Arris—the company that acquired Digeo a while back, inheriting with that purchase the Moxi DVR product line—has officially retired its consumer-based products, the Moxi HD DVR and Moxi Mate. Moxi’s consumer DVR debuted at CES in 2007 and was released in late 2008, available exclusively through Amazon.com. Arguably, its severely limited distribution channel and a general lack of understanding by consumers about CableCARD devices had a lot to do with its failure to become a viable competitor even providers’ own DVR offerings.
Consumers who did buy into Moxi typically raved about it. While TiVo was still stuck at standard definition menus cluttered with a patchwork of new features, the Moxi offered a complete HD experience with a unique, two-dimensional guide. Zatz Not Funny! shows a screen shot of the Moxi web site showing that service for existing consumer boxes will continue through the end of 2013.
Updated 3/5: Arris has clarified the confusion over continuing guide data support, stating “a few weeks ago we incorrectly posted a notice regarding discontinuation of our Moxi program guide data. We currently have no plans to discontinue service. Thank you for your support.”
Arris’s move to retire their consumer products is directly in line with what they discussed with us earlier this year at CES—a move toward updating and expanding their whole home solution distributed directly through providers. In fact, the Moxi name lives on in that product line with the Moxi Gateway and Moxi Player. The Moxi got its start as a provider-supplied DVR, and Arris’s current solution already has a foothold in a couple of Pacific Northwest providers.
A personal note: after discovering and covering the Moxi DVR for CNET years back, I purchased one once it was released. And while waiting for decent, affordable CableCARD tuners for Media Center, it became the primary DVR in my home. It still gets daily use, and frankly…I think I’m going to miss it.
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