Roxio Labs

Today, wireless home networks are built on 802.11a, 802.11b, or 802.11g protocols, providing you with 11Mpbs to 108Mbps (Megabits per second) of digital freedom to stream HD movies around your home, right? Well, sort of. Typical rates vary, offering effective throughput (at best) around 5 (802.11b) to 24 (802.11a/g) Mbps depending on distance, interference, wireless overhead etc.

HD video, using the latest PC-oriented codecs (QuickTime H.264 or Windows Media Video HD / Windows Media 9) will take anywhere from 6-15Mbps depending on complexity of the video and the resolution (720p up to 1080p). MPEG-2 video, the coded used for DVD, uses upwards of 20Mbps for HD video.

If you have an 802.11b wireless network, forget it. Be happy if you get standard definition working.

For 802.11a/g networks, HD is possible, but results may not be consistent. Network traffic could use up that extra bandwidth, and some routers don't do well with guaranteed sustained transfer at high rates. These are some of the reasons that Microsoft started getting involved in certification programs for wireless devices - to help ensure good performance and user experience between Windows Media Center PCs and extenders like the XBox 360.

Further, these streaming formats will soon have to compete with the 30+Mpbs streams coming from Blu-ray & HD-DVD players, a significant jump. While the QuickTime and WMV formats certainly have the capability to support those bit rates, you won't be able to stream them around the home wirelessly.

Enter 802.11n, the next generation standard for wireless LANs. 802.11n uses multiple antennas and new encoding schemes to achieve typical rates of 100-200Mbps, enough to stream Blu-ray/HD-DVD quality HD video, and to provide solid performance for those 10Mbps HD streams along with other network traffic, from your hub to that tool shed where you can watch guilty pleasures like "Jackass: Number 2" in peace.

Manufacturers are so counting on your insatiable wireless appetite that they have already released equipment that supports the DRAFT of the 802.11n protocol. Reviews have been mixed. Compatibility, interference, and firmware issues are common with these devices, as one might expect for a format that has not been ratified yet. Approval is expected sometime between December 2006 and mid 2007. So, after waiting out the first generation hardware, you should be able to turbo-charge your network for Christmas 2007, or maybe with that big tax refund in 2008.

Until then, go with Blu-ray or HD-DVD for the best quality, or, for best networking performance run an actual ethernet cable from your PC source to your viewing destination or get Windows logo certified routers.

For more information on wireless networks and video performance, try this doc from Microsoft.