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CRANK up the: HD [DNA : Sunday](DNA : Sunday Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) "For the ultimate movie viewing experience at home this summer, Sridhar R gets you some high definition advice to bump up the quality of online video streams Last week I rigged up an expensive home theatre system that cost me a month's salary in my living room, hooked to what I thought would be an endless feed of high definition movies from video streaming web platforms. But guess what I got: grainy colour pictures that played fitfully between awful spells of buffering. Does this grab from a gripe-ful blog of a Mumbai-based resident sound all too familiar to you Well won't be surprised if it does, because most people simply do not get the most out of their Internet-ready home theatres. A big reason for that is with the rapid emergence of Wi-Fi, good old wired connections have faded out of fashion and with that has a great deal of speed - the most important ingredient for pumping high definition content into your LCD. Regardless of all the waffle your telecom service provider might throw at you, a wireless connection can almost never stay up with the speed of a wired web link for power and can, therefore, not deliver those brilliant, life-like pictures that you want to see on your 100 inch, 3D Plasma TV screen. Since video streaming platforms have emerged as the most preferred source for high definition movie content, it makes sense to crank up your home theater system. "All it takes is a little planning and router configuration," says Vijay Venkkot, an audio test engineer at the US-based Real World Labs, the world's largest facility for testing electronic products. Adds the Wired magazine, "There was a time when a fast Wi-Fi network was all it took to watch streaming video, but that was before everyone in the house had a smartphone and a tablet chewing up that delicious Wi-Fi signal. And even if you don't have a tonne of mobile devices sucking down Wi-Fi, you still have to deal with the fact your home has all those walls, which make it really, really hard to watch House of Cards." Or, The Croods, for that matter. Wire it up So, the first step towards achieving media bliss is to plug a Cat 5 or, better still, Cat 6 Ethernet cable into your home theatre system. This is easy because most routers come with gigabit LAN ports. Says Venkkot: "This will get the fastest possible connection speed going on your home network for grabbing content from a media center or platforms like iTunes." However, here is some advice for those who simply cannot have wires dangling around their homes and, therefore, are left with no choice but to go wireless. Power split Invest a little on a simultaneous dual-band router, which pushes Wi-Fi on the 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands; this enables you to push most of the power in the connection to your TV by splitting the SSID to create two networks. Hook up your TV to the faster 5GHz network and everything else to the slower 2.4 GHz network. You don't need huge amounts of speed to check Facebook on your phone. You do, however, need it to watch Iron Man 3. With some routers you can even prioritize media, apps or devices, so that the device that matters the most to you, the one that has the greatest need for speed, namely your Bang & Olufsen theatre system, gets to hog most of the bandwidth. Says Wired: "By giving your TV, Xbox 360 or other video-consuming device top billing in your home network, you make sure the ones and zeros magically become The Croods and don't get second billing behind your kid's Facebook update." Choose the right platform If your streaming device runs on an Apple platform, you could opt for video platforms like Vimeo, which now offer highly optimized video feeds based on device and network conditions. Other than delivering high quality video content (720p and 1080p) the latest Vimeo app ensures more reliable video playback and buffering, optimized video streaming for faster and higher quality startups depending on hardware and connection speed and optimized assets to reduce file size. Other major online video platforms like Netflix and Vevo too are developing similar applications designed to help you create a movie theatre experience with cheap online streams without messing around with your hardware. Or, earning a degree in electronic engineering! On the other hand, in the months to come many network service providers are likely to arm you with the ability to adjust the WMM (Wi-Fi MultiMedia) settings. This would help you prioritize voice and video feeds on your devices in line with your choice. Apple's Airport Extreme has WMM on by default, while, globally Linksys already gives you the ability to adjust WMM settings. Major telecom service providers in India, among them Airtel and Vodafone, are likely to extend similar services pretty soon. Quality of service At the application level, QoS (Quality of Service) does the same thing enabling you to watch say Downton Abbey without it looking like a copy of a copy of a VHS tape. With QoS, depending on the router, you can prioritize applications or devices. The device prioritization will usually ask for MAC address. This is the unique number assigned to all devices for networking. You can usually find it near the Ethernet port, in a device's settings, or the router will display it for all the devices connected to it. If your router allows it, prioritize both the application and the device to ensure you're getting the best possible bandwidth within your home. Faster connection At the end of the day of course nothing beats getting a faster connection, although this option may seem the least palatable of the lot given it means spending more money. But if you're truly serious about getting the best possible video stream, you'll probably have to do this although with 4K video streams on the horizon what you really need (to create a theatre at home) is a 20Mbps connection-a pipe dream in a country where 7 Mbps is considered lightning fast. However, don't be disheartened, following even one of the steps recommended above will dramatically improve your home theatre experience at very little extra cost. A 6 Mbps connection on a hard wire is not such a bad deal after all, especially when you can stream what you want and when you want by just tapping into a video store on the net. [email protected]"" Credit:Sridhar R (c) 2013 @ 2013 DILIGENT MEDIA CORPORATION LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED |