Moxi Archives - Page 4 of 6

Digeo Delays Retail Moxi DVRs

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 … Read more

Where’s The Retail Moxi?

While (still) sifting through my accumulation of mail, I caught this Moxi ad in Wired. The moxi.com/wired link redirects to Digeo’s Moxi home page… where there’s no news on their upcoming retail DVRs. Reading between the lines, one could assume the Moxi boxes are either running behind schedule and/or will be making an appearance in … Read more

Digeo and Monster Partner… For Something

Digeo and Monster have announced a strategic partnership:

The collaboration will allow Digeo and Monster to combine the premium entertainment experience delivered by Digeo’s Moxi products with the superior quality and broad product line-up offered by Monster. It also brings Monster a step closer to their own expanded business strategy of creating an ecosystem of plug-and-play connected entertainment and home control devices. Together, the companies will also examine other compelling digital services and business development opportunities.

While at the Get Connected event in July some Monster folks I was chatting with indicated they’re planning to expand/enhance their Digital Home unit offerings. Though I would have never guessed a partnership with Digeo. I’ll be interested to see what this relationship produces with the upcoming Moxi retail push… beyond the obvious co-branding opportunities.

The Challenge in Building that Perfect Entertainment Box

Building the perfect DVR/video-entertainment device is hard, which is why cable or telco TV plus a Netflix or Blockbuster + Movielink service is probably your best bet right now. But lest ye be sitting in your living room bemoaning the state of your set-top set-up, let me offer up a bit of context on why building the perfect box is so hard.

There’s the leased set-top model used by cable operators. In an effort to make those set-tops as cheap and efficient as possible, a lot of constraints are applied. There can’t be too much storage or processing power, too many added features or too much open access for modification that could muck up the service for everyone. Not an ideal situation, but on the other hand, these operators bring DVR to the masses.

There’s the retail model, which is owned by TiVo. People who have TiVo tend to love TiVo, but relatively few people have it because of the price. Plus, there’s the issue of plugging TiVo into your cable or telco network. Either you need a separate set-top from your service provider or you need a CableCARD. CableCARD certification is a serious technical challenge (more than I think most people realize) and it still doesn’t provide access to two-way services like video-on-demand and switched digital video.

Finally there’s the Internet model. All those media extenders that made big news early in the year, and P2P services like Joost (the box here being your computer). Here the problem is both content and bandwidth. Not enough appealing, timely content to keep people happy, and/or not enough bandwidth to keep content flowing efficiently.

So what’s on the horizon?

Where the Holidays Start in July

It’s that time of year again. We’re more than halfway to the holiday shopping season and CES 2008, which means CE companies are starting to panic about what they can get on to store shelves or at least out of production in time to take advantage of the year’s biggest buying season and biggest PR event respectively. Without doing any in-depth research yet, here’s my list of what we might see around Black Friday time:

Retail Moxi DVR – Dave’s already covered this extensively, and I can’t wait to see how Digeo brings its two models to market. What are the price points? Who will sell them? Has Digeo had any problems with CableCARD certification?

Touchscreen iPod/Nano iPhone – The rumor is some iPod/Nano mash-up will come out later this year. I don’t think it will make my X’mas wish list. A touchscreen on a device smaller than the existing iPhone? I’d need tinier thumbs.

More Details On Upcoming Moxi DVRs

Between my various work-related missions in NYC the last two weeks, I managed to sneak away to Digeo‘s suite for a briefing on their two upcoming Moxi stand-alone DVRs.

Moxi Home Cinema HD DMR

Digeo had a working prototype of the Moxi Home Cinema unit on display. This is their higher-end (read: more expensive) model that I expressed doubts about, in terms functionality and market position, after talking to CEO Mike Fidler back in January. I’m still not clear on who will buy this device and why. Moxi Home Cinema features ATSC and NTSC tuners for over-the-air and clear QAM tuning, plus an integrated 5.1 audio amp. And no CableCARD support. It sounds like they’re pushing this upmarket, but aren’t those folks interested in receiving digital cable too?

Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR

On the other hand… The Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR has got me totally psyched. It’s a CableCARD unit (one M-Card for dual tuning) that will come bundled with a “Moxi Mate” extender for multi-room viewing. Real-time streaming (including HD!) will utilize the 1394 spec over existing coax, rather than Ethernet or WiFi.

Time Warner Gets Switched

Ben Drawbaugh over on EngadgetHD reports that Time Warner Cable will be deploying switched digital video (SDV) to 50% of its markets before the end of 2007. That’s great news in the sense that SDV should free up significant bandwidth. Like analog reclamation, SDV will make it possible to offer more HD content as well … Read more

Digeo’s Big Q4?

On Monday, Digeo announced that in Q4 they’ll offer MSOs a new Moxi HD set-top box with CableCARD support allowing them to comply with the FCC’s separable security mandate. They hope to sell these to cable-cos (i.e. Charter) at 1/3 the price of their current boxes. Some features: Moxi 4.1 software improvements including faster rendering … Read more