Cost Comparison between EoP versus Wifi

Background/ Requirements
I have moved home recently. There are two TV sets connected to a Western Digital Live Media Player and XBMC respectively. Both requires wired Ethernet connection to a Netgear wireless router located in a separate room, in order to access the internet:

The TV connected to XBMC is sitting in a different room. I am reusing the previously built solution DD-WRT Wifi client http://homeopensource.blogspot.com/2010/03/converting-wifi-adapter-into-80211g.html

This setup has proven to be quite reliable, although its throughput is only around 5Mbps. For example, copying a 1.36GB file (DVD) from my laptop to the XBMC takes around 37minutes.

While this is ample bandwidth for Standard Definition video streaming (and of course internet radio stations ~128kbps), the video quality degrades significantly when, say, I am using my laptop to access the internet. 

I would like to calculate the cost of setting up internet connection for the WD Media Player, connected to the second TV through HDMI. It is intended to stream High-Def contents so the bandwidth required will be higher than 11g. Also, I would prefer my YouTube videos being unaffected by wireless internet connection.

Wireless Connection (G/N Dual-Band)

Initially, I considered using g/n dual-band setup with the Access Point supporting both G and N clients simultaneously. A forum post indicates this setup works quite well (http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1226195) and should be able to support up to 80Mbps throughput - more than sufficient for HD streaming. There is only the additional cost of purchasing a 11n client with a Ethernet port, but unfortunately, they are hard to come by. As most of the commercially available wireless routers' firmware only allows the device to be configured as an Access Point, if I were to go for a wireless router, then it must support DD-WRT.

Ethernet over Power (EoP) 

This device essentially transmits data signal across the residential circuit using a different frequency band to that of electrical, in another words it acts bit like a frequency modulator. Its operation is straightforward, there is no software driver nor any configuration required, simply plug-and-play. I have managed to find an extensive review on TP-Link TL-PA201 EoP adapters (http://www.tp-link.com/products/productDetails.asp?pmodel=TL-PA201), along with its throughput performance http://www.vitocassisi.com/archives/790/6, which is quite similar to that of 802.11n.

Price Point
I searched www.msy.com.au, and found a DLink DIR-600 WirelessN router selling for $50.00, whereas the TP-Link TL-PA201 EoP adapter pair is selling for $109.00 - roughly $60.00 difference. The wireless solution is still significantly cheaper than the EoP adapter pair.


Conclusion

This analysis is rather preliminary in terms of its application (streaming video to TV). Consider when additional users require internet access. Most importantly, the smartphones definitely cannot benefit from a pure Network over Power setup. In another words, NoP effectively hinders internet mobility. This means a wireless router is needed nonetheless. Whereas in a pure wireless environment, we would see a degrade in performance as the number of devices grow, which is bad news for bandwidth sensitive IPTV applications.  

In summary, EoP shows lots of potential (e.g. ease of use, high-throughput, operates independently to wireless internet and no new wires across home required), but it is the pricing and limited application at this stage, that hinders its popularity. In fact, I see these two technologies complimenting each other more than one is better than the other.

Note: 

For those who are interested, please take a look at the FAQ for EoP on Netgear's website, it contains lots of good information including the recommended (maximum) number of EoP adapters, expected throughput etc...