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Hopper to Joey By Ethernet?

18K views 26 replies 9 participants last post by  null4end 
#1 ·
Can the Hopper send the HD signal to the Joey by ethernet instead of coax?
 
#3 ·
n0qcu said:
Yes it can at this time but that is unsupported so could be discontinued at any time.
It would sure make my job of slaving several TVs together easier. Right now I modulate both outputs of my 722 on an OTA signal throughout the house. Now I can Joey only where needed (HD) and leave the rest alone.
 
#10 ·
Sure (copy & paste sorry if the format is weird.)

3HaloODST said:
I have 3 Hoppers and 2 Joeys (soon to be 1 Joey) and I noticed, after connecting the wireless adapter to the third Hopper, that it now shows up in the "My Hoppers" menu and also shows up in the "Whole-Home" menu even though this third Hopper is not even on the same MoCA network as the other two. Does this mean that Hoppers may eventually be able to link to each other over Ethernet/wireless just like Joeys have been reported to be able to link to Hoppers over Ethernet? No MoCA required between Hoppers?

If that is true, then wouldn't that render the isolators useless if they can still link together if they are on the same (Ethernet/wireless) LAN??

I was thinking about just connecting the "Client" ports together on the Solo/Duo Nodes I have in order to (hopefully) have them all on the same MoCA network, however I'm not sure if that will work or not.

EDIT: Just hooked up the spare Joey to a WRT54GS with DD-WRT in wireless bridge mode. No coax hooked up whatsoever. Router is an ASUS RT-N16 (DD-WRT also) with two HAWKING HAI15SC Hi-Gain 15dBi Corner Antennas, and the third Hopper (has NO MoCA connection to the other two Hoppers) is connected via the Dish-supplied NETGEAR Wireless-N Adapter. WORKS PERFECTLY and that's halfway across the house. Attached is a reading of the bandwidth used when tuning into HD (HDNET) and SD (some random ENCORE SD channel.)

Note: It says almost the same bandwidth up AND down because when two wireless devices communicate data is sent to the router and then back to the other device and vice-verse. Also note that on the graph before the first drops is the HDNET HD bandwidth usage, the lower amount is ENCORE SD, then after the spike near the end we're back on HDNET.

This is neat as I can see almost EXACTLY how much bandwidth each channel has.

So my guess is that Hopper integration will work exactly the same way. We'll see!
 
#12 ·
I hope at some point DISH makes Ethernet Joeys a "supported" install ... perhaps with the addition of the promised multiple Hopper integration.
 
#13 ·
So, with three Hoppers, two on a Duo Node and one on a Solo Node I was thinking, why don't I just connect the "Client" ports of the two Nodes together so all three can communicate? Well I did it and guess what? Success! Now three Hoppers and one Joey can all see each other via MoCA!

Still messing around with the spare Joey hooked to the wireless Ethernet bridge (no MoCA at all.) Plays HD channels flawlessly!
 
#14 ·
Bandwidth used while playing back the latest episode of MythBusters :-



Bandwidth used just while paused on the MythBusters recording :-



Bandwidth used while fast forwarding the MythBusters recording :-



Bandwidth used on local ABC :-



Bandwidth used on G4TV :-

 
#15 ·
n0qcu said:
Yes it can at this time but that is unsupported so could be discontinued at any time.
True it can, but it it happens, then buy a hic for each joey and then hook it up in reverse with the ethernet hooked up in the normal way, and then the coax hooked directly up to the coax input on the joey. Moca is simply a layer 1 (physical layer) tech that utilizes tcpip as the network tech. A HIC is a MOCA ( ethernet) compliant bridge device.

Honestly I doubt that DISH would shut this down via the ethernet port. Most current users will never use this option and those that do have some kind of understanding of networkings.

I can easily see in the future that this becomes the preferred way to connect clients up in a house for advanced installs.
 
#16 ·
18 is # 1 said:
Thank you.

Anyone else have a Joey hooked up by Cat5?
Yep. I had the installer install the hopper up like normal. Then I had the installer make some coax jumper cables that were hooked to the joeys so they could be initialized. After the download ethernet was hooked up to them and I have never looked back.

one month later and the system is working great.
 
#17 ·
3HaloODST said:
So, with three Hoppers, two on a Duo Node and one on a Solo Node I was thinking, why don't I just connect the "Client" ports of the two Nodes together so all three can communicate? Well I did it and guess what? Success! Now three Hoppers and one Joey can all see each other via MoCA!

Still messing around with the spare Joey hooked to the wireless Ethernet bridge (no MoCA at all.) Plays HD channels flawlessly!
I went ahead and kept the moca in place by using a hic to connect to the ethernet switch. I did this just in case DISH decided to drop this "feature" and isolate the video services to the coax moca port on the hopper and joeys. That way you can directly hook hics to each joey and still use ethernet as the physical layer.
 
#19 ·
Okay, just got everything up and running. The Hopper was connected to the router by cat5. At the Joey we connected the to the HIC backwards. The cat5 connected to the HIC which connected to the Joey by coax. Works beautifully and I get to keep mt OTA antenna on the TV.:D

P.S. No HIC at the Hopper. The HIC was necessary at the joey.
 
#21 ·
18 is # 1 said:
Okay, just got everything up and running. The Hopper was connected to the router by cat5. At the Joey we connected the to the HIC backwards. The cat5 connected to the HIC which connected to the Joey by coax. Works beautifully and I get to keep mt OTA antenna on the TV.:D

P.S. No HIC at the Hopper. The HIC was necessary at the joey.
If you would disconnect the network from the hopper and then connect the HIC to the network as it was designed, then you can hook the joey up only with ethernet.

The Joey must be hooked up via its coax for its initial download since the factory firmware did not support the ethernet port. The later firmware enables the ethernet port for video.

As I described earlier, I had the installer make a couple of 30 foot jumper cables that I used for the initial install and for any trouble shooting.
 
#22 ·
dhickman said:
If you would disconnect the network from the hopper and then connect the HIC to the network as it was designed, then you can hook the joey up only with ethernet.

The Joey must be hooked up via its coax for its initial download since the factory firmware did not support the ethernet port. The later firmware enables the ethernet port for video.

As I described earlier, I had the installer make a couple of 30 foot jumper cables that I used for the initial install and for any trouble shooting.
We initialized it at the Hopper first and allowed the update before putting it in the other room. Thanks for the idea. You saved my OTA throughout the house.
 
#23 ·
18 is # 1 said:
We initialized it at the Hopper first and allowed the update before putting it in the other room. Thanks for the idea. You saved my OTA throughout the house.
This is a good design for client tvs.

I have had two parties now where we had a joey running a projector by the pool and the joey was running via wifi.

So far I am really impressed with this new system.
 
#24 ·
Hello All,

I realize this is an old thread but I am wondering if this is still a viable option? I have a garage in a shop and don't have Coax or Ethernet running to it. I have a wifi bridge using ubiquiti radios and getting a solid 100mbit connection with a perfect link state. Can I take my Joey from in the house and plug it in using Ethernet in the garage or is this still "not supported?" (though I have qualms that functionality would exist that isn't supported LOL) thank you for your input.

Greg
 
#25 ·
Still unsupported ... still works. :)
 
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