GoFlex Net & GoFlex Home

[slivingstone]

Performance  is terrible when streaming large (>5GB) movies (eg 3D films) from my GoFlex Home over Wifi to my Samsung D7000 smart TV. Every few seconds it stops and shows a Loading... message.  I appreciate this is due to limitations of my wireless router and so want to know if either of the following solutions might work:

1) get a new, faster, router. I'm no expert so what kind would you reccomend (eg. 802.11n)

2) can I play movies directly from the GoFlex Home by connecting it to the TV via its USB socket?  I would need to buy a cable  with a square-type usb on both ends for this to work.

Any help would be appreciated as I cannot use my GoFlex to watch any films!

Thanks,

Sam

[djcalcutt]

What type of router do you have?

Tell us more information, what path is the data going? There is befinate a bottleneck someplace, but certainly nothing wrong with your GoFox Home drive.

[slivingstone]

Hi djcalcutt,

Thanks for your reply! I'm at work right now but when I get home will check the router model and post it here. It would be great if this could be fixed with simply a better wireless router, but don't want to buy one unless its really the problem. What size of movie files should the GoFlex Home be able to stream?

Sam

[ntpntpntp]

Sam,

no you cannot use USB to connect your GF Home to your TV - the USB port on the GF Home is for adding drives or printers to the GF Home.

It's not the total size of the video file that's the problem (I regularly stream 8+ GB files), but the high bit rate required for streaming HD video (ie. the amount of data that needs to be transferred per second).  I've only got 54mbps wireless and I know that certainly doesn't work without stuttering (but is ok for lower resolution video).   Wireless 802 n might work, I cannot advise on that. 

I would expect your smart tv has an ethernet port for wired networking?  That would be your best option.   I use high speed homeplug (ethernet-over-mains) devices to stream from my GF Home to my Toshiba smart tv and to a Viewsonic media player I use with my Panasonic plasma tv.  These devices work well for me, with no buffering or stuttering for HD video.  If you go down this route you need to look at homeplug-AV devices (200mbps or higher).   I went for gigabit homeplugs (although I know they're not going to run as fast as proper gigabit wired ethernet), to give me a bit of headroom.

[slivingstone]

HI ntpntpntp, 

Thanks for your reply! I had a suspicion that the USB idea wouldn't work  - a real shame but glad to know before I go out and buy one. It's somwhat suprising that Seagate have not provided a way to make a direct hardwire link between the GF and other devices. 

Last week I bought a cat-6 ethernet caple from Maplin (they recomended this for smart tvs) but when I made the link betwen my router and the tv there was no improvement in the film stuttering. I think it only hardwired the internet connection but movies on my GF still had to be streamed over the wireless network! I couldn't find any instructions in the Samsung manual on how to stream media via the ethernet cable and don't think it is possible - unless anyone knows better?

Sam

[slivingstone]

Hey there,

Just checked and my wireless router is the one provided by my ISP, O2: Thomson O2 Wireless Box II. The GF is connected to the routers first ethernet socket via the ethernet cable that came with the GF. My Samsung TV picks up the GF in the source list as Network (GoFlexHomeUPNP-AV). I have tried connecting the router and TV using a cable between the second ethernet socket on my router and the ethernet socket on the TV but it had no effect - no new sources were listed on the TV and so I had to select the 'Network' source as usual. 

Anyone got an idea what the bottleneck could be?

Sam

[djcalcutt]

There is a direct hard wire device... GoFLex Desk. I bought jsut a base unit, and plug my 3TB drives into it.

[ntpntpntp · Accepted solution]

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slivingstone wrote:

... I bought a cat-6 ethernet caple from Maplin (they recomended this for smart tvs) but when I made the link betwen my router and the tv there was no improvement in the film stuttering. I think it only hardwired the internet connection but movies on my GF still had to be streamed over the wireless network! I couldn't find any instructions in the Samsung manual on how to stream media via the ethernet cable and don't think it is possible - unless anyone knows better?

Sam

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"Maplin" eh - so you're in the UK same as me.

I'm looking at the manual for the D7000 online (nice looking tv, I like thin edges!) I wonder did you actually change the tv network settings from wireless to wired and test the connection?

It really should be possible to do everything the tv supports using a wired connection or a wifi connection,  I would not expect the tv to use the wired for some traffic and wifi for other, it's an "either/or" choice in the settings.  I would favour wired over wireless given the choice.

I wouldn't expect any "new" sources to appear, just the one network source and you should see GoFlexHome UPnP-AV listed just as before.

 Nick

[slivingstone]

Hi Nick,

Your suggestion worked - thanks a lot! I had read in the manual about the ability to be wired and wireless but thought it did both at the same time. After reading your reply I had a play around in the network settings and discovered that I had to make the switch from wireless to wired in the network setup. Just tried running Avatar 3D (>10GB and it works a treat).

Incedentally, yes, the D7000 is a beaut - I'm a TV producer and my partner is a film editor so we wanted the best picture quality possible - I highly recomend it!

Thanks again,

Sam

[djcalcutt]

just out of curiousity, does the d7000 TV support gigiabit?

if so, does you router? then in might be worth upgrading your router to gigabit also.