Folks,

I'm a newbie and just stumbled across this forum earlier today. Still looking for information and please feel free to call me a donk and send me to a relevant post.

I would like to be able to play my avi's, music and pictures and perhaps mpeg's on my hdtv downstairs from the two desktops that are in the house.

I've looked at some wireless options, and considering how flaky the wireless is to begin with, am beginning to think wired is the way to go, and then I ran across the powerline method. Of all the powerline AV's I've looked at the Zyxel appears to have a reasonably complete user guide and manual and for what it's worth, they seem to have all the functions that I am looking for.

The upsides are price and convenience, and the downside is the lack of any reviews anywhere about the product. Also, considering what I want to do, should I be looking at other options?

This one on Amazon: DMA1100P-Digital-Theater-HomePlug-Powerline.

And considering it takes a RJ45 as input I am beginning to wonder if I need the more expensive Zyxel wall adapter: Amazon: ZyXEL-Powerline-HomePlug-Wall-plug-Adapter/
or if I could use a Netger or Actiontec like this one: Amazon.com: Actiontec-MegaPlug-Mbps-Ethernet-Adapter

If no one here has tried it I'm willing to take the bait and try it out, but just wanted to ask before I jumped off the cliff :D Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Thanks in advance,
Stan

Can't post links on my first thread apparently, but I'm hoping you get the idea.

It may work for lower frequency things like audio and still pictures, and perhaps StdDef video over the power line. For HiDef video I have serious doubts. The power line is a noisy connection with poor, uncontrolled characteristics for carrying high frequency signals.

If you try it, be sure they have a good return policy.

Thanks Carl. Will do. I started putting things into the cart and with rebates it actually ends up under $200. And I've got a 30 day return policy...so it's on it's way.

I do think I've got a couple of hurdles before I get this to work:

a) Older house, older wiring - even think this one uses aluminum wiring :)
b) Getting a 10/1000Mbps router to improve things in general and I'm hoping that will help this one

And after that I get to compare the streamed avi with a burned dvd on an upconverting player, a regular dvd player and a cd locally vs over the wire.

Anything else I should be comparing?

Thanks Stan

Sounds like you have it covered. Since it's digital, if there are any transmission problems, they are likely to be relatively gross and easily noticed. Problems with digital transmission are usually not subtle.

Well, it works and does what I want it to do. The interface has a learning curve, and it's been great so far. No real complaints. I now have to come up with a better method to organize and catalog my own content.

The home plug is awesome, the old AMD downstairs shows up with 3400Mbps when the wireless only went upto 1500Mbps. Haven't tried ftp'ing stuff back and forth, but connectivity was pretty much 30 seconds and then it acquired an IP.

The avi's actually end up being better through this than with the avi->vso->iso->dvd conversion process and it's been great to be able to do slideshows with music streaming from the computer upstairs. My wife is now like a kid hooked to the cartoon channel. Seriously, I think she can spend the whole day listening to music and watching the thousands of pictures scroll through every three of seconds.

The audio is also pretty good, and I can't tell the difference on my setup here, and while it isn't a $10K audio setup it's good enough for the room here though. It's a mix and match of Bose, Technics, a Denon sub woofer and it's about 8 years old.

However....and this is the scary part! I now am beginning to see the need for a HTPC downstairs. This streaming business loads this machine up some and I can see a HTPC in the near future. Need to do some convincing and most important...need to find the room.

And a little later perhaps even a wireless keyboard and mouse so I can also use the HTPC downstairs as a workstation ...hmm, a 52 inch desktop! Cool!:D

Oh..and I don't have a blu-ray as yet, and until a blu-ray burner and discs become more reasonably priced, up-converting is my take and for that this works out pretty good.