 72mbps link speed)
DLNA Control point & Viewer : Bubble UPNP & MX Player (HW+ with custom neon decoder)
Router Settings - WPA2, 802.11n only, 40Mhz width with greenfield mode. Check screenshots
Distance - About 20 feet with two 11 inch walls in between

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Does channel width of 40Mhz make much difference to your throughput over using a 20Mhz channel ?

DLNA is a good choice.
 
I used to sync hard drives across the network. Link speed stayed constant at 300mbps in network stats of Windows Task Manager. This was over a year ago so my memory may not be very accurate and I was not using any diagnostic tools, just the net transfer rates (data/time) with known file sizes and a stopwatch.

I think my results are more empirical than conclusive, FWIW.
 
cranky said:
V1 of router, stock Asus firmware, I can confirm 300Mbps link speed but mild stuttering with even 720p video (1080p unplayable). File transfers peaked at 8-9MB/s so it wasn't a throughput issue.
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This points to a server and/or client side issue. Was it with shared folders or DLNA.

What was the distance between router & client and obstructions if any in between.

Throughput is promising.

cranky said:
Didn't spend time troubleshooting, simply upgraded and repurposed the router as a repeater. Didn't have the time and didn't need the frustration.
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heh, yeah lots of fun. Some DLNA servers can manage it others croak.
 
Shared folders, and client and server worked flawlessly when the new router was set up with same SSID and security. It was a router issue and simply changing it fixed the issue. I guess that's why we never tried to diagnose it.
 
Hmm, so you're suggesting the N13 at least the v1 does not have the power to stream these files. Even though the throughput is good enough.

v1 - 4MB flash/32MB RAM
b1 - 8MB flash/64 MB RAM

32 MB RAM in a router isn't enough to do 720p ? firmware could even play a role here.

Thing is if you hook two pcs to the v1 and then do a multiGB file copy, it should handle it. if it can do that then streaming said file over wifi should not be an issue either or at least that is what i'm, assuming.

Can anyone with a b1 try with multi GB size movie files and confirm. Theory says it should work with the right mix of client/server.

Using windows shares or SMB has more protocol overhead than DLNA that uses HTTP.
 
HD2 is g device so your throughput is going to be low, 10-20Mbs.

You need to install a DLNA server, don't know if N13 can use mini-DLNA. Don't see it in the optware list. If not then you have to install a DLNA server on the PC and attach your pen drive to the PC.

Then you need to install a DLNA client on the HD2. After that its point, click, select player and go.

or, you could setup a ftp server on the N13 and use the FTP streaming option in Dice player and that will work too.
 
Damn it, you're talking about the ASUS o!play HD2, confused it with HTC HD2 :O

The o!play HD2 does not have a wifi connection so you would need a wifi adapter or you can use the N13 if its setup in client bridge mode.

N13 as client bridge == super wifi adapter with ethernet cable that can be freely positioned for best wifi reception :)

You would need one more wifi router (a second N13?) to test the connection though.

Thing is if it turns out the N13 does not have the horsepower to stream multi-GB files then the client bridge idea with N13 is dead !
 
blr_p said:
Hmm, so you're suggesting the N13 at least the v1 does not have the power to stream these files. Even though the throughput is good enough.

v1 - 4MB flash/32MB RAM
b1 - 8MB flash/64 MB RAM

32 MB RAM in a router isn't enough to do 720p ? firmware could even play a role here.

Thing is if you hook two pcs to the v1 and then do a multiGB file copy, it should handle it. if it can do that then streaming said file over wifi should not be an issue either or at least that is what i'm, assuming.

Can anyone with a b1 try with multi GB size movie files and confirm. Theory says it should work with the right mix of client/server.

Using windows shares or SMB has more protocol overhead than DLNA that uses HTTP.
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I dont have Asus Router and can't say by how much is the throughput improved after using dd wrt but its definitely better than stock i had Hobbit (11 Mbps) streaming on my tablet from DSL 2750U from DLNA on Kalemsoft player for PB and no issues though i was hardly more than 20 feet away from router
 
dinjo said:
I dont have Asus Router and can't say by how much is the throughput improved after using dd wrt but its definitely better than stock i had Hobbit (11 Mbps) streaming on my tablet from DSL 2750U from DLNA on Kalemsoft player for PB and no issues though i was hardly more than 20 feet away from router
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Which router are you using presently ?

I mentioned N13 in the title because i figured thats what most people had and wondered whether it was suitable for multi-GB streaming but people can post experiences streaming HD and fullHD (without transcoding) with any router.
 
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