Posts filed under ‘SmallNetBuilder’
3 Antennas vs 1 Coax: WiFi Still Can’t Do What MoCA Does
Three Stream N For HD Streaming: Close, But No Cigar
As the late great Howard Cosell said “I’m just telling it like it is”, and so are the guys at SmallNetBuilder as they once again stage their HD Smackdown using the latest WiFi competitor, 3 stream 11N. Identified by 3 antennas instead of the usual 2, the latest in WiFi technology has demonstrated increased throughput, but can it successfully stream 1080P HD video without interruptions? Sadly, it’s more “Agony of Defeat” as summed up by SmallNetBuilder:
It may seem hard to believe, but all the additional bandwidth provided by three-stream N still isn’t enough to ensure trouble-free 1080p wireless streaming. The best performance I could achieve still had minor, occasional problems during fact action sequences with a strong, next-room signal and the router set to spectrum-hogging Auto 20/40 MHz bandwidth mode.
So how do you hook up to your brand new Internet TV? Not with the (2 antenna) dongle that comes with the TV and it doesn’t look like powerline does the job either. What do the reviewers recommend?
So it still appears that your best bet for trouble-free 1080p network play remains 100 Mbps Ethernet, with MoCA a viable alternative if your setup allows it.
