gigabit ethernet gigabit ethernet on smart TV

[Mihai B.]

Hello,

Is there any way of installing an usb gigabit network adapter on a webos smart TV?  The builtin wired adapter is only 100mbps (on a 2000$+ TV, shame  on you LG!!!)  while the wifi (N) is very poor, with the router at 1m from TV it only gets half the bandwidth of the wired network. Anyway the wired network  maxes out near 100mbps but I need more bandwidth as I have 4k video content with bitrates grater than 100mbps which I cannot stream without stuttering to TV through XPLAY/PLEX. 

Kind regards,

[Mihai B.]

8 hours ago, George Hofmeister said:

A fair point, services like Netflix while streaming 4K do so at a lower bitrate.  A quick internet search shows this is a issue perceived by users with other manufacturers, not just LG, going back to at least 2011.

But, I wonder how many users are actually going to rip their Ultra HD Blu-rays to a Plex server, verses those who just put it in to their Ultra HD Blu-ray player?   The market share of users who run a full gigabit network, with a Plex server capable of ripping the disk (which could take days at full quality) then rendering it for streaming is, I imagine, going to be pretty small. 

Until larger bandwidths are required by the majority of users who stream media from the outside world, I doubt things are going to change be it on LG products or anyone elses.

I prefer to watch my video content from Plex Server + XPLAY (LG doesn't support 4k over DLNA, another stupid limitation) instead of Blu-ray player. I don't have a powerful computer to do transcoding, so when I buy a 4k blu-ray I simply remux it to mkv and add it to the Plex library - my files are very big, 50-60 GB per movie. Some of them have bitrate peaks which exceed 100mbps. My Plex box (linux) is capable of streaming higher bitrates, the TV itself is able to process these bitrates but is limited by the speed of the network adapter. The same movie would play without stuttering from USB3.0 (or even 2.0) external disk, but would stutter occasionally (>100mbps) when streamed from Plex library (using the same USB3.0 disk).

It would be very nice to have at least the option to install a gigabit dongle on the TV. I have already tried with Trendnet TU3-ETG but the TV won't recognize it. Maybe with a future firmware update it will be possible, who knows...

[amuk]

Just a heads up for people that use the LG built-in video player with DLNA servers. I find these servers play much more nicely with the TV after switching off "quick start+" in the General settings menu. With quick start off, all DLNA servers show up pretty much all of the time.

[Paulus]

On 4/21/2018 at 11:52 AM, George Hofmeister said:

Hi Mihai B,

A gigabit connection is not required for streaming 4K to a local device:

https://www.lgwebos.com/topic/3206-dvb-t-dvb-s-as-one-program-list/?tab=comments#comment-8935

Even if it required 100Mbps a properly set up network would handle it fine.

Depending on how much data you are slinging around the network, whether you have a managed/smart network hub, how you have your Plex server set up and many other factors can cause issues.

 

A proper lossless 4k/Atmos stream is 85 Mb/s - 128 Mb/s, which is 85 - 128mbps.

100mbps doesn't fit the bill, to stream 4k you need a 1gbps Ethernet connection.

 

I have already spoke to Samsung about this, even their latest and most expensive TV models only have a 100mbps connection yet they deliver 4k TV's, Atmos/DTS:X speaker sets.

They advised me to purchase their Samsung  UBD-M9500 or UBD-M9700 player to fix this problem because they should have a 1gbps, turns out even these players have a 100mbps connection.

Sony and LG are doing the same as Samsung.

 

Why sell 4k TV's and Atmos/DTS:X speaker sets without offering a product that can actually play the content without inserting a disc, now I have to start researching 3rd party products to be able to make use of these features.

[Razielgr]

9 minutes ago, Lingo56 said:

I ended up picking up this cable matters ethernet adapter (

link hidden, please login to view

) but it doesn't work properly on my 65C9PUA.

It connects and gets an internet connection, however it caps out at 100mbps just like the onboard lan.

Not sure if anyone has other recommendations for alternate adapters. I would prefer to not need to buy 4 or 5 of them to see what works.

Exactly my thought. That's why i bought an Android Tv Box. Will try the adapter on it, hopefully it will work(it should work).

[George Hofmeister]

23 hours ago, Mihai B. said:

 

Hello,

Is there any way of installing an usb gigabit network adapter on a webos smart TV?  The builtin wired adapter is only 100mbps (on a 2000$+ TV, shame  on you LG!!!)  while the wifi (N) is very poor, with the router at 1m from TV it only gets half the bandwidth of the wired network. Anyway the wired network  maxes out near 100mbps but I need more bandwidth as I have 4k video content with bitrates grater than 100mbps which I cannot stream without stuttering to TV through XPLAY/PLEX. 

Kind regards,

Hi Mihai B,

A gigabit connection is not required for streaming 4K to a local device:

https://www.lgwebos.com/topic/3206-dvb-t-dvb-s-as-one-program-list/?tab=comments#comment-8935

Even if it required 100Mbps a properly set up network would handle it fine.

Depending on how much data you are slinging around the network, whether you have a managed/smart network hub, how you have your Plex server set up and many other factors can cause issues.

 

[schneidernet]

4K only needs 25mbs. Works fine on my C7.

[George Hofmeister]

57 minutes ago, schneidernet said:

4K only needs 25mbs. Works fine on my C7.

That sounds about right, Amazon 4K HDR steams quite happily over WiFi on my network.  I do not have any 4K content on Plex to test how well that works.

[Morten Vinding Svendsen]

1 hour ago, George Hofmeister said:

That sounds about right, Amazon 4K HDR steams quite happily over WiFi on my network.  I do not have any 4K content on Plex to test how well that works.

But he is talking abort streaming local content, it is not unlikely to be much higher bandwidth:

look at the blue ray standard: 

link hidden, please login to view

I LOVE my OLED and WebOS, but I do agree a 100Mbps connection is outdated on a 4K high end TV.

 

[Jasim Peringattuthodi]

On 4/20/2018 at 2:18 PM, Mihai B. said:

 

Hello,

Is there any way of installing an usb gigabit network adapter on a webos smart TV?  The builtin wired adapter is only 100mbps (on a 2000$+ TV, shame  on you LG!!!)  while the wifi (N) is very poor, with the router at 1m from TV it only gets half the bandwidth of the wired network. Anyway the wired network  maxes out near 100mbps but I need more bandwidth as I have 4k video content with bitrates grater than 100mbps which I cannot stream without stuttering to TV through XPLAY/PLEX. 

Kind regards,

Hi

for streaming from internet doesn't need a Gigabit Ethernet card

But to play locally 4K content especially in highly  frame rate , Gigabit connection is recommended

Many of the LG smart tv models coming with a PCMCIA slot and i think you can add a gigabit PCMCIA card (if your Tv support card) or 4G cellular card on that port ( not tested)

link hidden, please login to view

[George Hofmeister]

11 hours ago, Morten Vinding Svendsen said:

But he is talking abort streaming local content, it is not unlikely to be much higher bandwidth:

look at the blue ray standard: 

link hidden, please login to view

I LOVE my OLED and WebOS, but I do agree a 100Mbps connection is outdated on a 4K high end TV.

A fair point, services like Netflix while streaming 4K do so at a lower bitrate.  A quick internet search shows this is a issue perceived by users with other manufacturers, not just LG, going back to at least 2011.

But, I wonder how many users are actually going to rip their Ultra HD Blu-rays to a Plex server, verses those who just put it in to their Ultra HD Blu-ray player?   The market share of users who run a full gigabit network, with a Plex server capable of ripping the disk (which could take days at full quality) then rendering it for streaming is, I imagine, going to be pretty small. 

Until larger bandwidths are required by the majority of users who stream media from the outside world, I doubt things are going to change be it on LG products or anyone elses.

[Morten Vinding Svendsen]

28 minutes ago, George Hofmeister said:

A fair point, services like Netflix while streaming 4K do so at a lower bitrate.  A quick internet search shows this is a issue perceived by users with other manufacturers, not just LG, going back to at least 2011.

But, I wonder how many users are actually going to rip their Ultra HD Blu-rays to a Plex server, verses those who just put it in to their Ultra HD Blu-ray player?   The market share of users who run a full gigabit network, with a Plex server capable of ripping the disk (which could take days at full quality) then rendering it for streaming is, I imagine, going to be pretty small. 

Until larger bandwidths are required by the majority of users who stream media from the outside world, I doubt things are going to change be it on LG products or anyone elses.

Absolutely agree.

The market for people streaming local content at higher bandwidth than 100Mbps is very slim, and if you deducts the pirates I believe it approximates zero.

So LG probably decided to skip gigabit in the believing that those watching high bandwidth content would do so using blue ray.

 

But the original question about USB2 Ethernet dongles is interesting. USB2 at 400Mbps would be more than enough, and we have all seen devices with “secret” drivers. Like for instance the Chromecast with USB2ethernet support.

I unfortunately only have a 100Mbps usb dongle and a thunderbolt. But if anybody has a gigabit USB dongle please try it out and report back.

[schneidernet]

Depends too on many other bloodsuckers are on one's network.

[Filip J]

On 4/22/2018 at 8:53 AM, Jasim Peringattuthodi said:

Hi

for streaming from internet doesn't need a Gigabit Ethernet card

But to play locally 4K content especially in highly  frame rate , Gigabit connection is recommended

Many of the LG smart tv models coming with a PCMCIA slot and i think you can add a gigabit PCMCIA card (if your Tv support card) or 4G cellular card on that port ( not tested)

link hidden, please login to view

Not working on my C8... I bought a different card but still TV detect nothing... Someone tryed usb 3.0 gigabit adapter ?

[schneidernet]

How about an USB gigabit adapter?  I added a four port USB hub to my C7 to make it easier to access the port for firmware updates and to add a Logitech Unifying Receiver for a keyboard.  Amazon has many.  a link to one attached:

link hidden, please login to view

[Filip J]

32 minutes ago, schneidernet said:

How about an USB gigabit adapter?  I added a four port USB hub to my C7 to make it easier to access the port for firmware updates and to add a Logitech Unifying Receiver for a keyboard.  Amazon has many.  a link to one attached:

link hidden, please login to view

The adapters are supported on lg os ?

[George Hofmeister]

3 hours ago, Filip J said:

The adapters are supported on lg os ?

To be honest I've no idea if they are supported, but the USB ports are only 2.0 and as such would not be fast enough to support Gigabit networking.

[Mihai B.]

Well, I have finally managed to increase the network throughput to at least 150 Mbps, which is fair enough for my initial problem - 4k video content with bitrates grater than 100 Mbps. My good old wireless router (DIR-600) had behaved very weird in the last weeks - the internet speed on my computer was very slow, only half the bandwidth I receive from my ISP. So I decided to buy a new dual band router (Archer-C5 V4) and now the computer receives full internet speed, and surprisingly the TV (only wifi N) connects to the 5 Ghz network at speeds > 100 Mbps. 

Now the move in case (American Made) plays very smooth without any stuttering - max bitrate measured with speedometer on the Plex linux box was 15 Mb/s, or ~ 120 Mbps. Another movie with peaks > 100 Mbps is Life of Pi, especially the scene with thousands of moving meerkats on the island.

 

[Ken Kurgas]

MP4 4K files stream better than an MKV file. But I play mine through an Android box. I use a Tanix TX 92. It comes with a gigabit connection and plugs directly into the TV via HDMI.

[Mihai B.]

On 12/8/2018 at 9:50 PM, Ken Kurgas said:

MP4 4K files stream better than an MKV file. But I play mine through an Android box. I use a Tanix TX 92. It comes with a gigabit connection and plugs directly into the TV via HDMI.

Hello,

What player do you use on this Android box? Does it support HDR? 

Regards,

[KM Lee]

Hi,

I wanted to let you know that I visited this site due to the same question. I successfully connected the usb 1gpbs ethernet that another member linked in below links that is sold from Amazon.

 

[lguser]

Hello KM Lee,

Does it replaces the built in ethernet adapter settings in menus or you have an additional settings for the usb adapter ?

Did you check the actual bitrate, 200 Mbit/s would be sufficient ?

Please tell us your TV model and full WebOS version, available in "About this TV" menu for LG TVs.

Even lg c9 oled is limited to 100 Mbit/s so if a gigabit adapter is supported it is a good news.

Please confirm that you talk about an usb adapter and not the pcmcia netgear GA511 adapter.

If it is really an usb adapter you use, please give us the exact model,  version, chipset if available.

Is it this one ? : "Cable Matters USB to Ethernet Adapter"

link hidden, please login to view

You don't need to use an powered usb switch to give the adapter more power than what TV usb port can give ?

I tried an usb gigabit adapter in the lg c8 usb port, leds on it are not turning on, the adapter isn't supported and gives me an "unknown device disconnected" message when I plug out the adapter. The chipset in it is an "ASIX AX88179"

Thanks for answers

[KM Lee]

Let me give you more details.

0. My TV is LG 65C7P

1. I was able to connect to a router and it gets an ip address, gateway ip and everything from dhcp. I can go into the router and verify the ip address of the added lan card. It also appears in my media server app.

2. The TV will not show anything about this network card. In the settings, it says both wireless and wired lan is disconnected. However, the Netflix is running with the lan card. Pretty strange feeling.

3. My environment is Windows 10 running on a 24/7 server with Mezzmo as the media server. I was able to stream the highest bitrate 2160p remux + DTS-MA without drops. With network monitoring tool, the streaming is reaching 160mbps peak and 110mbps average during the media being played. This same media file was dropping once in every 5 seconds when connected to internal 100mbps alone and once in every 15 seconds with the 5Ghz wireless connection. I can sense that browsing the media server directories are crazy fast.

4. I am using this model: 

link hidden, please login to view

5. Just plugged it on the side of the TV that has the blue colored USB port which is USB 1. No any additional power supply was used.

6. Another strange observation is that, it is still working even after it shows "unknown device connected." 

 

 

[lguser]

Thanks for those infos.

1. It means no possibility to set manual settings, it has to be done from dhcp server if needed.

2. The OS automatically initializes a connection when usb adapter is recognized and the menus settings are only for the built in adapters : wireless and wired.

3. You only had ethernet cable to the usb adapter when you did get those 160 Mbit peaks right ? No ethernet cable plugged in the built-in ethernet port?
I personally use a rpi 3b+ with librelec, the minidlna add-on and the LG built in video player

old 4. and 7. It seems that mezzmo client needs the built-in ethernet to discover the mezzmo server and that smb part is handled by the OS.

It would be interesting to know if the TV also uses the usb adaptor connection for built in video player with dlna and is as easy to handle as netflix, only one ethernet cable plugged in the LAN usb adapter.

6. Ok so you get dhcp connection even though "unknown device connected." appears, right ?
It made me try again with an ethernet cable plugged in usb ethernet adapter, still no led, only the "unknown device connected." message.

I gonna need this cable matters adapter if built-in video player with dlna is as easy as netflix concerning connectivity because dlna doesn't seem to have this multichannel functionality.

[KM Lee]

3. That is correct this transfer rate is possible with only the usb network card.

I am using the TV built-in video player and Mezzmo lists the files to TV. Somehow the usb only setting makes the media server disappear after some time. I have wifi+usb setting now and this will allow the wifi to scan the local network and stream the video with usb network card. I turned-off the TV for more than 10 minutes and turned it on again to make this setting work successfully for three times continuously now.

 

[lguser]

I though mezzmo was a server / client solution with mezzmo software running on the TV in addition to the server software.

It looks like mezzmo is just the dlna server part like minidlna is.

I think there is no samba use anywhere in your setup, it is dlna only.

You use the LG built-in dlna browser and play files with the LG built-in video player like I do.

So, if you don't want to use wifi :
Have built-in ethernet and usb adapter ethernet cable plugged on ethernet switch to be able to browse the dlna server file list any time.
Use built-in ethernet connection alone and plug the usb adapter only when playing media files with high bitrates with peaks superior to 100Mbit/s.

Any of theses solutions are better than having to use an ntfs formatted HDD plugged on usb port with media files
knowing ext4 is not supported on TV even though it runs linux

For information, the chipset in the usb adapter is apparently a Realtek/RTL8153

Thanks again for having shared your experience

[Lubomir Ivanov]

On 12/7/2018 at 11:33 AM, Mihai B. said:

Well, I have finally managed to increase the network throughput to at least 150 Mbps, which is fair enough for my initial problem - 4k video content with bitrates grater than 100 Mbps. My good old wireless router (DIR-600) had behaved very weird in the last weeks - the internet speed on my computer was very slow, only half the bandwidth I receive from my ISP. So I decided to buy a new dual band router (Archer-C5 V4) and now the computer receives full internet speed, and surprisingly the TV (only wifi N) connects to the 5 Ghz network at speeds > 100 Mbps. 

Now the move in case (American Made) plays very smooth without any stuttering - max bitrate measured with speedometer on the Plex linux box was 15 Mb/s, or ~ 120 Mbps. Another movie with peaks > 100 Mbps is Life of Pi, especially the scene with thousands of moving meerkats on the island.

 

To be honest, I tried Plex server on my Windows PC (not very powerful but it plays any movie I tried and it's rendering on the chromecast via VLC player).

I removed Plex and just shared the folder with the movies, also I enabled media streaming on order to watch movies on any device.

I use this as it's the simplest method I've found yet, and It's working great for 4-5 months now. I will try with better quality and higher bitrate movie.

I haven't checked how much speed it needs but have played lots of movies without stutter, even tried simultaneous play on 1 TV, 1 ChromeCast, 1 laptop and one phone... I wonder how I didn't fry the router.

[Mejriou]

Guys,

is it possible to use subtitles within your solution?

[Mejriou]

@KM Lee Did you run some internet speed test to see the difference?

[Lubomir Ivanov]

On 6/26/2019 at 5:18 PM, Mejriou said:

Guys,

is it possible to use subtitles within your solution?

No, for subtitles you need PC with HDMI to play the movie on the TV or external HDD, or use Plex... As it turns out, LG makes the dumbest "smart" TVs.  😕

[PeterV]

On 4/20/2018 at 12:18 PM, Mihai B. said:

Hello,

Is there any way of installing an usb gigabit network adapter on a webos smart TV?  The builtin wired adapter is only 100mbps (on a 2000$+ TV, shame  on you LG!!!)  while the wifi (N) is very poor, with the router at 1m from TV it only gets half the bandwidth of the wired network. Anyway the wired network  maxes out near 100mbps but I need more bandwidth as I have 4k video content with bitrates grater than 100mbps which I cannot stream without stuttering to TV through XPLAY/PLEX. 

Kind regards,

Plex has a Transcoder. Maybe you can use that to get the bitrates down.

I use the native PLEX app. I don't know if that makes any difference.