NetgearXe104
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HT guys have better luck with Netgear's XE104
Ara and Braden have the next episode of their podcast out and they discuss their usage of the Netgear XE104. We didn't have much luck with them for HDTV streaming, but Ara and Braden had better results with DVD and SDTV content:"Using them for video streaming proved to be tricky. Between some sets of outlets, we could stream flawlessly. Between others, we couldn't even get enough bandwidth for SDTV. On the good outlets we were able to get as many as three DVDs streaming simultaneously, we even had a DVD and a WMV HD clip streaming perfectly together. But it was very dependent on the outlets we chose."The XE104 might be good enough for basic data usage on a network, but we haven't seen anyone get the required throughput needed for HDTV on these.
Netgear XE104 not ready for HDTV Primetime
Last week we gave a 60-day update on our HDTV streaming over WiFi from a Windows Media Center to an Xbox 360. Overall, we're satisfied with the performance over our 802.11a wireless network, but it's still not 100%. We alluded to getting our paws on a new product from Netgear: the XE104, which is an 85 Mbps Ethernet switch that uses your home electric lines to send network data. The device is based on the HomePlug 1.0 standard and we really wanted to give a shot and see if brings our high-def streaming satisfaction to 100%. We shot a note over to Netgear for some review units, but they're in high demand; understandable if you can get 85Mbps performance by using existing wires. Rather than wait, we decided to take the plunge and purchase two units. They arrived on Monday and we put 'em through the paces over the past few days...
