MoCA report #1

[douglasfresh]

I was asked to provide some feedback regarding my MoCA networking setup. For those unfamiliar MoCA is multimedia over coax which basically uses coax cable similar to how powerline networking operates. You have an adapter on each end that turns your existing coax cabling into networking cable. Unlike powerline networking there is much less noise and even though the "theoretical" speeds are not as high on the box the actual speeds are much better.

So I have been using the streaming for one day with moca networking over 10/100 networking (I have a gigabit router which I will install sometime this weekend) and I have to say....it works basically flawlessly. There was almost no noticeable control lag and the picture looked fantastic. I think MoCA is a great alternative for people who cannot wire their house up with cat5 and want to do in home streaming.

After I set up my gigabit router I will post again if there was any improvmeent.

[ShockwaveNN]

I'm sorry, but why this thread is pinned? I don't think it's so much importand information for everyone/

[MDuh]

The price of HDMI extenders through coax is a joke. Sure Cat5/Cat6 are susceptible to noise but at least it is much more affordable.

[douglasfresh]

MDuh -- MoCA runs ethernet through coax not HDMI.

I don't know that straight Cat5 cable is all that susceptible to noise. Powerline networking (running ethernet over power cabling) is VERY VERY susceptible to noise -- to the point where you are lucky to have slightly better performance than wifi in my experience. If you are able to run cat6 cable through your home I would definetely recommend that over any of the other options because it is dirt cheap and you will have amazing speeds. For those of us whom cabling our places isn't possible though I think MoCA is a much better option than homeplug or wifi.

MoCA is only a tiny bit more expensive than homeplug (powerline networking) but it is much much better.

They just recently released MoCA 2.0 standard but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anyone manufacturing adapters yet. Even MoCA 1.2 adapters are pretty hard to come by the only ones I know of are from Actiontec.

[blackout24]

Originally posted by sog:

MDuh -- MoCA runs ethernet through coax not HDMI.

I don't know that straight Cat5 cable is all that susceptible to noise. Powerline networking (running ethernet over power cabling) is VERY VERY susceptible to noise -- to the point where you are lucky to have slightly better performance than wifi in my experience. If you are able to run cat6 cable through your home I would definetely recommend that over any of the other options because it is dirt cheap and you will have amazing speeds. For those of us whom cabling our places isn't possible though I think MoCA is a much better option than homeplug or wifi.

MoCA is only a tiny bit more expensive than homeplug (powerline networking) but it is much much better.

They just recently released MoCA 2.0 standard but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anyone manufacturing adapters yet. Even MoCA 1.2 adapters are pretty hard to come by the only ones I know of are from Actiontec.

How fast is MoCA? I can get 500 Mbps Homeplug AV 2 Adapters and they work very good. The net bandwidth is about 200-300 Mbps if you have good wiring and don't plug them right next to your TV and refrigerator.

[j0rge]

Thanks for posting this, I was about to run some cable but it was going to get expensive, I have powerline AV right now but it's not performing as well as I'd like. If streaming doesn't work well for me over powerline I'll give this a shot!

For those interested:

http://www.mocalliance.org/MoCA_2/

EDIT: They have something called "wake on moca" which is like wake-on-lan, if I can keep my "server" box and the moca controllers asleep until the streaming client asks for it, that would be pretty awesome.

[[LUC] Braahl]

Nice, I'm using a ZyXEL PLA-4205 500Mbps myself, been very satisfied with this option but maybe I'll look into this also.

[xXBeefyDjXx]

Originally posted by ShockwaveNN:

I'm sorry, but why this thread is pinned? I don't think it's so much importand information for everyone/

its valuable information, thats why...

[Tuskin]

What a coinicidence I bought a MoCA setup recently, great to know. I'm using Actiontec

[Ramitin Mahashol]

While I haven't received a beta invite yet, I would concur that MoCa should perform well. I've used it in the past when Powerline adapaters wouldn't work in my house. I would be able to pull 8-12MB/sec, which I'm assuming would be enough to stream most games. Some people may be able to pull faster.

I've since then ran full gigabit CAT6 throughout my whole house, and I would highly recommend it for anyone that is able to. It's a pain to fish wires through walls sometimes, but well worth it in the end. I can transfer files to/from my server at 90MB/sec with a cheap 16 port gig switch.

[TheKurrgan]

For MCOA it is going to be important that you check that your splitters are High Frequency ones. The Spec for this goes all the way up to 1.6ghz, old low frequency splitters are going to limit the rate it can get or introduce interference resulting in poorer performance. Most houses with a coax system uses some sort of a splitter, check it out. Also if your cable company runs you through a leveled multi-output amp or uses a tap on the side of your house for some reason, this can cause leveling problems or stop it from working at all close to what it should.
This particular technology is really quite suitable for this type of thing, but the MCoA Alliance and manufacturers would have you believe its plug and play. It may work to SOME level just plugging it in and using it, but there are tons of factors involved in this one. Also, Comcast whole home DVR will wreck this (when a remote TV is streaming anyway), don't know about anyone else's.

[Place]

I was using ethernet over coax in the 90's like everybody else. What would the difference be now except the obvious (speed 100 instead of 10)??

[Mr. Lahey]

Is it possible to do a MoCA setup ONLY for this purpose? So instead of using my apartments installed cable lines (they're junk), could I just run a coax cable from where my host machine and router/modem is, and then to the living room TV where my SteamBox would be and then just add an adapter to each end?

I've heard of the power-line Ethernet, but I've never heard of MoCA before. I'd like to have as close to a flawless experience as possible @ 1080P/60FPS.

OP, what kind of latency are you seeing with various settings (bandwidth/FPS lock/Resolution/etc)?

[douglasfresh]

Originally posted by DrSTEVIL ~RD~:

Is it possible to do a MoCA setup ONLY for this purpose? So instead of using my apartments installed cable lines (they're junk), could I just run a coax cable from where my host machine and router/modem is, and then to the living room TV where my SteamBox would be and then just add an adapter to each end?

I've heard of the power-line Ethernet, but I've never heard of MoCA before. I'd like to have as close to a flawless experience as possible @ 1080P/60FPS.

OP, what kind of latency are you seeing with various settings (bandwidth/FPS lock/Resolution/etc)?

Yes you could but if you're running coax cable it would be just as easy to run cat6 which would be better performance wise and way cheaper.

I will try to report some stats this weekend.

[blaklabz]

Any results for Moca? I'm super curious.