Wireless g cards for the Gateway DVD connected player

« David's PVR wishlist | Main | TiVo wins Pause Technology patent suit »

Wireless g cards for the Gateway DVD connected player

Thanks to a comment on an earlier thread, I've learned that Gateway is now selling a 802.11g card specifically for the Connected DVD player. It's only $50 (even cheaper than most mainstream g cards) and they offer free shipping. I just ordered mine and will post a quick review after it shows up.

Hopefully it's the end to the occasional hang-up on video for me.

by Matt Haughey February 11, 2004 in News

Comments

Another option is to put a wired Ethernet card in the DVD player and connect it to a 802.11g bridge.

I have several devices in my entertainment center that need connectivity so, I bought a Linksys WET11 bridge (I know, it's only 802.11b... I'd like to eventually upgrade it to 802.11g). The bridge is connected to a 5 port switch. Then I plugged my Xbox, Connected DVD player, and Tivo all into the switch. Works great.

Posted by: John Bush at Feb 11, 2004 9:32:28 AM

Nice. I might have to do that. Video only occassinally hangs up for me, and did often in Battle Royale the other day, so this might not be a bad idea.

Posted by: adampsche at Feb 12, 2004 4:28:48 AM

How does the Gateway Connected handle divx video?

Posted by: brett at Feb 12, 2004 10:49:26 AM

brett, the Gateway handles divx and xvid by transcoding it to mpeg on your computer before sending it off to your gateway device. It requires a bit of processing, at least a 1.3 Ghz PC acting as your server.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Feb 21, 2004 10:05:50 AM

I can confirm that the primary issue with DiVX/XVID is processing power. I've been trying to stream them on my Athlon 1800+, and it just barely can't handle it. The playback is too jerky to watch - but gives me a good excuse to look into upgrading my primary desktop machine ;-)

Posted by: AJRitz at Feb 24, 2004 1:01:29 PM

Hmm, my athlon 1900XP home machine seems to have no prob with a bunch of xvid movies I've downloaded.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Feb 24, 2004 1:08:09 PM

Perhaps I should have been more precise. If I shut down everything else except for the Media Server software on the Athlon 1800+ machine, then most Divx/xvid files WILL play. But if there's anything else running on the server machine, the processor can't handle even minimal multitasking. I tried playing an xvid file the other day while Azureus was working on downloading a large file, and the jerkiness and pixelization was impossible to see through (and Azureus was the only other thing running at the time, aside from usual startup system tray programs).

Posted by: AJRitz at Feb 25, 2004 2:08:38 PM

Anybody try the new Gateway 802.11g card yet? I just received it in the mail and so far, wish that I could go back to my old B card. There is new firmware and new server software on the included CD. Dispite checking the transcode option, I have now lost the ability to play DIVX on my player. The server software says that the format is incorrect. The use to be able to play DIVX with the old software and firmware. I encoded the DIVX with Dr.Divx.

Any ideas or similar experiences?

Posted by: Darkstar999 at Mar 7, 2004 8:45:06 AM

Yup, I got the 802.11g upgrade as well, totaly unstable and stopped playing most of my avi files. I called tech support and was told that that there was a problem getting the G card to fully work with the DVD. The tech told me to send it back, I did. Back to to my super stable 802.11b card.

Posted by: Javier at Mar 7, 2004 11:28:26 AM

Wireless g cards for the Gateway DVD connected player

Comments

Post a Comment

On this site

Recent Comments

Advertising