Moxi ( Motorola BMC90xx ) Q&A and Discussion Thread - Page 8

That's the one I know is due to come, we just haven't gotten it yet in Mankato MN i guess. Thanks

Updates do not come often enough! With all the small bugs I would think they would push out more small updates to resolve issues and maybe once a month for feature updates.

Another stupid issue with Moxi..
When in the Channel List you cannot see a discription or entire channel name so when trying to remove music channels from the list it is impossible to tell what each one is unless you refer to a paper guide.. DUMB!!! I think I recall this happening somewhere else too..

Maybe in a year or two when all the bugs are worked out I will consider a Moxi again but I assume Moxi will never use or have an option to use a stardard chart style guide listing so maybe not..

HD Catagory should be a nice addition.. Does it show if a program is actual HD or SD?

i remember seeing that graphic too...i hope the question gets answered.

An observation if i might. I am surprised by the harshness of some of the criticisms of Moxi posted here. I am a bit of a perfectionist myself but the current functionality and the near term tweaks coming to Moxi is fairly astounding to me. Part of the reason I think has to do with those who compare Moxi to TiVo or Reply perhaps. I have never used the last 2 products so I have no comparison to make. I compare my Moxi experience to the TV Guide built in to my last Motorolla 5100 box. When you compare this, Moxi's guide i feel is far sleeker and not ugly like that one is. Plus with all the ads in the TV Guide software, even though it is a grid you only can see :30 at a time. The Moxi GUI is a significant upgrade to me. One minor thing with the Moxi guide is that it shows the channel number and the network logo but not the call letters of the particular station. I have 2 local ABCs so i see 2 logos and their number but to see the station letters i have to be tuned to the station and pull up the flipbar.

Just some thoughts
thanks

interactive program guides (ipg) like TV Guide are a different category. moxi is correctly grouped with TiVo and Replay because they are DVRs.

I think you hit exact on. I'd say that, while heavily expanding. HD has just gotten out of (or maybe is at the final end of) the early adopter phase. But those same early adopters for the most part probably had DVR's as early adopters also. I know I got my first DVR as a pre-order for Replay's first released model (still working perfectly). I've now got 3 Replays. That said, DVR technology is now well established and I think people were expecting a more polished product than was delivered. Kind of like buying a car and getting the chassis delivered, but the rest of it is being built piece by piece.

I know when I first got my unit, I was ready to call Adelphia to come pick it up the next day. I'm learning to work with it. Still really hate the interface, but I can work with it. The sluggish and freezing of the menu is a whole other unacceptable thing, but they say they are working on it. I'll give it some time and see. I think they are trying to do their best.

http://www.instat.com/abstract.asp?i...ku=in0401193mb

Interactive Program Guides (IPGs) are becoming the entertainment portal for TV viewers, and In-Stat/MDR expects the worldwide IPG market value to grow to nearly $1 Billion (US) by 2008. The high-tech market research firm reports that IPGs will be the "killer application" for enhanced interactive television services. IPGs will help end-users to find a TV program, movie or sporting event from among listings of thousands of available options, and then make it easy for them to select the program for viewing, tag it with a reminder for later, or even set up a recording to capture the show for time-shifting on a Personal Video Recorder. ... (for more follow link above)

I was about ready to drop the Moxi and get some way to record OTA HD. The more I read about all the problems associated with doing this made me think twice about giving up the Moxi unit.

My biggest gripes on the Moxi are.

Just scrolling across the menus it should not pause and try and look at that menu, ie: Pay Per View. Fix it so you can quickly scroll past it to where you want to go then select it and bring up the channels or menu.

Native pass through (coming soon)

No DVI (coming soon)

Larger hard drive.

Hopefully I'll end up with a unit that isn't as noisy as the one I have now.

Overall I'm pretty happy being able to record my prime time HD shows and Leno in HD every night. Plus there is no big purchase and if it takes a big dump I just call up cable to bring me another unit.

This is my first DVR so some of the little quirks don't bother me as much as people who have used other boxes.

Just keep the updates and fixes coming and I'll stick with it.

Later,

Jim

Given this I honestly think that the slowness of the menu response and more importantly the extreme lack of storage space are two issues that are just plain unacceptable. Yes, there are a number of UI tweaks that probably could have been addressed before its release but I think they are relatively minor compared to the speed and storage issues.

Granted, I think we really should be much further along with DVR technology but between the xxAAs and other fun bits of DRM technology they just keep screwing the pooch.

I just received the software update!

Anyhow, I've played around with it for a few minutes and made a list of improvements I've found so far:

Menu navigation is 500% faster! (You don't have to wait for the menu to fully load anymore before switching to another)
The menus generally load a lot faster
When changing to a new channel, the status bar at the bottom now has the nifty what's playing next' thing (You can arrow over to it, and go up and down, just like in the channels menu)
Shows scheduled to record are noted in the On Next' screen in the channel list (and now at the info bar at the bottom) to the right of the show title with an open blue circle
It's a lot easer to delete programs now because after you click delete the first time, the yes, delete' option in the next screen is selected by default
There's a new HDTV' menu
There's a new little effect when moving around. The little white arrow has an orange one that moves from behind it in the direction of the desire
Menu's seems to have more of an emphasized fade in' effect
When you push channel + or - in the channel list, It makes a bling' noise

I still don't understand why they can't re-encode the bleeps', blings', and bloops' so I can listen to them while watching something with dolby digital sound.

Overall it's a pretty nice improvement. I understand that the major software updates take a while to test and what not, but at the same time it would be nice to see smaller bug fixes more frequently.

Just in case you're wondering, I didn't automatically receive the software update; I triggered the software update feature from the diagnostics screen.

I disagree.. As a computer technician I accept bugs and stupid problems with my computers but when I want to sit down and watch TV on a dedicated system that was designed for ONE purpose only, to watch TV, I expect it to work as it should without having to reboot or wait 5-10 seconds for the menu to work.

I have no comparison to TIVO or Replay as I have never owned one. Also on the note the TV Guide GUI I find that although it looks VERY nice it does not work as well as a standard TV Guide interface found on alot cable boxes. OK the stardard Charter cable box sucks too but that's another reason I am going back to Astound. When looking a TV Guide I like to be able to see what is on for the next few hours in a glance not by scrolling to each channel.

Anyways I had high hopes for Moxi and if they ever resolve all the bugs the Moxi guide would be a fairly minor issue.

Give it try and decide for yourself

I am also in Southern California and I tried to force DL the update, but the Moxi Box was taking too long to DL and I had to go to work.

How long did it take to do the actual DL for you?

It took a good 8 minutes for it to download the updated software/firmware, and maybe 4 minutes to update the firmware and reboot.

I'm assuming you used the trigger events page in the diagnostic menu to get the software update. Did you just put a check mark next to the "trigger software update" and then exit the menu?

On a side note, I have found that I get a lot of glitches in HD recordings when the UI(menu) is enabled. When I stop watching TV I make sure that the UI is not enabled so HD recordings are watchable. Only problem is that the Moxi seems to enable the UI on its own. 70% of the time when I turn on the TV the UI has enabled itself and some of my recordings are messed up. I found that if I leave the Moxi on a SD or SA channel when I am not watching, I have far less glitches in my HD recordings.

Moxiguy
I have the Moxi configured to 1080i. Every few days it defaults back to 480i and I have to change it back. This is my second Moxi unit and I don't remember this happening on the previous unit. Is there a way to make the 1080i setting stick?

octavian

Once I pushed the OK' button while trigger software update' was highlighted, it did the rest. (downloaded the software, updated the firmware, and rebooted)


Also, it seems that the software update fixes this problem too. Before, when I turned on the T.V. the next day, the info bar was at the bottom, but now its not there.

MoxiGuy said here that the next update (presumably this one) would automatically time out of the UI. No word on the pixelation issues - I've got them too and it's incredibly annoying.

- Rick -

I started the process as you describe below, but I had to go to work and couldn't wait. Now, I can't wait to get home to see if there is anything new to play with.

i tried it but to no avail...either i need to try again or charter hasn't made it available yet

I went into the menu and triggered the software update and it took about 10 minutes to download and reboot. It now has the updated HD menu and program bars.

Menu movement does seem allot faster just moving around. Will play around with it more later on.

Jim

I got home and noticed that we have the upgrade (after my promting it this morning). It appears that it is limited to Southern California Adelphia from the posts.

In addition to the speed of the menus, I have noticed the HD selection and most importantly, NO AUDIO PROBLEMS. The audio skips that I have been experiencing no longer seem to be a problem.

The Adelphia subscribers in the SoCal market are getting the update now. New Charter subs in St. Louis have it. Charter subs in other markets, patience. It's coming soon. Two points:[list=1][*]You don't have to do anything to get it. It's controlled from the cable company.[*]There's nothing you can do to force it from your end before your local cable company has released it to your market.[/list=1]

Is there anything that requires a cable company to push an update? My local adelphia (socal - thousand oaks) seems to be a little backwards most of the time...I can see them not caring or not bothering to push any updates...just wondering...

Okay, I'm impressed. Good work on this update, digeo. Menus are much more responsive and some of the UI tweaks are great - especially the scheduled to record indicator and the improved flip bar.

The only problem is I'm so used to hitting arrow up, ok to confirm deletion I've got to retrain myself now.

Went home last night to force the update and Adelphia had already sent it to me.

This update is a big improvement. The UI is much more responsive. And best of all, using the UI doesn't cause the HD signal to be corrupted anymore. Hopefully this update will fix the Moxi losing my 1080i setting.

Moxiguy
One new thing that I don't understand. I tried to set the Moxi to record a program last night and it brought up a menu that said it had to delete recorded shows to "make room" for the new show. But I only had 3 hours of recorded shows(HD) so there should have been plenty of room left. I have lots of upcoming shows to record, but they're spread out over a week. I canceled the recording because I did not want to take the chance of it deleting the recorded shows.

What does this menu do? Is it just a "warning" that you have more shows in the recording queue than space, and when space is needed in the future it will delete shows on its own. Or does it make you delete shows at that moment. And if so, do you choose which shows will be deleted, or does it just delete shows on its own.


Thanks for all the hard work.

octavian

My unit got the update Tuesday night on its own. i think Moxi just got themselves a bunch of good karma as it is a night and day difference in the menu speeds! The little added features are nice (is there anything that was missed in the post above) but overall I am most pleased with the responsiveness of the menu. Thanks!

On another note...

I have had this happen to me a few times as well. It will even happen if I go to edit the recording options for a series already set to record to lessen the amount of shows that I want the unit to record. I have already had it delete shows I marked as "keep until I delete" because of this and it is a but frustrating.

Any news on expanding the storage yet?

expanding storage will be key to me sticking with this technology (that and the high def offered by my local adelphia)...80% of everything i record is high def, and its been incredibly hard for me to watch everything right away,...plus I am unable to archive anything really since 1 hour of high definition takes up about 10% of the internal storage...

once we are able to add external drives, being able to tack on an external 250GB drive will be great...i have two moxi's at home...and while I record alot of the same stuff on both, it will be a nice feature if I can just take an external drive and plug it into my second moxi and watch the shows recorded to the external drive...

I've noticed a related issue (at least with the old firmware - haven't checked the new firmware yet) - I can't set a show to Keep until I delete. Everytime I try, it tells me it will have to cancel a series recording that's almost a week away. The logic is probably right and this is probably mostly a symptom of the anemic drive size, but it's really annoying. I just want to make sure I keep one show - I know if I keep it some other shows might need to be deleted early, but I'll probably watch those the same day they air anyway, so in reality there most likely will be enough space. I'm not a free space meter advocate per-say, but there ought to be a better way to handle this.

I have an SA tivo as well, and it's never told me I couldn't mark a program KUID. I think maybe Tivo's logic might delete shows marked keep x days early to solve this problem (of course the show size / drive size ratio is a lot lower with the tivo too).

To keep a show on the moxi, I have to tell it every couple of days to keep for 4 days. Kind of defeats the purpose of KUID. I'm starting to really dislike yellow exclaimation marks.

These rave reviews of the software update have me salivating until it comes to Charter....An additional clarification to my earlier posts about my overall satisfaction with Moxi so far also has to do with the fact that I have never had any of the freeze up/reboot problems I have read about from other users. I have had the Moto BMC less than a month.

went home for lunch today, checked the moxi, and there was the update! Don't have anything new to really say, but I'll say a little anyways...I didn't have much time to play around, but I definitely pulled up the moxi menu and scrolled back and forth very smoothly...my wife will be happy about that, this annoyed her more than anything probably...

I played around with the flipbar's new functionality as well (dispalying the next 3 programs)...the flip bar looks a little bigger to accomodate this (can't tell for sure), but it is definitely a great feature...now you can scroll quickly through channels and tell what's coming on without having to browse over on each channel...

I'll definitely post any other findings I have later...I record alot of programming on thursday nights...so I'm sure I'll notice if alot of the problems I'm used to seeing are gone...

I would like to add though that I'm quite impressed with the moxi/digeo team...I come from dish network, who I was quite happy with their dvr...and while there is still some functionality missing in the moxi that would be great to have...I do like that they appear to be taking note of any and all issues, and releasing on a regular schedule...my dvr with dish network had major issues for probably 8-10 months before we saw any kind of fix...so Good Job Digeo!!!

Now all I really want is to pass throught the base (480i) resolutions on SD channels so my TV can handle it (in lieu of the box). Moxiguy said that it should be in the next software release. Now I am anxious (but willing to wait the few months).

One question for Moxiguy:

When the 480i resolution programming is passed through to the TV, is that going to change the appearance of the menus or flipbar? When I decrease the resolution on the box to 480i (from 1080i) I note that the text in the flipbar becomes pixelated and ugly. With the proposed change, is only the programming going to be passed through, with the Moxi software "stuff" remaining at the higher resolutions?

Thanks

CMaki

Thanks to you all for the kind words about this update, on behalf of the Moxi development team and the folks at Adelphia and Charter who are all working together to bring this service to you.

Here's a rundown of the key changes. (Many of which have already been discovered and posted.)

As I've mentioned before, you'll know you have the upgrade when the Moxi Menu includes a new HDTV card between Favorite Channels and Movies. This is the first of several releases in the pipeline. It addresses many of the issues raised in these forums. (We're planning to address others in subsequent releases.)

Here's a rundown of what's in this release (as well as some of the known issues we're still working on).
General Performance

Enhancements

• Channel tuning performance: Made improvements to channel tuning performance on the BMC9012
• Stability: Overall system stability was improved.

Known Issues

• Cold-Start performance: If the system is inactive for a prolonged period, there is a delay in response to the first remote command. After the first command, the remote operates normally.
• Menu Performance: The menu may respond slowly when simultaneously viewing an HDTV program and recording another HDTV program.

Audio Visual Quality, Performance, & Settings

Enhancements

• HD Video Quality: Further improvements were made to eliminate the occasional video pixilation and glitches.
• Widescreen Setting: Corrected issue that caused the system to lose changes to this setting and revert back to widescreen.

Known Issues

• Performance: Occasional minor audio or video glitches may occur while watching one HD channel and simultaneously recording another HD channel.
• Analog Audio: There have been a few reports of boxes receiving analog audio only on one tuner. If this occurs, reset the box by pressing the power/reset button on the front of the box for about four seconds
• DVI: DVI is not fully enabled in this release.
• Video Output Settings: Cropped mode in the widescreen setting only works when the video output mode is set to 480i
• Digital Music Channels: During menu transitions, such as when invoking Moxi Menu, a momentary audio drop out on music channels may be experienced.
• SAP: Some channels have no audio when SAP is enabled from the Moxi service.

Moxi Menu

Enhancements

Find By Title/Keyword:

• Addressed the issue where if Find by Title or Find by Keyword is idle for 15 minutes, it automatically closes and then it cannot be reopened.
• Shows listed in search results now include recording icons where applicable.
• Various performance enhancements, including the ability to navigate letters while search results populate.

Find by Category:

• Updated to include both categories and subcategories.
• Categories include listings for 24 hours, while subcategories include listings for the entire time span available (~2 weeks).

Favorites:

• In previous releases, after clearing all Favorites, the list did not repopulate until the user changed the channel. Now the current channel is added to the list after three minutes
• New About Favorites information note provides tips.
• The Favorites list now includes recorded shows and excludes channels blocked by Parental Control settings.
• Resolved issue where scheduling recording from the Favorites list would disable the vertical navigation of the list.

On Next Menu:

• Shows in the On Next menu now consistently display the Scheduled to Record icon where applicable.

Channel Categories:

• A High Definition category has been added.

Recorded TV:

• When deleting a show from the list, focus no longer shifts to the top of the list.

Time-out behavior:

• After 30 minutes of inactivity, the screen no longer dims back. Instead, the media playing in the Mini-TV goes to full screen.

Remote:

• The back button on the remote functions as an alternative to clicking OK on the Back card. See Known Issues for additional information.
• The stop button on the remote now stops playback of a recorded program and leaves a bookmark to allow viewers to resume from that point in the show.

Parental Controls:

• On rare occasions, the wrong rating was being displayed to the user, resulting in confusion over whether the locks were working. This has been improved.

Known Issues

Parental Controls:

• In rare cases, a frame from a blocked channel can be seen moving from the blocked channel to an unblocked channel.
• If you lock a channel that is currently tuned, and then exit Parental Controls by pressing the Live TV button, the tuned channel will not be locked.

Favorites:

• If you have locked a channel with Parental Controls, and that channel is also a Favorite channel, some of your unlocked Favorite channels may not display in the Favorites list, and you may see blank items in the list.

Remote:

• Using the Play button on the remote to start a recorded show does not work if the show is currently recording.

Flip Bar

Enhancements

• On Next: Added an area of the Flip Bar to display the next three upcoming shows on a given channel, similar to the On Next menu.
• Channel Change: Resolved the situation where the Flip Bar erroneously displayed information from a previously viewed channel.
• Fit and Finish: Removed the automatic appearance of the Flip Bar at the top and bottom of the hour.

DVR

Enhancements

• Playback: Resolved the occasional issue where the video unexpectedly jumps back 30 minutes while in Play mode.
• Bookmark: Resolved the issue where a partially viewed program did not offer a Resume option if it had been stopped by pressing stop on the remote.

Playback Controls:

• When fast-forwarding or rewinding, the video no longer returns to live TV unexpectedly.
• The playback bar is now displaying correctly and reporting the proper information.
• Repeated Episodes: To prevent duplicate recordings of episodes, recording is based on the episode title and description. If no broadcaster information exists, the show may be recorded repeatedly.
• View Upcoming: Under Series Options the View Upcoming option now works.
• Keep/Delete note: Corrections made to prevent the keep or delete note from appearing before the end of the actual program when fast-forwarding near the end of the program. Also, corrected display options for this situation.
• Paused recording timeout to live TV: When live or recorded content is paused for more than 30 minutes, playback will resume to avoid screen burn-in. For HDTV, playback will resume after 10 minutes.
• Expiration of recorded shows: Recorded shows will now expire before offering scheduled shows for early expiration. In addition, already expired shows will not be deleted until space is actually required for a recording.

Recording options:

• Keep until: Made improvements to ensure that changes a user made to the keep until date setting are no longer lost.
• Episode limit: Changing the episode limit of a show was not always saved. This has been fixed.
• Cancelled & Deleted: Shows that were not recorded or were cancelled because of a priority setting were incorrectly reported as not recorded because of a conflict. This has fixed.
• Scheduled to Record: Corrections were made so cancelled single shows are now removed instead of being rescheduled.
• Recording options: All recording options are now available on single scheduled shows.
• Episode limit default: Increased the default episode limit for series recordings from three to five episodes.
• Recorded TV sort order: Recorded shows now sort correctly, first by alpha (title), and then by date/time recorded.
• Pay-Per-View (PPV) block recording: PPV block recording is now available.

Known Issues

• Recording about to start: If a show is scheduled to record one minute or less before it airs, then the TV may not switch to the scheduled channel for recording.
• Recording non-existent channel: If the user attempts to record a show on a channel not on the channel map, or not subscribed to, the video may freeze. Pressing the Live TV button may resolve this.