Customer Reviews

Moxi 2-Tuner 500GB HD Digital Recorder

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

Despite the fact that I am very nearly the perfect customer for a DVR, I have held off the purchase of one, a decision mostly revolving around the monthly subscription fee versus the relatively few amount of things I avidly watch on television. With the brand new, subscription free, MOXI HD DVR sitting on my entertainment shelf, all that has changed ... I get to watch what I want and when I want to with a much better picture quality than provided by Comcast hardware (see below) without tacking on more costs to the ever rising price of having cable in the first place.

First off, the MOXI HD DVR is very attractive box and came with a complete set of cables, many of which you may not even touch if you are using the HDMI interface. Setting up the MOXI was, overall, a painless experience, if not a little time consuming. At first boot up, the device was contacting the mothership with instructions to find any updates to the MOXI software, which it found, downloaded, and installed. One minor nitpick here is that it did not provide the unit ID that is used to register at the website until after this 30 minute process was over. It would have been nice to be registering while I was waiting for the update.

Next came the M-Card install (multi-streaming cable card, allowing dual feeds for the device), and overall, went off with relative ease, despite a little trepidation on both my part as well as the Comcast@ customer service rep. He was not familiar with the MOXI brand and we both got a little nervous when the MOXI wouldn't recognize the card for a channel scan (but did get the card's ID info) until the customer rep was astute enough to suggest that I remove the card and try it again while the device was powered on.

Following that, there was what I can only assume was growing pain as the MOXI took several minutes to scan the channels and then start displaying me digital gibberish (a fascinating display of colored squares from improper decoding) for a few panic filled moments before finding it's place in the digital stream and displaying a perfectly wonderful HD image of the selected channel.

In fact, the image was so good, I started comparing it back and forth between my Comcast HD receiver unit to only confirm my suspicions, that the MOXI decodes both 4:3 content and HD content with far better quality than the Comcast unit does (which is very poorly if you ask me). Unless I am mistaken, the Comcast DVR is based on the same unit that the HD receiver is built on, so this is one place where initial price tag of the MOXI pays off.

From here, it has been a fun journey of playing with all of the features of the MOXI HD DVR, some of which are great and others are fascinatingly not very good at all. The interface overall is very nice, and more so once you get used to it. It is obvious that MOXI has taken the user interface design as a serious consideration. Recording shows and series is a breeze, playback even more so, and I love the various channel categories (all HD, all Movies, etc.), which admittedly the Comcast DVR has as well, but in a far less attractive menu system. I may have missed how to do it, but it would be great to be able to move through the channel guide display one page at a time rather than navigating one channel at a time (with hundreds of channels, I constantly use the page up and page down buttons on the Comcast remote). On that thought, I really like the MOXI remote as whole.

For the most part, recording has gone well in both standard and HD resolutions, with one exception of several playback errors encountered from a recording of Mission Impossible III (HD). At several points during the movie, it failed on the decoding of the recorded movie so badly, that it kicked me to TV once, rebooted the device once, and several times required that I attempt fast forwarding, pausing, restarting, etc. in order to get a video stream back.

Other than this yet to be repeated recording experience, most things have played back error free and with great quality. The few other errors during recording that I have encountered result in a visual line of noise at the top of the screen that looks like an old VHS tape alignment problem, but the shows themselves have been intact otherwise.

Recording series is brain dead simple and my only complaint here (and there might be a way to do this that I haven't found) is that I find myself changing the default settings for recording a series every single time. In theory, this device is should be able to hold over a couple hundred hours of non-HD and well over a hundred of HD content, yet the series recording options are set to the almost the most spartan, space conserving settings that require you get to your recordings within a couple days. In my case, this is almost never the case and might even be a couple weeks before I have a couple hours to sit and watch some of it.

Another great feature to mention is scheduling recording from the Moxi website. I haven't used it outside of testing, but I like the idea a great deal and bet it will be helpful the handful of times I know in advance I want to watch something, but will not be home in time to see it.

This very feature filled device would be beyond fantastic if they did one, brain numbingly obvious thing ... give me access to a web browser for that love of GOD!!!! Here are a few reasons:

A> I want Pandora, not Finetunes (which I never did actually ever find a way to create a play list on ... which either says I am missing something so obvious that my great intellect glanced over ... heh)

B> I want Picasa slide shows, not Flickr (which also was slow and sometimes only semi-functional).

C> The big wide world of the Internet ... aka ... freedom of choice. DRM issues aside, it is no longer acceptable for networked devices running full PCs under the hood to try and corral me into their business partnerships.

Some might point at platform stability as good reason to avoid an open browser use on a dedicated device as the MOXI HD DVR, but one of the other problems I have encountered a couple of times is the seemingly random rebooting of the device. So, that is to say, I doubt letting me run a browser in kiosk mode and flash apps such as Pandora within would do much to make the platform less stable.

One last note worthy mention is the PCLink to Windows Media Player, which involved some voodoo to get working (even after the security changes ... still uncertain what the final incantation was to make it work ... might have been the chicken blood and candles), I had access to all images and audio in my desktop machine's library (which is not much, since I use Winamp). So far, this has been a much better experience to use than Finetune or Flickr on the MOXI and I think this was a decent feature to include. As, it seems is common in the DVR world, it will not however let you playback video files over the PCLink, which is a somewhat baffling decision and one that I can only presume are related to copyright protection or the potentially problematic playback of a user's video collection of various formats (mov, mpg, avi, mp4, divx, wmv for example) and codecs (an endless sea of possible codecs) being problematic on a black box device. Still, I would love to be able to play at least common formats, or if nothing else, divx would be a welcome standard.

I feel like I have given the MOXI HD DVR a tough time of it in this review, and this is where the rubber meets the road folks. I have no other experience with DVR's on the market, but the MOXI has gotten me pretty hooked on the use of one. Overall, the MOXI HD DVR has been a joy to use and has been no more finicky than the Comcast HD receiver, but does provide far superior picture quality. That fact alone has me happy with the device, but the multi-stream HD DVR, absence of subscription costs, and ease of use of the MOXI makes it a product worth considering.

At a street price of around $800 and iffy, service specific side features, it is a somewhat tougher argument for the tech savvy, as building a PC based DVR system gets nothing but easier. For everyone else, the MOXI should satisfy and not having to add another monthly payment onto your ever tightening paycheck will make this unit popular for many, and in the long run will save you money despite the heavy upfront costs.

I think the MOXI folks need to do a little more finessing and re-tooling the "extra" features, but even with a steep initial investment and some quirks, I give this device a thumbs up for the DVR hungry. Just remind yourself that the lack of a monthly fee will pay off in the long run and you will enjoy your sexy new entertainment center black box!

I have been playing with DVRs since Tivo was first introduced. My experience includes playing with these devices below:

Tivo Series 1
Tivo Series 2
Tivo HD
Panasonic Showstopper
ReplayTV 5000 series
MythBuntu
KnoppixMyth

I will not be comparing the MythBuntu or HTPC because they are not out of the box solutions. They require some sourcing of parts and baby sitting.

I purchased a Moxi 3 tuner unit with three Moxi Mates about two months back so I had sometime to play with it. They have since released a new update that now enables live streaming to the Moxi Mates. As of right now, the Moxi setup is perfect for me. The live streaming really completes this HD experience in my whole house.

PRICE: The comparison here is with Tivo and Moxi since ReplayTV and Panasonic are now out of the picture. If you have one room, your cost for a Moxi is $[...] (two tuner model). With Tivo HD, you are paying about $150 more (this price include buying a 500GB drive upgrade). Tivo HD XL is even more. So Moxi clear beats Tivo in cost. If you have three rooms, Moxi is $999 while Tivo will be significantly more since you have to buy 3 full featured Tivos and get lifetime subscription on each.

TUNER: Moxi offers a three tuner unit. Tivo has a max of two tuners. Having an additional tuner makes it easier to record all the shows you want.

QAM TUNER: Moxi allows you to map clear QAM channels to the electronic program guide.

NOTE: This model on Amazon is a TWO TUNER UNIT!!!!!!!!!! Please go directly to Moxi to get the three tuner model.

EDIT THE THREE TUNER MODEL IS NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON. PLEASE SEARCH FOR IT 03/15/10

ADs: Moxi has no ads. Moxi's interface is ad free. Tivo has ads on main menu, when you pause, ff, rew, etc.

INTERFACE: The Tivo is easy to use. It is so easy that your grandmother can use it. However, Tivo have not upgraded their interface in a long time. It is not a full HD interface. The reason for that is that HD interface can slow down the device. Moxi HD has a full HD interface with a live tv window. Now if you are a Tivo user, you may find that it may be hard to transition to the Moxi interface. I found this as well. I would recommend anyone who is thinking about the Moxi to read the user guide before even turning the thing on. That way you will not have to suffer through the initial learning curve that undoubted frustrated on users here. HOWEVER, once you learn the interface, it is much better than Tivo because of one huge advantage. You can manage all your DVR options and schedule recordings while watching TV. You can not do this with Tivo. Once you hit the Tivo button and get the menu screen, you can no longer watch TV.

MOXI TICKER: Think CNN, ESPN Tickers. This feature allows you to get access to quick information via a bottom info bar while you continue to watch your program. All you need to do is to hit the ticker button and it brings up weather, sports, news, etc. etc. I find this quite usefully if you need to get some quick scores without turning on your tv or going to ESPN.

CONNECTIVITY: Moxi by default does not have wireless built in. Moxi only have an ethernet port. Some have expressed success using 802.11N bridges but they can be complicated when setting up. You are better off using MOCA or Powerline connectivity. Each Mate will need an connection.

EXPANDIBILITY: Moxi can be upgrade using eSATA external drives to 6 TB. Keep in mind unlike Tivo, the internal drive cannot be upgrade by the end user(yet). *******AS of MAY 2010, the internal harddrive can be upgraded to 2TB using a secret menu.... You can find the steps at the Moxi thread on [...] When purchasing an enclosure for an external drive, select only a eSATA interface only enclosure. USB/Firewire/eSATA multi-interface enclousres have been know to be problematic. According to AVS Forum, if you do not mind your drive exposed you can just connect a harddrive to power and use an eSATA/SATA cable. These two items below have been know to work with the Moxi
Link Depot Rounded eSATA to SATA Cable (Blue, 3 Feet)
USB 2.0 to IDE SATA HDD Hard Drive Converter Cable

ONLINE SCHEDULING: Tivo's online scheduling leaves much to be desired. Tivo's online scheduling is not live. You cannot schedule something to be recorded in the next 15 minutes. It is not possible with Tivo. However, with Moxi you can see your upcoming recordings, cancel a recording, delete a recorded program and schedule a recording on their website live. Moxi's website actually queries your Moxi for this information when you logon online.

MOXI MATES: This is by far the best competitive advantage for Moxi. You can watch all your shows in full HD in up to two additional rooms at a time. This is instant streaming with no need to buffer and download like Tivo. Plus Tivo has a further limitation called the CC1 bit. If your cable provider has turned on CC1 on your channels you cannot transfer the show to watch on another Tivo no use Tivoto go. Moxi is not affected by the CC1 bit So I pay for 1 cable card that allows HD that would have cost $30+ plus monthly to get HD to my other TVs.

INNOVATION: One thing that bugged me about Tivo was the fact that they really have not done anything innovative. Purely IMHO, they seemed to be relying on lawsuits and settlements to protect their interests. I am thrilled to see Moxi as a competitor. Moxi is like how Tivo was when it first started... ... By Moxi releasing a major update indicates they will continue to innovate.

COMPATIBILITY: Moxi is DLNA certified. Tivo is not. What does this mean? Well, simply put you can streaming files from other DLNA certified devices straight to your MOXI and allow you to play it on your TV. Windows 7 and PS3 among others are DLNA certifeid as well. So if you have pictures, music and videos stored on Windows or PS3, you can play those on the Moxi as well. For the most part, it is really easy. It will find your Windows 7 easily. Keep in mind not some files might need to be converted if it is in a exotic format.

STREAMING FROM RENTAL PLACES: How about Netflix and Amazon streaming? Well, this is not as easy as Tivo (yet). Tivo has this integrated in their main system. Streaming from websites on Moxi requires PlayOn installed on a computer. Streaming goes from Netflix or Amazon to the the computer with Playon and then to Moxi. Now PlayOne comes free with your Moxi order. It is a $49 value. I find that PlayOn works quite well with Moxi. Now there is a hidden gem with this setup.. PlayOn worths with HULU! HULU is probably the better free streaming sites. Hopefully at the rate Moxi is innovating, I have a feeling some of these features on be added on the menu.

SUPPORT: I had to contact MOXI a couple of times for help. They have three methods of contacting them: online chat, email and phone. I find them to be knowledgable and helpful in their responses.

WHAT YOU WILL NOT GET: No Tivotogo. No over the air tuner. You must have cable. You cannot extract or backup your videos.

If you want further help or opinions, there is pretty active thread on AVS Forums. Just search MOXI HD DVR at AVS Forums.

Brief:
Pros,
- DLNA support watching my divx movies, hulu, mp3s, jpgs, from my tversity box was super easy. The DLNA menu is much faster than the Xbox360 or Dlink dsm-520.

- Menu is much easier to read than the motorola or tivohd, all three used different methods for moving around. all were just as intuitive.

- 2 hour live buffer is really nice... tivo is 30min...

- compatable with 4TB eSata drive from lacie. Tivo maxes out at 2TB total storage regardles of how it is installed.

- Ticker is kind of like a widget, nice. also there is a webpage display but it is currently really slow... could easily be a bug though. (you can view web pages from the moxi)

- worked right away after upgrading channel lineup. (the tivo required me to manually add the new premium channels)

- Just a response to other reviews as of july 10th when i recieved this box I have had no crashing, and my recorded content is flawless. Also the remote is indeed backlit.

Cons:
- Tivo has a much better search, smarter more intuitive.
- box to box streaming and box to pc streaming need to be fixed.
- moxi mate needs to be released.
- no discount for second/third box.
- streaming HD from netflix/unbox/blockbuster

All of the cons listed are being addressed by moxi and they expect all of them to be released this year... (with the exception of dlna 2.0 streaming to a pc client.)

I purchased the moxi and tivo HDXL the same day within 4 days I had both units at home waiting for cable cards. Fios tech came out only had one card and installed it in the tivo so I used the tivo for 4 days before another tech could come out and set up the moxi. he had not seen a moxi and after showing him the cablecard pairing screen he was able to get the box running in 20 minutes. both tivo and moxi were effertless in there set up on fios.

After using them side by side for 3 weeks I decided to send back the tivo for most of the reasons listed above but also my tivo crashed on me twice and stayed locked up not recording anything. I would really like to see the search and schedule features brought up to tivo level, and of course the box2box and live tv streaming would be nice. one note on box to box... some tivo content can not be transfered if there are 5c flags due to the transfer method of tivo not being encrypted. Moxi uses a dlna 2.0 copy method so that no transfers will be blocked.

I would highly recomend this product to anyone looking for a DVR and want more open standards. Especially if you are already used to streaming from dlna product like tversity, playon or twonky. Also being able to have 4.5TB of recordings

UPDATE: Moxi summer software update added support for native mkv and avi files. This is great for streaming from a pc no more need to transcode.
Also moxi to moxi and moxi to mate streaming is working great. and lastly digeo has test esata drives up to 8 TB from lacie and verified they work with the moxi (those drives are currently close to $2000 though...

First let's make one thing very clear: there is nothing else on the market right now that gives you high definition, hard drive recording from cable, has 2 QAM tuners, accepts a dual tuner cable card, provides a decent schedule/programming interface, has no reoccurring fees, and has first class customer support.

If you do not own a computer, do not purchase this unit. If you are not subscribed to a cable company, do not purchase this unit.

The unit arrived packaged well. Setup took less than an hour. You make 3 connections not including the power cord: 1) the cable company's incoming cable 2) the HDMI cable from from tv. A six foot HDMI cable is included 3) the network cable from your router.

Once you are connected, you follow the on screen instructions to activate your account. Contrary to what others have said, navigating through the menu is not super intuitive and some of the more important features are buried in sub menus. Irregardless, you will eventually get the hang of it and in a few days be zipping through, at least, the recording and playback functions.

If you do not intend on using a cable card, which you get from your cable company for a nominal fee, you will be stuck receiving only the QAM channels which is about 25% of what the cable company offers. This is because the unit is not equipped with a QAM Free tuner which most modern tv's have built in. So the result is, you WILL be able to see channels on your tv that your MOXI will NOT be able to record.

The MOXI has first class, made in America, live person support. I ended up going on their web site and typing in my problem (wrong time displayed) in their "live" messaging box. After some text messaging back and forth, he contacted me by phone and we worked it out. He followed up a day later to make sure everything was going smoothly (it was). They can access your MOXI from their office and run diagnostics on it etc.

I deducted a star because there are a few clunky areas of their schedule/programming interface that need work. I was assured by MOXI support that they will address these in future operating system updates.

In summary, this is a good unit that is 95% there. If you want to record high definition tv without the monthly fees and a better programming interface with no commercials, it's the only game in town.

UPDATE - I sadly returned this after trying two of them. Both had tuner issues, ie picture and sound breakup under certain conditions. The MOXI 30 day guarantee worked as stated on their web site. Also their tech support continued to be the best I have ever experienced with any product - live people from the state of Washington.

I decided to take the plunge and buy this DVR- who can pass up the 30 day money back guarantee? I have used Tivo in the past, but their service is over-rated! Setup was pretty simple- just get a multi-stream cable card from your cable provider (in my case, Wide Open West), plug it in, read the CSR the HostID number and presto, it's provisioned with your account. After I activated my moxi online, I simply logged in and scheduled my shows using their website and everything is working like a charm.

The menu navigation took a few minutes for me to get used to- but it's actually fairly simple and I like it better than the "grid/guide" menu system. It streams divx movies and Mp3's directly from my PC- all without fuss.

A few things I think would benefit with a software update:
Ability to change default recording options
- i.e. first run vs re-runs, how long to keep the shows.. each of these have to be setup manually while you setup the scheduling.

Also, if you could download different menu themes/color schemes rather than the out of the box blue color (which is very pretty- but color options would make a world of difference).

Lastly... a front panel CLOCK! I didn't realize how much I looked at my old cable box just to see the time..

Overall, the actual functionality and moxi service is by far the best I've ever seen and well deserving of 5 stars!

Give it a try- you won't be disappointed!

Positives:
Interface - easy to use. Easy on the eyes. Makes sense.
Style - A much sleeker piece than it's Comcast equivalent. Black box fits in - and the ability to turn off the Moxi light on front makes it fit in more.
Remote - turns on my TV and soundbar, so I only need one remote. The comcast remote wouldn't work with my Yamaha YSP-800.
Web Scheduling - was able to schedule online from my iPhone. Would LOVE a Moxi App (like the TiVo one.)

Negatives:
Black screens at first - needed to call Moxi to get a firmware update so my screens wouldn't lag.
RF Extender didn't work. Maybe it's just my extender, but it didn't work with the Moxi like it did with the Comcast box.
No Netflix/Amazon Unbox ... Yet. I hope these will get added.

All in all, I highly recommend the Moxi. It feels great to break free of the Comcast monthly box charges and have a piece that matches my other components. Its display is visually pleasing. $799 is a bit pricey, but I do believe it will pay off over the long haul (remember, no subscription fees and no monthly rental fees.)

Moxi MR-1500T3 HD Digital Video Recorder is a great addition to our home's media center.

It is user friendly - comes with a complete cable kit (including: ethernet and component and even the batteries for the remote). It is very easy to assemble. The interface is well designed and there is no guess work in how to use it. The remote's layout is also well designed and the buttons are wide and easy to maneuver.

It has great features - Along with your ability to record your favorite TV shows and movies for later viewing (sans commercials), you can also use it for showcasing your home videos and photos, both from your hard drive or web based galleries (such as Flickr and YouTube).

Beautiful design - Its sleek modern design makes it a great addition to our living room and blends right in, unlike other appliances which can dominate the room...

Cons - It has a slight fan noise when working. It upgrades automatically, which can take as long as 30 minutes (which can cause delay).

All in all I am very satisfied with MOXI and would recommend it to other buyers.

I have used many different DVR's over the years including Tivo, Sony DHG-HDD250 and a few different Cable/Satellite provided HD-DVR's. My requirements for a new DVR were that it had to be HD, minimum of two tuners, charge no subscription fees, have multi-room viewing capabilities, and must support clear-QAM mapping. The Moxi combined with the Moxi Mate was the only HD-DVR on the market which met my requirements so I decided to try it out. I have been using the Moxi and Moxi Mate for about 3 months now.

Pros:
-No subscription fees.
-Two-week program guide which can be viewed in a vertical or traditional grid type guide.
-Online scheduling with instant conflict notification.
-Moxi Mate which allows you to watch recorded shows on a different TV in the house. With the upcoming update you can also watch live TV on the Moxi Mate.
-The Moxi Mate allows you to access the same premium content you can get on your main Moxi box without paying additional cable box or cable card fees.
-Supports clear-QAM channel mapping (a must have for me).
-Very responsive navigation through menus.
-Supports Netflix, Amazon On-Demand, and Hulu through Play-on. I love being able to watch Hulu on my TV without having to watch it on the computer.
-Backlit remote.
-Excellent/friendly customer support.
-Super Ticker to keep updated on sports scores, stocks, news, etc.
-Built in Rhapsody and Flickr.
-It looks really cool in the entertainment center.

Cons:
-Remote does not have a TV input select button.
-Not highly intuitive. You need to read the manual to learn the tricks/shortcuts.

All in all I am very happy with the Moxi. Both my wife and I consider it one of the best electronic purchases we have made. I am considering buying another Moxi Mate for the kitchen TV.

I was a little leery of buying a Moxi given some of the mixed reviews I have read here. However after a lot of research I decided to buy one in July along with a new HD TV. I have had the Moxi for three months, it is an amazing DVR and I have no regrets. Previously I have had a TIVO and the standard Motorola DVR provided with Verizon FIOS service.

I found the cost of similarly configured Tivo and Moxi devices to equal out after 4-5 years, so cost wasn't a big factor for me, I had a Tivo for 5 years. While I like not having to pay monthly guide fees, at the end of the day you pay for it one way or another.

Installation was straight forward. The video quality is exceptional. Sound and picture blips that I see frequently with my SD Motorola box and TIVO are rare on the HD Moxi. The video processing capabilities with this box seem to be very solid.

The user interface is beautiful and is designed for HD . I enjoy watching a recorded or live show (seeing it clearly in HD) while configuring the device, recording other shows, or browsing live guides. I read many of the issues regarding the interface. Some of them were fixed with an update. Other minor annoyances still exist, but I have not found them to be show stoppers. A couple of the controls are different than TIVO, but after a couple of hours of moving through the interface, they were easy to master. Particularly nice are the filters for HD, movies, news, and other categories. I hope they will continue to make tweaks to the interface to address some of the outstanding interface concerns.

With regard to reliability the system has crashed once in 3 months. This is comparable to the other two DVR's I have, they seem to hang about 4 times a year. The verdict is still out on long term reliability as I have only had the device 3 months.

All in all, for me, the MOXI is a great alternative to the TIVO. I like the idea of no monthly fees. There are a couple ease of use features I miss on the TIVO (e.g. TIVO doesn't confirm deletes as it is easy to recover them). Although I have to say after using the MOXI interface for a while, I prefer it's overall HD layout, the filters, and ability to watch the news or other programming (in a large window) while performing other functions on the box. I am very happy with the decision to buy the MOXI, it is a real joy to use.

The Moxi hd dvr really delivers in so many ways. One of the best things about this company is their customer service. Fed ex missed delivery with me the day it was supposed to arrive. They didn't knock or ring any bell. So I was chatting with a rep and he said he would personally call them himself and ask if they could stop by again. To my surprise they did! within a few hours later it arrived. So hats go off to them big time for their Superior customer service.

The Pro's

* Excellent interface
* Loads of features including the ticker which is great
* Easy menu navigating to get where you need too.
* Stunning picture: with my cable's hd dvr box the hd channels would sometimes bug out and with the Moxi I do notice a more sharper picture.
* When Channel skipping it has the ability to skip commercials and actually skip them instead of Tivo where you can only skip 30 secs of commercials.
* Graphics on it are stunning. Works well with an HDTV. The television channel icons are nice looking.
*It's nice to watch Netflix movies on the Moxi.

I don't know why people give moxi a bad review. The box doesn't freeze up on me. Price wise it's high up there 799 for the box but no monthly fees ever. The Tivo's website has the their xl hd dvr for 599.00 + 399.00 for the lifetime subscription... So the Moxi is more cost efficient in the end. Plus the lifetime subscription only covers the unit you buy any new ones you buy in the future.

One of the best investments that you can make. Loaded with a lot of features.