The stronger the WiFi link, the better your results (no mystery there).
For recording, I depend on wired connections.
The WiFi idea can work in theory. My
personal experience has been that WiFi links are prone to frame loss which causes lost data. The result is, breakup of video when viewing either real time or recorded content. The HDHR uses
UDP, a connectionless protocol that presumes a reliable physical layer. Because WiFi is not all that reliable at getting 100% of the Ethernet frames through, UDP borne data is at risk of being dropped crossing the WiFi link. UDP is normally the protocol of choice when dealing with real time applications such as video or voice over IP because there's not time to retransmit lost data... the video and audio data just keep coming. UDP has no provision for detecting packet loss and so, has no means to retransmit lost data.
Still, I've thought about using WiFi in a rather off-beat fashion:
http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=1286 If the PVR/HTPC was located adjacent to the HDHR, I could expect to reliably download recorded content over a WiFi link because the remote PVR/HTPC to local PC connection would use
TCP (rather than UDP) which has the ability to detect packet loss and retransmit missing data.
But I'm guessing you don't want to put a PC in the attic. Running a few feet of CAT-5e or CAT-6 is a lot less expensive. Better yet, run RG-6 from the antenna to a accessible location where the HDHR can be mounted clear of the temperature extremes of the attic. I'm thinking... next to your router/Ethernet switch.
