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    MacBook Air 13 slow at streaming videos from PC?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by iceheat710, Feb 21, 2011.

  1. iceheat710

    iceheat710 Newbie

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    Hi,

    I recently purchased a 13" MacBook Air and I noticed that when I stream video from my Windows PC, the playback (both video and audio) is quite choppy.

    I've tried copying the file onto the MacBook and the playback is smooth, I've also tried different file formats so I think the only problem with the playback is from the streaming...

    I'm running a Linksys WRT54GL with dd-wrt...and none of my older Windows laptop seem to have a problem...

    Anyone have a similar problem or know what I can do to improve playback..?

    Thanks!
     
    iceheat710, Feb 21, 2011
    #1
  2. ClearSkies

    ClearSkies Well no, I'm still here..

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    So what software are you using to stream the video, and then playback on the MBA?

    Sounds like a software issue on one end or the other, and perhaps we can troubleshoot or make alternative suggestions if we know what you're using.
     
    ClearSkies, Feb 22, 2011
    #2
  3. iceheat710

    iceheat710 Newbie

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    I would connect to my windows PC with smb:// and then trying to play the files with VLC or MPlayer. The video formats are mostly avi's and mkv's, and some rmvb's for some Chinese dramas
     
    iceheat710, Feb 22, 2011
    #3
  4. yuio

    yuio NBR Assistive Tec. Tec.

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    I have this issue too. the only solutions I know of...
    1. copy the file first (like you have done)
    2. convert all the videos to be able to be played with Quick time (which works far better for streaming than VLC). but QT can't play anything compared to VLC and a large collection would take a very very long time to complete.

    if anyone else has a solution, I too would like to here it.
     
    yuio, Feb 22, 2011
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  5. sulkorp

    sulkorp Notebook Deity

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    What resolutions and codec are the files?

    I've heard that 1080 stuff can't be streamed properly over wifi b/g so that could be the first problem.

    Second, try a program that will buffer the content, rather than pure streaming. Examples of this would be plex, or xbmc
     
    sulkorp, Feb 24, 2011
    #5