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[EddieZ]

A regular DiVX should work OK. I have no quality issues whatsoever with HD by CAt5e.
The router is just the guy in the middle. If the NIC does a lousy job and needs to resend a lot of data, just cannot keep up the pace registering and sending (or receiving on the other end) packets OR your PC's CPU or HDD just can't handle the NIC's requests for data you will notice that as very flawed and resetting video image. Only if the router has a defective switch you can blame the router, otherwise there is not a lot that can go wrong since my own experience is the living proof it works well by design.

BT can give a negative impact also on latency in the LAN, by the way. And more LAN latency means...a dataflow that's flawed.

[Lycan]

I'd like to step in here.
I've got a pretty complicated and all GIG network at my home. I've got a media server with 1.5TBs of LEGALLY paid for DVD rips in all SORTS of formats. I'm fully capable of streaming to multiple PC's and XboX's at the same time.

I'm not sure if I missed the point here, (the topic is pretty long) but maybe if you summarize the issue I can relate.

[EddieZ]

I'd like to step in here.
I've got a pretty complicated and all GIG network at my home. I've got a media server with 1.5TBs of LEGALLY paid for DVD rips in all SORTS of formats. I'm fully capable of streaming to multiple PC's and XboX's at the same time.

I'm not sure if I missed the point here, (the topic is pretty long) but maybe if you summarize the issue I can relate.

You're the only one I'm summarizing for 

Issue: flawed Gb transfer, 100 mbps all well.
Ended up to: why file transfer goes OK at full speed and streaming video does not

[Lycan]

Whats the stream being hosted by and received on?

[sixersclt]

H.264 MPEG2 DVB-S transport stream streaming video hosted on and received by XP pro sp2 32 bit machines both with Foxconn A7GM-S motherboards having Realtek 8111 embedded 10/100/1000 nics.  Stream is between 3 and 13 Mbps.  Both have at least dual core CPUs - neither being maxed out.  VLC media streams one end and plays other end.  Everything on the LAN works fine except the streaming video when routed by the DIR655.  Video then does work when through 100Mbps router. 

The suggestion is the nics are the problem at 1Gb with suggested resolution being install Intel PCI nics. 

Over 100Mbps LAN router the existing nics are fine with video streaming.  Over DIR655, streaming video drops in and out over the LAN either at nic 1Gb or forced nic to 100Mbps.

[Lycan]

hmm,
what hardware version is your 655?

[sixersclt]

hardware rev A4, SN F35F489020087

[Lycan]

lets try something, get a gigabit switch and replace the router, then try the stream.

[sixersclt]

Here are the H.264 MPEG2 stream test results.  MTU 1500, no jumbo frames

1 - Direct PC to PC 1 Gb NIC - no problems, peaks around 13/14 Mbps

2 - Through 100Mbps Router - no problems, peaks around 13/14 Mbps

3 - Through DGS2205 1Gb Switch - stream capped at 10 Mbps at which time it pixelates and sound drops - mostly recovers when stream <10 Mbps, but then stream drops off to 0 Mbps- recovers after a while or not at all

4 - Through DIR655 1Gb - acts same as DDGS2205 switch - 10 Mbps cap, drops out, might recover - or not

5 - Streaming end 1 GB - 10 Mbps cap limited when connected to DIR655 or DGS2205 but no drop outs.  No cap or drop out Direct PC to PC or over 100Mbps router.

Thanks for the help

[ttmcmurry]

Just out of curiosity, what are your cable lengths?  And of those lengths, what type is each cable?

Cat 5/5e is sufficient for Full Duplex Gigabit; Cat 6/6e is fine and supports up to 10GigE. 
Using a cable length of 3' or less can be problematic; try using 6' Cat 5. 

My 2¢

[sixersclt]

I enabled jumbo frames on the nics at 4k.  That seems to have solved everything, but I have no idea why.  So the 655 is streaming the 13 Mbps and the DGS2005 switch does as well. 

But with the 655 at 1500 MTU, is the router doing jumbo frames?  How is jumbo enabled on the 655?

Thanks

[ttmcmurry]

The router's switch (i.e Ports 1-4) is automatically able to handle up to 9k frames.  There's nothing to change/enable, it just works.

The MTU is only set on your NIC.  The 655 doesn't tell the NIC how to set up its framing; that's why Ethernet is a standard.  So if the MTU is 1500, then up to 1500 bytes are present per frame and that's the default anyway.   Once a current frame is filled with data & header information, your NIC will put it into a packet and transmit it.  Then the next frame is created and the process repeats.  (vastly simplified explanation)

The idea behind jumbo frames is to lower a NIC's overhead by having to create fewer, larger frames to accommodate large amounts of data.  On a low-end NIC, this results in lower CPU utilization and higher data transmit rates.   Higher-end NICS have TOE to lower CPU utilization without having to require jumbo frames but larger frames still increase throughput.

[wiak]

DVD is around 8mbps so around 800 kb/s
720p blu-ray rip is around 5mbps aka 500 kb/s
1080p blu-ray rip is around 12mbps aka 1,2 mb/s
a 1080i mpeg-2 broadcast capture is around 18 mbps depending on the source thats around 1,8 mb/s
a 1080i h264 broadcast capture is around 15-18mbps so thats around 1,5-1.8 mb/s
a 1080p blu-ray is around 20-40mbps thats around 2-4 mb/s

and add around 10-25% for cache playback depending of the player

i have no problems playing DVD, 720p or 1080i/1080p h264, blu-ray is another story

is the wireless network being used by more than one wireless 11n client?

[sixersclt]

Here is my situation and conclusions:

1 - wireless is disabled, everything is CAT6 and everything is Gb nics, switches & router, fw 1.21

2 - when I run the streaming machine through the DLink DGS-2205 GB switch, everything is fine with 4k jumbo frames.

3 - when I run the streaming machine through the DIR-655 router, the router chokes on the stream and drops it,  jumbo or not - tried 2,3 & 4k jumbo.  Tried port forward, QOS priority, etc and so forth.

Therefore, the router can not handle the stream but the switch can.  Any theories?

[ttmcmurry]

Backup your 655's settings and reset it back to factory config.

WITHOUT making *any* changes to the 655 (meaning leave it in its default configuration), try streaming again and see what happens.

If it works better, then it's something you've changed.  If it doesn't make a difference, restore the gateway settings.