Still a little confused about ethernet vs coax
bbrown9
Enthusiast - Level 3

I'm still a little confused about why coax is needed between the ONT and the router for a STB. If I have the connection between the ONT and the STB setup as ethernet, there is still a coax cable going to the STB to deliver the video, right? So can't the STB use that cable for VOD? Does it use an ethernet connection for VOD data? If not, then what role does the coax connection between the ONT and the router play for STB communication?

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Re: Still a little confused about ethernet vs coax
spacedebris
Master - Level 2

@bbrown9 wrote:

I guess I just don't see why the router needs to be involved in the coax connection. With comcast, all communication with the STB was via a single coax cable (even the VOD info) without any connection to the router. The router was for internet access only and had nothing to do with the TV experience.

What do people do who only have FIOS TV and not FIOS internet? They won't have a router to connect to for VOD.


The interactive features on fios are internet based. It has to talk to the router because the router is the connection to the internet.

Yes, Even customers that are FIOS TV only, have a router, it has computer access disabled but it still has a router and linked to the verizon internet based systems. (IE the VOD site, and the IMG site)

Comcast and other companies dont use internet based systems. That is one of the reasons why their VOD systems are slower and why they dont offer all the HD content that Verizon does. By seperating the interactive systems off the TV broadcast frequencies and placing them on a sub channel of the internet, they are able to transfer large data packages along without affecting the picture quality or the speed of the computer connections. This is just the way Verizon has decided works best with their systems.

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Re: Still a little confused about ethernet vs coax
spacedebris
Master - Level 2

@bbrown9 wrote:

I'm still a little confused about why coax is needed between the ONT and the router for a STB. If I have the connection between the ONT and the STB setup as ethernet, there is still a coax cable going to the STB to deliver the video, right? So can't the STB use that cable for VOD? Does it use an ethernet connection for VOD data? If not, then what role does the coax connection between the ONT and the router play for STB communication?



@bbrown9 wrote:

If I have the connection between the ONT and the STB setup as ethernet


actually there is no ethernet to the stb

The TV's need to connect to the router/internet to be able to download the program guide, vod, and all the other interactive features. Since there is no ethernet connection between the STB and Router, it uses the same coax that the video signal comes on. The coax actually pulls double duty here. It carrys the video signal from the ONT to the STB. Now if this was all you were after, no further connection is needed. But in order for the STB to get the program guide, vod, and other interactive services the TV's need a link to the router. Hence the coax cable to the router. That is the link between the STB and the Router.

In many cases, people do not have ethernet from the ONT to the router. So only the one coax is used and it does everything, Both video and internet. but in your case your internet is ethernet, but the router still needs the coax. So in your case, the tv talks to the router via coax, the router then converts the coax signal request over to ethernet, then it goes to the internet to get the info. It comes back to the router on ethernet, gets converted to the coax and sent to the tv via the coax.

Make sence now?

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Re: Still a little confused about ethernet vs coax
bbrown9
Enthusiast - Level 3

I guess I just don't see why the router needs to be involved in the coax connection. With comcast, all communication with the STB was via a single coax cable (even the VOD info) without any connection to the router. The router was for internet access only and had nothing to do with the TV experience.

What do people do who only have FIOS TV and not FIOS internet? They won't have a router to connect to for VOD.

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Re: Still a little confused about ethernet vs coax
spacedebris
Master - Level 2

@bbrown9 wrote:

I guess I just don't see why the router needs to be involved in the coax connection. With comcast, all communication with the STB was via a single coax cable (even the VOD info) without any connection to the router. The router was for internet access only and had nothing to do with the TV experience.

What do people do who only have FIOS TV and not FIOS internet? They won't have a router to connect to for VOD.


The interactive features on fios are internet based. It has to talk to the router because the router is the connection to the internet.

Yes, Even customers that are FIOS TV only, have a router, it has computer access disabled but it still has a router and linked to the verizon internet based systems. (IE the VOD site, and the IMG site)

Comcast and other companies dont use internet based systems. That is one of the reasons why their VOD systems are slower and why they dont offer all the HD content that Verizon does. By seperating the interactive systems off the TV broadcast frequencies and placing them on a sub channel of the internet, they are able to transfer large data packages along without affecting the picture quality or the speed of the computer connections. This is just the way Verizon has decided works best with their systems.

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Re: Still a little confused about ethernet vs coax
bbrown9
Enthusiast - Level 3

That raises another question. If the interactive features are internet-based, then why can't the cable-cards use the ethernet connection on a TIVO to get VOD data?

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Re: Still a little confused about ethernet vs coax
spacedebris
Master - Level 2

Because cable cards dont have two way communication. They are uni-directional. They only recieve information. They dont have any software or memory to handle any interactive features. All the interactive features are driven by software, that sofware is designed and loaded onto Verizon equipment. Third party boxes line TIVO do not contain the verizon software, and the cable cards do not contain any memory or software, so they are unable to access the Verizon system. Technically they probably could, if you could load the verizon software onto the TIVO. But doing that would make the TIVO no different than the Verizon boxes, hence defeating the purpose anyway.

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