NETGEAR WNHDB3004 3DHD Wireless Home Theater Networking Kit Review

[btbluesky]

Hi,
Just finished with the review, and seeing that amazon is having the model (a pair) up for preorder already. I'm very tempted to try it out to replace my current dangling eth0 cable.

I'm sure my situation is not unique, cable modem downstair capable of 35+mb in good day. office upstair w/ server/computers 24/7. So with high ceiling/walls and thick woodfloor, the server cannot achieve the 35mb on just 802.11n@2.4 w/ RT-N16 on latest DDWRT (I didn't even try any 5G routers as the range is probably not gonna work). so now upstair is on a very (like really...) long eth cable.
So with all the beamforming , 4x4, this pair might finally let me get rid of the cable.
I don't care about streaming HD video, just want to have the full bandwidth I pay for upstair.
Any opinion/alternatives about the WNHDB3004? the pair is kinda pricy, but I dun see alot of other option at this time.
Think this is the first product with this chipset in it.

 

[thiggins]

Remember that this product is 5 GHz only. But it should deliver good throughput through a single floor.

What throughput are you getting with your current gear and how are you measuring it?

 

[btbluesky]

Not too scientific
I used a USB dangle 802.11n adapter in desktop upstair, then do a speedtest.net run. 17+mb. Then plug in the eth0 cable, 30mb.

Its a 2 story condo, but its all engineering hardwood floor with special soundproofing glue, and I imagine soundproofing stuff wouldn't work too well with wireless gears.

 

[rlowell]

Streaming Throughput Dismal; Do I Have A Bad Unit?

Group:

Two days ago, I purchased one of these sets at Fry's in San Diego and brought it home. Today I actually tried it out.

Backing up a bit, I tested the WNHDE111s several months ago for HD streaming between the RJ-45 in my kitchen nook and my Popcornhour A-110 under the TV in the living room (about ten feet from the nook).

My home network is 100BASET to all the rooms (including the nook).

I want to have ripped Blu-Ray movies stream down from a server upstairs to my media player. If I just run a long CAT V cable from the nook in my kitchen to the Popcornhour (my wife complains), everything streams smoothly.

My testing several months ago with the '111s indicated they were "almost" fast enough. The best netperf numbers I'd see for this stream were 40 Mbps. Sometimes a bit less. I could watch the first two minutes of the Blu-Ray rip of "Curse of The Golden Flower" without problems, but then some faster bitstreams in it would cause the player and the network to choke a bit.

So I wrapped the '111s up, took them back to Fry's and got a refund. I knew the '3004 was coming, and decided to wait.

I also printed some of the screenshots with the '111s from that experience. I noted that the signal quality was 82%.

With the WNHDB3004s, I'm getting 10 Mbps or less on the netperf attempts. I noted that the channel selection was on Auto and (reported by the bridge) at 157. So I changed it to 153 (the channel Mr. Higgins used). Throughput dropped down to 6-7 Mbps. So I guess "Auto" really was picking a good channel. That's good.

I spent an hour and fifteen minutes with someone in tech support on the phone from Netgear this morning. Nothing got resolved. Our case is still opened.

After I got off the phone with Netgear and started surfing around the config screens for both the access point and the bridge, I found that signal quality (reported from both sides) was always around 50%.

I'm wondering if I got a lemon. Maybe they didn't test it properly or at all during manufacture? I think Mr. Higgins also got a lemon during his evaluation.

Learning from my experiece with the WNHDE111s several months ago, I unplugged the cordless phone in the nook (which is a 5 GHz phone). A DECT 6 phone is on order from Amazon to replace it.

If the '111s went as fast as they did, I must not have an interfernce problem.

Does anyone here have a suggestion what I might try with this ap/bridge pair?

Thanks in advance.

rlowell

 

[thiggins]

Why are you thinking I got a lemon? I got 50+ Mbps with moderate to high signal strength.

If you can't get that with 10 feet line-of-sight between the two WNHD3004s, then you could have one or two defective units.

 

[merc]

Though I don't have this kit, I've found that on my network I would get better throughput with the lower channels (the ones around the 40s) vs the higher ones (150s) but only at closer range. Since it's not too far maybe try a lower channel to see if that helps. The higher channel would also get knocked out for a moment when a call came in on our 5GHz phone but we fixed that by setting the channel to auto, turning off the router, starting a call, then plugging it back in.

You might also try changing the direction of the device. Ours is meant to be sitting vertically but placing it flat worked better in our home. Even turning it to face a different direction may help.

 

[rlowell]

I'm Not Quite Line Of Sight

Thanks for the replies.

There are actually two small walls that obstruct the signal path a bit.

Signals have to go around them to get out of my nook and to get into where the bigscreen tv is.

Still, the total distance is about ten feet.


Tim, I thought you got a lemon because it stopped working and Netgear replaced it.

I agree that 50 Mbps is stellar.

rlowell

 

[thiggins]

The two small walls shouldn't be a problem.
Thanks for reminding me about the replacement. I had forgotten!

You might try merc's suggestions about rotating the units. I'd leave them standing up, though.

 

[rlowell]

I Tested The On Their Side

OK. I got the first unit I've documented to all of you replaced today at Fry's.

The results testing the second were the same. All attempts at netperf from my upstairs server are giving me almost 10 Mbps.

I pulled the two units out of their enclosures, making this a true line of sight ten foot signal path betw. the AP and the Bridge. That gave me 8.96 Mbps.

I disabled the power to my media player next to the Bridge (a Popcornhour A-110). No change in throughput.

I also (per Merc's suggestion) laid both units on their side. No change in throughput.

 

[btbluesky]

Any new development on the replaced pair?
10mb is pretty bad...

 

[DiamondView]

The Fundamental Question..

While this review is quite interesting reading with its testing methods and commentary, it fails to adequately address the fundamental question: Can this product actually stream 1080p video? Lets face it, the product is called a 3DHD Wireless Home Theatre Networking Kit & it clearly states on the Netgear website "Multiple Blu-Ray HD Streams flawlessly throughout the home" & "Jitter free 1080p streaming"...

Tim, why not just get them get them set up at the optimal line-of-sight distance, put them between a good NAS/router and mediaplayer, and see if it can reliably play ONE blu-ray stream with (say) a 30Mbps average? If you can't manage it, it's likely the rest of the planet will struggle as well. You might also save a lot of people from wasting time and $ - and Netgear might look at their sales and go "hmmm, maybe we should bother testing the product before we release it next time & not make so many ridiculous claims regarding its intended use".

 

[thiggins]

Test setup that you describe ("optimal" line of sight) is only one test case, which isn't very realistic.

As shown in HD Streaming Smackdown: The Rematch , successful wireless streaming of uncompressed 720p content is doable. But for uncompressed 1080p, success is highly unlikely unless the player used has a large, intelligent buffer.

 

[DiamondView]

Test setup that you describe ("optimal" line of sight) is only one test case, which isn't very realistic.

Exactly - and it kind of makes all your sub-optimal location tests rather academic. I'll say it again: this is a product that is fundamentally being promoted as a piece of HT equipment capable of 1080p steaming! So how about a bit more pooh-poohing?

As shown in HD Streaming Smackdown: The Rematch , successful wireless streaming of uncompressed 720p content is doable. But for uncompressed 1080p, success is highly unlikely unless the player used has a large, intelligent buffer.

Another interesting test, but I could ask the same question re the powerline testing: Why didn't you simply plug the 2 adapters into the same power point (to establish the best transmission scenario to start with) & then see what it could do? Again, if it failed when in the optimal setup, it wasn't ever going to do 1080p in a 'real' scenario. FWIW, I've done this with the Livewire kit and (according to the WD provided utility) maintained >180 Mbps between the units - but no way would it stream 1080p smoothly. Admittedly, WD never mention 1080 in their promo material - only "smooth HD video streaming".

 

[btbluesky]

FWIW, I've done this with the Livewire kit and (according to the WD provided utility) maintained >180 Mbps between the units - but no way would it stream 1080p smoothly. Admittedly, WD never mention 1080 in their promo material - only "smooth HD video streaming".

Can you explain how can you have a 180mb connection and not able to stream 1080p?? If the lag is that much to make a 30mb stream stutter, then no way is it 180mb...

 

[stevech]

don't forget that data rates on the air are stated without overhead. Take about 60% of the air rate as the net yield.
But high speed streaming, beyond about 25Mbps (net yield), on WiFi, with latency sensitive traffic like Video, is just not viable because 802.11 is fundamentally CSMA and runs on unlicensed shared-use spectrum. If you live in a rural area, it's better.

MoCA (I use) and maybe power line (not for me) are the best media if you cannot do cat5.

"Wireless is a million times harder than wired".