Can I stream DVD-Video over Airport Extreme?

[Screamingbeaver]

I've got a question. I know in theory 802.11g could reach 54Mbps, but never really gets that high. I want to stream DVD video from the office to the living room. I was gonna fish CAT5 cable for this, but I thought I'd ask first.

I have an existing 802.11b network and I've tried to stream it and it works for about 20 seconds, then It breaks up. If there was only a way to cache it just a bit longer, that would be cool.

Thanks for any advice.

'Beaver

 

[LimeLite]

By my calculations, you'd need to transfer only .6MB per sec, or close to 600k. I don't think this should be a problem for AE. It *shouldn't* be a problem for 802.11b if the network it running at optimum speed. My calculations might be a little off though. It's 4.29GB for about 2 hours of video. That's the general standard. Going by this, it's about 4,290MB per 2 hours. (I know, I'm not counting in the 1,024 MB per GB issue) That leaves about 2,145MB per hour. 35.75MB per minute, and .596MB per second. Since AE is 54Mbs per second, or about 6.75MB per second, it should be ablt to handle that, even if it's double the data rate, or triple. However with the regular airport, the transfer rate is 11Mb per second, or about 1.375MB per second. That being the case, if there is some bottle necking, especially if the DVD's bitrate is higher, it could cause some problems.

 

[Screamingbeaver]

thanks for the info....

yeah, even with, 802.11b...In the three years and two houses that I've had it, the fasted I've ever been is about 4Mbs. From what I've read that is typical.

I know that the MOXI entertainment system was supposed to use 802.11a to achieve thier streaming audio/video throughout your house....This also has a theoretical speed of 54Mbs. Based on what I've read, 802.11a reaches speeds closer to 20Mbs wich would stream video just fine, however, 802.11g reached actual speeds of only about 12-15Mbs. I dunno.

I'm weighing the cost of cable, and time runnin it through my house, or the cost of an (g) base station, and (g) PCMCIA cards

'beaver

 

[robg]

DVDs are Variable Bit Rate, with a maximum allowable bitrate of 10mbps (including audio--10mbps is "1x" for DVD). I don't know about 802.11g, but as long as you are guaranteed 10mbps + overhead and you can sustain this bitrate you are good.

It looks like you said 802.11g can sustain 12-15mbps, so I would definately try it out at a friends house if possible. No guarantees...

 

[bograt]

Spot the thick-o

Erm... hate to sound completely dumb, but what software would I need to do this?

 

[LimeLite]

You can do it with Apple's DVD Player and a program called DVD Copy. DVD Copy will literally copy absolutely everything from a DVD and plave it in a Video_TS folder on your hard drive. Then you can connect from the computer you want to watch it from to the computer where it's stored. The computer your watching it with has to have a DVD drive so you can open DVD Player, but then you just go to the file menu, choose open Video_TS Folder.., then choose the folder on the other computer where you saved the copied DVD. (I hope that made sense.)

 

[Screamingbeaver]

Exactly...

This is exactly what I'm doin'.

'Beaver