DVD Player as 802.11b Peripheral

sysadmn writes "Instead of building a PVR from a computer, why not let your DVD player access the computer you already have? That's the thinking behind Sonicblue's new Go-Video D2730. The just-announced DVD player will use an 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless network connection to access content on PCs, such as photos, music and videos. The player is aggressively priced at about $250 US and is due out in first quarter 2003. Full details are on CNET."

Comments

Fast enough?

[gzsfrk]

I notice on home home 802.11b network that the 11mbps connection between my den PC and upstairs office PC is nowhere near fast enough to stream high quality compressed digital video (e.g. DivX). How is this player going to be able to pull it off?

Re:Fast enough?

[phurley]

802.11b is plenty fast to stream DivX. Now as some point you could have too many players (and other 802.11b devices) in a home (possibly a bigger problem in apartment buildings?) trying to share the same bandwidth.

Re:Fast enough?

[brunes69]

A DVD quality SVCD runs at arounf 3000 kbps (around 3 Mbps), and a simmilar quality DivX around 1500 kbps (1.5 Mbps). So I don't know what you are doing at your place, but a 11 Mbps conneciton should handle them just fine. In face, my 10 Mbps nic can play a SVCD over the LAN perfectly.

Re:Fast enough?

[Hayzeus]

11MBPS is probably fast enough; however, it's worth pointing out that 11MBPS isn't guaranteed by 802.11B. In fact, the connection speed can fall back to fairly slow speeds in the presence of a less than perfect RF link. I can't recall the bottom end off hand (1MBPS?).

It may be that you are seeing partial signal blockage or reflectance problems between your office and den. Try using something to benchmark the actual connection speed (if you haven't done so already).

Re:Fast enough?

[tswinzig]

Are your floors or ceilings made of metal, per chance?

Re:Fast enough?

[afidel]

11Mbps is the through the air "wire" speed that is the maximum speed that all data is being sent. The amount of usefull data on even the best .11b equipment is about 6.3Mbps or ~700KB/s which should be more then enough for DivX and even most MPEG2 streams but some could theoretically be 9.8Mbps but average 4.7 Mbps typical rate for movie on single layer with 3 multichannel audio tracks.

Re:Fast enough?

[genka]

11Mbps is a "marketing number". The protocol has a lot of overhead- data that is transmitted for servicing the connection. When it comes to speed 802.11B is moving your data (payload), it is about 3-4 MBps, shared between two directions.

Maybe I've overlooked something...

[CommieLib]

But how does this relate to PVR? Allowing my DVD player to access PC content doesn't allow me to PVR, as far as I can tell. The article mentioned plans to network to Replay TV, but that's not what you're saying here.

Did I miss something?

Ethernet, 802.11b add-on

[crow]

The posting is misleading. The item comes with an ethernet port, but support for 802.11b will require an additional piece of hardware. I'm not clear from the information available if it will just use a PCMCIA slot or something else.

Re:Ethernet, 802.11b add-on

[stevel]

It's even more misleading than it first appears - the article discusses a DVD player that allows display of content from your networked PC. The only reference to PVRs is a mention that ReplayTV boxes from the same company also offer network connectivity. There's nothing PVR-related in this announcement at all.

Don't people actually read the articles they point to before posting here?

So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Instead, why not just spend $50 bucks and do this on your Playstation 2?

Q Cast Player

This thing rocks, by the way.

Free movies!

[JasonMaggini]

All you have to do is make a Pringles-can antenna and drive around for a while...

Re:Free movies!

[aero6dof]

And I thought drive-in movie theatres were dying off!

Perfect...

[cybermace5]

This is wonderful. Now, in addition to DDOS attacks and hacking by the RIAA, we can have wardriving by the MPAA!

Illegal?

[ottffssent]

I could have sworn it was illegal (or at least against some shrinkwrap EULA mumbo-jumbo) to play a DVD over any sort of wireless link. It came up during Microsoft's massively ill-conceived tablet PC thing, I believe.

Blame your neighbor.

[jdludlow]

But honey, I swear that the DVD player just started pumping out pron on its own!

not integrated 802.11b

[asv108]

From the Article

Sonicblue's DVD player will be able to connect to networks via an Ethernet connection. Consumers will be able to purchase 802.11b PC cards to connect the player to a PC using wireless networking

Here's why you want to DIY instead of BUY

[4/3PI*R^3]

From the Sonic Blue web page:
SONICblue reserves the right to automatically add, modify, or disable any features in the operating software when your ReplayTV 5000 connects to our server.

Translated:
We will sell you this box with a list of features you want but once the *AA gets congress to pass favorable laws, wins a court battle, or becomes a major shareholder in our business we will promptly castrate your box without sending you one penny in refund.

Re:Wouldn't want to risk it

[yelloh99]

I agree, I bought a cd player with 30 seconds of memory. So now when I hit a bump I hear the skip 30 seconds later.

DVD quality throughput?

[beest]

From tests I've done in the past with DVD quality streaming, wireless networks such as 802.11b can not support the throughput required. I've had DVD's max out at 13 MB/s. 802.11b can only send 11 Mb/s not including overhead which is greater than 802.3 in the first place...

Re:Is this really priced competatively?

[ergo98]

Well firstly your solution presumes that one's time is free: If you put a value on the hours you spend putting the system together, configuring all of the software, etc, suddenly it isn't economical. Rather than seeing it as a hobbyist, think "If I were to go into business making these for other people, what would I charge?". I suspect that you'd be surprized. Of course on top of all of that is the expense and availability issues in finding a "stereo component" sized computer case that integrates into an AV system (no dropping a giant beige case sputtering away with a dozen fans isn't viable).

Secondarily, it's highly likely that they're using one of the new Sigma Designs chipsets, the new one which includes some Divx support. Indeed if I were to build a PC based playback device (the only thing holding me back is the case, as previously mentioned. For fans I'd reduce that by using a Via C3 with passive cooling), I'd base it around a Sigma Designs XCard.

Re:Fast enough? (My experience)

[timeOday]

Exactly.

However, I stream video from my desktop (with TV tuner card) to a laptop (with TV-out) under the TV over 802.11b. I do this by mounting an NFS volume over a VPN I establish from the laptop to the desktop. My datarate is set so 1 hr of video will just fit on a 700 MB CD (in case I see a show I want to keep). I'm also running an ad-hoc (rather than access point) network, if that makes any difference. The laptop and desktop are fairly close together, but there are a few walls.

Under these conditions, I can just eek out enough bandwidth. There's more room for error if I stream over HTTP, but then I can't seek within the stream, so I stick with NFS.

Very occasionally for no apparent reason I'm unable to use the player - interference from something, I assume.