This weekend, I wanted to hook up a system to be able to watch the media stored in my home office media server on my HD TV in my family room.
You see my main house is not (yet) wired for Ethernet. I did plan ahead when we added our new home office 18 months ago, CAT6 Ethernet wires were installed and also used for the telephones in the new addition. They terminate in the garage where the hook ups are located for all utilities.
After a bit of on line shopping, I decided to try two products, the D-Link DSM520 media extender and the NetGear HD101X Powerline Ethernet Plugs. I decided to purchase them locally in case there was a problem, I could easily return them. This turned out to be a good decision.
On the packaging for the HD101X, it states that 200 Mbps were available, enough to stream HD videos. That sounded good to me. Once I got them home and plugged them in, what did I see? 11Mbps!
I called NetGear Tech Support, it took 20 minutes or so for them to answer my call. After I explained my results, the Support Tech asked me to move the HD101X plug closer to my Router and report the results; 17Mbps, still way too slow. His final conclusion was that there is a "problem" with the wires in my home office and house. He actually recommended that I have my house rewired! I responded by saying that seemed a bit extreme to me. And, if I was to do that (fat chance) I would install CAT6 instead of replacing all my 110/220 volt wires. He response was silence. OK then!
I still wanted to try the D-Link DSM520 Media Extender. I hooked it up to a TV in my home office and ran an Ethernet cable directly (over the carpet) to my router switch.
I next embarked upon a 6 hour nightmare journey. Installing the D-Link software was not easy. Trying to have my computer recognize the Media Extender was harder than trying to use the SolidWorks Installation Manager! :-) Honestly, I've never encountered a more difficult computer hardware installation. The provided Help files were very poor and offered no solutions. I tried calling D-Link Tech Support, but I gave up after being on hold for an hour.
Finally, I got the Media Extender to read the media files on my server. I still had hope at this point. First, I tried to listen to my music files. I have files from Napster (I paid for these), Wal Mart, iTunes, and some CDs that I ripped. It wouldn't play any of them! It displayed a message stating it couldn't play any "protected" music files. All my files downloaded files are protected, but what about my "ripped" files?
Then, I tried to view my photos. Yes, they looked good, but you could only view one file at a time. There was no provision for "slide shows", after viewing each photo, it took 3 clicks to view the next one. Rubbish!
Next, I browsed to my movie files. Viewing movie files on my HD TV was the primary reason for all this, I was looking forward to this. No matter what movie file I clicked on, .wmv, mpg3, mpg4 .avi, the media extender posted an error message stating the files were "not supported". Great!
Saturday afternooon, I packed up these machines and returned them for a full refund.
Plan B is to wire my family room with CAT6 and install a Media Center computer and wire it directly to my HD TV.
Do you watch media from your computer in one room on your HD TV in another room? How?
Cheers,
Devon T. Sowell
http://www.3-ddesignsolutions.com
