Advice on setting up a new coaxial/MoCA network

[mrg]

My current setup is a living room (ground floor) HTPC with a Home Server in the first floor study directly above. I have a Linksys WRT610N connected to the Home Server but even on 5GHz 802.11n there is insufficient speed for streaming 1080p movies. I didn't bother trying powerline as the rooms are definitely on different circuit breakers.

Now all the coaxial TV points in the house are on separate cables from a single booster/splitter box in the attic connected to the roof aerial. What are my options in terms of creating a coaxial network for streaming HD?

Can I directly connect the coaxial cables from the study and living room and use some sort of RJ-45-coaxial jack adaptor? I don't mind losing the TV signal on the network connection as the living room as another aerial point I can use. Or do I need to invest in one of the various MoCA systems akin to powerline networking? What sort of speeds should I expect?

Cheers

 

[thiggins]

5GHz band will have lower range than 2.4, so try that if you already haven't.

Powerline technology has not required devices to be on the same circuit for a couple of generations.

MoCA should work and quite well if you have no splitters between the two adapters. Just use a male-male barrel adapter to connect the two coax runs. You will also need RG6 coax, not RG58, which is too lossy.

You should get around 70 Mbps, which is plenty for HD streaming. See:

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanw...tgear-moca-coax-ethernet-adapter-kit-reviewed

 

[mrg]

Thanks very much for the quick reply. I've tried both 2.4 and 5Ghz bands and both suffer from stuttering.

I don't fully understand the issue as simply transferring the .mkv or BDMV folders from HTPC to server (8-9.5 MB/s) is accomplished well within the running time of the film so the raw data transfer rate should be more than sufficient. Windows tells me that both 2.4 and 5ghz bands are operating at ~88Mbps. I'm sure if there was some mechanism for buffering the stream it would work ok.

With regard to powerline my reading of your review of the Belkin Gigabit adaptors was that real world performance dropped off severely when on different ring mains? If I'm mistaken on this point I'll give them a shot as the kit is a lot cheaper than coaxial.

Cheers

 

[thiggins]

Thanks very much for the quick reply. I've tried both 2.4 and 5Ghz bands and both suffer from stuttering.

I don't fully understand the issue as simply transferring the .mkv or BDMV folders from HTPC to server (8-9.5 MB/s) is accomplished well within the running time of the film so the raw data transfer rate should be more than sufficient. Windows tells me that both 2.4 and 5ghz bands are operating at ~88Mbps. I'm sure if there was some mechanism for buffering the stream it would work ok.

Streaming requires that your bandwidth be constant and always stay above the rate required to keep the player buffer full. File transfer does not. If you use a tool like Netmeter, you can see the throughput variation.

Low throughput variation is not a strength of N technology, at least not as currently implemented by consumer router manufacturers.

With regard to powerline my reading of your review of the Belkin Gigabit adaptors was that real world performance dropped off severely when on different ring mains? If I'm mistaken on this point I'll give them a shot as the kit is a lot cheaper than coaxial.

The Belkin Gigabit adapters had other problems, due to the Gigle chipset. Stick with HomePlug AV adapters and you should be fine. Note that powerline is sensitive to motor and light dimmer noise, especially close to the receiver.

 

[tipstir]

I had to transfer 1.4GB *.MKV over 802.11n 2.4GHz on Netbook using ESR-9850 in AP mix to USB WD Passport 250GB the time was 3 mins @ 6.88mb/s

Another tool for measuring bandwidth it comes in 1 package and it's freeware called Spotlight on Windows
Good to know how these electrical power lan devices what can or can't do.

 

[mrg]

Tim, thanks again for your rapid response.

Media Center/PowerDVD/TotalMediaTheater etc don't have the facility to increase buffer sizes to cope with the inherent problems of wireless. Do you know of any filesystem level utility which, for instance, can present a local file to the player which is somehow linked to the file on server and buffer the transfer in the background? Sort of like a 'pipe' is used in programming?

If you had to choose between powerline and coaxial which would you go for?
Setting aside the Belkin Gigabit adaptors which would provide the best performance across a circuit breaker?

Cheers

 

[thiggins]

No. Don't know of any buffer program.

I'd go with MoCA.