I've started using Plex + Rasplex for a week now and I can only say it is the most awesome thing ever!
Only problem is that there is a ethernet cable across my livingroom now. :)
I bought a 300mbps Wireless USB dongle which worked with rasplex out of the box but the wireless connection wasnt fast enough to support 720p streaming let alone 1080p.
Now I'm not sure if this is an issue with the wireless connection itsself (router - rasplex are only 2 meters away from each other and in the same room) or if it is a problem for the raspberry pi to decode WPA2 and stream at the same time.
I’m sure it would improve the situation, but you’d still have other limitations associated with WiFi, such as sensitivity to packet collisions with other WLANs nearby and interference from electrical equipment with signal overtones in the WiFi band. A wired connection is always more reliable than WiFi.
This makes it hard to say if that repeater would solve your problem entirely or not. Btw: Even if the dongle is supposed to handle 300 Mbps, there’s no chance of an RPi ever being able to even get close to that throughput.
Since you mention that there’s only a 2m distance from router to RasPlex, I’d definitely use Ethernet myself. (It’s what I do.) And perhaps you can use a longer cable so as to let it ‘hug the wall’ in getting there, so you can avoid cable across open floor.
I actually bought a cheap repeater out of curiosity and these are my results:
There were about 3 stutters (for about 3-5 seconds each) in a 3hour movie (1080p). So it's not a perfect solution, but for my needs it's definitely good enough!+
