Advice on router purchase (HD stream)

[Knighted]

Hi,

I've read up a bit on the site so far, with the buyer's guide and the charts, and i'm still unsure what router would be best for my situation. Any help would be appreciated.

Here's the situation:
*I'd like to equip a WDTV Live for wireless steaming of HD content.
*The WDTV Live will be wired directly to the router.
*A desktop computer will be in the same room (within 10 feet), and will need a consistent stable connection. It's currently equipped for 802.11g reception, so I am planning on purchasing an 802.11n adapter (usb, pci or pci-e). The data to be streamed will be stored here. A fair amount of torrents are generally active on this machine as well.
*Only other device regularly (once every couple days) connecting to the router will be a laptop equipped with a Intel PRO/Wireless 4965AGN card. It's supposed to support 802.11n, and should operate in the 5.0 ghz range. Again range shouldn't be an issue. The maximum distance would probably be 20ft.
*I'd like the router to still handle 802.11g in case anyone visits and would like to use our wireless connection with their own laptop.
*This is in an apartment, so there is consequently a lot of interference from other devices.

If any other information is required I'd be happy to supply it.

In sum, I believe that I'm looking for recommendations for a wireless 802.11n router which operates in the 5.0ghz range that would be best for streaming HD video. I also need a recommendation on an adapter for the desktop HD source, or would any 802.11n adapter work? I haven't seen many adapters which are equipped for the 5.0 ghz range.

I think I should be more concerned with uplink since the router is directly connected to the WDTV Live. So from the charts, it looks that the D-Link DIR-825 B1 might suit me best? Or maybe the NETGEAR WNDR3700?

Thanks for any help, it's much appreciated.

 

[DaveMcLain]

If I'm reading what you're saying correctly both your PC that's acting as the server and the HD video player will both be on the LAN side of the router. This means that the speed of the switch will have the greatest effect on data throughput, uplink/downlink would only come into play when data is crossing from LAN to WAN and vice versa and requiring the router to "route" so to speak. Running HD video over wifi can be troublesome because of throughput variation. Sometimes the bandwidth is more than enough and then due to interference etc it'll drop way down for a short period before going back up again. Depending on the buffering that you're doing this might or might not cause problems. I remember reading that it doesn't take much interruption or packet loss to make video unwatchable.

 

[thiggins]

Contrary to what equipment vendors would have you believe, 802.11n doesn't help much to provide trouble-free HD streaming. 802.11n is capable of providing sufficient throughput, but the problem is that the throughput isn't steady enough.

Since the gear involved is in the same room, just connect everything via Ethernet. You'll be much happier with your HD viewing experience.