Moxi HD DVR - Page 101

Spent some time playing with MediaLink last night and ran into some problems, was wondering if anyone else has seen the same things. I was just playing music; between my wife and I we have 1200+ CDs which I have ripped to mp3s and hosted on a Windows Home Server. I'm just using Media Connect; I'm going to install PlayOn today and see if it helps any of these issues but it really should work as-is (in fact the Message that just showed up on my Moxi lists WMC as supported). I don't have any problems with my PS3 or Xbox 360.

The biggest issue is that when I browse server->Music->{Album/Artist/All Music/Playlist}, not all of them show up. If I had to guess based on what I do see I'd guess I am seeing 1K of each before it cuts off. I do not see the issue in 'Folders' but since I have those split between the two of us, the biggest directory only has 979 subdirs - all of which do show up. The problem with that view is the songs are sorted by filename not track number.

Other misc issues:

• Navigating that many items is terribly slow, it takes 10-15s to load, then holding down "ch +" to page it takes about a minute to get through the list. It would be nice to have search or at least jump by letter.
• Missing tag info under "Now Playing" - "Artist" is blank and there is no album art. I'm very particular about correct tags on all my files and haven't had a problem with any other media player.
• I do not like how it appends ",A" or ",The" to the end, especially because the sort order does not reflect that (i.e. "Beatles, The" is still under "T"). I'd like to be able to disable that, although I might leave it on if the sort order was fixed.
• Speaking of sort order, I think reverse order works better for channels than alphabetized lists, I'd at least like to be able to configure that.
• FF/REW have no effect.
• Replay/Skip seem to work except the timeline gets reset to 0:00 when you press either of them and is subsequently out of sync with the real position in the song.

How long again did you let the install go for? (I assume you let it try for at least an hour?)

Have you consider going direct and taking out the router?

Well, this is interesting to me. Several years back (circa 2002 or 2003) when Adelphia (now TWC) ran a line for our cable modem, they installed a signal amplifier on that line because that cable was also going to be hooked up to a TV, and eventually, another ReplayTV.

When I added a RTV & VCR to the bedroom, I put in a signal amp just because they'd done so in my office.

Flash forward to 1/2010 when we first started having intermittent problems with some of our HD channels (pre-Moxi). The first time TWC came out, they pulled the signal amps & said those are really only good for analog signals & can cause problems for digital or HD (don't remember -- this stuff is way over my head) signals. That only resolved the problem for a few hours/days.

The same thing with TWC replacing splitters & some short pieces of cable running to individual pieces of equipment: it seemed to resolve the problem, but only for a few hours/days. I recall they tested the signals in all three rooms at least two of the times they've been out & pronounced the problem cured, but clearly they were mistaken.


Maybe I didn't explain -- or understand -- well. He said that when viewing live TV through the Mate, that's just like another splitter because that's drawing on or splitting the same coax signal as Moxi. At least, that was my understanding of his explanation . . . maybe I misunderstood!



OK, I finally got the time to move all the furniture to get back to where each cable comes up through the floor (four rooms). I unhooked the cables coming up through the floor from the splitters in the two rooms without Moxis. In the other two rooms with the Moxis, I unhooked the cable from the splitter & connected the cable directly to each Moxi -- that failed to fix the problem.

Then, I unhooked the cable from one Moxi & checked the other -- and vice versa -- with no resolution.

Now, I wasn't able to cap off or terminate the two or three unused runs as Todd (IIRC) suggested because I don't have caps & am currently without a darn car -- is that likely to make a difference?

Also, I have no idea what things look like under the house (i.e., how they split the original line). When we first bought the house, there was existing cable in the living & family rooms. We had them run it to the bedroom when we moved in, and then they added the fourth line in 2002 or 2003 when we switched from DSL to cable modem. We've had known intermittent trouble with HD signals since January in three out of the four rooms with the fourth room being an unknown since we don't have an HD TV in there yet.

Other than buying testing equipment which would do me no good because that's way over my head or telling me to crawl under the house, any other suggestions for things I can or should do help further narrow things down before TWC comes back out in yet another week? I'm trying to be patient, but I'm getting more than a little weary of no resolution, particularly with my new toys While there are quite a few HD channels we don't give a rip about, two of the three we aren't currently receiving are biggies for us.

Moxi needs to move up their timeline for streaming services and a wider range of playback codecs, because I won't pay a subscription fee for PlayOn.

http://www.playon.tv/blog/playon-premium-coming

This all sounds very similar to the problems I was having. It sounds like there is some sort of noise problem but I was not very successful at diagnosing my problems myself. The issues I was having were intermittent so any attempt to "fix" them could be mistaken for success until after the tech was gone.

It is possible for an amp to introduce noise, or to boost the signal higher than the equipment is designed to accept. The latter problem can be addressed with in-line attenuators but without being able to measure the signal strength it's just guesswork. I'd guess that was unlikely to be your problem since removing them didn't really help.

You can look in the Moxi diagnostics, there is one screen where they show what channel each tuner is tuned to with some statistics (SNR, AGC, etc), and see if you can find a pattern for channels that work vs ones that don't. But I'm not sure what you can really do with that data aside from satisfying some curiosity.


Definitely not true - as far as the coax is concerned the mates don't really exist.


It probably won't matter, but like I said it's hard to tell where noise could be entering the system. I tried this and all the other remedies I've mentioned and although they're technically all beneficial changes, none of them resolved my issues. It doesn't matter much if you reduce noise by a small amount if there's some larger source of problems elsewhere.


My first suggestion is what I said earlier - find the line coming from the pole, disconnect the rest of the house, and hook your equipment directly up to that. It definitely helps to have a small portable TV for that step though. That will at least tell you whether the problem is in their system or in your house.

If it's in your house, then you'll have to do your best to work "upstream" from there and see if you can find the problem by unplugging things one at a time, etc. Unfortunately it sounds like crawling under the house may be in someone's future, hopefully you can get the cable guy to do it.

If you're going to go through all the trouble it may be worthwhile just to run all new coax and run them all back to some common point where the splitters are easy to access. You can get a 1000' spool of RG6 for $75 or so, and the compression tool I mentioned before for $50ish, plus $0.50 or so per connector.

Good luck, I definitely know your pain and frustration.

VisionOn- I might be misunderstanding your post, but there’s no extra subscription fee if you just want to use the lifetime PlayOn license you got from MOXI. Extra cost is only if you want to upgrade to PlayOn premier.

No I think you understood him correctly. Just that he doesn't understand what a moxi mate is. It's viewing streamed video off the main moxi. The ONLY item connected and drawing anything off the cable lines is the main moxi (assuming you only had 1 Moxi and however many Moxi Mates). The moxi mate is connected strictly via your internal network.



The best test if you could somehow swing it would be to connect the Moxi right where the line first is brought to your house, before any splitters have been applied (hook it up oustside if you have a way to check it out). The reason for this is that if it doesn't work there, it proves beyond any doubt that the signal is at fault and it has nothing to do with how many splitters are there.

Second best to this would be to find that spot outside your house and put on 1 splitter there and run a line directly from there to your Moxi. Since it should be able to handle 1 splitter perfectly fine, that is still a good test.

I didn't let it run the full hour (this 2nd time) as after the initialization completed (I could tell from the sound from the HD when that completed) it never went to the next step (the reboot and download). At that point the red light started blinking, clearly indicating an issue.

I haven't tried it without a router yet, as I would have no way to release the MAC that the Moxi gets and would have to wait at least 2 hours for it to expire. I will be trying at some point at a friends house where that won't be an issue.

I still a bit skeptical that that will work, but it's always worth eliminating any potential problem items and seeing what happens.

For now that's true, but they already said that they will not be adding to or enhancing the current service so any changes a provider makes will not drip down to basic users.

That also means any prospective HD streaming is out too.

Just a couple general Moxi questions (I'm about ready to wrap up my iPhone Moxi app and want to clarify some things):

• is the online scheduling feature available for the retail HD Moxis only or for cable company-supplied models as well?
• anyone using a Moxi outside the US (and so, where)?

Looks like cable company supplied models have to go their providers webpage.
See link below http://www.charter.net/dvr

As far as I know, Moxi is currently available in the US.

Since you are making an app, can you make one scale to iPad

I am thinking of replacing my internal hard drive. For those who have, do you have any suggestions on which HD to get? I would like one >= 1.5 tb.

+1 on iPad version, I purchased the iPad to control my home automation - works great too.

Can't go wrong with this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136513
1.5TB WD Green for $89 shipped.

Western Digital AV-GP WD15EVDS 1.5TB at $119.99

or

Western Digital AV-GP WD20EVDS 2TB at $159.99

click on the above Newegg links for details.

I have always had good luck with WD - I am running a 17tb server with all WD drives, I run the Greens in my server they are a little less money but I'd go with the AVR drives for the Moxi - personal choice I know some people run the Green drives too.

Dave

OK.....bear with me as I'm new to this "moxi" deal.

Having grown very weary of TW's SA8300HD issues over the years (and subsequent inability of TW to get it right over numerous service visits over the last few years), I'm looking seriously at a Moxi.

Here's my issue......I don't have any internet connections (hardwire) in my basement HT. Is it possible to use wifi with Moxi? I know the Moxi "box" is not wifi capable. But, I already have a PS3 in the same location running wifi. Anyway to do this by adding a wifi router to the Moxi? Anyone done it?

I had heard that TW no longer offers a cable card (which is required for Moxi use). True?

Yes, you could use a wifi bridge with the moxi, though in most cases a hard-wire network medium will probably be more reliable (powerline, MoCA, ethernet).

As for the cablecard thing..that's absolutely false.

An iPad version is planned but the initial version will not have an iPad-optimized UI yet - I want to see how it is received first. Also, I haven't done any iPad UI in my other apps so far and don't yet have an iPad for testing. Eventually the app will be universal (iPad & iPhone versions within a single app) so you won't have to pay twice.

How about an Android version?

awww, you can make this a free app?

Sorry I won't be buying..

Has anyone actually put the 2TB unit into the MOXI yet? We need to be sure the MOXI software doesn't object to having that big drive inside the unit.

You're welcome to write your own and distribute it for free

Not sure if this is any kind of factor, but a while back I was having a conversation with a real engineer and one of his points was that "in the old days" techs used to staple co-ax down in regular 2 feet increments. Which created a possibility of additional signal interference that would not happen if the stapes were more unevenly laid out.

Excellent idea... I always try and tell folks the ONLY way to do a proper troubleshoot is to start at the source and work your way to the final display/speakers, whatever...

TigerDirect has the 2TB model on sale this week-end for $99 after $40 rebate. No tax in CA either.
Dave

After spending as much as all of us have spent on a Moxi and Mates I would think a few more bucks would be nothing. I find a couple extra bucks completely worth it as this is one more thing that Moxi was missing that I liked using on my Tivos.

A lot of us migrated from the cable company to get a better unit with at least equivalent features. When you have to start buying extra software to give the Moxi a feature set that's included with a regular cable box it's defeating the point of buying your own unit to begin with.

I appreciate the effort you will undertake to write this application. I like Apps and most of them make sense.

However, why would I pay for an app that does what I can do for free by logging in to http://www.moxi.com. I do not get it.

The other thing is the Moxi user base is much smaller than Tivo.. if you are in it for a profit, write one for Tivo.

New Moxi Review

http://www.gearlive.com/news/article...hd-dvr-review/