BendBroadband deploys Digeo's Moxi HD DVR 3012
by Darren Murph 
posted Oct 20th 2008 at 3:13AM
Digeo never hit the home run it probably wanted to with its family of DVRs, but at least it's netting a few deals with MSOs. Last month, the outfit announced that some of its wares would be deployed by Charter, and it also mentioned that an elusive second provider would be following suit shortly. Enter BendBroadband, a smallish cable company in Oregon that will begin doling out the Moxi HD DVR 3012, which includes the Moxi Menu user interface, multi-stream CableCARD support, remote web scheduling, external storage options and twin tuners. Sadly, the box won't ever be down with tru2way, but those not deterred can get one of their own later in Q4.
Filed under: DVRs, Set-top boxes, Others, Cable
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joe Maki @ Oct 20th 2008 9:16AM
Why should we care if this box supports tru2way? Maybe I'm missing the point, but isn't tru2way's advantage that it allows 3rd party set-top boxes and integrated TV sets (Panny) to work with your cable suppliers head end? Since the Moxie is supplied by the cable company it's kind of moot.
Eric @ Oct 20th 2008 12:22PM
I had a Moxie. Digeo is owned by Paul Allen. So it's running Windows inside. And it shows. Slow, buggy, lame interface. I would never choose to use one again, regardless of their claims of improvements.
Mickeleh @ Oct 21st 2008 12:31PM
Yes, Digeo is owned by Paul Allen.
No, it's not running any flavor of Windows. it's running Linux.
Early versions of the software had performance issues and other limitations. For the past two years, however, the U-I has been exceptionally responsive.
As a former Digeo employee, I had one at home, and kept the box until it died. I'm using a TiVo HD now. For speed (and some features) Moxi blew it away. There are, however, some very useful features on TiVo that Moxi didn't have. (I dont know if current Moxi software has caught up with these).
The most useful thing about tru2way in the short run is that it will allow cable companies to provide on demand proramming to third-party DVRs. (My TiVo doesn't get any of Comcast's On Demand programming.) That's not an issue for cable customers with Moxi because Digeo works with cable providers to integrate on demand into the Moxi U-I.
Shawn @ Oct 20th 2008 12:38PM
Well as a former Moxi user also, I have to say that I miss the box. Was it top notch, no. But it had a lot of strong points. To me the interface what the best part about it. Yes it was slow but they sped it up. Like I said I miss the Moxi but I don't miss Charter in the slightest, period.
(using D* HR series now.)
Paul (not Paul Allen) @ Oct 20th 2008 2:38PM
I work at a small mid-sized independently owned cable company and we have deployed Moxi to our customers.
@Joe Maki: tru2way does much more than that. tru2way is basically a Java stack on the set top box. What it allows, in addition to what you mentioned, is for 3rd party applications to be easily run on the set top box. Right now it's all proprietary code, difficult and expensive to develop for and limited in scope. tru2way allows the writing of more advanced applications and television guides and only having to write them once instead of a proprietary port for each manufacturer and each model in that manufacturer's line.
@Eric: I work for a cable company that has some of the older Moxi boxes. They don't run Windows, they run Linux. They've made some improvements with their newest code that is faster and much less buggier than the original.
Joe Maki @ Oct 20th 2008 3:37PM
@Paul: tru2way does much more than that. tru2way is basically a Java stack on the set top box. What it allows, in addition to what you mentioned, is for 3rd party applications to be easily run on the set top box.
Correct, but do you see cable companies rolling out 3rd party applications to their users? I see this as another access issue (like cable cards) that the industry is not going to rush to implement.
Paul (not Paul Allen) @ Oct 20th 2008 4:21PM
@Joe: The reason we're looking at tru2way is for the deployment of advanced applications. I can't speak specifically for the other cable companies, but I have heard their upper management speak at conferences and this isn't something they've touched on as being the primary reason for tru2wayt. Most of the cable companies are looking to deploy tru2way on set top boxes that are already owned by the company and deployed to the customers. This is approx. 40% of the set tops in our system. Unsure about the other companies.
As for whether they're in a rush to implement or not that's hard to say. It's going to be years before we see large numbers of tru2way consumer devices on our system. We've supported cable cards for a while. But we have less than a hundred on our system and they are a pain to get working. Each different model of TV had different issues to overcome and required a lot of hand holding by our staff. tru2way "should" (hopefully) be better.
MegaZone @ Oct 21st 2008 11:47PM
Charter was supposed to have deployed the Moxi 3012 by the end of 3Q08 too - has anyone seen one in the wild? As best I can determine they're still in test and haven't made it to consumers yet.
And this box was originally supposed to be out by the end of 1Q08, 3Q08 was a rescheduled date.
Fletch @ Oct 25th 2008 4:51PM
I enjoyed the Moxi so much I rented two of them from Charter. However, as those of you who worked with Digeo know (Mickeleh?) I was told by the service reps from Charter that replaced them that the Moxi fried hard drives like crazy. I know my two always ran hot. The replacement units I have now are neither fluid nor intuitive to use. Is there any current news on whether Solid State Drives would be an option for the Moxi? Seems like that would take care of the heat problem. Any way, is the Moxi 3012 going to be released to just the cable companies or will the general public get in on the fun?