Does anyone have experience with both? I want to hard wire my Roku’s but only if the throughput will be improved. I have the whole house wired to an antenna in the attic so MoCA wouldn’t be too difficult. Thanks in advance.
It looks like @lowbee has experience with both and talks about it in the following thread. Maybe that will help.
We actually blogged about Powerline today: https://www.tablotv.com/blog/powerline-ethernet-adapters-cordcutters-secret/
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I have not used the PowerLine adaptors but there are lots of folks in this community who have been very happy with them. As an alternative to the Power line adaptors, there are adaptors that can be used to take advantage of coaxial cable that may run through the house from the “old days” when some of us were connected to cable or satellite tv. I have used these inexpensive adaptors to hard wire rokus and my Tablo through pre-existing coax I think the retail for under $15. There are more expensive ones, but I have had success and no problem with the following which sell on Amazon:
DIRECTV Broadband DECA Ethernet to Coax Adapter (DCA2SR0 ) Generation II by DIRECTV
These should work on any coax. I found that being hard wired significantly improved Tablo performance. I can’t speak to the efficiency (e.g. signal degradation) of MOCA(DECA) vs. PowerLine but it is likely that either will be better than wireless.
Discussion on this topic - both are good alternatives to WiFi.
This is what sparked the question. I’m googling now for the throughput of each.
Can you post what you find?
The DTV DECA adapters are 100 Mbps only. Newer powerline adapters are faster, but 100 Mbps is fast enough for Tablo streaming.
MoCA looks to be 270Mbps. Here are some supplies I have pieced together: https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/1Y692AO45901Q/ref=cm_sw_r_ip_wl_o_PxyPvb688NE27
As I’ve noted, I have used the Directv DECA adaptors without any problem. They are a lot less expensive. Comes down to personal choice and budget about whether the MoCA addaptors are worth it. Does the extra capacity of the Moca adaptors translate into a better streaming experience? Others with a more technical background may be able to answer that. If the experience is not better, there is a lot of cost to be saved with the DECA alternative. But then again, I am not on commission for other product.
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For hard wiring a Roku since you will only be streaming one stream at a time the DECA adapters would definitely be fast enough.
For hard wiring a Tablo to a router you would likely want something faster as you could possibly have up to 4 devices streaming off it as once so I would go with the Powerline adapters.
The other important question is do you want to hard wire only one Roku this way or multiple Rokus to your router?
I have a AV2 Giga-bit powerline adapter upstairs with 2 tablos and a roku connected to the adapter via a giga-bit switch. The matching adapter is down stairs on a different power circuit. Diagnostics has the through put at 187 mega-bit.
Hmmm good points all. I have two Roku’s and an Apple TV. Tablo is already hard wired into the router.
Do you want to hard wire all 3 of those front-end devices?
FYI. I have 3 DECA adaptors, 3 Rokus, 3 tvs - everything including the Tablo is hardwired to the router. Have had no streaming issues. And I don’t have a particularly fast Uverse connection - 25/2. Still, everything works fine. The 3 DECA adaptors and a couple of splitters probably cost a total of $50.
How did you set up 3 DECA adapters for 3 devices? Wouldn’t you need at least 4? One at the router, and 3 at each device. Are they all on the same coaxial cable?
Sorry. I think I misstated my setup above. I have one DECA at the router and two at two of the TVs. The other TV is located in the same room as the router and connects through an ethernet cable into the router. Really two tvs use the coax and the third uses ethernet. I hooked it up awhile ago. It was pretty easy - I’m no expert.
Wireless had become almost as fast (or faster) as hard wired applications, and that it what I would recommend. Powerline adapters do not go CAT 5e speeds. I have the Netgear Powerline and I only get about 15 Mbps with those on average (I’ve topped out at 60 Mbps depending on what I have plugged in and which room. I have a Wireless AC router and two Wireless AC hubs, and they operate at >120Mbps everywhere in my house, no matter what is turned on or what devices are on the network.
My setup is:
New Powerline adapters can get throughputs up to 200 Mbps easy.
If you dont have preexisting coax run (I dont since my home was built in 1977 AND the fire code specified firebreaks in the walls so trying to run cables after the fact is a HUGE P-I-A involving removing the wall plaster board, cutting holes in the firebreaks etc) … so for me PowerLine was the only real viable option… I am just adding this for folks who might come across this thread in the future and are trying to decide… its certainly one huge advantage for powerline since you most likely already have the electrical wiring in your home without needing any special actions (though there are some circumstances where you might need an professional electrician to “bridge” your circuit breaker if you have multiple power lines coming in the house or some other unusual situation that creates a signal gap)
This said… i’ve been using powerline adaptors since my old ReplayTV days and they work great… I also have piggy backed off the powerline setup a wifi repeater to give wifi to the far side of our house where the wireless router’s wifi is poor and doesn’t work well)