purpose of coax/ethernet connected home adapter?

[waltah]

in my basement i have the main WAN/ISP router. the tech installed an ethernet/coax adapter that feeds from my router(ethernet) converts to coax and feeds directly into the directv splitter.

it this a make-shift netowrk connection for the HD34? i noticed the HD34 has an ethernet port itself, couldnt I just connect that to my LAN and remove the adapter down in the basement?

thanks in advance

summary: can I plug my hd34 directly into my lan switch rather than having the coax to ethernet adapter down in the basement.

 

[egnlsn]

The purpose of the DECA equipment is to make them some money. As you know, all it does is put the ethernet connection on coax. But, since it doesn't make them any money other than the monthly service fee, they won't support that type of setup.

Since your service is already active, though, you may very well be able to take the module out of the mix and use the LAN port. I just know that it's a major effort trying to get them to activate the service without DECA equipment installed

 

[waltah]

your post has me confused. what is the purpose of the ethernet/coax adapter? is it to download movies/apps/firmware updates or what?

there is going to be a monthly fee for me to use the adapter, i wasnt told that? and you are telling me that I in fact, do not need it? is the ethernet port on the receiver activated?

if i remove the deca, how will the hd34 connect to the client i have in another room?

 

[waltah]

is this link accurate?

http://techtips.salon.com/directv-deca-20690.html

 

[waltah]

nvm, answered my own quesiton here. looks like i cant remove deca since i have a WHDVR

http://forums.directv.com/pe/elementDisplayRedirect.jsp?elementID=10980385

 

[Lanarian]

Yes, you can remove the CCK (in the basement), and plug an ethernet cable directly into the HR34 (Genie). It's the only model of receiver that you can do that on and not lose whole home functionality.
That setup (connecting ethernet directly to the HR34) is not officially supported by DirecTV (No Idea why) and there is no charge for using the CCK.
The link you posted is mostly accurate.. DECA's can be used to connect the coax network to the internet but usually a CCK (Cinema Connection Kit) is used for that. the rest of it seemed pretty accurate.

 

[mr_tv]

I install Directv for a local retailer. I also install Dish. They both want connectivity for gain, but there is also some features they offer with this connectivity that makes your enjoying the DVR to be taken to another level. The connection of a CCK is free at the time of install. THe only charge you may experience is if you did order a PPV which would get reported via the CCK connection to the internet.

On Directv if you go to channel 1000 you will see a video on demand channel. Or if you put a 1 in front of any channel number you come to that channels video on demand channel. That is if that particular channel does have a VOD channel. Example syfy is on channel 244. If you enter channel 1244 you will be directed to Syfy channels VOD offerings. You can down load past episodes of stuff you may have missed on Discovery channel, History Channel, ect by using the video on demand features. You can also download the movies playing on HBO, SHO, and Starz if you subscribe to those channels. The CCK connectioin allows you to watch those channels movies on YOUR schedule instead of their schedule.

If you have an iPad or iPhone you can watch live tv via your home wifi on those devices using the Directv app. I can sit at my computer right now and watch a news program if I like while surfing the net. This is all due to the CCK being connected to your router.

I was also able to download VOD content of premiers of new series coming on a week before they came on the network channels. It was kind of cool actually to see these programs a week before they came on.

Yes, Directv does hope you order PPV via the CCK connection so they can make some extra cash but there is a lot more to it than that. Stuff that makes your ability to enjoy you Directv setup more fun to use.

If you do have an iPad or iPhone try out the watching live tv from any room in the house with it. Kind of fun and it may also allow you to have service in a room you wish you had service in without having to place a reciever in there at a monthly charge. If you have an Apple TV device you can airplay the content of your iPad onto the TV that the Apple TV is connected to. If the Apple TV is connected in a room there isn't a Directv receiver connected to you now have Directv in that room.

So the CCK does offer a lot other than make money for Directv. Yes they do hope for some extra income, but there is stuff to benefit you the customer.

 

[Neutron]

I'm about to do some rearranging of our living room and in the process I will be removing the CCK and plugging an ethernet cable directly from the HR34 to the wifi bridge. I want to eliminate some of the clutter as well as failure points between the dish and the Genie.

 

[waltah]

thanks for all the heads up folks. going to leave it connected, decied to clean up the coax and network cables though.

 

[george99]

Yes, you can remove the CCK (in the basement), and plug an ethernet cable directly into the HR34 (Genie). It's the only model of receiver that you can do that on and not lose whole home functionality.
That setup (connecting ethernet directly to the HR34) is not officially supported by DirecTV (No Idea why) and there is no charge for using the CCK.
The link you posted is mostly accurate.. DECA's can be used to connect the coax network to the internet but usually a CCK (Cinema Connection Kit) is used for that. the rest of it seemed pretty accurate.

This is not true.
I do NOT have DECA, and I have my HR21's connected directly to my router via cat5 cable. I more recently added an HR34 to the mix and whole home works fine too by connecting it directly to the router without DECA. It was a bit of a pain to get them to activate Whole Home Service since I don't have DECA. But thanks to a few good posts on this forum with instructions on how to get DTV's CSRs to activate it, they did. I have had it since day 1 and before when it was beta before they even came out with DECA.
My guess is the reason that they want you to use DECA is because that way they do not have to support everyone's router. DECA kind of creates it's own private LAN that allows the receivers to talk to each other without going thru the router. Only interaction with the router is to access data from the internet.

 

[egnlsn]

your post has me confused. what is the purpose of the ethernet/coax adapter? is it to download movies/apps/firmware updates or what?

there is going to be a monthly fee for me to use the adapter, i wasnt told that? and you are telling me that I in fact, do not need it? is the ethernet port on the receiver activated?

if i remove the deca, how will the hd34 connect to the client i have in another room?

I apologize that I left you confused. The monthly charge is for the Whole Home DVR service only. There is no monthly charge for the DECA unit in and of itself.

 

[egnlsn]

This is not true.
I do NOT have DECA, and I have my HR21's connected directly to my router via cat5 cable. I more recently added an HR34 to the mix and whole home works fine too by connecting it directly to the router without DECA. It was a bit of a pain to get them to activate Whole Home Service since I don't have DECA. But thanks to a few good posts on this forum with instructions on how to get DTV's CSRs to activate it, they did. I have had it since day 1 and before when it was beta before they even came out with DECA.
My guess is the reason that they want you to use DECA is because that way they do not have to support everyone's router. DECA kind of creates it's own private LAN that allows the receivers to talk to each other without going thru the router. Only interaction with the router is to access data from the internet.

And to enable you to control your receiver(s) with your tablet or smartphone, or schedule recordings remotely.

 

[ZandarKoad]

Another highly significant (to them) reason for the connection is to have a return path to them for data. Otherwise, they have no way of knowing where you are using your system. They can then verify via ip address that your system is in fact located at your accounts billing address (or at least, they can verify you are not account sharing to some degree).

They are also able to harvest viewing habits and other data which they can then sell to advertisers and provide more targeted advertisements to your TV. This is BIG bucks for them.

 

[BobStokesbary]

This is one of the most confusing and disturbing threads I have read recently. While most of the information is "correct" the way it is stitched together is very confusing and sometimes misleading. But, I find this throughout D*'s technology right now.

D* uses TCP/IP for their MRV. Some of the early adopters used their existing home networks to implement this by directly connecting their home network connections directly into the internet connections on their receivers. It works, but D* does not support this setup. D* wants to use their coax network to carry the signals so they developed a box that would transfer the signal from the internet connector on their receiver to their coax. Thus was born the DECA. Think of it as a pipe that just transfers data from a twisted pair to coax, nothing more.

By the time they developed the H/HR24 series they decided to incorporate the DECA converter into the receiver so you did not have to have an external box with a separate twisted pair wire to your receiver. Great idea. The technology for MRV was now baked into the receiver. But, this brought some problems with people who plugged their internet signal into the HR24 only to see their MRV disappear. So there had to be a way to connect their coax network to your router. This came in the form of their new "Cinema Connection Kit". Now, by having two signals on the coax you had all your satellite service, MRV and video on demand running through your D* coax.

Along comes the HR34 and guess what; they decided to bake the Cinema Connection Kit into this receiver. And it seems that at this point all heck broke loose with installers and forum members understanding of the now dozens of configurations that would work. I find that everyone knows what works for their environments without understanding the uniqueness of the poster's environment. And most of the posts in this thread display that confusion.

Yes, you can use an external DECA/CCK with a system that includes an HR34. But, you only want to do this if it is clearly the best solution for the installation. This poster appears to have an easy ethernet connection to his HR34 and wonders why he has a CCK in the basement. I wonder the same thing. Apparently the installer saw the router there and just decided it was the easiest way to install it. Most installers are don't have the time to ask a lot of questions and sort of assume the customer can't give them a good answer anyway so they are going to do what makes the most sense to them. So, if I were waltah, I would remove the CCK downstairs and just plug the internet cable directly into the HR34. If he has problems, he can always reinstall the CCK. There is just one caveat; he needs to replace the terminator on the splitter when he removes the connection. I suspect the installer took it with him so waltah needs to go to Home Depot and get some more.

Just my thoughts.

 

[mr_tv]

I wonder if the installer missed that he had a router next to the HR34 OR the installer did not know that he could connect directly to the HR34? I think the latter may be the case. As an installer for a retail store I don't have the benefit of directv the moment new equiptment comes out. I do watch online training but that training may come a few months after there is new procedures. When I did discover I could connect directly into an HR34 I was delighted. Prior to the HR34 plugging directly into the DVR ethernet port crashed the Whole Home feature. I try to keep up with training but as I said, sometimes my training comes a bit later than the in house installers.

 

[george99]

And to enable you to control your receiver(s) with your tablet or smartphone, or schedule recordings remotely.

You do NOT need DECA to control receivers with smartphone. Straight ethernet works. I use it.

 

[egnlsn]

You do NOT need DECA to control receivers with smartphone. Straight ethernet works. I use it.

No, you don't need DECA for those capabilities. I do it that way as well. My response was to the last line in a previous post (which I had quoted), which read "Only interaction with the router is to access data from the internet." I took that to mean VOD, YouTube, Pandora, and interactive apps.

 

[waltah]

This is one of the most confusing and disturbing threads I have read recently. While most of the information is "correct" the way it is stitched together is very confusing and sometimes misleading. But, I find this throughout D*'s technology right now.

D* uses TCP/IP for their MRV. Some of the early adopters used their existing home networks to implement this by directly connecting their home network connections directly into the internet connections on their receivers. It works, but D* does not support this setup. D* wants to use their coax network to carry the signals so they developed a box that would transfer the signal from the internet connector on their receiver to their coax. Thus was born the DECA. Think of it as a pipe that just transfers data from a twisted pair to coax, nothing more.

By the time they developed the H/HR24 series they decided to incorporate the DECA converter into the receiver so you did not have to have an external box with a separate twisted pair wire to your receiver. Great idea. The technology for MRV was now baked into the receiver. But, this brought some problems with people who plugged their internet signal into the HR24 only to see their MRV disappear. So there had to be a way to connect their coax network to your router. This came in the form of their new "Cinema Connection Kit". Now, by having two signals on the coax you had all your satellite service, MRV and video on demand running through your D* coax.

Along comes the HR34 and guess what; they decided to bake the Cinema Connection Kit into this receiver. And it seems that at this point all heck broke loose with installers and forum members understanding of the now dozens of configurations that would work. I find that everyone knows what works for their environments without understanding the uniqueness of the poster's environment. And most of the posts in this thread display that confusion.

Yes, you can use an external DECA/CCK with a system that includes an HR34. But, you only want to do this if it is clearly the best solution for the installation. This poster appears to have an easy ethernet connection to his HR34 and wonders why he has a CCK in the basement. I wonder the same thing. Apparently the installer saw the router there and just decided it was the easiest way to install it. Most installers are don't have the time to ask a lot of questions and sort of assume the customer can't give them a good answer anyway so they are going to do what makes the most sense to them. So, if I were waltah, I would remove the CCK downstairs and just plug the internet cable directly into the HR34. If he has problems, he can always reinstall the CCK. There is just one caveat; he needs to replace the terminator on the splitter when he removes the connection. I suspect the installer took it with him so waltah needs to go to Home Depot and get some more.

Just my thoughts.

Thank you so much, I need to get a terminator and give this a rip. the more I thought about my situation, the less sense it made to have the deca.

Ill report back later tonight

 

[cwahl]

everything in this thread is pretty much correct as has been mentioned but is stitched together to were it is pretty confusing, plugging ethernet directly into the ports will work but is not supported by directv, even if a router or port is available right next to receiver as a installer you are still suppose to use a BBDeca ( not saying a well informed cust browsing these forums couldnt unplug it and plug it in themselves after the installer leaves (this is for the HR34 and the unsupported version as mentioned here) ) but also most installers get paid extra for hooking up the BBDeca, if they would just plug the ethernet cable straight from the router to the HR34 they wouldnt be getting paid the extra for installing the BBDeca. Hope this sheds some light on why the BBDeca is there even when right next to a router

 

[waltah]

I have yet to run out and get a terminator for the splitter so I haven't done this yet. I'd rather not introduce noise with an open port on the splitter