Tivo-to-go and wireless B confusion

[jkalnin]

I am a little confused why I can transfer a show from my PC to my S2 Tivo at almost real time. Yet, transferring a file from my S2 Tivo to my PC takes about a day for a half-hour show.

Why is there such a huge difference in the transfer speeds?

The files are all around 700 megs.

[ThAbtO]

802.11b is at 11 megabits/sec.
802.11g is at 54 megabits/sec.
Divide these by 8 and you have megabytes.

[jkalnin]

802.11b is at 11 megabits/sec.
802.11g is at 54 megabits/sec.
Divide these by 8 and you have megabytes.

Did you even read my question?

[CuriousMark]

I am a little confused why I can transfer a show from my PC to my S2 Tivo at almost real time. Yet, transferring a file from my S2 Tivo to my PC takes about a day for a half-hour show.

Why is there such a huge difference in the transfer speeds?

The files are all around 700 megs.

Obviously something is wrong, but there isn't nearly enough information to try to start figuring out what it could be.

I remember a year or so ago there was a driver issue on certain computer motherboards that didn't kill transfers but slowed them to rates like you are seeing. I believe the fix consisted of turning off a checksum offloading feature. You will probably find the threads if you search on those two words.

Perhaps if you post a lot more detail, makes models, version numbers, etc of everything in the setup, and exactly how it is all set up, that might trigger some ideas.

One thing you could also look into is your router's firmware version. I doubt it is the cause, but update it just to be sure.

[jkalnin]

Wow, that is fantastic that you have given me something to research my problem. It has never made sense to me that my Tivo downloads shows from the PC so quickly, yet transferring from the Tivo to the PC is super slow. I'll do more investigating on the terms that you mentioned, and if nothing works I'll come back with all the exact details.

One more thing:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/archive/index.php/t-281573.html

This thread it says that Tivo->PC is always slower because the Tivo has to convert the file before it transfers it. This may be the issue, but it seems it still should be faster then it is...

[CuriousMark]

This thread it says that Tivo->PC is always slower because the Tivo has to convert the file before it transfers it. This may be the issue, but it seems it still should be faster then it is...

Yes, it is faster than what you are seeing. The TiVo is not converting the file so much as adding DRM, and or muxing components of the transport stream. When it is working right you should see transfer rates that are near real time, give or take depending on recording quality settings on Series 2 hardware.

[jkalnin]

I did a few more transfer tests:

TivoHD -> PC : almost real-time transfers
TivoHD -> S2 : almost real-time transfers
PC -> S2 : almost real-time transfers

Then there comes the problem:
S2 -> TivoHD : painfully slow transfers. 1/2 show takes >12 hours
S2 -> PC : painfully slow transfers. 1/2 show takes >12 hours
S2 -> PC (browser) : painfully slow transfers. 1/2 show takes >12 hours

This leads me to believe the problem is either the S2's wireless adapter (D-link DWL 122) or the router (D-link DI504). The S2 is running system 9.1-01-2-130.

Everything works as expected except for transfer from the S2 to any device using a number of techniques. The S2 service number starts with 230.

[fyodor]

Can you try running a long cable between the the S2 and the router, or temporarily relocating the router to the room with the S2 and connecting it by ethernet? This would allow you to quickly determine if it's a networking issue.




I did a few more transfer tests:

TivoHD -> PC : almost real-time transfers



TivoHD -> S2 : almost real-time transfers
PC -> S2 : almost real-time transfers

Then there comes the problem:
S2 -> TivoHD : painfully slow transfers. 1/2 show takes >12 hours
S2 -> PC : painfully slow transfers. 1/2 show takes >12 hours
S2 -> PC (browser) : painfully slow transfers. 1/2 show takes >12 hours

This leads me to believe the problem is either the S2's wireless adapter (D-link DWL 122) or the router (D-link DI504). The S2 is running system 9.1-01-2-130.

Everything works as expected except for transfer from the S2 to any device using a number of techniques. The S2 service number starts with 230.

[jkalnin]

As soon as I get my hands on 50' of Ethernet cable I'll give that a shot ;)

The next, easiest test, will be using the wireless G adapter from my TivoHD on it and see if that works. If it works then I'll just get another Tivo wireless adapter and toss out the wireless B one.

Thanks! I'll let you know the results in a few days.

[ThAbtO]

This leads me to believe the problem is either the S2's wireless adapter (D-link DWL 122) or the router (D-link DI504).

The DWL-122 speed is 802.11b which is 11 Mbits/sec but what about the router, is it 802.11b or g?

I had this adapter hooked to my S2 and it really is slow so I switched over the the TiVo wireless adapter and its much faster.

[jkalnin]

My router is wireless G. I got a wireless B adapter for the S2 because I think that is all that was supported at the time. Getting a much more expensive G adapter didn't seem to make sense 4 years ago.

[fyodor]

You joke, but I used to keep 20ft cables and a dual female connector for just this reason-wireless is so finicky that I used to find myself needing to test connections out.

The other option is trying one of the various solutions that work over your home's coaxial or powerline cables. I have an nim100 in each room, though it might be a little unnecessarily pricey/overpowered your purposes if you're just transferring SD content. If you're thinking of getting another TivoHD in the future, it might be worth going with. I love mine-I got an extra one for my office area (that had no Tivo) because it was so much easier than trying to use a wireless network bridge for the various devices in there.

If you're sticking with just SD, there are some other, cheaper technologies, available. Some of the powerline devices are supposed to be pretty good, but people have had variable results, depending on their home electrical wiring.




As soon as I get my hands on 50' of Ethernet cable I'll give that a shot ;)

The next, easiest test, will be using the wireless G adapter from my TivoHD on it and see if that works. If it works then I'll just get another Tivo wireless adapter and toss out the wireless B one.

Thanks! I'll let you know the results in a few days.