Choosing between MoCa and OTA tv?

[Dan1717]

Hi, I recently installed a home theater in my basement, the modem is upstairs and no way to run Ethernet without destroying all sorts of things. I have cable internet through a dedicated coaxial line, and for tv I use an OTA hd antenna connected to the rest of the houses' coaxial line, including in this room that I installed the home theater. I'm currently using that line for OTA tv for my projector. Looking to hardwire my receiver in that room to the internet, so considering MoCA. If I'm understanding correctly, if I wanted to use MoCA in the theater room I'd have to split the dedicated cable internet line to run to that room also, and I'd lose OTA tv in that room, is that right? Thanks

 

[degrub]

yes, you can use a HDHomerun type device (antenna/receiver/dlna out across ethernet) on the segment from the antenna to pass the TV digitally if the TV can do DLNA. Then use MOCA to bridge the ethernet.

 

[Dan1717]

yes, you can use a HDHomerun type device (antenna/receiver/dlna out across ethernet) on the segment from the antenna to pass the TV digitally if the TV can do DLNA. Then use MOCA to bridge the ethernet.

Thanks for the reply, I had not considered a hd home run type device. Would you recommend this over doing something like a powerline?

 

[degrub]

Here is what i was talking about -
https://www.silicondust.com/

It replaces the tuner in your TV and streams the broadcast across the network just like any other streamed movie.

you still need the ethernet from the box to the TV to use it. The TV has to have an ethernet port or an additional DLNA device with analog/digital output to the TV.

The ethernet network can be implemented with powerline (iffy or low speed depending on power implementation in house- but may be adequate) or MOCA. What type of coax cable is in the house - RG-59 or RG-6 ?

 

[Dan1717]

Ok thanks, good information. It's rg-6 cable

 

[Dan1717]

Also, the power is grounded and I don't have whole house surge protection which supposedly a good thing not to have with powerline?

 

[degrub]

So i have heard. i have whole house lightning arrest and surge protection and have not seen an issue with my netgear AV500 pair. Powerline works best as one pair in the power system from what i can tell. Adding a 3rd would knock the network down for me (pre surge arrest system) to unusable. Those are older std devices. i stopped exploring once i started on MOCA2.

Powerline really depends on the condition of your house wiring and the connections. You may have to tighten terminations. Arc fault breakers are another potential issue i have heard of for newer houses and installations.

MOCA 2 works with RG-6 so you would be able to use the actiontec 6200 bonded pair modems if you want to go moca and need bandwidth. Point to point is simple, but you can also have multi-drop with MOCA2 compatible bidirectional splitters. The coax port for TV on the modem is designed for cable company level and frequency signals, not OTA antenna level and frequency signals

MOCA2 seems pretty reasonable and with really good bandwidth for the bonded modems. i run a star based system off of a gigabit switch with three MOCA2 runs and all are at close to wireline speed.

 

[Dan1717]

Thanks for the info degrub. I decided it wouldn't hurt anything to head to Walmart and grab a net gear powerline 1000 just to see how speeds compare and believe it or not they are pretty darn close to the Ethernet speeds upstairs, within about 10-15% slower than the wired connection depending on the speed test website. Ends up about 4-5x faster than wireless downstairs. Even though it's not as good as running cable, going to go with it for now and see how it works out, until I have a need for higher speeds down there. If it ends up not being reliable or has issues I'll probably try out what you described with moca2. Thanks again!

 

[degrub]

Here is a good reference
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/w...werline-adapter-tested-with-20-outlets.27762/

 

[Dan1717]

Thanks, interesting! I didn't try multiple outlets, just the one next to the receiver, looks like it might vary quite a bit if I did. If I were to go the moca with that ota tv route option that you were mentioning, do you know about what the cost would be? I know if would vary depending on equiptment, but if were to get decent quality but not necessarily the highest end stuff

 

[tannebil]

Hi, I recently installed a home theater in my basement, the modem is upstairs and no way to run Ethernet without destroying all sorts of things. I have cable internet through a dedicated coaxial line, and for tv I use an OTA hd antenna connected to the rest of the houses' coaxial line, including in this room that I installed the home theater. I'm currently using that line for OTA tv for my projector. Looking to hardwire my receiver in that room to the internet, so considering MoCA. If I'm understanding correctly, if I wanted to use MoCA in the theater room I'd have to split the dedicated cable internet line to run to that room also, and I'd lose OTA tv in that room, is that right? Thanks

MoCA uses part of the frequency range on a coax for the data network. MoCA and OTA can use the same coax line simultaneously.

It’s not clear how your coax is wired (the “dedicated” line vs the rest of your cable) but as long as a coax drop in the room with the modem is connected to a coax drop in the home theater room (splitters are fine), MoCA should work. You’ll need to make sure all splitters in the cable path are rated at at least 5-2000Mhz and that a MoCA POE is installed on the incoming line.

A pair of MoCA 2.0 bonded adapters will run you about $160. That gives roughly the same performance as running GB Ethernet over twisted pair (the latency is higher but throughput is about the same).

Powerline won’t be as fast but it should be fast enough for streaming video. But it’s not a sure thing as power lines are dirty and circuit breakers can introduce other variables. Just make sure you get the latest gen gear and you buy from somebody with a good return policy (which applies to MOCA gear as well). If it works, it can be easier depending on the condition of your coax plant. There can be a lot of weird stuff in old coax plants (hidden splitters, poor connectors and cables).

 

[Dan1717]

MoCA uses part of the frequency range on a coax for the data network. MoCA and OTA can use the same coax line simultaneously.

It’s not clear how your coax is wired (the “dedicated” line vs the rest of your cable) but as long as a coax drop in the room with the modem is connected to a coax drop in the home theater room (splitters are fine), MoCA should work. You’ll need to make sure all splitters in the cable path are rated at at least 5-2000Mhz and that a MoCA POE is installed on the incoming line.

A pair of MoCA 2.0 bonded adapters will run you about $160. That gives roughly the same performance as running GB Ethernet over twisted pair (the latency is higher but throughput is about the same).

Powerline won’t be as fast but it should be fast enough for streaming video. But it’s not a sure thing as power lines are dirty and circuit breakers can introduce other variables. Just make sure you get the latest gen gear and you buy from somebody with a good return policy (which applies to MOCA gear as well). If it works, it can be easier depending on the condition of your coax plant. There can be a lot of weird stuff in old coax plants (hidden splitters, poor connectors and cables).

Not sure if this picture helps with how it's wired - basically have the cable internet line coming in from street connected to a single coax line in basement that runs upstairs to modem and adapter. Then have an ota antenna in attic that runs through upstairs into basement where it's split to the other coax outlets in the house, with exception of the one that is dedicated to the cable internet line from the street. Does that help?

 

[tannebil]

Does one of the TV coax lines end in the room with the modem/router? If so, you just attach a MoCA bridge there, plug Ethernet from the bridge into the router, attach another MoCA bridge in your media room, plug the bridge Ethernet into a switch, and you are in business. At least, once you make sure your splitters are MoCA compatible and you've installed a POE filter where the cable comes in from the cable company,

 

[Dan1717]

Yes, on the other side of the room

 

[Dan1717]

Does one of the TV coax lines end in the room with the modem/router? If so, you just attach a MoCA bridge there, plug Ethernet from the bridge into the router, attach another MoCA bridge in your media room, plug the bridge Ethernet into a switch, and you are in business. At least, once you make sure your splitters are MoCA compatible and you've installed a POE filter where the cable comes in from the cable company,

Ok thanks for the help!

 

[Fyodor]

Late to the game here, but can't he just use a diplexer to inject the MoCA since they run on different frequencies? Plug a diplexer into the port that currently receives the HD antenna, plug the "TV" or lower frequencies port into the antenna, plug a cable running into the MoCA adapter into the "SAT" or higher frequencies. Then at the basement there's another splitter or diplexer to feed into your TV and downstairs MoCA adapter.

The HDHomerun is great, but if all you want is to continue watching live TV downstairs, there are cheaper/easier options, unless I am misunderstanding your setup.

 

[rayik]

Hi, I recently installed a home theater in my basement, the modem is upstairs and no way to run Ethernet without destroying all sorts of things. I have cable internet through a dedicated coaxial line, and for tv I use an OTA hd antenna connected to the rest of the houses' coaxial line, including in this room that I installed the home theater. I'm currently using that line for OTA tv for my projector. Looking to hardwire my receiver in that room to the internet, so considering MoCA. If I'm understanding correctly, if I wanted to use MoCA in the theater room I'd have to split the dedicated cable internet line to run to that room also, and I'd lose OTA tv in that room, is that right? Thanks

I have MOCA with OTA setup. I use the same coaxial line for both. In each room, I use a 2 way splitter where it comes out of the wall. One split goes to the TV, the other to the MOCA adapter. Both OTA and internet work fine with no problems.