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Laggy Performance with XB360 Extender - Is There a Fix?

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 8:56 pm
by misterpunn
I'm not sure if this is the best place for this post...I think it could potentially apply to three different forums haha. Brace yourself for a long post and a few scenarios!

In the past few months, I have had a very poor watching experience on my XBox 360. The video (live TV or recorded does not make a difference) will be clean for around 10 seconds, then fall behind the audio and become choppy, then the picture and audio will freeze and recalibrate itself. Previously this only happened when the storage on my computer was pretty full. I would move all of my recordings to my external hard drive and then playback on my XB360 would be smooth once again. Now, even with over half of my computer's storage free, and even shortly after restarting the computer, the XB360 playback is still laggy and I can't get back to a smooth playback experience no matter what I try.

Current setup:
1.) HTPC: Windows 8.1 pro 4GB RAM with HDHomerun Prime tuner using WMC ... I only use this computer as a HTPC and use WMC and have my emby server running.
2.) Connection: Powerline ethernet adpaters...HTPC (downstairs living room) is connected to XB360 (upstairs bedroom) via powerline ethernet cable. The XB360 seems to receive internet fine and connects to XBox Live just fine, but is slow specifically when using WMC. My internet speed isn't anywhere near fast enough to handle this wirelessly, so the powerline is necessary.

Hypothesized problems:
1.) There is too much power being consumed in my house and thus the powerline adapter can't work at its full potential. I have noticed the connection between HTPC and XB360 gets worse when I have my overhead light turned on.
-challenge to that hypothesis: My electrical bill shows I consume roughly the same power (and sometimes) less than the previous year and I did not have this lag in the past.
-challenge to that hypothesis: I have unplugged all rarely used devices in my bedroom and that has a minimal improvement. The XB360 playback still stutters and lags often.
2.) My computer isn't strong-enough to push out the signal in order for for the extender playback to function well. Admittedly my computer is slow. It actually sucks, to be honest. If I open Firefox and try to navigate and have a few tabs open, the computer slows down significantly.
-challenge to that hypothesis: Only in recent months has this laggy and stuttered playback been an issue that wasn't fixed by freeing more space on the hard drive. In the past, the computer was just as slow with Firefox but the extender playback was smooth.
-I've done several things to free up disk and CPU space to hopefully improve the connection with the extender and nothing has helped.

Questions (conveniently labeled in case you want to identify one in your answer!) :
-Does anyone have any thoughts as to what I can do to regain smooth playback?
a.) should I reset my powerline adapters and reconnect them to each other?
b.) should I remove my XB360 as an extender and add it back? I am slightly worried if I remove it now, the extender may say the signal is too weak to connect to my XB360
c.) should I roll back my HTCP to a date from, like, April in order to gain that magical mix of settings that worked well?
d.) should I add RAM to my computer? I'm not sure how much that would cost and would like to avoid having someone open my computer if possible. I'm open to it if it will fix things, though. I used to have WMC on a Windows 7 computer with 4GB RAM and had zero issues with connection to the extender.
e.) do you think the problem lies with the computer or the electrical circuitry? (I assume most answers are going to be that it's a combination of both)
f.) would a mesh internet system work better? My computer and XB360 can't even recognize each other off of wireless signal strength alone, but they can find each other by powerline. However, as I've said, I have problems with the powerline connection now whereas it had worked fine in the past. would perhaps adding a mesh internet to my house improve that wireless communication between the two vs. the performance I'd get over powerline?
g.) are there ways to improve the performance of my powerline adapters? No, none of them are connected to surge protectors.
h.) is there a way to prioritize resources on my computer so the HTPC/Extender/WMC handshake takes precedence and performs at full ability?

I'm trying not to spend a lot of money, simply because I am using the HTPC and extender setup as a way to save money vs. cable boxes and have larger room for DVR. If the fix is expensive, it might be more cost-effective to just get a cable box for upstairs.

Thanks for sticking with me. I'd truly appreciate any help big or small. This is extremely frustrating and I'd like to get my setup back...it was a great experience before!

Re: Laggy Performance with XB360 Extender - Is There a Fix?

Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2020 12:51 am
by Dmcd
Don’t know exactly your issues but share some comments. Powerline never worked after a few months for me. The adapters would slow down and start glitching for unknown reasons. Tried two different brands. Noise in line would slow things down once in a while too. Tried WiFi and stream was fast enough but remote commands were laggy like trying to move through menus. Ended up with Moca which had been going for years now. Very reliable but slightly expensive. Also restored my win 8.1 system to Feb because lost ability to connect new Xbox to system. Noticed before update that extenders would crash when starting up trying to connect at random times. I think MS changed something related to remote login around August. Don’t know though. Good luck. I still don’t like other options out there with cable.

Re: Laggy Performance with XB360 Extender - Is There a Fix?

Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2020 7:41 pm
by adam1991
It's ALWAYS the network connection.

Trust me.

Troubleshoot by running fresh wires as directly as possible between pieces parts and see what happens.

Re: Laggy Performance with XB360 Extender - Is There a Fix?

Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2020 1:44 am
by misterpunn
Thanks! I just ordered a few cat 8 ethernet cables. We will see!

If anyone else has suggestions still, though, please fee free to contribute. Thank you!

Re: Laggy Performance with XB360 Extender - Is There a Fix?

Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2020 4:39 pm
by misterpunn
The cables arrived and unfortunately they're not helping much. I ordered new cables for all aspects of my setup, but one of the ones I ordered was a 10ft cable that would allow me to connect my powerline ethernet to a different outlet and that worked for a day but now it's back to the laggy performance. This is a total mystery and very frustrating! haha

Re: Laggy Performance with XB360 Extender - Is There a Fix?

Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 9:55 am
by bam
I have resolved choppy video playback by adding a RTL8111G ethernet adapter. The Intel 82579LM didn't play well regardless of driver. If you switch to a RTL8111 card, do NOT disable the Intel adapter in Network Connections, but leave it unplugged. Disabling the onboard LAN will confuse WMC, resulting in choppy video on the RTL8111 as well.

Edit: The problems with Intel 82579LM are intermittent choppiness once in a while. I did not do a packet capture. With RTL8111 and disabled 82579LM, the throughput is much lower than expected (~2mbps for HD channel) and I see lots of speed test packets (don't remember the name, didn't save the packet capture). The choppiness is much worse and happens all the time with a disabled 82579LM.

Re: Laggy Performance with XB360 Extender - Is There a Fix?

Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2020 4:48 am
by bam
Actually, I am still having some choppiness. It doesn't seem to be bad as before.