Wireless Streaming = Poor Quality

[soulchas3r]

OK I have invested MANY hours into trying to set this up, reading the forums and trying all sorts of trouble shooting, but still can't quite get there.

I want to stream music from desktop to multiple laptops for synchronous playback throughout house and backyard.

I have a Net Gear 3500N gigabit / wireless N router. Desktop is connected via Ethernet. Both systems Win 7 x64.

I have tried many configurations and get very poor audio quality, stuttering, clipping etc. These are the setups and the results:

Connection: Result:
Desktop ==> Ethernet ==>router==> Ethernet ==>laptop | Audio is perfect
Desktop ==> ethernet==>router==>wireless==>laptop | Audio is horrible
Laptop ==> wireless==>router==> Ethernet ==>Desktop | Audio is perfect
Laptop ==> wireless==>router==>wireless==>another laptop |Audio is horrible

The one that really makes it seem strange to me is the third one. If it works streaming from laptop to desktop via wireless why not in the other direction?

Windows reports connection at Mbps, but according to some forums I have read, this is always the case? I test connection via: xirrus.com widget and it shows connection at 300Mbps.

I have enabled ipv6 in router, I have set max connect speed in router to 300Mbps. I have latest firmware for router and latest wireless card drivers.


I am attempting to use RTP/MPEG transport stream. I am just giving an address of 239.255.100.100

I have tried many different settings for encapsulation and for audio trans-coding. I have tried streaming MPG, mp3, and capture audio, all with the same results.

Could this be hardware (router) related? Software? Driver configuration?

Why would the receive corrupt the audio on wireless, but not the send?



If somebody solves this for me I owe you forever.

[VLC_help]

Did you try with VLC 1.1.4? Have you tried to increase playback cache from VLC?

[soulchas3r]

I tried running both client and server in VLC 1.1.4 and different combinations of both. 1.1.4 had worse performance.

I reset all preferences.

On server I tried:
Higher values for Stream output>Sout stream>RTP Caching value.

Default was 300 ms, I tried 600ms and 1000ms, with no real difference.

On client I tried different values for cache in the input>access modules>UDP (I assume this is correct?)

My default transport protocol in Sout is UDP.

I am definitely not an expert in this by any means.

[VLC_help]

That (input>access modules>UDP) is right place, if you open udp:// URL.

[soulchas3r]

Which input cache value should I set for RTP? Real RTSP? I set that one as well.

Is RTP the best solution for local wireless streaming of audio?

[VLC_help]

For LAN the method shouldn't really matter latency wise. You can naturally test HTTP and MMS, but I would guess they also show same issues.

[soulchas3r]

If I copy a file between the two computers I see transfer rates around 2.2 Mb/s. Shouldn't VLC need only a fraction of that to stream an mp3?

You think this is a specific issue to my configuration? I am using two very fast computers on a fast network? THe problem only shows up on wireless down not wireless up or wired connections, seems kind of weird. I guess it must be a network thing?

[VLC_help]

Your network is fast enough for streaming MP3 files. But there is something that is harassing the transfers or there is a bug in VLC.

[soulchas3r]

I have tried different options in my router QoS disabled WMM (Wireless MultiMedia) enabled or disabled. Still no luck.

If I look at the Media Information / statistics I see The "discarded (corrupted)" counter going up significantly as the audio gets chopped.

I REALLY want this to work.