# OTA MoCA Problem



## nelsontj (Mar 12, 2015)

Hey folks,

I am experiencing a weird issue with my set up. Currently my OTA antenna and TWC internet come in to the same box on the side of my house. It then splits in to 5 legs, one to each room in the house. I have a Roamio Basic and a Mini. The issue I am having is when I put the antenna on to the splitter I lose three of my OTA channels, NBC, FOX and ION, freqs above 20 Mghz. I am assuming that there is frequency overlap with the TWC internet service. I have isolated the antenna and all is fine with good reception so I know the signal is good. I really don't want to get a TV subscription and a cable card. I have MoCA adapters and have them set up and are working fine also. My question is how do I work around this issue? The only thing I can think of right now is to run a separate antenna coax to the Roamio and then use the existing leg in the room with a MoCA adapter. Am I missing something? Thanks in advance!

Tim


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

nelsontj said:


> Hey folks,
> 
> I am experiencing a weird issue with my set up. Currently my OTA antenna and TWC internet come in to the same box on the side of my house. It then splits in to 5 legs, one to each room in the house. I have a Roamio Basic and a Mini. The issue I am having is when I put the antenna on to the splitter I lose three of my OTA channels, NBC, FOX and ION, freqs above 20 Mghz. I am assuming that there is frequency overlap with the TWC internet service. I have isolated the antenna and all is fine with good reception so I know the signal is good. I really don't want to get a TV subscription and a cable card. I have MoCA adapters and have them set up and are working fine also. My question is how do I work around this issue? The only thing I can think of right now is to run a separate antenna coax to the Roamio and then use the existing leg in the room with a MoCA adapter. Am I missing something? Thanks in advance!
> 
> Tim


You might call TWC and ask them to put a trap on your internet feed to block the lower channels. I believe ch 2 - 13 are the same for cable and OTA, but don't quote me. The lowest frequency is 54MHz, so that is a typo with the 20 MHz, or did I read it wrong?


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## nelsontj (Mar 12, 2015)

RF Channels are 32,34 and 47.


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

Hi Tim,
I have a suspicion that you may be getting interference from those MoCA adapters. For a quick troubleshooting step, just temporarily cut off the power to the adapters and see if your missing channels come back.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

The only place the TWC feed needs to go is into your cable modem. I'm not sure why you would distribute the cable signal around your house.


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## nelsontj (Mar 12, 2015)

Arcady said:


> The only place the TWC feed needs to go is into your cable modem. I'm not sure why you would distribute the cable signal around your house.


I need MoCA for my Basic unit to talk to my mini.


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## nelsontj (Mar 12, 2015)

fcfc2 said:


> Hi Tim,
> I have a suspicion that you may be getting interference from those MoCA adapters. For a quick troubleshooting step, just temporarily cut off the power to the adapters and see if your missing channels come back.


Nope, I have isolated the MoCA's also and still have the same issue. I am pretty sure it is a TWC frequency overlap in my area.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

Yeah, but the cable coming from TWC has nothing to do with MoCA. You should have a TWC cable that plugs into your cable modem. Then you have a line that comes from your antenna and splits off to the MoCA adapter and the other rooms. The two systems do not need to talk to each other. The link between internet and your MoCA adapters is the ethernet line between MoCA and the router.


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## Diana Collins (Aug 21, 2002)

nelsontj said:


> I need MoCA for my Basic unit to talk to my mini.


That requires coax, but the TWC signal doesn't need to be on it. The simplest solution is what JoeKustra suggests: have TWC put a trap on the line to block the lower frequencies. Alternatively, you could run a separate coax to the cable modem and reserve your existing coax for OTA and MOCA.

One way or another you need to get the cable signal that is in the OTA frequencies off the coax that runs to the DVR.


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## nelsontj (Mar 12, 2015)

Arcady said:


> Yeah, but the cable coming from TWC has nothing to do with MoCA. You should have a TWC cable that plugs into your cable modem. Then you have a line that comes from your antenna and splits off to the MoCA adapter and the other rooms. The two systems do not need to talk to each other. The link between internet and your MoCA adapters is the ethernet line between MoCA and the router.


Correct, but I need to put the MoCA on the same line as the TWC internet. Where my modem and router are located, I only have one coax line, the TWC; that is the only place I can put my modem and router. My Roamio Basic unit is in another room.


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## nelsontj (Mar 12, 2015)

Diana Collins said:


> That requires coax, but the TWC signal doesn't need to be on it. The simplest solution is what JoeKustra suggests: have TWC put a trap on the line to block the lower frequencies. Alternatively, you could run a separate coax to the cable modem and reserve your existing coax for OTA and MOCA.
> 
> One way or another you need to get the cable signal that is in the OTA frequencies off the coax that runs to the DVR.


Correct, I need to separate the signals, either separate TWC or OTA. Since my antenna is closer than my modem to my Roamio, I will probably run a separate antenna line to it, then use the existing TWC in the house to send the MoCA signal across.


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## Diana Collins (Aug 21, 2002)

You could try a DirecTV Band Stop filter. The DECA version of MOCA that DirecTV uses operates in the OTA band (as opposed to above the highest cable TV frequency), so they sometimes need to filter this band from their older equipment. It might be worth $7 or so to see if this saves having to run another wire. It available from Solid Signal for $6.99 plus tax and shipping: http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=BSFR01&ss=488104


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

nelsontj said:


> Correct, but I need to put the MoCA on the same line as the TWC internet. Where my modem and router are located, I only have one coax line, the TWC; that is the only place I can put my modem and router. My Roamio Basic unit is in another room.


Okay now I understand. I thought you had TWC and antenna coming into the same room.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Hey Tim, try this. Call TWC and thank them for the free TV, mention you're are going to post on FB that they are really nice, and that you are going to tell all your friends.

You should see a trap installed in a few hours.


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## nelsontj (Mar 12, 2015)

Update for everyone,

First off thanks for all of the quick replies! Fortunately I have a three foot crawl space under my house, so access to running a new line is not a big issue as long as I don't run in to any big creepy crawlies! I ran a dedicated OTA coax to the Roamio, then hooked up the MoCA to the rest of the pre-installed lines and everything is working!

I was hoping for a different solution but in my case, this will work.

Thanks again for all of the help and suggestions!


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## nelsontj (Mar 12, 2015)

JoeKustra said:


> Hey Tim, try this. Call TWC and thank them for the free TV, mention you're are going to post on FB that they are really nice, and that you are going to tell all your friends.
> 
> You should see a trap installed in a few hours.


Yeah, if the Roamio would cooperate and set up a guide for the QAM, that would have been great! LOL


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## sarantube (Jan 21, 2015)

I am looking for similar help. I have a Roamio OTA and use TWC. Each has it's own coax line. At no point are they shared. My OTA signal is distributed throughout the house to five different locations. My OTA signal is very strong and I pick up all Los Angeles OTA stations. The Roamio OTA DVR is located near the downstairs Family Room TV. The TWC internet cable is located upstairs and is connected directly to a Modem/Router combo. When I signed up for Tivo, I purchased two MoCa adapters but could not get them connect a MoCa network. I called Tivo and they told me that the TWC and OTA cable must be on the same coax and I should consider using a combiner. I have not tried this as I have no easy way to get the OTA coax to run upstairs to the modem/router. My goal is to add a mini to the master bedroom TV. Any help would be appreciated.


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## nelsontj (Mar 12, 2015)

sarantube said:


> I am looking for similar help. I have a Roamio OTA and use TWC. Each has it's own coax line. At no point are they shared. My OTA signal is distributed throughout the house to five different locations. My OTA signal is very strong and I pick up all Los Angeles OTA stations. The Roamio OTA DVR is located near the downstairs Family Room TV. The TWC internet cable is located upstairs and is connected directly to a Modem/Router combo. When I signed up for Tivo, I purchased two MoCa adapters but could not get them connect a MoCa network. I called Tivo and they told me that the TWC and OTA cable must be on the same coax and I should consider using a combiner. I have not tried this as I have no easy way to get the OTA coax to run upstairs to the modem/router. My goal is to add a mini to the master bedroom TV. Any help would be appreciated.


Sounds like a similar situation to mine. The best solution for me was to have both the TWC and OTA on separate coax in the same location as the TiVo. Plug the OTA coax in to the Roamio and the TWC coax in to a MoCA adapter and an ethernet cable between both. Where your cable modem is, plug the TWC coax in to the "IN" on the MoCA adapter. Use the small coax line in the kit and connect the coax "out" on the MoCA to the cable modem. Then plug the ethernet cable in to a spot on the router and the other end to the MoCA adapter.

Configure your TiVo for ethernet and the Mini the same and then they should start talking as long as your TWC router coax, Tivo coax and Mini coax are all joined together somewhere with splitters.


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## telemark (Nov 12, 2013)

sarantube said:


> I am looking for similar help. I have a Roamio OTA and use TWC. Each has it's own coax line. At no point are they shared.


This is one of the best setups.



> I called Tivo and they told me that the TWC and OTA cable must be on the same coax and I should consider using a combiner.


This is one of the worst setups, and could break what you already have working. Some people are lucky and it works anyway though.

It's possible to use a diplexer to run MoCA on a shared video signal line. It's hard to make a exact suggestion though, without knowing what cabling is already in the "target" room, and the "source" room.


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## sarantube (Jan 21, 2015)

Source room: Ota coax connected to outdoor antenna. TiVo Ota is wirelessly connected to home network.

Target room: Ota coax connected to outdoor antenna. I want to add a mini to this tv. It currently receives Ota reception directly from the outdoor antenna

Neither source or target room have hard wire Ethernet connections. TWC Internet is connected to the modem/router in my upstairs office. TiVo Ota is wirelessly connected to this network. I also use a wifi extender in the living room for better TiVo Ota signal strength

Hope this helps paint the picture of my setup.


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## telemark (Nov 12, 2013)

Yes helps some.

You have two outdoor antennas? 
Is there any extra Coax where the Cablemodem is?


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## sarantube (Jan 21, 2015)

there is one outdoor antenna. The house was wired for satellite prior to installing the antenna. I just used the existing wiring that is distributed throughout the house.


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## sarantube (Jan 21, 2015)

what do you mean by "extra coax"? There is a few extra feet available to move the cable modem, but not much. There are two other ethernet connections in the house, but neither is near the Tivo OTA


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## telemark (Nov 12, 2013)

The MoCA part is easy. You connect one to the Antenna line in each room.
That gets a Mini working via MoCA.

I'm not sure the basic Roamio can be on Wifi and Ethernet at the same time.
If not, you need some kind of Wifi-Ethernet bridge where the Roamio is.



sarantube said:


> what do you mean by "extra coax"? There is a few extra feet available to move the cable modem, but not much. There are two other ethernet connections in the house, but neither is near the Tivo OTA


Extra coax line, not being used. Especially in the room where the cable modem is, but leading to the antenna.

An alternative is, if the rooms with Ethernet connections also have an extra coax connection.


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## Diana Collins (Aug 21, 2002)

telemark said:


> The MoCA part is easy. You connect one to the Antenna line in each room.
> That gets a Mini working via MoCA.
> 
> I'm not sure the basic Roamio can be on Wifi and Ethernet at the same time.
> *If not, you need some kind of Wifi-Ethernet bridge where the Roamio is...*


Or, just use Ethernet and an external MOCA adapter...just split the coax going to the TiVo.

Also, you should put a POE filter between the antenna and the first splitter, otherwise you are broadcasting your MOCA through your antenna. It is unlikely to cause any actual problems, but could be a security hole and better to be safe than sorry. (Of course, at the frequency that MOCA uses, an OTA antenna is very inefficient, so I don't know what kind of range it would have.)


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

New idea: wireless MoCA! 

Edit: This was only meant as a joke, regarding the post above. This is not an actual idea for the OP to try.


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## nelsontj (Mar 12, 2015)

telemark said:


> This is one of the best setups.
> 
> This is one of the worst setups, and could break what you already have working. Some people are lucky and it works anyway though.
> 
> It's possible to use a diplexer to run MoCA on a shared video signal line. It's hard to make a exact suggestion though, without knowing what cabling is already in the "target" room, and the "source" room.


Yeah, in my situation it kind of worked. Something was drowning out my higher UHF signals. I couldn't get an OTA channel above 20-21.


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## nelsontj (Mar 12, 2015)

telemark said:


> The MoCA part is easy. You connect one to the Antenna line in each room.
> That gets a Mini working via MoCA.
> 
> I'm not sure the basic Roamio can be on Wifi and Ethernet at the same time.
> ...


Not so easy if you only have one coax line per room as most homes do. The MoCA didn't interfere with my OTA signal, the TWC internet or QAM did. That is why I separated my coax and ran a separate line. The Basic Roamio will only do either wifi or ethernet, it won't do both. I wish the Basic Roamio was MoCA ready!


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