Time for an upgrade?

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Level 1

21 points

Time for an upgrade?

I have an Airport Extreme Base Station bought in 2003. We use a wireless Roku Video Player to stream video and even though I pay for the fastest speed from my cable ISP, I get average quality streaming on my Roku player. I am fairly computer savvy but confess that when it comes to wireless tech specs I am in a fog. Could the reason my Roku registers average quality video be because the Airport Extreme is older and therefore slower when it sends the video stream to Roku? Would a new Airport Extreme give me better results? I am considering getting the new Apple TV because of the interface but am hoping to tackle this problem first. Any info would be greatly appreciated. By the way, the tech specs for my older Airport Extreme are below if that helps.

Thanks,

John

Airport Specs
Wireless Data Rate: Up to 54 mbps
Range: Up to 150ft
Frequency Band: 2.4 GHz
Radio Output Power: 15 dBm
Standards: Compliant with 802.11 HR DSSS 11 Mbps standard, 802.11 DSSS 1 and 2 Mbps standard, and 802.11g draft specification

MacPro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Oct 1, 2010 4:03 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 6, 2010 1:59 PM in response to jrc362

jrc362 wrote:
I have an Airport Extreme Base Station bought in 2003. We use a wireless Roku Video Player to stream video and even though I pay for the fastest speed from my cable ISP, I get average quality streaming on my Roku player. I am fairly computer savvy but confess that when it comes to wireless tech specs I am in a fog. Could the reason my Roku registers average quality video be because the Airport Extreme is older and therefore slower when it sends the video stream to Roku? Would a new Airport Extreme give me better results?

Perhaps, but only if the Roku unit supports 802.11n networking. If it only supports 802.11g or b networking, then the AirPort Extreme unit isn't the bottleneck.

I'd check the quality of the signal between the Extreme and the Roku using the instructions in this post

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2347845&start=1

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Answer 2

jrc362 Author

Level 1

21 points

Oct 6, 2010 8:09 PM in response to William-Boyd-Jr

William,

Thanks for the reply. I will check that out. I moved my Roku player to the den (about 20 feet closer to the Extreme) and it likes it better there. I am going to move it back and check the signal to see what I can learn. Thanks again for the suggestion.

J

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