Anyone use MoCA?

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PiERiT

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I just bought some Motorola MoCA adapters to get Ethernet to my Nvidia Shield TV, since both WiFi and powerline adapters are insufficient to drive 4K game streaming. Got it hooked up and streaming works much better, but then my AVR started losing its HDMI signal from the Shield TV at random. I messed around with some cables and it stopped and I went to bed, but using it today, it was losing its signal every 10-15 seconds. I unplugged the MoCA adapter and it stopped. Plug the adapter back in and it started again. So I'm certain that is it.

Anyone have any suggestions? This never happened when using a powerline adapter, so I know it's not the Ethernet port on the Shield TV. I swapped out the HDMI cable and the Ethernet cable, no change. Put some ferrite cores on the ends of both cables, no change. Shield TV and AVR are already plugged into a UPS with line conditioning. The only thing that consistently fixes it is simply not using the MoCA adapter.
 
My DISH Hopper uses MOCA to go out to the remote stations, no issues there.

How close is the adapter to the Shield? Could be RF, and if you use a longer CAT5 it would move it out of the way?

Could also try a ferrite core around the coax.
 
Brian_B said:
My DISH Hopper uses MOCA to go out to the remote stations, no issues there.

How close is the adapter to the Shield? Could be RF, and if you use a longer CAT5 it would move it out of the way?

Could also try a ferrite core around the coax.
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They're pretty close together. I'll try moving them apart.

Already tried ferrite cores, also have the coax line going into and coming out of a surge protector. No dice.

Edit: No luck moving them apart either. Held the Shield TV way up in the air next to nothing and it still happens. I'm going to try a different coax port and then try replacing the splitter in my attic, but if neither of those work, I guess I'm returning these things and streaming 1080p games instead. :(
 
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PiERiT said:
I'm not sure where that is, I'll look around. Do you think it's something I'd have access to? Or would it be locked by the ISP?
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Assuming you're in a house, it would be a (likely gray) box on the outside near the electric meter and such. Though it's been a while since I dealt with any of this stuff, I believe the correct way it should be grounded is a fairly heavy gauge solid core wire should be coming off the coax splitter and into a multi ground neutral or clamped onto a ground rod.

Odds are it won't be locked, at most a zip tie.
 
inbedwithhomer said:
Assuming you're in a house, it would be a (likely gray) box on the outside near the electric meter and such. Though it's been a while since I dealt with any of this stuff, I believe the correct way it should be grounded is a fairly heavy gauge solid core wire should be coming off the coax splitter and into a multi ground neutral or clamped onto a ground rod.

Odds are it won't be locked, at most a zip tie.
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OK. It's raining right now, but I'll check it out later. Thanks.

Meantime I tried a different coax port and different splitter, and swapped the two adapters around, no luck with any of that.
 
Dumb fix but I'll take it: I put a 4-port gig switch in between the MoCA adapter and the Shield. That must be absorbing whatever the coax is doing and not passing it along to the Shield.
 
Also make sure you have terminators on all open ports on any cable splitters. (F Type 75 Ohm)
Pretty sure you know that you need to have a filter to ensure you aren't leaking your network to the outside as well.
 
Taldren said:
Also make sure you have terminators on all open ports on any cable splitters. (F Type 75 Ohm)
Pretty sure you know that you need to have a filter to ensure you aren't leaking your network to the outside as well.
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Good call. I had a PoE filter installed but took it off in prep of returning the adapters, when I had mostly given up. I'll go reinstall it.
 
PiERiT said:
Dumb fix but I'll take it: I put a 4-port gig switch in between the MoCA adapter and the Shield. That must be absorbing whatever the coax is doing and not passing it along to the Shield.
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Balls. Thought for sure this did it but it started happening again after an hour.

New plan: move my modem and router to be near my Shield and use MoCA for my desktop instead.

Edit: That worked. All it cost me was $125 for the adapters and half my Saturday. :(
 
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Nope, wrong again. It stopped happening every 10-15 seconds, but it still happens whenever my AC turns on or I use my fridge's water dispenser or my stove or oven or plug something into a wall outlet. So the same behavior as when I put the switch in between the MoCA adapter and the Shield, basically. It only stops completely if I unplug the Ethernet or don't use MoCA whatsoever (presumably), but I need it on either this end or my computer's end.

I have a CAT6a cable arriving Friday, hoping that does something to help. Otherwise it may just not be in the cards for me. Maybe I'll drill some holes in my ceiling and run a long Ethernet cable instead of using MoCA.
 
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FWIW I use netgear powerline adapters around the house for sonos speakers and for some TVs- never had a problem with streaming 4K content or uncompressed audio.
 
marshac said:
FWIW I use netgear powerline adapters around the house for sonos speakers and for some TVs- never had a problem with streaming 4K content or uncompressed audio.
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That's what I was using prior to this. It worked fine for 4K videos, but 4K game streaming from my computer to the Shield TV, not so much.

Anyways, that CAT6a cable didn't do anything (go figure), but a new "EMI resistant" HDMI cable fixed it. I dunno what makes this one EMI resistant compared to the other six I tried, but I'll take it.
 
PiERiT said:
That's what I was using prior to this. It worked fine for 4K videos, but 4K game streaming from my computer to the Shield TV, not so much.

Anyways, that CAT6a cable didn't do anything (go figure), but a new "EMI resistant" HDMI cable fixed it. I dunno what makes this one EMI resistant compared to the other six I tried, but I'll take it.
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How long was the run? I have a 50’ HDMI run in my house and I had to throw in a signal amp for 4K/HDT/Atmos content to work correctly
 
marshac said:
How long was the run? I have a 50’ HDMI run in my house and I had to throw in a signal amp for 4K/HDT/Atmos content to work correctly
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Less than 10ft.

This working cable, when plugged in, has no exposed metal on the HDMI plug. Every other cable I tried did. Maybe that's it?
 
PiERiT said:
Less than 10ft.

This working cable, when plugged in, has no exposed metal on the HDMI plug. Every other cable I tried did. Maybe that's it?
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Are you sure that all non-connected splitter ports and unconnected cables are properly terminated?
 
Taldren said:
Are you sure that all non-connected splitter ports and unconnected cables are properly terminated?
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As far as I can see, yes. There's a coax cable in my attic -- I don't know where it comes from but the end of it in my attic goes into a 2-way splitter that splits off to my network closet and to my living room, which are the two spots the MoCA adapters are connected.

Everything is good with this new HDMI cable, so I'm probably not going to worry about it unless it crops up again.
 
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