MT300N - can't play HD video over wifi - iTunes / Synology NAS

peterdeslandes · 2017-07-06T17:35:07.000Z

I’ve an MT300N, very simply set up - only change is WAN port is used for LAN, ie there are now two LAN ports.

Wifi set to 300m.

Synology NAS with iTunes media and Apple TV connected to the ethernet ports; laptop running iTunes on wifi.

Using iTunes on the laptop as the Apple TV library, it’s very slow to buffer but it plays fine once it’s going - I assume that the laptop provides the access to the file and the media streams directly from the NAS over ethernet to the Apple TV.

However, playing an HD video file from the NAS on the laptop (either directly using QuickTime or through iTunes), it can’t pull the video fast enough and basically won’t play. SD is fine.

Am I expecting too much of the router / wifi? My laptop is <5m from it. Any thoughts on how to improve, including getting a different model for this purpose? Thanks in advance everyone.

alzhao · 2017-07-07T19:55:08.000Z

What do you mean SD is fine?

Can you try to copy a file from the Nas to laptop and check the speed? It should be enough to play movies from LAN.

If you cannot test as above, have a try to test the speed via wifi when you use the WAN as WAN, not LAN.

rangerz · 2017-07-08T06:09:10.000Z

SD = Standard Definition

If your on a Windows PC check out this tool to measure “Disk to Disk” performance => Totusoft | LAN Speed Test

The results will probably be limited by your wifi speed.

As you have set the WAN port to a LAN port, is this now a stand alone network, or are you connecting wirelessly to another router? IE Is this unit a wireless bridge of some type? If so, it’s probably worth elaborating.

Just because you set your router to run at 300M does not mean the client (Laptop) is. You may need to check the config of the WLAN in your laptop. You may need a wide channel set on both devices. Your wireless is basically capped at the speed of your slowest connected device.

peterdeslandes · 2017-07-10T20:09:28.000Z

Thanks both, very helpful pointers…

I’ve done a bit more testing and it turns out some SD also doesn’t play well - the time it did work seems to have been a fluke.

Yet transferring both SD and HD files from the NAS to the Mac is much faster than the playback time, eg 15 mins to move an 8GB / 2hr HD film.

Hey RangerZ - I have internet through USB iPhone tethering (this is the feature that led me to stumble across this device - I’m abroad using an old iPhone with a local SIM as my broadband connection, and this gives me proper wifi for a number of devices rather than a more limited hotspot).

Could you explain what you mean by setting a wide channel? The router is set to “auto”. I understand these things when explained but am clearly only just learning.

I basically can’t figure out how the file can transfer quickly but the playback doesn’t work unless the laptop is struggling to decode or something?

Thanks again