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Time Capsule Streaming Media SLOWWWWWWWW
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I recently purchases a Time Capsule (2TB) to replace my old D-link router. Once I got the network set up on 802.11n I realized it could serve as a media server. so i placed some videos on the drive and tried to watch a movie on it from my macbook pro via the wireless network. and it was WAYYYYY to slow. the movie was only 600MB in size and 2 hours long. and it stalled every 10-15 seconds!
i checked that i was on 802.11n, that the channel was clear and that it was on the 5ghz spectrum but it still remained slow!
is there something else i should try? or is the time capsule simply a pathetically slow drive?
-thanks in advance guysSignature
A questioning servant is more dangerous than a ignorant Foe
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i would like to make an amendment to this post. ive also got AirPlay working via 4 separate Airport Express devices (two of witch are G and two are N) i have them scattered over the house hooked into a speaker and the wall for power and nothing else. now my house isnt that big, and its rather old so the walls are thin and the floors are thin also so radio interference seems far fetched to me.
but heres the issue, when i try to get airtunes to play some audio. (even low bitrate podcasts) the audio chuggs and laggs. and makes the technology “airplay” prettymuch useless.
now heres a small diagram for you: i use my Macbook Pro 17” running itunes with airplay connected to the network via 802.11n with the TimeCapsule. and then also connected over the network is a airport express connected via either 802.11n or g. and EVERY friggin express ive used chuggs! and this is really getting on my nerves as ive dropped a considerable amount of change on these devices and because i wanted to AVOID interface issues to begin with i perchased ALL apple devices and im still not getting the network to work properly!
help plz.
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A questioning servant is more dangerous than a ignorant Foe
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You’ve probably got interference from other sources. The easiest way to set a performance baseline is to connect your MBP to the Time Capsule via ethernet cable and shit the AirPort off on the MBP. Now try watching the movie. Another good real-world comparative test is copying a large file. Grab that 600MB movie and copy it to the Time Capsule over AirPort and over ethernet. Compare the copy times.
I live in a condo, and of course there is all sorts of interference nearby. My weekly Time Machine backup can take all night over the wireless, but complete in an hour or so cabled up. The wireless is faster than the cable modem, so it’s not an issue with Internet usage. But a cheap Ethernet cable (getting about 50-80 megabits/sec) runs circles around it.
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Well, i do this as well and it works great but…. I had to place my TimeCap in the right place to avoid interference. Hold option, then click the AirPort icon in the menu bar, you will see more in depth info. If you can, please post the following.
RSSI:
Transmit rate:
MCI index.I’m an Apple Consultant and long time tech and can probably help you through it.
You also mentioned it doesn’t matter if the bit rate is low or high. AirPlay converts the audio to Apple Lossless before transmitting, Damn RIAA/MPAA.
Also, how are you connecting the Express’ to the network? Are they extending or connecting to the network?
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iPhone 3GS, AppleTV 160 gig, Mac mini 2.26, MacBook Pro 13, Airport Extreme Dual Band, Airport Express N, Magic Mouse & on and on.
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What about antenna orientation? I have an Airport Extreme (dual-band one prior to latest version) and a couple of Express units (current with 802.11n)
The performance was terrible on 2.4 band - so I’ve set them up on the 5 GHz band and they’re better but I still get occasional issues.
Does orientation of the units make any (or much) difference? The Extreme is level on a desk and the Express units are on their sides, not in wall sockets.
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I have never noticed any difference with the angles of the devices, but i do find line of sight helps. Example. I have my TC in the living room and a mini in the office. Originally I was getting a data rate (wireless) of about 100 or a bit more. Moving the TC to the other corner of the living room so it was more centred to the house the signal jumped up to 200+. I find the TC with the antennas built in can be quite sensitive to external interference.
Might try using interference robustness. Try (like me) using the Wide Channels setting.
Also, in Airport Utility, check in the logs and see what speed you are getting to your Express’s
[ Edited: 21 September 2010 01:56 PM by CandTsmac ]Signature
iPhone 3GS, AppleTV 160 gig, Mac mini 2.26, MacBook Pro 13, Airport Extreme Dual Band, Airport Express N, Magic Mouse & on and on.
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I’ve also found the Time Capsule almost unusable for media streaming. Not connection speed as using the same wireless network I can get data at very good rates from the webs, and even more so for backup or just data copying. The bandwidth for streaming is small compared to the connection speed. The only way to watch videos from it is to use something like MplayerOSX with a setting to have a very large cache.
So I think the responses discussing the network are off the mark - i.e. obviously you need good connection speed, BUT there seems to be something else going on. Anyone else got an idea what it is?
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Airport Extremes just have notoriously bad antennae in them, since Apple insists on keeping the brick-shaped design without any antennae sticking out of it. I’ve found that if I use mine in anything other than an apartment they just don’t cut it. If you recently bought the time capsule, I would recommend returning it and just getting a regular AE and plugging a hard drive into it to save $$ if that’s an issue. With the money you saved, go out and buy a new wireless router/or wireless bridge that has huge antenna and a high Watt output, plug it into your AE and use the AE as a router (since it is a very good router) and just put the new wireless transmitter in “bridge mode”. This is what I do at my parents’ large house, and it works like a charm.
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Your Average 18-year-old Mac Geek,
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Constable Odo
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The problem you’re having is likely the application you’re using to watch the movie doesn’t have a large enough cache setting. Try using MPlayer OSX 1.0rc2 or MPlayerOSX Extended. They both have easily adjustable memory caches. If you set the “Use Cache (for slow media)” under the Miscellaneous Menu in MPlayerOSX to 4MB or more, the movie will stream just fine (you’ll never have a stutter). Same with MPlayerOSX Extended. I use both of them basically because many of my movies have subtitles. MPlayerOSX Extended is a little fancier but both work just fine in most cases. I just don’t feel like waiting for it to update it’s font cache every launch. The cache setting is under the General Menu “Use X MB for playback of files” 5MB is just fine.
Don’t bother using QuickTime because I’ve never found any cache you can set manually and so it will stutter movies.
VLC also works well but the cache setting is buried somewhere in one of the many settings and I can’t tell you exactly where it is, but it does exist because I’ve used it in the past.
I’m sure this is the problem that you are having with watching movies, so just try it. My AE Wireless setup can handle it even with ordinary 802.11G. 802.11N is overkill except for moving actual files. I’ve been doing this for several years with my AE in the basement and me a couple of floors upstairs using my MacBook Pro.
[ Edited: 21 September 2010 08:11 PM by Constable Odo ]
