Netgear XE104 not ready for HDTV Primetime

Last week we gave a 60-day update on our HDTV streaming over WiFi from a Windows Media Center to an Xbox 360. Overall, we're satisfied with the performance over our 802.11a wireless network, but it's still not 100%. We alluded to getting our paws on a new product from Netgear: the XE104, which is an 85 Mbps Ethernet switch that uses your home electric lines to send network data. The device is based on the HomePlug 1.0 standard and we really wanted to give a shot and see if brings our high-def streaming satisfaction to 100%.

We shot a note over to Netgear for some review units, but they're in high demand; understandable if you can get 85Mbps performance by using existing wires. Rather than wait, we decided to take the plunge and purchase two units. They arrived on Monday and we put 'em through the paces over the past few days...
The XE104 are basically plug-and-play units; you simply plug one in to an outlet near your router and another one into an outlet where you need an Ethernet jack. Each XE104 has four Ethernet jacks, so you can effectively add four wired devices to your network per unit. Once we unpacked the devices, we plugged one directly into the wall nearest our WMCE machine; Netgear doesn't recommend you plug these into a surge protector or other extension cord. We then wired the XE104 to our router.

Giddy with anticipation, we almost tripped going downstairs to the home entertainment room that houses our baby: the Xbox 360. The li'l fella was sleeping, so we quietly plugged in the other XE104 directly into an outlet and connected our 360 to it via the included Cat-5 cable. Just to be safe, we pulled the Microsoft Wireless adapter from the 360, which unfortunately woke him up. No worries, it was time for the big test.

Looking at both XE104's we saw the appropriate green and blue LEDs all lit up, indicating that our data packets were flowing to and from like busy little bees. Yippee! We got the Xbox 360 configured for the new wired network and fell going up the stairs this time; how exciting to have 85Mbps in the house! Back at the WMCE, we fired up the Network Performance Monitor to see all of the bars lit up like giant Christmas trees and....uh....wait a second.....there's not even enough bars to stream SDTV. Huh?

We loaded up the included Netgear software that allows you to change passwords on XE104's, create new networks with them and use network encryption when we noticed something very interesting:

See the Quality and Rate? That's not 85 Mbps. Thinking that the performance can vary a little based on the location we then proceeded to move the second XE104 unit throughout the house. We tested nine different outlets at various locations and here's what we saw:

• With both XE104's in the same room (our office), the reported Rate was around 83 Mbps.
• Moving one XE104 to the hall outside the office, the Rate dropped to between 45 and 50 Mbps.
• Moving that XE104 to the next room yielded a rate of 32 Mbps.
• Moving three rooms away, the rate hit a measly 9 Mbps.

Just for kicks, we tried the test with an XE104 in various rooms downstairs since the above tests were all on the second floor of our home. We could never get the rate above 25 Mbps. "OK," you say, "25 Mbps is enough to stream the HDTV content since it only requires 19.39 Mbps, right?" That's what we thought too, so we did a little sleuthing on the Netgear customer forums.

When we logged in there were approximately ten threads on the XE104. At least 80% of those threads were of customers complaining about the throughput. Even worse: these folks ran more extensive tests and found that the Netgear utility inflates the actual throughput rate by up to a factor of seven. This would certainly explain why we couldn't stream any DTV even though the utility indicates that we should be able to.

There could be other factors involved and yes, one of them is the wiring in your house. Our house used for the test is only two years old, so it's unlikely that the wiring is the culprit. Our XE104's cost us $85 each, but we're getting our money back. Simply put, these units just won't cut it for HDTV streaming between a Windows Media Center PC and an Xbox 360 in our environment.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 9th 2006 3:42AM]

I just want to point out that AV200 Powerline is already out based on the new UPA standard and available on the market from Corinex Communications at 200Mbps, with real throughput of 70-80Mbps.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 13th 2006 4:40PM]

HomePlug might not be ready for HDTV yet, but what about Xbox Live (for those who don't want to re-wire their whole house to include an ethernet plug in the Xbox's main room)? Another thought would be to use video baluns to convert the signal first, assuming you're doing something sub-HDTV standards.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 3rd 2006 8:58PM]

Have you measured latency at all, 10Mbps would be fine for my senario however if it adds any latency then will just run cat 5 out the window

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 2nd 2006 3:55PM]

Thank you for the investigation. Looks like I will need to find some other way to stream my HD as well.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 3rd 2006 9:01AM]

I dont see any where in the Netgear documentation where they say it supports HDTV. A quick google search for HomePlug shows many indepth reviews of the technology where they explain how it works and why you see the drastic differences in speed.

Take a lesson from Toms Hardware.

Jim

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 3rd 2006 9:22AM]

Thanks for the comment Jim. You're absolutely correct, Netgear doesn't specifically state it supports HD, however, they do indicate it supports the Slingbox, indicating it's use can be geared towards digital video. We were well aware of the HomePlug limitations and nuances, but the fact is: the device doesn't even come close to the advertised speed unless in the same room. If you were going to network two devices in the same room, you should consider connecting both to a wired router for a full 100Mbps.

Additionally, our 802.11a and g routers don't specifically state they support HD either, but they do simply becauase they provide the needed bandwidth. Many folks will consider the XE104 for video streaming for the same reason and all we're suggesting is that they carefully consider what we saw in our real usage test.

Thanks!

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 3rd 2006 9:53AM]

I hope Homeplug AV comes soon and does it better.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 3rd 2006 1:39PM]

I dont agree with your wireless analogy since wireless performance and reach within the home are all major problems, not to mention the issues with setup for the novice user.

Would you recommend these for the novice user who wants to reliably network their home or for online gaming, data connections and/or standard def? It would be nice to hear what they can be used for and not just where we cant. Fair and balanced.. :)