I had similiar problems with a competing product. My Pc uses a small program that tell the unit attached toi the TV what files to share...another feeds the files from the pc when requested by the unit. This maybe similiar to yours.
There are certain things I can't be doing on the pc while it is streaming data. This goes for other pc's on the network also. You only have so much bandwidth. Another thing is processor power and the ability of the HD to supply multiple requests from different sources.
This took some playing and some expense to correct.
What I did was add a 10/100 switch to my network. I connected the switch to the Internet router. I connected my PC, my 2TB network storage box, and the media server to the switch. All other pc's in my network go directly to the router. This stops other pc's on the network from affecting the bandwidth requirements of the media server.
As long as I limit what my pc is doing everything goes fine. I can check email or do normal surfing. Where I see my biggest problem is when I try to encode a movie using my pc while it is trying to stream a movie. Next problem is copying files from my pc to my storage device where I store all my movies.
Note that the movies I stream are not actually stored on my PC. If it were I may have a second hard drive that only contains movies to do the same thing. Also My pc would be able to do less other things while a movie is streaming.
An alternative to my switch idea if I were storing the movies on my pc would be to add a second network card and use a cat-6 crossover cable going from the pc directly to the media box. If the media box supports 10/100/1000 MBps then with the right card you could achieve 1000 MBps movie stream and get no jitter. The new card and the media box would need static IP addresses since it wouldn't be connected to a router. a cat-5 crossover cable might work but is not rated for 1000 MBps and may have errors in the data stream.
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There are certain things I can't be doing on the pc while it is streaming data. This goes for other pc's on the network also. You only have so much bandwidth. Another thing is processor power and the ability of the HD to supply multiple requests from different sources.
This took some playing and some expense to correct.
What I did was add a 10/100 switch to my network. I connected the switch to the Internet router. I connected my PC, my 2TB network storage box, and the media server to the switch. All other pc's in my network go directly to the router. This stops other pc's on the network from affecting the bandwidth requirements of the media server.
As long as I limit what my pc is doing everything goes fine. I can check email or do normal surfing. Where I see my biggest problem is when I try to encode a movie using my pc while it is trying to stream a movie. Next problem is copying files from my pc to my storage device where I store all my movies.
Note that the movies I stream are not actually stored on my PC. If it were I may have a second hard drive that only contains movies to do the same thing. Also My pc would be able to do less other things while a movie is streaming.
An alternative to my switch idea if I were storing the movies on my pc would be to add a second network card and use a cat-6 crossover cable going from the pc directly to the media box. If the media box supports 10/100/1000 MBps then with the right card you could achieve 1000 MBps movie stream and get no jitter. The new card and the media box would need static IP addresses since it wouldn't be connected to a router. a cat-5 crossover cable might work but is not rated for 1000 MBps and may have errors in the data stream.