Reducing Latency On In-Home Console Streaming?

[bmichaels556]

Something I've been enjoying quite a bit is using my PC to stream Xbox One games. For a few reasons. I don't have to leave my workstation, and I can also free up the living room TV for the rest of the family. I don't mind sacrificing some visual quality through streaming as long as I can play consoles any time I want, and that convenience ain't a bad compromise for me personally.

 

HOWEVER... The latency. For third person games, it's much more manageable. In fact, I've put over 100 hours into RDR2 like this, and with things like Dead Eye and auto-aim, it does make the game manageable to play, and still very enjoyable. Here's what I've done to mitigate latency. I've put both my PC, and my Xbox One S on my 5Ghz band. This was a nice improvement over my PC being on 2.4ghz. I switched between a cheapo USB wifi adapter, to a PCI-e 1x adapter, and yeah, I can definitely feel the difference by having both on 5Ghz. 

 

But I'm still feeling quite a bit of lag, especially in FPS games. This is expected, but I didn't think it'd be this bad, even on wireless at 5Ghz. What's my next move? Wired, I know. But did you see a big improvement? Will it ever be possible to even get close to playing directly on console, or will there always be a quarter to half-second delay? AND, if I could only do one, which would be better to wire? My PC on the receiving end, or my Xbox One S? Is this a prime investment for a couple Powerline adapters? Or will the lag still be noticable in these types of games, as to just not bother? And no, I'd never dare play online this way. But I'd love my best streaming single player experience here. Man, I remember when I used to stream Steam games to my laptop from my upstairs gaming rig, there was SOME lag, but it was way better than this situation, and neither were wired, and both were on 2.4ghz.. Maybe even that cheap TP Link router had less latency than my Comcast-supplied one..? Could my router be the bigger problem here? Eh, just brainstorming.

 

Thanks so much! I'm really looking forward to figuring this out and getting the best possible experience with streaming!  

[KarathKasun]

Gigabit ethernet to BOTH devices.

 

There should be a considerable improvement, from 10-20ms on WiFi down to sub 1ms on wired.  There is still the frame encode/decode latency though.

[bmichaels556]

1 hour ago, KarathKasun said:

Gigabit ethernet to BOTH devices.

 

There should be a considerable improvement, from 10-20ms on WiFi down to sub 1ms on wired.  There is still the frame encode/decode latency though.

This is... Probably a dumb question, but... Wouldn't gigabit only benefit me if the devices, and the data being transferred between them, are capable and/or large enough to use it? I mean suppose I went with powerline and still cut my latency in half or more. If the stream itself only maxes at around 20mbps, wouldn't upgrading my router and everything else with it, be a total waste because it wouldn't necessarily improve latency, whether it maxes at 100mbps, or 1000mbps?

[KarathKasun]

10 hours ago, bmichaels556 said:

This is... Probably a dumb question, but... Wouldn't gigabit only benefit me if the devices, and the data being transferred between them, are capable and/or large enough to use it? I mean suppose I went with powerline and still cut my latency in half or more. If the stream itself only maxes at around 20mbps, wouldn't upgrading my router and everything else with it, be a total waste because it wouldn't necessarily improve latency, whether it maxes at 100mbps, or 1000mbps?

GbE operates at higher frequency and data takes less time to deliver.  Bitrate is important precisely because latency is.  The higher the communications frequency, the less time it takes to send one bit of data down the pipe.

 

20mbit of data still takes less time to transfer over a 1Gb connection than a 20mbit connection. by a factor of 1/50.

[bmichaels556]

4 hours ago, KarathKasun said:

GbE operates at higher frequency and data takes less time to deliver.  Bitrate is important precisely because latency is.  The higher the communications frequency, the less time it takes to send one bit of data down the pipe.

 

20mbit of data still takes less time to transfer over a 1Gb connection than a 20mbit connection. by a factor of 1/50.

Ah right, gotcha. Okay, that makes sense.

 

See I think conceptually, I was thinking... Well, a higher bitrate would just allow more overall throughput, sort of like having more RAM. Like, the raw speed between 8GB and 64GB of RAM would be "the same", but more RAM would allow a bigger workload.

 

But what you're sort of saying is... No, gigabit ethernet IS faster RAM in the first place, and will be inherently faster, regardless of if your "workload" (or my home internet speed) needs the bigger throughput. Or something like that..? I guess I do remember reading about frequency differences between CAT5, 5e, 6 etc.

 

Which begs the question... Would Gigabit Powerline still give me much of those benefits? And I assume to use anything gigabit, I'd have to upgrade my router as well, right? Weird question, but any way to "overclock" a router to force a higher frequency from a lower speed system/cables and make it perform closer to a higher standard?  

[KarathKasun]

Powerline is not the answer.  It has its own few ms of delay due to even more data conversion happening, not to mention more re-transmissions due to line noise.

[bmichaels556]

2 minutes ago, KarathKasun said:

Powerline is not the answer.  It has its own few ms of delay due to even more data conversion happening, not to mention more re-transmissions due to line noise.

 

Well but shouldn't a 200mbps powerline system still be an improvement over even 5ghz wifi? Only because the way my house is, it's not ultra practical to run wires everywhere.

 

Although, I guess I could figure something out with some white cables and staple 'em into the wall maybe..

[KarathKasun]

40 minutes ago, bmichaels556 said:

 

Well but shouldn't a 200mbps powerline system still be an improvement over even 5ghz wifi? Only because the way my house is, it's not ultra practical to run wires everywhere.

 

Although, I guess I could figure something out with some white cables and staple 'em into the wall maybe..

You can get wall/baseboard mounted plastic conduit.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Legrand-Wiremold-CMK10-Cordmate-Cover/dp/B0015EA3P2?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_2

[bmichaels556]

7 minutes ago, KarathKasun said:

You can get wall/baseboard mounted plastic conduit.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Legrand-Wiremold-CMK10-Cordmate-Cover/dp/B0015EA3P2?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_2

Ya' know... That may just be the ticket. At least I'll still be able to get a wired connection going, and I could always upgrade router and stuff later. But I'm sure I'll still see huge improvements over all other options, considering the situation.

 

Thanks a ton for that info, my friend!

 

May think about giving all this a shot this weekend. 

[KarathKasun]

4 minutes ago, bmichaels556 said:

Ya' know... That may just be the ticket. At least I'll still be able to get a wired connection going, and I could always upgrade router and stuff later. But I'm sure I'll still see huge improvements over all other options, considering the situation.

 

Thanks a ton for that info, my friend!

 

May think about giving all this a shot this weekend. 

Check local hardware stores for better wall conduit.  The double sided tape stuff tends to fall off.  Better stuff has holes to mount with screws and sheetrock anchors, kinda like you would mount a curtain rod or large picture frame.

 

Had to use this approach for a business that had brick walls with sheetrock mounted to them.  Cant really run wires through a wall vertically when its solid brick.