Help with Wireless Video Streaming - The Real Deal

[Storm79]

I'm talking about actual 'streaming' here, not simply running a file from a shared hard disk on a different computer.

Pre Xlobby, I've tried to play Divx movies on my laptop downstairs which reads the info from a server upstairs. I've found that 802.11G has more than enough bandwidth to play the file (I could copy all 700mb over in ten minutes, so it should be able to cope with trickling it all over the space of an hour and a half), however any slight glitches/spikes in network usage cause it to stutter slightly.

This could all be solved if true streaming (the kind you get over the web) was used. All it needs is a small buffer to make it run smoothly.

Does anyone know of a video player that I could plug into xlobby that supports streaming? Or can anyone suggest an alternative way to get it to buffer a few seconds of video?

I've heard that it might be possible if I run a webserver on my server and access the files that way, but it seems like quite a complicated setup for such a simple problem.

Basically, I'd love any sor tof help or advice that people can offer!

[alaricljs]

Considering what you want is simply a read-ahead cache implemented on a network share that's how I researched the idea.

According to MS own docs, SMB/CIFS supports client side agressive read-ahead. The problem now is to see why this is not happening for you. I don't know of any Tweak programs that expose any settings in this regard, perhaps someone else might, or you could find more out with this additional information.

[sp00head]

Have a look at the Video Lan Client Media player
http://www.videolan.org/
I've been playing with this for a while and would really like it to be intergrated into a Video Multizone part of XNET ( if thats even on the cards)

[jowaldo]

Yeah, I'd really like multizone video

[Vince_B]

Yeah, I'd really like multizone video

That would be cool.

[Storm79]

Considering what you want is simply a read-ahead cache implemented on a network share that's how I researched the idea.

According to MS own docs, SMB/CIFS supports client side agressive read-ahead. The problem now is to see why this is not happening for you. I don't know of any Tweak programs that expose any settings in this regard, perhaps someone else might, or you could find more out with this additional information.

Hmm... I've never heard of read ahead cache to be honest. However, thanks for the pointer, I'll go and do some research.

I've tried videolan and whilst it does work, it really doesn't seem to like video on demand. Unless I go down the complicated web server route and access my files via http links (not ideal).

I can't believe there aren't many solutions to such a simple problem (surely it would be a simple option for a media player to buffer a small amount of data on a local hard disk).

Are other people experiencing similar problems with wireless video?

[Storm79]

I've done some additional research, and there's a movie player for *nix (so not much use here) with which you can set a cache option which will force the player to read a set amount of data (say 8mb) before it starts playing.

Does anyone know if any windows based movie players support such an option?

[sp00head]

I belive VideoLan can do what you need, but there seems to be a bit missing in the new documents http://www.videolan.org/doc/streaming-howto/en/ch05.html

I'll see if i get some time to have a play,
I really want to be able to stream my dvds to my ppc remote

[Storm79]

VideoLAN will require me to start the stream using a VL server won't it?

I couldn't simply point the client at a file on a shared driver and tell it to play and cache it could I?

Does anyone know if the network buffer in WMP could be used as a cache, or does it only work when reading from a Streaming server over the internet?

[alaricljs]

There's also a product whose name I unfortunately don't remember.

It was designed for laptop users you wanted to watch DVDs on battery power. The premise was that it took less power to spin the DVD up and dump the whole bloody thing to cache, and then play it from disc. This software apparently automated that for you, so that you just "play the DVD"

I've googled after it for a while but still haven't found it tho

Sorry

[Patrick]

Not sure if this is what you are looking for or if you have tried.
In WMP goto:
Tools->Options->Performance Tab->Networking Buffer
Buffer x seconds of content

HTH,
Patrick

[Storm79]

Well I've come up with a list of 'potentials' that I want to check out tonight:

-ATI Easyshare
-Snapstream beyond Media and Beyond TV
-Media Connect
-Meedio
-FFDShow
-Media Portal

I'll let you know how it goes.

[LYU370]

Been lurking for quite some time, but still a noob. Could a plugin or something be written to utilize BITS to cache the files to the local PC from the server?

Just a thought, maybe not a good thought, but a thought.

Andy