New Moxi DVR in the house
Thanks to good/bad timing (my old Moxi DVR from Charter burned up over the weekend), I now have a brand new second-generation Moxi, which just came out of the testing period yesterday afternoon. If you have any kind of digital video recorder, you’re way better off than people without a DVR, but Charter customers who got the original Moxi know it’s special. Unfortunately, it also runs super-hot and is full of complicated and touchy bits and pieces. The one that died was my third, and while I’ve sampled the Charter DVR (a Motorola box) in the bedroom, I just couldn’t envision life without a Moxi. I was going to accept another used one but was thrilled to find out Monday that the new one was just coming out of the testing period, and mine arrived today. It’s handsome, with a sleek, black face, and in most ways works identically to the original Moxi, which is a good thing. (Except that the buttons are now translucent white, the remote is almost exactly the same, and I’m especially happy about that.) The only major difference, which technician John warned me about, is that the interface is a little slower. This is noticeable when choosing a channel from the guide and especially when setting a recording; it seems to think about it for 2 or 3 seconds longer than the original did. Still, I’m very happy.
By the way, I understand you can’t just call Charter and swap your DVR out for a new Moxi. They are for new installs at this point but will soon be more prolific. Even for a repair-replacement, you’re more likely to get a refurbished or returned Moxi or a Motorola box. Of course, it’s hard to get a straight answer from Charter when you call so you might have to keep checking back if you’re interested.
I really dislike my new Motorola DVR (Moxi burned out a few weeks ago). It has a terrible interface compared to the Moxi.
UverseUser - I’m sure Charter would have given you another deal for a while. (Also it’s 50 fewer channels.)
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Why pay extra for all these problems? Use GB-PVR or MythTV for free, or something like SageTV or BeyondTV. Just buy some tuner cards for your PC and away you go. I am in total control of my system - adding storage, backing up data, creating DVDs from recordings, etc., are all possible. Also, the system analyzes each show after recording and marks the commercials so I can skip them instantly. Unfortunately, the TV providers would rather I pay them 10-15 bucks a month for an inferior product and are trying to make home-brew DVRs impossible (via encrypted signals and required STBs). I don’t want their product that badly, so when I can’t use my stuff I’ll ditch the TV.
Another option: AppleTV or another hardware box with Netflix on demand or Hulu/Vudu/etc - just watch shows when you want.
unpaidbill: You are not alone. We had the same problem, which was the excuse we used to give back our Motorola and get the Moxi again (see my earlier post).
Gail: Thanks for your help on all this. You do a great job on your reporting. What’s this about Moxi having a multi-room version? I just looked around online and saw some references to it, but does Charter offer this? You’d think they would want to tell their customers about this, especially with the competition from uVerse, but apprently not. From looking at Moxi’s website, I think the first generation ones do support an external hard drive, but I will check when I get home. That will be a must-have.
I plan to keep checking in with AT&T to seen when uVerse is available in my area (although I heard installation is a pain). I got a big price break from Charter when I threatened to switch a few months ago (I bluffed), and I’ll have to do it again once 6 months are up.
I just confirmed that the new Moxi has a 500GB hard drive, as opposed to 160GB for the old one. And it takes the external hard drive. The Moxi multi-room (or Moxi and Moxi Mate) has been available for a couple of years and it’s still available, but the new Moxi doesn’t have a Mate, which lets you watch shows off your Moxi in another room. U-verse DVRs have multi-room capacity, but U-verse still isn’t available in a lot of places. By the time it’s widespread, maybe we’ll know what the glitches are. A friend of mine was told that 30 percent of the AT&T phone users who get U-verse wind up with permanent static on their phones, as he did.
Motorola DVR - the swap button at the bottom of the remote will let you swap between the 2 tuners so you will be able to rewind. Moxi does this automatically for you
The external drive technically will not transfer the recordings from one box to another. Copyright laws or some other legal mumbo jumbo. I have heard that depending on the encryption of the recording it may transfer. I havn’t had any experience with a external hard drive yet. Unlike Gail, I don’t have entire seasons of Prison Break that I haven’t watched yet!
MOXI.com has some good info on it’s website.
The USB port on the front of the MOXI is for uploading photos. The external hard drives can only be hooked up to the back. Silver MOXI’s will use a USB ext drive and the new black MOXI will use the eSATA hard drive.
Gail,
I am interested in how easy it was to reprogram what you always record. Did charter have a way to automatic input this into new box (much like cellphone company can put your contacts list in a new phone)?
I would be afraid I would miss something I like, especially cable series that run on non-regular “seasons”.
No, all programs and programming were lost. It’s like when the hard drive in my laptop died — everything went with it, and that was a lot worse than losing “Fringe” and “Prison Break.” I’m starting to put my regular programs back in as series recordings, but it’s going to take some time, because as Suzi points out, a lot of them aren’t on now. I’ll just have to be vigilant for awhile.
First gen (silver) Moxis have 80gig capacity. My understanding is the retail version of the “new” Moxi (don’t know the model number) has 500gig capacity but the one the cable company is renting to customers (model 3012) has 160gig capacity, but I could be mistaken on that point. Both new versions have eSATA capability for adding pretty much whatever capacity you need.
The silver Moxis (model 9012) have USB ports in the rear for adding one external hard drive, which mitigates the smallish hard drive issue on that model.
I think the only “old” Moxi that had a 160gig hard drive was the one that pairs off with the Moxi Mate, model 9022.
The external hard drive gets encrypted just like the internal hard drive, and as such both drives are only viewable on that specific Moxi device. As for scheduling, the box supports web-based setup as well (depending on your cable provider).
It’s good to hear the new ones run cooler. The heat from the original devices was killing them, I think.
The new moxi model # is MC3. or at leaast that’s what I’ve heard them called. The new model also has a better power supply in it that should prevent the flashing 8’s
I said goodbye to Charter in October 2008. But I had gone through about 4 DVR boxes. I had a couple of Moxi boxes and they just burned up. I had the Motorola DVR too.
But UVerse is the way to go if it is in yoru area. Not only is it cheaper, better customer service, faster equipment but you can tape/watch up to 4 shows at one time. And there is a far better selection of channels. My internet is also much faster and doesn’t drop all the time like Charter.
And no I do not work for AT&T.