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hatersgonnahate

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 26, 2010
503
1
i have this lacie d2 network hard drive and i notice video to be choppy. any fix for this? thanks in advance.
hd_d2quadranext_4.jpg
 

aarond12

macrumors 65816
May 20, 2002
1,148
108
Dallas, TX USA
What kind of video? What format? What resolution and frame rate? What speed is your network running at (100BaseT, Gigabit, etc.)? What are the specs of the computer playing the video? Does it play the video correctly if you attach the drive via USB?
 

hatersgonnahate

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 26, 2010
503
1
sorry for the lack of details.

it doesnt matter what type of video file. it happens with .wmv, .mp4. and .avi.

resolution is around 720 nothing over 1080.

the lacie d2 network drive is in the living room right next to the modem/router.

the computer im using is a 2011 macbookpro 15" i7.

my wifi range right now is fine so i dont think thats the problem. im in a small 2BR apartment.

never had problems before when i had the lacie in my room and modem/router inside, but now that the modem/router is in the living room together with the lacie, im having video problems.

any help would be great.
 

LaCieTech

macrumors member
Jul 18, 2012
80
1
sorry for the lack of details.

it doesnt matter what type of video file. it happens with .wmv, .mp4. and .avi.

resolution is around 720 nothing over 1080.

the lacie d2 network drive is in the living room right next to the modem/router.

the computer im using is a 2011 macbookpro 15" i7.

my wifi range right now is fine so i dont think thats the problem. im in a small 2BR apartment.

never had problems before when i had the lacie in my room and modem/router inside, but now that the modem/router is in the living room together with the lacie, im having video problems.

any help would be great.

Hi,

If the problem occurred only after you changed network configurations its likely a bandwidth issue. Your video files are larger per second than your network is currently transferring at.

The best way to resolve this would be to increase the network speed or discover and resolve an issue that is slowing it down. Signal strength may be good enough to not have browser issues but not enough to transfer an HD video at real-time. Try adding Ethernet wherever possible or a signal booster to the wireless area.

Alternately you could reduce the bandwidth requirements of the files by re-encoding them to a smaller size - but I think it would probably be a better option to increase the network reliability.

~mn, LaCie
 

hatersgonnahate

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 26, 2010
503
1
Hi,

If the problem occurred only after you changed network configurations its likely a bandwidth issue. Your video files are larger per second than your network is currently transferring at.

The best way to resolve this would be to increase the network speed or discover and resolve an issue that is slowing it down. Signal strength may be good enough to not have browser issues but not enough to transfer an HD video at real-time. Try adding Ethernet wherever possible or a signal booster to the wireless area.

Alternately you could reduce the bandwidth requirements of the files by re-encoding them to a smaller size - but I think it would probably be a better option to increase the network reliability.

~mn, LaCie

thanks i dont think its a bandwidth issue since my i actually upgraded my internet's speed from 10/mbps to 20/mbps.

i was wondering if there's something in the dashboard that i need to adjust?

or i guess i just need a signal booster in my room. internet speed is fine though, its just the streaming that's slow from the lacie d2 network drive.
 

Chimaera

macrumors regular
Nov 15, 2002
181
0
Internet speed is entirely irrelevant - he's talking about *network* bandwidth.

My first advice *always* on troubleshooting network problems is to see if you can eliminate the wireless network from the equation (mainly because most of the time in my experience it's normally the wireless at fault).

So for starting test hardwire both the LaCie and your laptop into the router and see if things behave themselves. I'm pretty confident you will and then you'll be onto troubleshooting your wireless which can be a right pain in the arse since there are a million and one things that can interfere.
 

hatersgonnahate

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 26, 2010
503
1
Internet speed is entirely irrelevant - he's talking about *network* bandwidth.

My first advice *always* on troubleshooting network problems is to see if you can eliminate the wireless network from the equation (mainly because most of the time in my experience it's normally the wireless at fault).

So for starting test hardwire both the LaCie and your laptop into the router and see if things behave themselves. I'm pretty confident you will and then you'll be onto troubleshooting your wireless which can be a right pain in the arse since there are a million and one things that can interfere.

thanks for the clarification. not sure if id want to eliminate wireless, since that's one of the reasons i bought the network drive in the first place.

if im forced to use the lacie network drive right next to my laptop, then i would have just bought an external hard drive. u know what i mean?

my set-up right now (if it helps)

living room - modem/router + lacie

bedroom - laptop connected via wifi.
 

LaCieTech

macrumors member
Jul 18, 2012
80
1
thanks for the clarification. not sure if id want to eliminate wireless, since that's one of the reasons i bought the network drive in the first place.

if im forced to use the lacie network drive right next to my laptop, then i would have just bought an external hard drive. u know what i mean?

my set-up right now (if it helps)

living room - modem/router + lacie

bedroom - laptop connected via wifi.

Hi again,

Chimaera's advice is what I was alluding to in my first post. The purpose of troubleshooting is partially to identify the issue and not just to solve it. If you eliminate the wireless temporarily to see if that helps the situation it will make the process of solving the issue a little easier since we would be able to accurately say what helps and what doesn't. You don't even have to turn the wireless off, you can just connect your laptop with an Ethernet to the router that the NAS is on (be sure to turn off your laptops wireless) and then try to play the video. If it plays normally with a hard connection and no wireless then we know this is the problem.

I still believe that the problem in this case is entirely that your laptop doesn't have a sufficient connection from the bedroom to your wireless router to support an HD video stream OR that the entire network is slow. The further you are from the router the slower the connection will be.

Further, your network will transfer at the fastest speed of the slowest device on the network. This means that if you have all 1000bps devices (like most modern computers) and one old network printer that goes at 10bps then your entire network will be at 10bps. Same goes if you have an old switch or any network devices transferring at 100bps. 720 HD videos would require more bandwidth than that in order to play without skipping. Since you didn't have an issue before re-configuring the network though, its probably not this condition.

If you can, please call our support team at 503.844.4500 (USA) or send us a ticket at http://www.lacie.com/mystuff to talk with our guys and get some more advice.

~mn, LaCie
 

hatersgonnahate

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 26, 2010
503
1
Hi again,

Chimaera's advice is what I was alluding to in my first post. The purpose of troubleshooting is partially to identify the issue and not just to solve it. If you eliminate the wireless temporarily to see if that helps the situation it will make the process of solving the issue a little easier since we would be able to accurately say what helps and what doesn't. You don't even have to turn the wireless off, you can just connect your laptop with an Ethernet to the router that the NAS is on (be sure to turn off your laptops wireless) and then try to play the video. If it plays normally with a hard connection and no wireless then we know this is the problem.

I still believe that the problem in this case is entirely that your laptop doesn't have a sufficient connection from the bedroom to your wireless router to support an HD video stream OR that the entire network is slow. The further you are from the router the slower the connection will be.

Further, your network will transfer at the fastest speed of the slowest device on the network. This means that if you have all 1000bps devices (like most modern computers) and one old network printer that goes at 10bps then your entire network will be at 10bps. Same goes if you have an old switch or any network devices transferring at 100bps. 720 HD videos would require more bandwidth than that in order to play without skipping. Since you didn't have an issue before re-configuring the network though, its probably not this condition.

If you can, please call our support team at 503.844.4500 (USA) or send us a ticket at http://www.lacie.com/mystuff to talk with our guys and get some more advice.

~mn, LaCie

got it. thanks.

i will try those out. i think i have a wired connection is the solution for my problem. i think getting one of those powerline adapters will solve my problem.
 

switon

macrumors 6502a
Sep 10, 2012
636
1
RE: powerline adapters...

i think getting one of those powerline adapters will solve my problem.

Hi hatersgonnahate,

Make sure you look into the specifications of the particular powerline adapter that you buy. Some are spec-ed to 100Mb/s, some to 200Mb/s, and I even found one spec-ed to 500Mb/s. I've also read posts indicating that even though a particular unit is spec-ed to 200Mb/s, the actual throughput in practice is much lower. Since you are streaming video over your network, it is probably important to get one of the faster powerline adapters.

Regards,
Switon
 

hatersgonnahate

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 26, 2010
503
1
Hi hatersgonnahate,

Make sure you look into the specifications of the particular powerline adapter that you buy. Some are spec-ed to 100Mb/s, some to 200Mb/s, and I even found one spec-ed to 500Mb/s. I've also read posts indicating that even though a particular unit is spec-ed to 200Mb/s, the actual throughput in practice is much lower. Since you are streaming video over your network, it is probably important to get one of the faster powerline adapters.

Regards,
Switon

thanks switon. i think im good with 200mb/s. im currently looking at this particular product.

WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit 200Mbps - extend Internet to your HDTV

http://www.amazon.com/Livewire-Powe...868&sr=1-1&keywords=western+digital+powerline

ill post an update once i have purchased it.
 

switon

macrumors 6502a
Sep 10, 2012
636
1
RE: WD Powerline...

thanks switon. i think im good with 200mb/s. im currently looking at this particular product.

WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit 200Mbps - extend Internet to your HDTV

http://www.amazon.com/Livewire-Powe...868&sr=1-1&keywords=western+digital+powerline

ill post an update once i have purchased it.

Hi hatersgonnahate,

I hope this isn't too late, if so, good luck and let us know about the WD Powerline performance.

If not, then I'd suggest reading some performance posts on the WD forums themselves. It turns out that even though the WD Powerline units are spec-ed to 200 Mb/s, the actual performances found in practice is 7-10 MB/s, considerably less than the specifications. Now 7-10 MB/s should be plenty fast to stream one HD video, but it is probably not fast enough to stream more than one HD video simultaneously.

Have a good holiday,
Switon
 

hatersgonnahate

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 26, 2010
503
1
Hi hatersgonnahate,

I hope this isn't too late, if so, good luck and let us know about the WD Powerline performance.

If not, then I'd suggest reading some performance posts on the WD forums themselves. It turns out that even though the WD Powerline units are spec-ed to 200 Mb/s, the actual performances found in practice is 7-10 MB/s, considerably less than the specifications. Now 7-10 MB/s should be plenty fast to stream one HD video, but it is probably not fast enough to stream more than one HD video simultaneously.

Have a good holiday,
Switon

i think the speeds varies depending on a number of factors. ill buy it at my local bestbuy so i can easily return it if it doesn't work out. other brands have various speeds as well depending on the users' setup. thank for the lookout.
 

pbuchta

macrumors newbie
Dec 26, 2012
1
0
May also be some type of interference issue.
1.Please check to see signal strength of other WAPs in this area.
2. Check to see if the problem gets worse the further away the computer is from the WAP inside your apartment. Run speed tests through the WAP. http://www.speedtest.net. See how consistent the bandwidth throughput is at different distances from the WAP.
3. See if you can redirect your Wifi over different channels.

Pete
 

hatersgonnahate

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 26, 2010
503
1
just to update. i bought a netgear powerline 200 nano, and it worked out. thanks again for the replies.
 
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