Streaming PC to PC

[tolae]

Hello everyone, I've been having an issue with getting videos to play on my laptop that are stored on my main pc. The main pc is cabled into the router and the laptop is on wifi (duh), but I'm getting stuttering video and sometimes complete drops. The router I have is DB, but the laptop is a bit older and can't connect to the 5GHz band. Is that possibly the problem, or is there a network optimization I'm missing?

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

What are your transfer speeds between your laptop and desktop on the network as well as your ping?

[Blake]

Hello everyone, I've been having an issue with getting videos to play on my laptop that are stored on my main pc. The main pc is cabled into the router and the laptop is on wifi (duh), but I'm getting stuttering video and sometimes complete drops. The router I have is DB, but the laptop is a bit older and can't connect to the 5GHz band. Is that possibly the problem, or is there a network optimization I'm missing?

1. If you copy the video then play, does it work fine?

2. your using wifi, that is your issue. the bitrate/bandwidth will be too high for your wifi connection. setup plex (or another program) so encode the video on the fly to a lower bitrate and your issues will dissapear.

[tolae]

Would love to test network performance, what software would you recommend? I will take a look into Plex, thank you.

[Lildirt]

Over wireless? Haha, good luck. The only thing I've even managed "okay" streaming is with Steam in-home streaming on a laptop that was maybe six feet away from the router (well, network switch with wireless capabilities enabled). It was "playable," but it wasn't 1080p or even 30fps.

 

I'd look into a hard-wire solution no matter what. Your laptop is going to struggle to process that kind of information from a generic old ISP-provided router. I don't have much knowledge in that area though, I've wired everything possible (seriously, if I could wire my tablet and phone, I would).

[techguru]

Over wireless? Haha, good luck. The only thing I've even managed "okay" streaming is with Steam in-home streaming on a laptop that was maybe six feet away from the router (well, network switch with wireless capabilities enabled). It was "playable," but it wasn't 1080p or even 30fps.

 

I'd look into a hard-wire solution no matter what. Your laptop is going to struggle to process that kind of information from a generic old ISP-provided router. I don't have much knowledge in that area though, I've wired everything possible (seriously, if I could wire my tablet and phone, I would).

you probably could be a usb to ethernet adapter  

[Lildirt]

you probably could be a usb to ethernet adapter  

^^

 

Yes. I did this with a laptop. However, if it's a Linux machine, it might not support the hardware out of the box. So, your mileage may vary.

 

Also, I didn't notice the OP said 5GHz band, but those are generally not as great for distance. Your connection might taper off a bit earlier than on a 2.4GHz connection, so that's something to be wary of depending on how far away you are from the router itself.