Moxi HD DVR - Page 195

Retail is gone. Now only available as an MSO device.

Guide data for existing users will last until Arris changes it's mind again. Nobody knows how long that will be.

I've just started experiencing the exact same issue with a two tuner MOXI (MR-1500T3) connected to an external 1TB My Book AV DVR expander.

Have I already lost all content on both external and internal HDD's completely or can I potentially test first by unplugging the MOXI and then plugging it back in without disconnecting the My Book HDD?

MOXI is no TiVo, but its channel mapping feature allowed recording 90% of Comcast's Limited Basic lineup w/o having to pay Comcast's $8.75 monthly Additional Outlet fee.
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If MOXI is inherently unreliable there'd be nothing gained by replacing its internal HDD and IMHO it'd make more sense to just get rid of it.

Manually rebooting the MOXI did no better than an automatic reset.

Anybody want a MR-1500T3 with b.o. HDD plus a NIB MOXI Mate?

Sent you a PM.

I replied.

Falling Water,

I don't think the the Moxi is inherently unreliable, per se. It's just with that HDD spinning 24/7 and it sandwiched in the box as it is HDD failures are inevitable. HDD failures are inevitable regardless but as long as you get a reasonably robust HDD you should get a few more years out of the old beast. My HDD lasted well over two years before I swapped it out. With the Ceton Q a bust, I'm waiting for TIvo's Mini release before I pull the trigger on a Premier. That said, it's too bad that given the Moxi's potential, we're dry four years out before a competing retail solution is on the market.

Constantly spinning HDDs are currently the weakest link in mainstream DVRs. At least SSDs fail in recording mode only and anything already recorded can be transferred.

That being said, for me one MOXI failed early while four hi-def TiVo's of similiar age just keep chugging along!

MOXI lost everything recorded on approx. 750 Gb of storage. (Int. and ext. HDDs were approx. half full.)

It's amazing the number here and elsewhere that seem to think something constantly running 24/7 when it it not in use is no problem. Interesting, didn't know that.

Well, Moxi did have that run of bad drives in their production stock which failed quite quickly. Mine lasted 2+ years, however. This issue of failing drives probably did Moxi in more than any other one thing. I suspect the Tivo's HDD placement in the box allows for better air circulation and heat dissipation. As I've said before once Tivo releases the Mini extender I will be shifting to a Premier XL. That said, while the Moxi has paid for itself above the cost of renting a couple of boxes from TWC, I will miss the Moxi UI which I've grown to love. Whenever I'm outside of my home and use a cable box I get the shivers with that clunky grid channel guide that just seems so inelegant.

It's equally amazing that you don't understand that every commercially available DVR made works that way. ReplayTV, Tivo, Moxi, cable/sat DVRs, they all run 24x7.

1.You best take a closer look at the table in the DVR comparison thread;
2. They don't "all" run this way,
3. The ones that do, don't, or shouldn't have to,
4. If the HDD is not is use and won't be for a extended period of time, there is no practical reason it should be running. Period!
5. Familiarize yourself with the operation of a hybrid vehicle, the engine only runs when it needs to why should it be any different here?

What part of the above don't you understand?

That you don't seem to comprehend that all the major DVR players run their boxes this way. The other ones in your list are so inconsequential as to be ignored.

I tend to think the sata hdd spins down when its not in use for a while. ive seen this happen on desktop, dock, etc and would imagine the technology is in the hard drive.

I fully understand most unnecessary spin 24/7 without any option of turning off the 'buffer'. Exactly where in that quote you keep bringing up does it imply what you claim "I don't understand"??

You don't seem to understand that it isn't necessary for these to work this way and there should be an option to have it spin down at least when it is in standby. What part of that isn't clear? Am I not speaking the Kings English?

If you don't care. fine I do, drop the subject.

I agree that there should be an option (for Energy Smart purposes if nothing else), but the manufacturers of 99% of the DVRs out there don't. So you're just pissing in the wind.

There's really no need to be rude about it - I speak, read, and write English just fine.

This however, is not what I would call English.

As you noted the Moxi buffers several minutes of video to the disk. The real problem is that the Moxi does not know if the TV is on. The Moxi Mate will time out after ~2 hours of input inactivity and releases its channel tenancy, however it will not stop the disk recording since the Mate doesn't know if the Moxi's attached TV is on. Likewise, the Moxi is not aware if the Mate's attached TV is on so it will not stop its disk from spinning. Get it?

Now if you want to establish some sort of universal state message that all TVs can pass to attached devices, that's another matter. Notwithstanding older TVs would not have this feature is yet another issue. Listen, I am pretty familiar with the Moxi having owned one for 3+ years, helped decipher some of its internal workings as well as repairing its power supply and the guys at Diego, Moxi's original manufacturer, knew what they were doing. Well, except for the crappy air movement around the drive.

The way to solve that is put a screensaver up saying to press the main menu or live TV button to come out of standby. Pretty much what Tivo does when you put it into standby, which stops buffering live TV but does not spin down the drive. It could be a simple option to enable if the user didn't care about live TV buffering while the DVR is not in use (call it power save mode or whatever). I'm guessing they don't do it because of all the background tasks that run, such as guide listing updates, scheduling, calls to the mothership etc.

Same for the Mate and upcoming Tivo Mini - no live TV in standby if no one is streaming, press a button on any box to come out.

Rude?? There was no need to twist something around that wasn't stated or implied.
You have blasted me twice on this. It wasn't me that was being "rude", just responding to your incorrect post..

Shouldn't matter. Ability to turn buffering off and placing it in standby is all that would be needed. Does a PC know when a monitor is on? At least they allow the option of sleep or low power states.

The key and point here is options.

Of course, Tivo was first designed without any extender in mind. The Moxi is different; its Mate extender was designed alongside the Moxi. As I mentioned a previous post, when you have a client server arrangement, the state of the the TV (and not the Mate) must be known to spin down the drive without interrupting the service. In a related matter apparently, the Tivo's Mini extender initially will grab hold onto one of the CableCard's tuners semi-premenently; Tivo hasn't worked out how to have the Mini graciously surrender ownership of the tuner. (Heck, maybe even Moxi has patented that process.) Anyway, its fun to think about these sorts of things. At least I think its fun.

Operon, I have wondered if TiVo's reserving of the tuner for their extender is technical or legal related to Moxi.

Very good question. I don't know for sure. Diego did file a bunch of patents in the wake of Moxi's development. Somewhere I downloaded the patent filings related to the Moxi but that was on my old computer so it would take some forensics for me to find them and then to parse through them. The Mate eventually lets go of the tuner rather seamlessly. With 4 tuners in the Premier XL I suspect that this will not become a problem in small installations with one or two Minis; larger installations will have issues. Also, I'm curious why Tivo limited the Premier XL to 4 tuners when the CableCard can support six independent video streams.

If I had to guess, it's probably one of:

• Bus access limitations
• Bus bandwidth limitations
• Cost

As you say, technically it shouldn't be a problem from the M-Card side of the equation. That said, with embedded systems like the highly-integrated Broadcom SoC that the Premiere platform is built around, there are usually various limitations of that sort.

From what I read on tivocommunity, the 4 tuner is a hardware limitation in the TiVo. The 4 tuner was developed by Pace for the MSO market.

The upcoming S5s (or whatever they'll be called) are rumored to include 6-tuner boxes. Supposedly to ship late this year.

um, arris moxi already beat them to 6 tuners and supports tv, internet, and phone. however, it only has 500GB HDD again. they are not playing around.
Edited by dz2k - 3/9/13 at 8:29pm

Not at retail, they didn't. MSO DVRs don't count.

i dont like the fact its not at retail. maybe one day itll be back but i already have my setup so im not interested. it seems also that the new "moxi name" is actually used as what we would call a "retail mate".

It's been fun, and sometimes not so fun, but I'm finally selling my Moxi (1500T3) and Mate - anyone interested in one or both? I bought them new in May 2010, and have never had an issue with the hard drive. Not a whole lot of ebay sales to go on, how about $250 for the DVR and $200 for the mate, shipping included? Or make me an offer.

Going to a TiVo?