streaming video between networked computers

[ojnihs]

alright, this is mostly a question for mac users, but if you windows users got some advice, i'd love to hear it.

anyway, i have a bunch of tv shows downloaded on my external hdd (scrubs, house, lost, bsg, etc.) and my roommate wants to watch them on his computer in the other room sometime. i have a macbook and he has a macbook pro, and we're both running leopard with file sharing on.

i'm using an 802.11g network and since about a month ago, the video streaming worked perfectly fine. my roommate could watch any and all shows that he wanted by simply connecting to my computer via the shared network. recently, however, the video streams have basically gone to shit. he can watch the shows for about 3 minutes before quicktime freezes up and basically crashes. vlc and mplayer both suffer the same problem.

i was wondering if any of you mac users with more than one computers can give this a try and see if you suffer from the same problems or not. i know upgrading to a 802.11n network would pretty much solve this problem, but i don't particularly want to drop $180 for a airport express right now. any help would be great.

thanks.

[grawk]

Get the airport express (or a timecapsule). You won't regret it.

alright, this is mostly a question for mac users, but if you windows users got some advice, i'd love to hear it.

anyway, i have a bunch of tv shows downloaded on my external hdd (scrubs, house, lost, bsg, etc.) and my roommate wants to watch them on his computer in the other room sometime. i have a macbook and he has a macbook pro, and we're both running leopard with file sharing on.

i'm using an 802.11g network and since about a month ago, the video streaming worked perfectly fine. my roommate could watch any and all shows that he wanted by simply connecting to my computer via the shared network. recently, however, the video streams have basically gone to shit. he can watch the shows for about 3 minutes before quicktime freezes up and basically crashes. vlc and mplayer both suffer the same problem.

i was wondering if any of you mac users with more than one computers can give this a try and see if you suffer from the same problems or not. i know upgrading to a 802.11n network would pretty much solve this problem, but i don't particularly want to drop $180 for a airport express right now. any help would be great.

thanks.

[ojnihs]

Get the airport express (or a timecapsule). You won't regret it.

fuck. i fucked up. i have an airport express right now that i'm using as the router (my wrt54g died yesterday, fucking piece of shit).

i meant an airport extreme, but i'm sure that's what you meant.

[Salt Peanuts]

What's the compression on the videos? I can try it with my MacBook and iMac, but I'd have to rip some videos first.

[ojnihs]

What's the compression on the videos? I can try it with my MacBook and iMac, but I'd have to rip some videos first.

well he's watching scrubs recently (surprise surprise) and they're just simple .avi. not hd or anything like that. i'll let you know exactly what the encoding is when i'm back home later. thanks haj.

[Salt Peanuts]

I ripped an episode of Robot Chicken from DVD using Handbrake. I ripped one file with "AppleTV" setting and another file with "iPhone/iPod touch" setting. They were both saved on an external drive connected to my iMac via Firewire 400. I just watched both of them on my MacBook connected to my 802.11g network and had no issues with either files.

[ojnihs]

I ripped an episode of Robot Chicken from DVD using Handbrake. I ripped one file with "AppleTV" setting and another file with "iPhone/iPod touch" setting. They were both saved on an external drive connected to my iMac via Firewire 400. I just watched both of them on my MacBook connected to my 802.11g network and had no issues with either files.

thanks haj. yeah, it was working just fine for about 4 months and then i ran into this issue. i may be getting interference somewhere or something. i'll have to check it out. thanks again.

[tkam]

Is his wireless connection dropping completely or just the file stops streaming?

[ojnihs]

Is his wireless connection dropping completely or just the file stops streaming?

files just stop and quicktime basically does the spinning ball of death and we have to force quit it. i feel that it happens because the data isn't coming in fast enough or something.

[spritzer]

It must be a connection issue. Have you tried to increase the buffer?

[Dusty Chalk]

Why doesn't he just copy the file locally and watch them that way?

[JBLoudG20]

Why doesn't he just copy the file locally and watch them that way?

x2

[ojnihs]

Why doesn't he just copy the file locally and watch them that way?

well yeah that's a good idea, but i'm more trying to diagnose the problem. it worked and now it doesn't. what up with that?

[JBLoudG20]

well yeah that's a good idea, but i'm more trying to diagnose the problem. it worked and now it doesn't. what up with that?

It's haunted.

[deepak]

Here's a dumb question is he able to play videos on his computer without crashing (videos on his hardrive)? Just making sure it's not a problem with his computer (saving you a lot of grief, allowing you to focus on his computer).

[ojnihs]

Here's a dumb question is he able to play videos on his computer without crashing (videos on his hardrive)? Just making sure it's not a problem with his computer (saving you a lot of grief, allowing you to focus on his computer).

yeah, he can play videos on his computer fine. i'm about to give up on this thing, fucking eh.

[Dusty Chalk]

well yeah that's a good idea, but i'm more trying to diagnose the problem. it worked and now it doesn't. what up with that?

Network traffic bloat. (I.E. crap on the line).

I mean, if you really want to diagnose it, I'd see if Mac has some equivalent program to tracert (or ping) to see what kind of throughput you have to his computer, or vice versa.

[ojnihs]

I mean, if you really want to diagnose it, I'd see if Mac has some equivalent program to tracert (or ping) to see what kind of throughput you have to his computer, or vice versa.

Great idea Dusty, thanks for that. Mac OS X has a program built in (Network Utility) that has traceroute. I'll give it a try later.

[ojnihs]

well, i did the traceroute and it basically takes 1.5ms to ping his computer, so it can't be the network. damn it.

[Salt Peanuts]

Not sure if this matters, but did either or both of you upgrade to Leopard?