Need wireless recommendations... DVD streaming over wireless

[Joe Fission]

I am looking into revamping my home network. This is mainly because I am going to be adding a multi-TB NAS (prolly around 20TB at max) to the network that will be used to store and serve my DVD (and future Blu-ray) collection to the systems in my house. The majority of the systems are wired, but the one system that I watch DVDs the most on is connected via wireless (which is also used for surfing the web and online gaming as well at times). I don't stream DVDs at the moment, but I've tried it on my current wireless connection and it's quite inadequate... especially since I'm using only G right now (current router: DLink DGL-4300 with a 7dbi antenna and a DLink WDA-2320 as the client also with a 7dbi antenna)

The router is currently located on the floor below and on the other side of the house (about 45 to 50 feet) from the wireless client, so I need something with sufficient range. This requirement might not be too much of an issue since I have also considered trying to place the router in an alternate location or adding a second wireless device to act as a repeater or something.

I've taken a look and narrowed the field down to 3 possible choices, though if anyone has others I should consider, by all means, please let me know. The choices are the Linksys WRT610N, the WRT400N, or the Netgear WNDR3700. Nothing that DLink currently has jumps out at me as being overly desirable. I'm leaning towards the Linksys models more than the Netgear even though the Netgear appears superior. I've been reading various forums lately and while the Netgear appears to be a common choice, it does appear to have a few quirks and turnoffs, and in times of severe trouble, customer service appears to be lacking (that, and it's really hard to find right now)... though without any personal experience, I can't say for sure.

I'm leaning more towards the WRT400N because it looks to be a bit better than the WRT610N. But, then again I could really use the gigabit ports... and with a 300Mbps (ya, I know, theoretical maximum) wireless connection, wouldn't streamed content be bottlenecked by a 100Mbps connection?

So, any opinions, personal experiences, recommendations, or considerations would be quite helpful at this point.

 

[thiggins]

Your success at wireless video streaming depends on how tolerant you are of occasional glitches in the picture and the bandwidth requirements of your content. See this article for how to profile your content bandwidth needs.

With an N router you have a shot at viewing standard def content successfully, but HD content will be iffy.

Moving the router is preferable to repeating, which will cut your bandwidth by at least half.

Finally, no consumer networking maker has superior tech support. It may be free, but you get what you pay for.

 

[Joe Fission]

Thanks for your response.

Hmm... the "iffy" part makes me nervous for HD content but I guess, if nothing else, I'll at least have upgraded my network even if this experiment doesn't pan out.

For the sake of re-evaluating my choices, am I correct in assuming (based on the reviews and data present here) that the Netgear would do better at range?

 

[thiggins]

For the sake of re-evaluating my choices, am I correct in assuming (based on the reviews and data present here) that the Netgear would do better at range?

Total range, no. It might provide higher effective range by providing higher throughput at locations that would otherwise have unusuable speeds.

But in general, N routers don't extend range by providing a signal where you currently don't get one.