Moxi 3012 DVR Q&A and Discussion Thread - Page 2

well, i tried to get myself a 3012, but i am just outside st. louis county, so we wont have them for another 6 months or so says the tech that i spoke with today. (franklin county, mo)

Is there only one optical out? Don't most people run tv and DVD thru their surround sound? and the switch from USB to eSATA on EHD - always thinking of the consumer!

Right you are...I missed that.

So to get get ready for my 3012 install tomorrow I decided to save some money and crack into my existing External USB drive that I have hooked into the Moxi. I am using a WD My Book 500gb USB2 drive currently. I figured that more than likely the drive inside would be SATA and so that hopefully I could turn the drive into a eSATA with minimal effort. I started by ripping the drive out of the enclosure(yeah its a little beat up now) and discovering that the drive was connected using a SATA+Power all in one cable. I used a dremel tool to cut the 2 cables off so that they both remained usable but could now be plugged in separately. Once the cable issue was solved I then used the dremel tool yet again to cut open a small hole in the enclosure to make way for my eSATA cable. Once the hole was in place I went ahead and plugged in the power cable and the existing SATA to USB cable back in its place so that it could continue to function as a USB drive. Once I am ready to go eSATA I should be able to wiggle the SATA cable free to make way for my eSATA cable without having to dismantle the enclosure yet again.

I think I have 3 possible outcomes with my doing an upgrade this way....
1. Everything will work fine, drive will format and I just saved myself some money...
2. Internal check on the External drive enclosure sees no hard drive is installed and turns off/goes into sleep mode.. Don't think I could work around this one but I doubt it will be an issue.
3. Internal check detects that the USB port is not active and goes into sleep mode/turns off. I think this one could be fixed by just plugging the USB cable into the Moxi just so it detects some sort of connection on the USB cable. I again don't think this will be an issue as the My Book, unlike some other models, have never gone into a sleep mode so I don't think they support doing this on their own.

All in all I hope/think that I will have a fairly cheap and easy eSATA enclosure that will work with the new Moxi. The only part required to get this done is a SATA to eSATA cable that I will 'borrow' from the office. Now I just have to hope my install goes smooth and that I didn't do all this effort for nothing.

I have included a few photos taken with my Iphone..

Yeah I could have gone that route, but at $25 dollars I probably would have ended up talking my self into just buying a new larger drive as I could have a found a use for the My Book somewhere else on my network without issue... And with a baby on the way I figured I was better off attempting this cheaper route..

To those of you have received the new Moxi 3012 from Charter. Are any of you in St. Louis City, or is this box only available in St. Louis County

I got the new MOXI, and I'm in neither. Belleville, IL here. The guy that installed mine said he had to pick it up in Fenton, MO.

Any success thus far on recording from the 3012 to permanant storage as an avi/mpeg/etc? That'll really be the kicker for me on deciding whether to get external storage or not...

Yep its those cheap prices that is why I know I would ended up buying new...


But to report back My install of the New Moxi went fairly well.. Took an extra reboot or two before everything was in order so the tech probably spent a bit over an hour here.. He was a very friendly guy and actually seemed to know a decent amount about Charter's hardware something some installers really lack. So far my eSATA conversion drive is working as expected and formatted without a problem. I'll report back a more comprehensive review later once I have more time to use it after scheduling back all my fracking shows...

just got mine this morning. i'm in stl city. from what the installer told me, i might be one the first in the city, if not the first. earlier this week he told me that it wasn't available in the city. hope this helps.

I got mine at 8:30 yesterday morning in the city... and the installer told me I was the 4th in the market to get a 3012. Methinks there is some misinformation (probably not intentional) out there. Nice guy though.

Hi,

does anyone know if these are being installed in Texas yet?

Thanks

Ok, after a few days of use, and adding about 70 series to the schedule I thought I would go ahead and share my thoughts on the new Moxi Cable 3012 DVR.

At first glance I haven't really noticed the interface being much slower, or the search being much slower. I think some of this could be the fact that the first Gen Moxi went through several software updates to speed things up but more than likely the majority of my searches were all done before these software tweaks were put in place.. Meaning most of my reference for searches would have been during the slower time of the first gen moxi. It is still slow, and still a bit clunky to search through but overall I don't think its much worse than the First gen Moxi...

HDMI 480i seems to be working for me. With the first gen Moxi if I used 480i with a DVI to HDMI converter I always had a weird picture issues in the center of the screen. So I always kept the first gen Moxi at 480p and out of Habit I may end up doing the same with this box. I tried to see if I could tell a picture quality difference between 480i and 480p and I don't think I noticed any. As far as picture quality of 480 content looking better than the first gen moxi I would say this newer box may have a slight edge. But without seeing the two side by side I would say its just a slight edge and not any kind of night and day difference.

The actual handling of the videos and play back though does seem to have taken a step backwards. When I delete a show it remains playing in the background for a longer period than the first gen box did. This doesn't really cause an issue I just find it odd that it takes so long for the stop and delete process to complete. Also, and most annoyingly, the 30second skip now sucks hardcore(well I guess no 30second skip option would suck more). The video now seems to pause, think about what its going to do, then skips ahead 30 seconds and starts playing back. The first gen box would respond just about instantly, move you to the new spot in the video and let you see what spot its stopping at, and then would resume playback. This allowed you to quickly see where 30 seconds take you allowing you to almost instantly hit the 30 second skip again if needed. This bug would be top on my complaint list and I hope its something that they fix in the first round of updates for this system.

On the list of things I do like though that would include the support of eSATA drives. I think/hope that with the overhead of USB gone it may give Digeo the ability to make things perform a little better or more consistently for users. Also, when your watching, or have selected recorded content it now includes more options for editing the series and such so it is nice to now have more things at your finger tips without digging through the Moxi menu. The Moxi is now cool to to the touch all over the place. I think this is a good sign that this system will be much more stable and should last as long as the hard drive in the system is capable of lasting. The open top vent should do a good job keeping things running but I do wonder what kind of issue dust will have falling directly inside the case. The good part is it should be easy to use the Air in a can to keep things clean now that you can clearly see all the components inside. The only downside to this reduced temperature on the box is my cat will now have to find a new place to sleep, but I won't miss the times where her tail has blocked the remotes IR Port.

Overall I like the new Moxi and with a software update or two hopefully it will eventually start to surpass the experience of the first gen system. I'm not quite sure why they would have taken these steps backwards, but for all we know Charter is a software version or two behind what Digeo has released since we all know how slow Charter can be to approve different revisions. The 30 second skip is my only real complaint, but it definitely something I can learn to live with if I must. If you have a first gen Moxi then I don't see a reason to be in a hurry to upgrade but at the same time I have no regrets in upgrading mine.

Its too bad we lost our direct line of communication with Digeo since it seems they no longer monitor/post in any of the Moxi topics. I think it helped a lot of users through the first gen growing pains when we knew our complaints were being heard and addressed by Digeo development. I suppose I will find a contact option on their web page to complain to them about the 30second skip stupidity.

-Phatty

Well sucks to hear that unless somehow our boxes are running different firmwares. The 30 second skip is my only real complaint as it just feels clunky now compared to how it was before....I also doubt that we are running different software versions but I can hope as I doubt its worth a box swap for something so minor(yet annoying). I will manually initiate a software update and give it a fresh reboot before recordings start tonight and see if that clears anything up.

Phatty I agree with your review of the new Moxi box and think your right on target with your review and feedback.

I have noticed that although the box is slightly slower overall operations of the interface is more consistant. Meaning not as many LONG pauses.
I can confirm the 30 sec skip feature works as you describe (poorly) and yes video playback controls overall feel clunkly.

It is unfortunate that the likes of MoxiGuy are no longer around to fill us in and provide feedback due to employee cuts at Diego. If you think about the last couple years with the Moxi being out of production poeple have been fighting to keep their Moxi boxes over the years. I think that really made the orginal Moxi box into the box it is today. More companies should learn from this example because I believe it made for a very loyal fan base.

I was hopeful an update was ready for me as the App, Boot, and Updates version all showed the same 4.1c.0.109C3R-S.231969 and the software version was the same P as yours.... But in the end even after initiating an update manually I have remained on the same software version as you.

Also the 30 second skip probably isn't as slow as I make it out to be. I think the difference is I believe the first gen box would immediately take you 30 seconds ahead where you would see a paused image of the new scene that would then start playing.... Now it seems to skip ahead 30 seconds in the background, then starts playing immediately.. Meaning you have to wait around for the new video scene to start playing again before you know if you should hit the 30 second skip one more time. It probably only amounts to an extra half second or second it just feels more clunky to me.

*Edit* Oops, I just found I won't be posting in here because, according to my tech, the 3012's aren't gonna make their way out here. Charter is supposedly cancelling the account with Digeo. Not so sure I believe him though.