Powerlines And Protocols: HomePlug Hiccups Again (And Other Streaming Experiments)

Saturday night, I figured out the source of the earlier-reported mysterious ‘unknown error (-15000)’ when attempting to stream music from iTunes v8 (running on Mac OS 10.4) to my Apple TV. I recalled that whereas my MacBook connected to my router via Wi-Fi, the router-to-Apple TV tether consisted of a HomePlug AV powerline spur. On a hunch, and based on past history (and more past history…and more…hit this link for the sobering big picture), I switched the Apple TV over to Wi-Fi…and was subsequently able to use it as a Remote Speaker from within iTunes just fine.

Once again, it seems, HomePlug technology is unable to fully protocol-mimic the CAT5 cable it’s striving to make unnecessary. Why, in contrast, is 802.11 seemingly able to achieve this goal? Is it, perhaps, because Wi-Fi was developed by a diverse-perspective standards committee, whereas HomePlug is for all practical purposes a single-company technology (just as, frankly, are the HD-PLC and UPA alternatives)? I’ll pass this latest speed bump along to Intellon and, if there’s a positive outcome, I’ll pass the results back to you here at Brian’s Brain.

I also did some other interesting streaming experiments last weekend. I wanted to watch Michael Moore’s latest (and very popular) film, Slacker Uprising, and I thought this’d also be a good opportunity to test Nullriver Software’s OS X UPnP server software tailored for the Xbox 360 (Connect360) and PlayStation 3 (MediaLink). So, instead of either direct-downloading the HD (rent only) or SD (rent or free ‘buy’) content from the iTunes Store to my Apple TV, or downloading the SD movie to my MacBook and streaming it from there to the Apple TV (both scenarios which I later confirmed also worked fine), I instead direct-downloaded the 650 MByte MPEG-4-encoded standard-definition Quicktime file from the Slacker Uprising website.

During Connect360 installation, the program automatically opened up the necessary ports in my active OS X firewall. It also ’saw’ both of my Xbox 360s (both ironically connected to the router via HomePlug AV), along with the Slacker Uprising file sitting in my Movies folder. Connect360 appeared as one of several UPnP-compliant media sources from within the Xbox 360 UI and, after I selected it and downloaded the Optional Media Update per the prompt I received, I was able to play the entire movie without incident (including getting accurate time bar feedback, and in spite of pausing playback on several occasions).

My MediaLink results, unfortunately, weren’t nearly as upbeat. Latest (as I write this) version 1.59 of the program doesn’t automatically create OS X firewall entries; without them, PS3s and other compatible LAN clients won’t be able to ’see’ the UPnP server. MediaLink development seems to be lagging behind that of Connect360; when I asked company representative Maksim Rogov why auto-firewall-configuration wasn’t present in MediaLink, he replied, ‘We’ve dropped that for now because 10.4 and 10.5 firewalls work differently. We plan to return the feature though." For now, you’ll need to manually add a firewall entry for MediaLink, opening up TCP port 9386 and UDP port 9385 (not the other way around, as some Google search results incorrectly document).

I also experienced unacceptably stutter-filled video playback over the PS3; every few seconds, the movie would pause for a few seconds. Rogov again, "This is a difference between how the PS3 and the Xbox 360 buffer unfortunately and there is nothing we can do about it. The only solution is to have a higher bandwidth connection." At first, I though that MediaLink might have been dynamically transcoding the material prior to sending it to the PS3 (even though the console has natively supported the codec for more than a year), but Activity Monitor suggested no undue CPU activity, and Rogov concurred, "There is no transcoding done in MediaLink…We definitely don’t alter the video in any way when streaming." My PS3 is also HomePlug AV-tethered to the router, which may at least partially explain the stuttered-playback problems I saw. When I get a chance, I’ll switch the PS3 to a Wi-Fi connection and see if that resolves the issue.

I was also interested in watching Joss Whedon’s excellent ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog’, but I wasn’t interested in paying Apple $1.99 per 15-minute act (three acts total) for the privilege. Instead, I hit Hulu for the free advertising-supported version. While I endured 45 minutes’ worth of my laptop sitting on my…lap… this time, such a setup definitely isn’t my preferred way to enjoy video. I’d rather multitask instead of exclusively dedicating my computer’s display and speakers (and my eyeballs and ears) to this particular function, and the slow historical uptake of the Media Center function also suggests a scant population of folks with PCs direct-connected to TVs.

As such, I hope that my past prediction of Hulu support augmentation to Roku’s Netflix Player pans out…until then, there’s always PlayOn streaming to game consoles. Roku’s last-week SDK release is an encouraging sign, and Netflix’s recent partnership with CBS and Disney provides an intriguing near-term alternative Roku path, at least to those two particular media sources. In related news, Joost is migrating away from a dedicated player to a more palatable browser approach, in both plugin-inclusive and P2P-less, albeit service-deficient, options. And bigger picture, I encourage you to peruse Gizmodo’s recent roundup of various ‘free TV’ alternatives.

Here’s one other streaming tidbit, in closing. Back in mid-August, I mentioned WebGuide as an alternative to Orb. While I haven’t uninstalled WebGuide from my system, primarily because it lets me remotely access my Media Center-inclusive system’s program guide to schedule (and cancel) upcoming recordings, I’ve reinstalled Orb in order that I can watch those pre-recorded shows (along with live TV). That’s because no amount of experimentation to date has enabled me to successfully stream content via WebGuide, either to that same PC (suggesting that codecs, not connectivity, are to blame…though I’ve also tried migrating from HomePlug AV to Wi-Fi to solve the problem, without success) or to another system either within the LAN or via a WAN connection (yes, I enabled proper ports for both the server and for video streaming).

I’ve got numerous codecs on my system, both from the Dell-branded MediaDirect variant of Cyberlink’s PowerDVD playback software and Sonic’s Creator DVD authoring software that came with the system, along with the default Microsoft MPEG-2 decoder that’s bundled with Windows Vista. None of them seem to want to cooperate with WebGuide’s streaming aspirations. After doing some Google-based research, I even tried installing AC3filter (which I need for Orb, anyway), along with the ffdshow open-source codec suite; neither was successful in resolving my WebGuide streaming problems. When I try to stream directly to Windows Media Player, here’s the most common pop-up I encounter:

And when I try to stream to the WMP plugin within the WebGuide browser interface, I encounter a variety of error messages, most commonly ‘Failed to connect to an IPC port. The system cannot find the file specified.’ If any WebGuide power users have suggestions, I’m all ears. This is a pretty sad situation, considering that Microsoft’s Windows Media team hired WebGuide’s developer last September. WebGuide for Windows Vista and Windows XP Media Center Edition is still stuck at a 9/5/2007 most-recent-edition date, with WebGuide for Windows Home Server only slightly newer, dated January 18 of this year.

p.s…speaking of Roku’s Netflix Player, check out this suggestion for accessing the unit’s debug menu and overriding the default dynamic ‘intelligent bandwidth’ setting.