Question about the "Connection" setting within Media Device Settings

Hello,

In my never-ending quest to optimize my wireless connection, I was wondering what the differences were for all the "Connection" options available for each Media Device. Your help file indicates that: "This setting is important since Mezzmo uses it fine tune the delivery of media files so that they do not stutter or have problems when streaming on your home network".

I'm currently running a 300 Mbps wireless network, and on Mezzmo I've normally been selecting the option "Wireless N (600 Mbps)" for my WD TV Live, which is connected to a Belkin F5D8053 USB Adapter. However, I'm starting to discover that if I just leave the Connection option at the default "Gigabit Ethernet Cable (1 Gbps)" setting, performance appears to improve, and when my WD TV Live is initially powered-on, it seems to detect Mezzmo faster.

I need more time to thoroughly test the above theory, but in the meantime I was just wondering about the details regarding these "Connection" options. Does Mezzmo throttle down the maximum bitrate it sends over the network, depending on what option is selected? Do the "Wireless" options add further restrictions, such as telling Mezzmo to reduce the frequency of announcing itself over the network, which might explain why I sometimes have to wait 5+ minutes for it to appear on my WD Live?

Lastly, as part of the process of elimination, I've had my WD Live connected through a wired connection (which requires me to haul out my PC & router into the living room), and the WD always finds Mezzmo within 5 seconds of being powered-on.

Thanks,
Visor

Hello,

My general recommendation is not to change the connection setting, unless you're running wireless B/G or a Homeplug 85 or less. For the rest of the world, leaving connection at Gigabit will work just fine. Lowering the connection speed will ultimately lower the maximum bitrate and will require more CPU and time to transcode files, so yes, leaving it as default will improve performance when compared to a non-default setting.

Announcing the server on the network is separate to that - you can't control that aspect, since it done to the UPnP specs.