# Roamio Setup with MoCA for OTA



## MoCAnewbie (Jul 21, 2014)

I'm currently in a house in LA, on TWC both internet and cable. The house is on a hill line of sight to the main transmitters on Mt. Wilson and my goal is to go OTA + streaming video off the internet. 

The present set up is complicated. The cable enters the home in the basement and is split there (POE filter upstream of the split). The cable then runs under the house to the living room and also a back bedroom used as an office. The cable modem is in the office. There are TVs in both office and living room. 

There is Wi-Fi network run off an Airport Extreme in the office. There is no Ethernet cabling and it would be VERY difficult to run it. My idea is to use MoCA over the existing cable, but I don't know how to set it up. For one thing, the cable modem is in the office, but I wanted the Roamio in the living room, with a Mini in the office. Also, my idea was to put an indoor antenna in the living room (although I suppose it could go in the office if that would work). Reception OTA is not a problem.

I'm assuming I would need two MoCA adapters, but I'm confused about how and where to combine the antenna signal with the MoCA signal. I was assuming I'd need a diplexer of some kind? If so, what MHz would I use? Or could the MoCA adapter sit between the antenna and a Mini in the office and create the network that way? (The modem is in the office and the Roamio would go in the living room.) At this point, I have to say, I'm confused.

Thanks in advance for any help.


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## socrplyr (Jul 19, 2006)

If you are going to use an indoor antenna this is pretty easy. You don't want to combine the moca and antenna cables at all. I presume that you would be keeping TWC for internet.
Connect the Roamio directly to the antenna via the Coax port.
Connect the Roamio to a Living Room Moca Adapter via the Ethernet port.
Connect the Living Room Moca Adapter to the Coax cable that the TWC service comes in on.
In the office, split the cable that the TWC service comes in on.
Connect the Office Moca Adapter to the router via the Ethernet Port.
Connect the Office Moca Adapter via Coax to the splitter.
Connect the cable modem to the cable via the other side of the split.
Connect the Mini to the router via the Ethernet port. (If you have a limited number of ethernet ports, you can use an Ethernet switch or do a 3-way Coax split and hook the Mini up via it Coax port instead, since it has built in Moca.)


Make sure the splitter in the basement has a POE filter on the TWC side (before the split).
Make sure your cable modem has built in Moca rejection (might be able to use a POE filter to fix it if it doesn't).

I did this setup with the fewest number of changes possible. If you are willing to run more Coax, I would consider changing the network layout, but it isn't necessary.

Reminder, your Roamio must be the base model (the 4 tuner one without built in moca). I am just saying this as a reminder.


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## socrplyr (Jul 19, 2006)

If you are willing to run the Mini in the Living Room instead, you don't need a second Moca Adapter.


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## MoCAnewbie (Jul 21, 2014)

Thanks for the reply. This all seems clear enough. Three questions:

(1) What kind of splitter (i.e. MHz) would I use to split the cable signal?
(2) Between a 3-way coax splitter and an Ethernet switch, is one better than the other in terms of signal quality?
(2) You say the cable modem should have built-in MoCA rejection. The modem TWC uses (and I would use) is an ARRIS / Motorola SurfBoard SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0. Do you know if this satisifies the requirement?

Thanks again.



socrplyr said:


> If you are going to use an indoor antenna this is pretty easy. You don't want to combine the moca and antenna cables at all. I presume that you would be keeping TWC for internet.
> Connect the Roamio directly to the antenna via the Coax port.
> Connect the Roamio to a Living Room Moca Adapter via the Ethernet port.
> Connect the Living Room Moca Adapter to the Coax cable that the TWC service comes in on.
> ...


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## MoCAnewbie (Jul 21, 2014)

One more question. I read somewhere that an RF signal amplifier can interfere with MoCA. I assume that wouldn't be the case with an antenna amplifier in the setup you suggested, since the antenna signal never gets diplexed with MoCA.

Is that a correct assumption?


socrplyr said:


> If you are going to use an indoor antenna this is pretty easy. You don't want to combine the moca and antenna cables at all. I presume that you would be keeping TWC for internet.
> Connect the Roamio directly to the antenna via the Coax port.
> Connect the Roamio to a Living Room Moca Adapter via the thernet port.
> Connect the Living Room Moca Adapter to the Coax cable that the TWC service comes in on.
> ...


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## socrplyr (Jul 19, 2006)

MoCAnewbie said:


> Thanks for the reply. This all seems clear enough. Three questions:
> 
> (1) What kind of splitter (i.e. MHz) would I use to split the cable signal?
> (2) Between a 3-way coax splitter and an Ethernet switch, is one better than the other in terms of signal quality?
> ...


1) Moca is above 1GHz, but passes well enough through most 1GHz (1000MHz) splitters. I can't provide too much more info in that realm. Generally, the signal is very strong (in cable terms), thus why the Moca protection is needed on modems and the like.
2) Ethernet would be the preferred method for me if ports are available. If a port isn't available, it would be a toss up between the extra cables, power plug, device, and cost. In this case, with such a simple setup and so few splits it wouldn't make much difference performance wise. If you do use the 3-way split, just make sure to put the cable modem on the -3.5dB one and the two Moca devices on the -7dB ones.
3) Yes the SB6141 has Moca rejection. Just a quick search turned up the link below and it lists it as Moca Interference Rejection.
http://www.motorola.com/on/demandwa...41-data-sheet-2.pdf?version=1,336,493,276,000


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## socrplyr (Jul 19, 2006)

MoCAnewbie said:


> One more question. I read somewhere that an RF signal amplifier can interfere with MoCA. I assume that wouldn't be the case with an antenna amplifier in the setup you suggested, since the antenna signal never gets diplexed with MoCA.
> 
> Is that a correct assumption?


That is correct, it would have no impact.


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