Digeo Delays Retail Moxi DVRs

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I think we all knew something was up after seeing Wired magazine ads in consecutive months without a product announcement. In fact, the whispers were speculating that the Home Cinema edition had been scrapped. Well… I’ve received confirmation that both retail Moxi DVRs are still in play, but on hold until early next year:

While we are certainly disappointed about this, we want to make sure our first entry into the retail space is one that delivers the best consumer high-definition entertainment experience possible. We are really excited about the new developments we are building into the Moxi Menu and the advanced (dare I say bleeding edge?) hardware platforms we have chosen for both the Moxi Multi-Room and Moxi Home Cinema HD DMRs, but as you know, while using the latest and greatest technology means the consumer gets a more future-proofed product, it also requires a little more work.

I’m sure Digeo’s upset in missing the holiday sales season, but delays in this industry are typical. (Where’s the Kindle?) Frequently, it’s something as mundane as not completing software or hardware engineering as expected. In this case, it could also be a certification issue or a rethinking of strategy in light of the aggressively priced TiVo HD ($250). In fact, when I sat down with Digeo reps in July, they were still working out their marketing strategy (bundle or not bundle Moxi Mate, bundle or not bundle DVR service) and lining up retail partners. Regardless, I’m looking forward to seeing the Moxi Multi-Room CableCARD solution – CES in January should be fun.

11 thoughts on “Digeo Delays Retail Moxi DVRs”

  2. Multi room is the key to any future non cable dvr for me(until Moto’s solution is finally launched). I can’t wait to see what options the Slingcatcher gives me with my Tivo S3.

  4. Big John, I’m on Gefen’s press mailing list but have never interacted directly with them. I just pinged the contact on that release and will post anything I find out.

    Hogues, Mari could probably shed more light on it than I could, but I believe AT&T will be rolling out mutli-room streaming on Uverse next year. Verizon FiOS TV currently does it (SD only). TiVo units obviously do it as well by copying shows to other units. As far as Catcher, I can’t provide detailed commentary at this time.

    ptivo, The higher-end Home Cinema unit doesn’t make much sense to me and I doubt it will fly, even in the CEDIA market. But the Moxi Multi-room is good for the marketplace if they can price it competitively. It would help TiVo to have a competitor in retail to draw attention to cable alternatives and educate folks on CableCARD. I think the technology is fine, so in the end it’ll come down to marketing and pricing – we shall see.

  5. Unfortunately, Uverse is not available in my area and no one seems to know when Verizon is finally going to get to Chicago. Right now, it seems that Comcast is the best option for me and they seem to want to charge me for even thinking about adding an outlet, lol. That’s why the upcoming moto multi room service looks somewhat attractive. But since I have a S3, I’ll be looking fore something to stream that to my other room.

    As for moxi, I think that you’re right, Dave. More competition will only help CableCard devices in the long run. Frankly, I’ve been looking for a viable alternative to Tivo.

  7. I’m shocked! Shocked I say!

    Sorry, did I get some sarcasm on you?

    The ‘higher end’ Home Cinema unit (aka AMD Live! PC with Moxi software) has never made a lick of sense to me from the moment I saw it at CES. A more expensive unit – which can’t do CableCARD, and therefore cannot access most of the content users will want. The only HD content it can do is OTA, maybe clear QAM. That’ll sell real well.

    I’m not surprised the other units have been delayed. The utter lack of product details and the fact that they’re still showing the same hollow mock-up boxes at trade shows that they had at CES in January were fairly clear indications that they weren’t going to make it this year.

    And the rumored ~$1000 price point that was talked about in January sure wasn’t going to fly with the TiVo HD at $250, and dropping. I think they got caught by the same rapid shift that burned TiVo with the S3 – only worse. TiVo suffered because they expected a slower uptake in HD, thinking they’d have more time to market a premium box for a high price – but the market moved faster than expected, leaving the S3 over-priced, and forcing them to rush the HD out faster. Digeo was further behind and they’re facing a whole new market now.

  8. It would be really nice to get a retail cable card business going. Not just Tivo, but others. And get the numbers up. It would help bolster the arguments about making SDV work with cable card and so forth. If its just us fringe users, I’m not sure our neutered FCC is going to do much for us.

  9. Yeah, and it’s disappointing that the television manufacturers have given up on CableCARD (so it seems). I think the problem is they put out the sets before the cable industry was ready to support them and consumers still have no idea what CC is all about.

  10. BEFORE the cable companies were ready to support them?

    Maybe you didn’t intend that at face value. Just had my cable card install done and like others it was a bit of a nightmare, though after four hours or so it seems to work just fine. Got a multistream card too so maybe I’ll even save a couple of bucks a month.

    Hey, the cable guys designed this sucker. If its this hard to get it working they should have designed it better. Or maybe had their techs read back the numbers to each other before they hit Enter…

  11. The whole truck roll thing is their first mistake. It wastes time and money, and generally doesn’t seem to help the situation. I know I had to educate my installers (took three trips to get my S3 working). My TiVo HD in the bedroom doesn’t have a CableCARD yet because they want to charge me $20 to send someone who will probably show up with a single stream CableCARD instead of M-Card.

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