Powerline Ethernet Adapters (1 Viewer)

Has anyone had luck (good or bad) using powerline ethernet adapters for connecting their blu-ray deck to the internet? I'm considering upgrading my player to take advantage of BD-Live and pondering my alternatives for getting it on-line.

I've toyed with this idea, as my HT setup is in the basement and my home network is wireless. My only other alternative is to get a wireless bridge, but they're hard to come by and about the same price. It's annoying, and it took forever for any BD player other than the PS3 to have wireless networking. I'm still not setup for BDLive, becuase I need a solution that will plug into both my BDP-S350 and my HD-A30.

I'm using a set of Netgear HDX111's, which are doing an acceptable job. I'm also using them for my HD TiVo.

I'd previously tried with the slower Netgear XE 102, and it wasn't sufficient, because BD Live is pretty slow as it is.

The biggest unknown with powerline networking is how your own home wiring will respond. I have outlets that work well with it and outlets that don't. You just don't know until you try.

We have IPTV from our phone company. To get TV to one of our rooms, I was kind of surprised that they used Ethernet over power lines. They put in Pluglink AV adapters which are meant for A/V applications. They said that they have had great luck with them. It has been hassle-free for me.

Have you considered getting a Linksys WRT-54G router and flashing it with custom firmware?

WRT54g can be found for cheap just be cautious about the version you get see dd-wrt.com for more info.
DD-WRT for firmware, I have been using it on 2 routers.



DC

My current setup uses a Siemens wireless access point (combo DSL modem/router/wireless router). I'll have to look @ it later, but I don't think DD-WRT is supported. I'll definitely look into it once I switch ISPs.

Another option would be a wireless print server. I am using a Netgear print server that includes four ethernet switch ports along with two USB ports for printers. I just ignore the USB ports and have the print server connected wirelessly to my main DLink wireless router. The Netgear device even supports WPA2 authentication, and the device only cost $30.

This gives me network connectivity for both my Sony BD player and Pioneer Elite receiver.

I had a Netcomm NP285 85Mbps HomePlug pair between my Pioneer BDP-95HD Blu-ray player and a PC/router. I used it to serve media files, and it seemed to work fine (was also good for upgrading HD DVD firmware and for online HD DVD material) until I bought a local storage system.

I also have an older 14Mbps HomePlug system connected to a laptop in another room. It's slower, but very stable (unlike the WiFi I've used in the past) and is left on 24/7. No problems so far, and my household wiring certainly isn't state-of-the-art (more like 70-year-old and dusty).

Adam