500GB Moxi HD DVR now available, really
By Richard Lawler 
posted Dec 11th 2008 5:00PM
posted Dec 11th 2008 5:00PM
Update: Via Dave Zatz comes word that this is a soft launch with a limited number of boxes available on Amazon, and we should expect an official reveal next month at CES, so decide fast if you want one early or all the other kids will be telling you how great theirs is when they come back from break.
[Thanks, Mike]
No thank. I will stick with my CableCARD Media Center PC :)
Laugh, I hope that smiley was for the additional costs associated w/ getting a cable card for premium HD content hooked up to your Vista/XP Media Center.. can't even get the only supported ATI OCUR equipment if you don't buy OEM sadly.. so that's a bit more than $800 for one of those jobbies. :-)
Second the CableCard system as the best route available and it will pay itself off soon enough now that our house isnt paying $80 a month to Comcast for assorted STBs or tivo fees.
Now i just need more HD channels!!!
Remote web scheduling? Tivo's got that.
News/weather browsing? Tivo's got that.
Flickr/Finetune support? Tivo's got something like that.
DLNA access to MP3s on a PC? Tivo's got that.
So tell me again, why is this better than a Tivo Series3/HD/HD XL?
This may not be a compelling reason for the Die-hard Tivo fan, but there is no fee for the guide data. Over time, that could add up to a decent savings. Also, according to their website, the hardware is HDMI Ver. 1.3b. They also claim 1080p recording, though I don't know what's available in 1080p on Cable. Only the Sats have "1080p".
@Dee_Money: For the price they're asking, you could get a TiVo HD with Product Lifetime service and call it a day - and get OTA recording if you want, to boot. Or for not much more, get the HD XL with Lifetime (as someone else mentioned).
And HDMI 1.3? Who cares? It's not like your DVR is going to be getting any content that's going to take advantage of anything beyond HDMI 1.1. DSD? Advanced Dolby/DTS audio formats? 2560x1440 video? xvYCC? Deep Color? Anything? Don't think so. Also, no, there's nothing on cable in 1080p yet - even Dish only has a handful of on-demand movies in 1080p format, no actual broadcast content.
If the Tivo user community has the HD XL all hacked already, then the Moxi is probably a nonstarter for serious users. Unless, of course, there's a flourishing Moxi hacker community in place, or an easy way to back up shows in easily readable form. (Too bad ReplayTV couldn't last long enough to have more than paper releases of HD units, because I can easily archive shows off mine without any hacks, in standard .mpgs. (Yeah, you knew one of us weirdos would show up in this thread eventually. As Clint Eastwood says, get off my lawn))
If this supports the Tivo Tuning resolver than that would be the icing on the cake.
Well the user interface looks first rate. Finally a high resolution widescreen UI. Wish the cable companies could figure out an aesthetically pleasing guide for their DVR's.
Where's the Moxi death watch Engadget?
This product doesn't have Netflix streaming, "to go" functionality, and costs almost as much as the twice-as-large TiVo HD XL w/ lifetime service fee (~$940). This skeptic is hardly impressed or "beaten", Richard.
On a side note, it continues to amaze me how people rag on TiVo for monthly fees when they're already willing to pay monthly fees for cell phone, cable, internet, Netflix, etc. For starters, TiVo is no longer associated with monthly-fees-forever business model. Pay for the lifetime service fee and you never have to see another cost of ownership expense if it bugs you that much. For those that have never tried a TiVo, I very sternly vouch it is worth it. Initially expensive, yes. Think long term, almost like any other household appliance. $500 for something that's going to be around a minimum 5 years AND enhance your television is truly money well spent. Honestly.
I have the first generation Moxi and the user interface is great.
Yeah, the UI is really great! I think this is going to be a pretty good product. I love that you can just plug an external drive into it, and I'm really looking forward to a responsive, slick interface.
I know it's not part of the current discussion but it is DVR related... why isn't there any report of the official DTVPAL DVR? It's the best thing to happen to OTA, well, ever.
Hasn't been released yet. I recall Engadget has mentioned it in the past, but there's not much to go on until it actually goes on sale and people actually have the things.
I love Dish's satellite DVRs. If the DTVPal DVR has the same interface, I'll be very tempted. I would like to know if it offers the ability to back up movies to an external disc though.
So I've been with Tivo since the very first PTV300 unit (like Moxi is today). I loved it then, not so happy with it now.
Tivo don't seem to understand that's it's still a PC (Personal Computer - not necessarily Windows). It needs to defrag, back up, etc. I'm on my 3rd one now (Series2). The second and third one's hard drive took a nose dive (as all hard drives do). One I bought from Best Buy, the other from Tivo. To replace them, it costs as much as a brand new unit. It's only good for 2-4 years, then it's time to buy a new one. Lifetime subscription is useless unless THEY replace it for $143 (Tivo) - $487 (Humax). Otherwise, the moment you replace the drive yourself - Lifetime is gone. Tivo's support actually told me to just buy a new one (that one's missing lifetime b/c they took it away when I bought it). I'm screwed with the Humax Tivo.
I wrote to Digeo to see how they will handle these issues when they come up. Will let you know what I find out.
Honestly, after all these years with Tivo - I HATE them. I've been praying for an alternative for years. Sorry, cable DVR is no picnic (at least here in Vegas). If you're recording a show with cable DVR, and you pause it. After the show is over, it hops to live TV on it's own - right in the middle of watching the show!!! Tivo doesn't do this. When the show is finished, it's finished. You're still watching your show regularly. Also, Cable DVR doesn't do fractional skips as does Tivo. So you have to FFWD/RWD every moment of the show with no skips.
Tivo has nice features, but Tivo is just backwards with Tech. They took years just to incorporate 10/100 - and still don't support Gigabit networks! Are they kidding!!!! Also, no defrag utilities, so after a while, everything runs a bit slower (and in a few short years - just dies). And yes, if you pay lifetime, or 3 years worth - it may be a cheaper monthly rate (when divided by life of Tivo - again 2-4 years). But the new ones require the cable card (which Tivo doesn't support 2-way for on-demand - duh, why would they? They can't even add a $30 1000b card). This cable card is about $12/mo depending where you live. So really, if you pay $6/mo for Tivo + $12/mo cable this is $18/mo minimum.
With Moxi, it looks like you pay the outrageous $800 for now, but only the $12/mo for the cable card. But I tell you, if they show any signs of keeping up with today's tech - Tivo's history for me. :) If I get it, I'll post something somewhere and let you all know.
Otherwise, I'm just going to build my own for crying out loud.
Thanks for letting me vent - I just got off the phone with Tivo support - with the last of my Tivo's now dead and unusable :( And they offer no help whatsoever - only buy a new one.
You sound like a Scientific Atlanta 8300 user! That's the box that compelled me to do the build-my-own thing. The annoyances you described, a UI that my Commodore 64 could put to shame, AND the cable company had the gall to charge me $10 a month extra for the privilege. Screw that.
$12/m for cablecard? what a rip, I pay like $3.
Denvas, those are the kinds of problems that led me to build my own DVR with Beyond TV. I had TiVo, and I encouraged my friend to get one... but then I dropped it as soon as I'd had it for the minimum time necessary for the rebate.
The nice thing about it is that I can set thing up how I want it... the number and type of tuners, storage, and networking are all under my control. Also, since everything uses standard codecs, I don't have DRM issues to worry about. I can drop shows on my iPhone or DVD all automatically. (I just plug the iPhone in at night, and the next day, it's ready to go with new content.)
The only downside is that you still have to rent a cable box if you want digital cable channels, but the rental is only about $12/mo, and I only need one; since I watch mostly network TV, I only need one box for the digital channels. I can get network HD stuff via a ClearQAM tuner.
As to cable company DVR's... I feel your pain. The software is buggy, ugly, and inconsistent.