Leviton modules

[wkearney99]

Now that the drywall is up I'm going to have to start terminating all the low voltage wiring.
 
I've got multiple Leviton boxes for all of it, hopefully plenty of room (and enough slack on the ends of the cabling).
 
I've got double coax pulled to 28 locations, along with a few singles here and there.  Totaling about 64 cables.  I certainly don't need to make all of them active, at least not all right now.  Most rooms have more than one "TV location" and the coax was easier to install during framing than pulling it later.
 
 
I'm wondering what's best for handling distribution of FIOS cable TV over the home-run pulled RG6 coax wires? 
 
Items like these: 
http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-47693-16P-Premium-Amplified-Module/dp/B002VJKAWG
http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-47690-6C2-Passive-Video-Splitter/dp/B002VJKAVM
 
Should I use the passive or the active units? 
 
Realistically I don't expect to have more than 5 locations that would have TVs in need of the FIOS cable connection.  But I could see having MOCA network devices, possibly in locations in addition to those having TVs.  I'd want to avoid putting in a distribution setup that caused issues with either MOCA or digital cable.  
 

That and how should I distribute the signal to what will likely be multiple splitters?  
 

The longest of the connections is about 150 feet of cable.  That's one of the TV locations.  The others are typically 50 to 80ft, max.
 
I don't forsee ever going back to DirecTV or satellite, but at least I have cabling that could handle it.  Realizing, of course, that I'd have to change splitters for multi-switch gizmos.  So I'm not worried about that, for now.
 
So which splitters should I be considering?   Or, perhaps more importantly, what should I avoid?

 

[pete_c]

I put the FIOS combo network switch, firewall, AP and MOCA box in the wiring closet and directly connected the FIOS TV/Tuners right to the box.  I forget how many MOCA ports it had.  That said though I think you can connect 8 devices to one moca channel.
 
I do not remember if the Verizon Motorola box's network port was active.

 

[wkearney99]

I don't plan on putting the router in the same enclosure.  There's a shelf just inside the demarc location for that.  Besides, there's only one coax port on the back of the router anyway, so it's not like it matters if it's in the enclosure or some distance away.  I vaguely recall the MOCA device limit, good to keep that in mind.  I don't forsee making much (if any) use of MOCA but I'd rather not buy and install something that's known NOT to work with it.

 

[pete_c]

Yeah actually I was probably the first in our little 50 house subdivision to utilize Verizon FIOS a few years back.  The CS Tech utilized existing RG6 to the wiring panel from outside.  He had the choice of that or using the Cat5 that was run there. 
 
I would have preferred to utilize the cat5e cables that had already been installed as I put some 3-4 per room in the house and did install one cat5e in the same gangbox as the RG6 that was run.  I originally ran (during the teardown and rebuilt) 3 RG6 cables and 2 cat5e cables plus 1 cat5e for the telephone plus whatever the telco installer installed.  I was going to utilize a few of the wires on the old telco wire bundle for 1-wire stuff and maybe utilize a cat5e for a POE weathercam.  (I had forgotten how many cables I ran and actually did a look one day when I installed a weather station there).
 
Looking at the moca box today each of the coaxial connections have their own IP and it looks like a plan old network connection to the router.
 
That said do a little bit of research relating to your specific FIOS provided box.  That said as stated in another post your provider/installer will most likely provide what is needed to distribute the TV stuff to the FIOS set top boxes and you shouldn't need to purchase anything.

 

[wkearney99]

Yeah, right, Verizon's going to have the necessary gear to connect all my in-house coax, inside of structured wiring boxes, to their set up.  And that I'd trust the "tech" on the truck to even get anywhere near my wiring.
 
It's just a garden-variety FIOS setup.  External ONT and typically an Actiontec router inside.  I've got a coax line leading from where I'll *let them* install their router over to my wiring boxes.  I'll take it from there.  Their router location has even got a power outlet right next to it for the battery backup gear.  Along with a nice, clear 3/4" hole through the foundation leading out to an area big enough for their gear.  I will have them install it using CAT5 from the router to the ONT.
 
Having dealt with all this before, I'm prepared.  And since this is a brand new 5000 sqft house I'm absolutely NOT going to let a truck tech try and install anything to the rooms.
 
But what I'm not clear on is how to best split out the in-house cabling.  Should I be using passive or active splitters?

 

[pete_c]

Same here. 
 
One change was that the telco installer was daisy chaining all of the telephone wires. He did utilize cat5e and I told him to home run all of the telephone wires to the comm closet.   
 
I did also run cable for the satellite dish (which I used for a bit), cable TV and OTA antenna. 
 
All of the cables where home run.  I wasn't concerned with whether I would utilize an active or passive amp/splitter at the time as it really didn't matter because all of the cables were home run to the comm closet (whatever they were) and I could connect the ends to anything at anytime afterwards.
 
I did also participate in the installation of the FIOS a bit.  One issue was for the battery back up and power supply.  I was a bit picky where he drilled into the block parts of the house.  One walk in closet was near the outside d-mark.  That day I did run new electric to a new outlet inside of the walk in closet.  (new box, romex et al).  Took only the time to run to the local little hardware store and install it (maybe an hour or so).  He tapped into the existing telco box d-mark for the phone stuff.
 
I had the Fios tech connect the router to the coax cable that was run to the rooms with TV and test the boxes.  I configured the router and changed the password that day.  I had one issue with the FIOS (motorola) set top boxes with one TV not working off of the HDMI port.  He tried three of the Motorola set top boxes and none of them worked via the HDMI port.  I had though run large enough chases to pass component legacy video cables (but it was a PITA).