Hard to say but the most of the failures I've heard of have been hard drive related. Capacitors are sometimes a weak link, but I expect electronic components to last 10+ years. I have two Moxi DVR's and both are still on the original 500GB hard-drives! Also have 4 mates and no issues with those either.

I think I arrived rather late to the Moxi party in mid-2010, but I have two 3T and two Mates still going. If there were a better-for-me alternative, I wouldn't be adverse to moving on because as good as they are, there are some things about the Moxis that really bug the snot out of me, but I just haven't found anything better-for-me. LOL -- I remember at one point someone suggesting building a home theater PC, which was really intriguing to me, but after spending a couple of weeks reading up on it, I decided that was wayyy over my head.


Solid technology sometimes has a way of living on far longer than anyone expects. For instance, there is still a dedicated & active community of users of the old SD ReplayTV DVRs. I think I was a little late to that party, too, but we've still got four RTVs in use after more than a decade. Finding replacement parts (for me, particularly compatible old PATA/IDE drives) has gotten more difficult over time & may be what eventually gets me out of that game, but other than that, I plan to keep those going.

LOL -- we did indeed. They gave us a fair amount of notice -- and at least had the decency to wait until after the holidays -- but there's only so much one can do in advance. I planned to try to memorize the channel numbers of my favs, but I never quite got around to it, and their "intuitive" new lineup doesn't seem very intuitive to me. At all. I'm still in the process of removing tons of channels from the lineup because they seem to have scattered some of the "package" channels we don't subscribe to throughout the whole flippin' range in ones & twos and threes to make scrolling through the EPG less annoying.


One thing I was thrilled about is that I didn't have to reschedule all my recordings! In the past when a channel her or there has been moved, I've had to reschedule recordings on those channels -- for reasons that are beyond my understanding, the Moxis weren't able to "find" the new channel location. Not so this time: as far as I can tell, my scheduled recordings were all preserved.


I did have a problem with one of the Moxis, though: even after changing to the rebuild lineup at moxi.com and manually updating the Moxi & the EPG, the process was only partly successful, a fact I didn't notice until late last night when things that were scheduled to record didn't record because the EPG on that particular Moxi was still somewhat messed up. I repeated things & the EPG was still a bit messy until I manually rebooted that Moxi, which seems to have cleared up the problem. I have no idea why that Moxi didn't immediately behave as nicely as the one in the living room . . . but it is the Moxi that's had its hard drive user replaced.


The other thing I'm pretty excited about is that I think I'll be able to take the USB analog dongles out of the setup. I haven't confirmed it for sure, but I had to have those because there were a couple of analog only channels in the old lineup we needed. The little dongles aren't very obtrusive, but since the cords & cables contribute to the inevitable spaghetti, I'm actually quite excited about the possibility of eliminating them.


And, I think I still don't need a TA That was one of the things I'd called TWC to ask about when we got the first mailing about the upcoming channel lineup change & couldn't get an answer I felt confident about (I'm not sure any of the people I spoke with even knew what a TA was, and I couldn't help them since I've never been clear what they are and why I've never needed on with the Moxis), but so far, things seem to be working normally.

I still have a TA in my setup and not sure what exactly its for. Recall them saying back in the day that it was to receive certain digital channels(???) or something like that... That's the only mystery box in my HT setup. I'd pull it if I found out it wasn't needed.

I had one hardd rive fail on me. I also had the main unit zapped by lightning.

Other than that... seems to be rock solid in terms of hardware.

I do keep it on a line conditioner to try to maximize the life of the unit..

You can easily find out what it does. Unplug it and run the coax directly from the wall into the Moxi and see how many channels you receive. It's only purpose is to decode SDV channels, anything on dedicated QAM will come through just fine without it.

It could be that only a few channels moved to SDV in your area and you don't watch any of them, or it could be that a whole bunch of channels moved to SDV and without the TA in the mix you lose a lot.

Talked to TWC tech support and they said the TA is necessary. Apparently, they don't broadcast all the channels to you at the same time. This box is used to identify the channels you view the most and prioritizes them for you to view. The least popular or least viewed ones do not use up the available bandwidth so that extra space is used for other popular channels for other users. Its a bandwidth saving scheme for them. Fill the pipe with the most viewed channels to maximize the number of users.


Hope I explained it right...

It's a cheap out for them. Which is why if say 1000 people in your neighborhood are watching Travel channel and TWC haven't bothered to allocate enough bandwidth for the neighborhood node, then any other channel you might like to watch that is also SDV will not come through.

Like I said unplug it and see. TWC usually leave the big name channels on a dedicated QAM to avoid service complaints, so if you don't watch many of the less popular channels that have been stuffed on SDV you might not even notice they are gone.

Thanks ...will give it try.

I bought my Moxi 3 channel in spring 2010, the hdd died in it shortly after the factor warranty stopped oct. 2011. but I had purchased Square Trade warranty it covered repair plus shipping costs. Again the repaired Moxi DVR died 2014 and mate died in 2014 week apart. gives you an idea. They used the same Seagate HDD in the repairs that a lot of people complained about breaking down a lot. This latest repair Not sure what they used. I plan on cloned a smaller HDD and get an external nas with raid so if it goes down again I can replace in inner HDD with a cloned one and not lose any saved movies or OS they use and won't unregister the unit.

External drive for Moxi. Who has a list that work well. Does it need to have ethernet? I'm looking at a:
StarTech.com USB 3.0 eSATA Dual 3.5-Inch SATA III Hard Drive RAID Enclosure with UASP and Fan - Black (S3520BU33ER) Has anyone used this for there external drive for the Moxi? I plan to use the raid 1 it has.
Thanks

Try asking Moxi for a list of recommended(and tested) external drives.

The S3520BU33ER is a JMicron chipset based RAID device. I use a Silicon Image chipset based device. Mine is at least 7 year old tech. The JM562 in this device is much newer (about 2011?).


I can't help in determining if it absolutely will work, but I do recommend that you test on a PC (laptop or desktop w/eSATA) before committing to the device on your MOXI. I used a small (20gb) SATA drive to test. With a 2tb drive as the second drive, which eventually became part of the 2tb RAID set. Using a small drive makes testing much faster, since it takes soooo long to replicate a multi-tb drive.


If you don't have an eSATA port on a desktop you can get a SATA to eSATA cable which will allow you to plug the array into the motherboard of the desktop (case needs to be open to do this).


You should be able to setup the small drive in the device and format with Windows. Then plug in the second drive and it will be turned into a copy of the small drive. You can unplug one of the drives and replug it to determine how rebuilding takes place. I found it takes about 2 minutes for my RAID device to decide to rebuild the array, then it takes off at about 10 hours per tb to rebuild. Or I can move the array back to my PC and use a Windows utility to initiate/monitor a rebuild. I did the this first couple of times I had a drive drop out while on the MOXI.


You should obtain and play with the JMicron software for RAID device, you might need it in the future, or just want to see how the array is actually setup and recovers.


I did find out that once a drive has been initialized in the array it must be low level formatted to be reused in a different disk "set" on the array. I used Windows to start a reformat during testing. It is only necessary to reformat the first cylinder, which rewrites the MBR to remove the RAID bits set by the RADI controller.


Please report back on how well the JMicron chip works with MOXI. I am using a JMicron 5 disk array on a media center in RAID 5 mode. It seems to work well. I have not tried RADI 5 on the MOXI.

I have a startech esata, usb 2.0, firewire external raid mentioned in hard drive replacement thread. It works well. it doesn't need to have an Ethernet and I don't think I've see one that does but that would be cool if one did.

Hi Robert, thank you for all your information. I know Moxi says you need eSATA external hard drive certified for DVR and I have not ever heard of an esate port being certified. I assume an esata is a esata port.
I know they make DVR HDDS just for DVR usage. Over all I'd rather have the external with ethernet connection along with an esata port. I do have external esata ports 6gbs on my computer I'm good there just built my new computer 2yrs ago. I have 1 WD 250gb AV model HDD which I was going to install into my Moxi but it died before I could make a back up of it lost internet connection with it so I sent it into Moxi for $250 got a different one with warranty. My Mat went out week later after some hard surges and very short power outages do to them upgrading transformers at one of there sites.

Up in the air to also build my own HTPC at least they have a 6ch card I can install and good price drop on the card.

Been a while since I have read this thread. We have 2, 3 Tuner Moxi's and a Mate still working well (replaced the original Moxi's HDD with a 1TB; second one we bought used on eBay).


The Comcast charge for a DVR (last time I looked) was $17/mo so we are well on the plus side in recovering the costs (including the HDD replacement) and it appears the Moxi interface is still considered better than the options out there. CableCard charge is $2/mo each which supports access to the HD channels without being charged the HD rate.


Have not seen a Dish Hopper unit so maybe that could compare.


As long as the guide service continues to work and the Moxi Web site continues to operate we should consider ourselves fortunate. Not sure what we'd do if (when) this fine product gets forced out.....

Curious, when you replaced the HDD did you make a copy of the old one or just replace it and the reload Moxi software?
From what I've read once you replace the HDD it sends a message to Moxi and they won't even touch it again.
I wonder how the law works against Moxi by replacing the HDD and not cover it anymore. Manufactures for printers can not do this so I don't see how Moxi thinks they can get away with it?

Standard industry practice.

The hard drive is deemed not user-replaceable as it is in many other devices. No matter how simple it may seem. The formatting routine is not supplied to the public and just an accidental discovery.

Crack open the case to replace a part and just like any laptop, desktop, tablet etc. it voids the warranty and any requirement to support it. Same with printers. Cartridges are user replaceable by design. Internal components are not.

If one had a good lawyer you could argue against that. Moxi gives you the how to reformat and reload their software.

To make claim that a hard drive is deemed not user-replaceable is false, it's not built into or integrated in the motherboard it is plugged into the motherboard and can be replaced with a different smaller or bigger hard drive.
They are on the market and can be purchased anywhere even an exact model.

They created the law on printers because of such so called "Standard industry practice" lied saying that it would ruin the printer and was false now you can use anybodies ink refill not just theirs.
I understand what you are saying about opening and warranty stuff that I would agree on. BUT for Moxi to refuse to repair their unit Even if you changed he hard drive like a computer, laptop etc. out of warranty is absurd. Not even Dell, Asus etc would do that they'd go in and fix it for a charge.

What about when you build your own computer or someone else private builds it for you, there are still warranties on each and every part.
When I can afford to I will build my own HTPC it will have the 6ch card much faster then the Moxi.

Our playstation warranty didnt void when we replaced the hdd. Sony says they cant guarantee if its faster or not and thats it.

No they don't. They have never supplied documentation, published details, confirmed the procedure or even revealed it existed until it was stumbled across in this thread.

Many devices have engineer backdoors and they are not published either, precisely because a novice user can screw up a component. Having a backdoor is not a license for the customer to use it themselves.

And remember Arris do not repair Moxis under any circumstance now, they replace them. Probably because they have no techs left to do that. When Digeo owned Moxi it was their main product. Arris barely keep the lights on now, they certainly wouldn't bother to have a repair team.

Assembling your own computer is only slightly different. The moment you start messing with the individual parts such as removing a heatsink assembly, then those warranties can be voided too. Especially if they have security seals and/or screws.

PS drives are user-replaceable. Sony give you instructions and an accesible point that does not require removing or exposing the internals.

By contrast Xbox drives are locked away inside behind a security seal. The 360 put the drive in it's own little box you could pull out and replace with an official (i.e. overpriced) drive but it was never designed for the user to be able to open the drive caddy and put a bare drive inside.

I m not saying sue them because when they tell u the warranty is void they provide u thedocumentation to read but it is ridicoulous. They should use better hard drive that dont always fail. I think the new moxi equipment uses mobile hard drives but am unsure of what manufacturer/model. Those moxi sux because i dont think a dvr talks to a dvr. The dvr talks to mates.

YES they do. It's on here and I posted it on here Straight from MOXI they emailed the instructions to ME so I could reformat and reinstall their software, It's on here so go look it up. Few others have reposted it on here also.

Arris does repair the units they exchange them with a "REPAIRED" unit. I just did this along with the Moxi Mate. Where you got your info is beyond me they don't fix them anymore. You ship the broken one back to them for one that was repaired. So the Techs are still around to fix them they warranty them for 1yrs parts 90days parts and labor.

All the moxi techs do is replace the hdd 95% of the time. They do email fpp instructions but it is only a ok step when they ask u.

If you go to the section for hdd replacement you will find the model dexktop hdd they used it is a seagate Hdd. I got a hold of them and for $250 they send you a replacement you ship the other one back all for one time $20 total shipping both ways cheap.
I'd changed mine out but appears I lost the ethernet when it tried to fix it's self it couldn't find my ethernet connection and having some power surges from the poor poor company that was over do I think it fried something in the DVR and wk pior my Moxi Mate. that to was $119 to replace

I opened mine up and it had the old Desktop HDD many complained about not lasting to long in there.

I was speaking of the arris moxi whole home solution that uses mobile hdds. I dont know the make/model hdd of those bit hope its better than what we got stuck with.

I simply went the Moxi HDD thread and referenced a well rated model, ordered from Amazon, and followed the "4 finger press" process to swap out the broken, old drive and install the new drive and reload the software.


I knew I would lose the recorded library and (worse) all of the setup on time shifting had to be done from scratch. Almost like starting with a new unit. I did not realize (or care) that Moxi might track this event and penalize me later by not honoring warranties (which had expired) or repair requests (which there have not been any required so far).


Having 2 units provides for 6 concurrent recording slots and for time shifting we rarely record in HD so as to have a large capacity. Often, we can watch the prior nights shows while recording the current ones and commercial skipping is the major feature for these activities. One big gripe (difficult to adjust after the fact) are the networks can't tell time and often run over time slots routinely forcing the use of overlapping recording slots (adjusting the start and end windows in the Moxi setup) which limits the use of the tuners. Minor complaints compared to having to a use an expensive, un-user friendly cable company provided DVR.


The biggest relief turned into a major disappointment when Arris bought Moxi. While they "saved" the company short term, their decision to discontinue the line and spin off to providing units only to cable companies may have been good business but left us "hobbyists" to fend for ourselves. At least they have kept the guide service interface and web site running (but at the same time "sneakily" removing features like the ticker). They have no reason to provide updates or improvements (and the Moxi business model of one large payment up front with no sustainment revenue was risky from the start).


Sorry for the long editorial but we are passionate users of the product and do not look forward to when these may become obsolete. Certainly the streaming services will eventually take over (if they have not already) but then we will be prisoners to monthly subscription fees and internet bandwidth tariffs for sure.

Not sure about the Arris models they sell now but two or more Moxi DVRs can and do "talk" to each other and a single Mate can see more than one Moxi DVR.


We have 2 Moxi's and one mate all attached to the inhouse network. In our case, we use wireless extenders that have some bandwidth challenges and quirks but provide for a seamless experience.


When all the network pieces are working well, all the Moxi's can bring up a combined listing of recorded items from both/all of the DVRs. The one major limitation is similar to a Mate, you can not delete an item from the other unit's list. (But, we have the web site for that .....). In our case (due to the network config employed) the commands going to the "remote" Moxi are slower and clunky (like skipping commercials) but adequate. We can start watching something from one room and relocate to the other and "resume" where we left off.....


No argument on the HDD quality. The original 500MB models were not very good but the after market replacements seem to be holding up well and you get double or quadruple the storage depending on what you select as your replacement.