Devolo dLAN 200 AV - WOW!

[kungpo]

After a miserable time trying to get 720p and 1080i/p content to stream wirelessly to my HTPC (from my NAS box), with Wireless N routers and adapters etc and realising that I might have to run a cat5 cable from the router (upstairs) down to the living room.

However, after doing a small job for a client and seeing some Ethernet over Power adapters, I went out and got a pair of Devolo dLAN 200 home plug adapters.

All I can say is - WOW! It works beautifully. Only real catch is that they want to be plugged into a wall socket rather than an extension (but it does work), and they're quite expensive. I haven't measured actual speeds, but all my HD content played back flawlessly (720p, 1080i and 1080p).

I chose the Devolo over the Netgear equivalent as the Netgear adapters are much bigger and foul adjacent power sockets.

Other good point is no need to drill any holes or staple cables to the wall which keeps the wife happy!

Yippee!

[Rack]

Get sandra and do a quick benchmark!

Of course it's highly dependant on your cabling + power quality AFAIK. Installing dimmers might not help for example.

[kungpo]

OK - With the Wireless N, I was getting about 300KBs. With the dLAN, I now get about 4MBs and on a proper 100mbs ethernet, I get about 8MBs.

OK, so not really ethernet speed, but what an improvement over wireless N. In fact, i think the N performance was worse than the 11g I was using before changing the router.

I'll run Sandra and get some proper benchmarks!