Wireless solution for Xbox and XBMC?

August 6, 2008 5:57 AM

What's the best wireless solution for connecting an original X-Box with XBMC for streaming MPEG-2 video?

I have an xbox in a back bedroom with XBMC. In the living room is a Linksys wireless G router. I'd like to stream MPEG-2 video that I have captured with a Hauppauge PVR-150. What's the best wireless solution for the X-box and XBMC? Linksys WGA54G Wireless G Game Adapter? Original Microsoft adapter? I'd like to hear what is actually working well for people (not really what would work in theory).

For what it's worth, I know streaming video over this distance will work. I have an old Gateway wireless DVD player that streams MPEG-2 content from this router (when it decides to work, which is about 50% of the time). Looking for a more dependable solution. Thanks!

posted by Otis to computers & internet (9 answers total)

I bought this to function as a bridge (that's the term you're looking for, btw - a wireless bridge). It supports WPA2 and connects my XBMC-modded Xbox to my DD-WRT modded WRT54Gv2. The setup is a smidge weird - ignore all the included instructions and open up the browser interface (http://192.168.2.1) to set it up. Then, forget it exists.
posted by TheNewWazoo at 6:37 AM on August 6, 2008 [2 favorites]

I used to use an 802.11b wireless bridge to do exactly what you are describing. It would sometimes get a bit choppy. But im sure an 802.11g bridge will do the job spendidly.
posted by gergtreble at 7:00 AM on August 6, 2008

I had a lot of luck using dd-wrt on an old linksys and putting it in client-bridge mode. I never bothered to stream video but it works fine for everything else. The older wireless game adapters from linksys dont support WPA, btw.

Signal reception is really going to determine if you can stream mpeg-2 streams. I would put a laptop in the exact same spot youre going to put the xbox and see if you can get a stutter-free stream going. If so then the dd-wrt linksys should perform just as well.

Also, if you do go dd-wrt, I highly recommend to NOT increase the transmit power. My own testing has show that upping the power really hurts signal to noise ratios. I'd only up the power if you need to increase range a tad and are willing to live with random lag, slow speed, retransmits, and dropped signals.
posted by damn dirty ape at 9:53 AM on August 6, 2008

I have an extremely similar setup, though my xbox (with xbmc) is in our basement hooked to a projector and the wireless router is two floors up on the other end of the house. Still manage to stream videos from various computers on the network easily. I use a D-link gaming adapter, which I had a little trouble setting up, but after I got it working, haven't had any problems and I've had this exact setup for about a year. There seems to be a lot of mixed opinions online regarding this product, but like I said, after the setup I haven't had any issues and have been completely happy with it.
posted by pontouf at 12:32 PM on August 6, 2008

I use a WL-500g running OpenWRT to be a wireless client (and also connect to some USB disks as NAS), and plug the xbox into that. I mention this because I know it works - if all you're doing is wireless for the xbox, I suspect you can find a cheaper thing to use as an adapter.
posted by pompomtom at 4:56 PM on August 6, 2008

I picked up a Linksys WRT-54GL (the L is important, apparently), put DD-WRT on it and put it into bridge mode (there's a tutorial at the DD-WRT site). Streams everything and anything.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 4:11 AM on August 7, 2008

I use a Motorola WE800G Wireless 802.11g Ethernet Bridge on my XBMC. It connects to a Linksys w/ DD-WRT on it. Mine was super-cheap when I bought it (part of a woot deal -- think it ended up being $5-10 bucks)

Running for over two years with no problems, although it is a bit of a pain to connect (I believe there's no wireless config access -- or there is, and I always forget to turn it on).

Personally, I'd go with a DD-WRT in bridged mode, with the suspicion that you might get a better signal out of it. XBMC is super annoying when it stutters (contrary to DDA's experiences, I found boosting the signal prevented this problem entirely.)
posted by fishfucker at 9:31 PM on August 7, 2008

I have 2 WRT54G routers in a "WDS Mesh"... basically they create one big wireless network. I did this using the aforementioned DD-WRT.

The advantage of the WDS mode over the client bridge mode is that I can connect multiple devices to it (my Wii and 360 in this case, as well as a laptop) rather than just using it as a bridge for one device.

This allows me to have computers in one room connected to one router, and my Xbox 360 and Wii in my living room connected to the other. As far as the Xbox 360 knows, it's on a wired connection (because it's wired to my second router), so you don't need to buy a wireless device for it.
posted by twiggy at 4:10 PM on August 15, 2008

Thanks everyone. Ended up with the Linksys Gaming Adapter. Setup was easy. Had to temporarily disable MAC address filtering, but that was the only slight hitch. Works great streaming video. Also tried the D-Link 108AG which did NOT work. Couldn't bring up the adapter's configuration on my PC to change the SSID etc, whereas the Linksys configuration came right up.
posted by Otis at 6:50 AM on September 2, 2008