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The Devolo dLAN 500 AVtriple+ kit consists of two 500Mbit/s HomePlug adaptors, which are quick enough to stream high definition video over your home network’s cabling.
The 500AVtriple+ is different to most powerline adapter kits, though, in that one adaptor has a single Gigabit Ethernet connector and the other has three. This means you can attach the single-plug HomePlug adaptor to your router, media PC or NAS drive and the triple-port HomePlug adaptor to your smart TV, Blu-ray player and Sky HD box, for example, without having to buy an Ethernet switch.
The plugs’ casing protrudes around 3in downwards from the socket, which means you might have problems plugging them in to sockets above skirting boards or desks. The plugs do have pass-through plug sockets, however, so you can use them without taking up a plug socket. This is handy if you’re using them to deliver data to your home cinema or media centre setup.
Setup is straightforward. You plug the devices into a mains socket, wait for them to power on and then press the encryption buttons on each device to secure the network. Once the devices have detected each other and are secured, you can unplug them and place them wherever you like. As long as they’re within range, they’ll connect to each other automatically.
The dLAN 500AVtriple+ kit performed adequately in our network speed tests, providing data transfer rates of 139.8Mbit/s plugged in next to each other, 53.6Mbit/s five metres apart and 27Mbit/s when 10 metres apart. The speed at 10 metres’ range doesn’t compare well to some of the latest wireless routers, but HomePlug performance is dependent on your electrical cabling, which means you may get better or worse performance depending on the state of your home’s wiring and the amount of electrical interference. Our lab is full of powered-on electrical equipment, so is really a worst-case scenario for HomePlug testing.
At 10 metres, we could watch a 720p video on one laptop while listening to music on the other, but we did have slight trouble streaming two 720p videos to two laptops simultaneously. One laptop played smooth video, but the other dropped frames. The adaptors will be quick enough to stream video from a NAS to a smart TV in the home over this distance, though.
The dLAN 500 AVtriple+ has comparable transfer speeds to other 500Mbit/s HomePlug kits we’ve seen, and its three Ethernet ports are certainly useful to help cut down on clutter. The kit is around £50 more expensive than a pair of Solwise NET-PL-500AV-PIGGY plugs, so Solwise’s plugs are better value if you only need one Ethernet plug at the end of your HomePlug connection.
