Can I connect all of my TV boxes to Ethernet instead of coax?

[slackerUH]

I am looking for a way to connect all of my cable or satellite boxes through my home network. I know this will work perfectly fine with a Tivo setup but I'm hoping to spare the upfront cost of buying all of the Tivo equipment. My current cable TV provider, COX , will only allow me to connect 4 ethernet/wifi cable boxes to my main receiver. I can have up to 6 if I use the coax boxes for the last 2. This is just a billing restriction not technical. Since COX won't work with me on this I am considering DISH or DirecTV.

I am currently using MoCA 2.5 adapters from Gocoax to bridge the network in my home. These are faster than the standard MoCA 2.0 devices that are more widely available.


Here is my home network configuration. Will this work? (The formatting doesn't look correct but the 3 rooms each have a Joey, Access Point, and Smart TV connected to the Ethernet Switch)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Network Closet
Hopper3 -> Ethernet Switch (Also connected to COX Internet Router) -> MoCA 2.5 Adapter -> Coax Splitter

Living Room
Coax Splitter -> MoCa 2.5 Adapter -> Ethernet Switch -> 4K Joey
-> Ruckus Access Point
-> Smart TV

Master Bedroom
Coax Splitter -> MoCa 2.5 Adapter -> Ethernet Switch -> 4K Joey
-> Ruckus Access Point
-> Smart TV

Upstairs Living Room
Coax Splitter -> MoCa 2.5 Adapter -> Ethernet Switch -> 4K Joey
-> Ruckus Access Point
-> Smart TV
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is also a 4th and 5th Joey. One will be connected directly to the Ethernet switch near the hopper and the other will need to be connected wireless to the hopper.

If this won't work, I would appreciate suggestions for other TV services that will work with only network connections. At another home I have a Tivo Bolt VOX which has 6 tuners and connects to 7 tivo mini boxes in the house. I don't see any reason why this scenario shouldn't work with DirecTV or DISH but information on the Internet seems to be conflicting.

 

[Foxbat]

I’m not sure what current software allows, but soon after I got our Hopper 3 and Joey 4K I played around with using our home Gigabit Ethernet for its connection. It worked, but I went back to using the coax as I want to free up the Ethernet port.

 

[slackerUH]

Thanks for the response. It appeared that my post was deleted at first so I retyped the whole thing up and created another post here

Can I connect a Hopper 3 to multiple Joeys through my home Ethernet network?

I am looking to replace my current cable service from COX because they will only allow me to connect 4 ethernet/wifi boxes to my Panoramic Device. If I want more devices connected they require me to use coax. This is a billing issue not technical but they can't seem to work it out for me. In...

www.satelliteguys.us

It sounds like my scenario should work out fine so I'm going to give it a try.

 

[kshaw]

I’m not sure what current software allows, but soon after I got our Hopper 3 and Joey 4K I played around with using our home Gigabit Ethernet for its connection. It worked, but I went back to using the coax as I want to free up the Ethernet port.

At a second home with a Hopper 3 setup, we have a Dishnet Moca adapter at one of the Joeys. I plugged a DLink switch into that and can have two or three ethernet devices hooked up to that. The Hopper has two ethernet jacks on the rear and I have a Wireless Access Point on one of the jacks and another DLink switch attached to the other ethernet jack. It works well.

 

[ncted]

I am looking for a way to connect all of my cable or satellite boxes through my home network. I know this will work perfectly fine with a Tivo setup but I'm hoping to spare the upfront cost of buying all of the Tivo equipment. My current cable TV provider, COX , will only allow me to connect 4 ethernet/wifi cable boxes to my main receiver. I can have up to 6 if I use the coax boxes for the last 2. This is just a billing restriction not technical. Since COX won't work with me on this I am considering DISH or DirecTV.

I am currently using MoCA 2.5 adapters from Gocoax to bridge the network in my home. These are faster than the standard MoCA 2.0 devices that are more widely available.


Here is my home network configuration. Will this work? (The formatting doesn't look correct but the 3 rooms each have a Joey, Access Point, and Smart TV connected to the Ethernet Switch)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Network Closet
Hopper3 -> Ethernet Switch (Also connected to COX Internet Router) -> MoCA 2.5 Adapter -> Coax Splitter

Living Room
Coax Splitter -> MoCa 2.5 Adapter -> Ethernet Switch -> 4K Joey
-> Ruckus Access Point
-> Smart TV

Master Bedroom
Coax Splitter -> MoCa 2.5 Adapter -> Ethernet Switch -> 4K Joey
-> Ruckus Access Point
-> Smart TV

Upstairs Living Room
Coax Splitter -> MoCa 2.5 Adapter -> Ethernet Switch -> 4K Joey
-> Ruckus Access Point
-> Smart TV
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is also a 4th and 5th Joey. One will be connected directly to the Ethernet switch near the hopper and the other will need to be connected wireless to the hopper.

If this won't work, I would appreciate suggestions for other TV services that will work with only network connections. At another home I have a Tivo Bolt VOX which has 6 tuners and connects to 7 tivo mini boxes in the house. I don't see any reason why this scenario shouldn't work with DirecTV or DISH but information on the Internet seems to be conflicting.

I have used ethernet to connect both Joey 1 and Joey 2 boxes. If you are getting decently low latency on your MoCA adapters, it should work fine. FF/RW Not quite as snappy as Tivo, but I speculate that is a MPEG2 vs. MPEG4 thing. I never had an MPEG4 signal on Tivo to compare. With Dish, we tended to use 30-second skip more than FF/RW while Tivo was the opposite.

Not sure why you wouldn't connect your Hopper directly to a TV though. I'd be curious to find out.

 

[TheKrell]

I have used ethernet to connect both Joey 1 and Joey 2 boxes.

And I have a Joey 3 solely on GigE in one bedroom, and I see no performance hit compared to the Joey 3 still on MoCA.

 

[bookworm370]

And I have a Joey 3 solely on GigE in one bedroom, and I see no performance hit compared to the Joey 3 still on MoCA.

Going to re-cable and test this out. Very cool, means I can move a Joey from room to room and still get my channels.

 

[TheKrell]

Going to re-cable and test this out. Very cool, means I can move a Joey from room to room and still get my channels.

Now when I first took a J3 off MoCA and solely connected it via the net, I had to reset something in the network before it worked. Forget what exactly that was. But after resetting, it did not complain ever again. Perhaps that was an old firmware version that did that to me.

 

[slackerUH]

I have used ethernet to connect both Joey 1 and Joey 2 boxes. If you are getting decently low latency on your MoCA adapters, it should work fine. FF/RW Not quite as snappy as Tivo, but I speculate that is a MPEG2 vs. MPEG4 thing. I never had an MPEG4 signal on Tivo to compare. With Dish, we tended to use 30-second skip more than FF/RW while Tivo was the opposite.

Not sure why you wouldn't connect your Hopper directly to a TV though. I'd be curious to find out.

I will actually be connecting the hopper directly to a TV through an AVR in my main rack. I was originally thinking it would be similar to the COX Panoramic device which contains the tuners but requires a client device to connect the TV.