Moxi Digital's Future Convergence Box Announced

Many readers have submitted news of a new do-everything media box being hyped at CES. Fofer writes: "Steve Perlman, the founder of WebTV, is attempting to infiltrate the living room again, but this time it looks like he's on to something. Officially unveiled at CES 2002, the Moxi Media Center is a souped-up digital media server with an 80-gigabyte hard drive. It can deliver, to as many as four televisions, video recorded from a TV signal off of its integrated cable/satellite receiver, video or audio downloaded to the hard drive or from a built-in DVD/CD player. ... Articles with more info are here(1) and here(2)." When a product is still vapor, it's pretty easy to make it buzzword-compliant, too, and this one is supposed to work with Macs and IBM-style PCs, be based on Linux, work with Firewire drives, etc. Read the linked PR stuff to find out more.

Comments

I read about that!

[Daath]

I read about that! It looked very interesting!
Supposedly you're supposed to be able to hook up all rooms in your house with one machine, for almost no money at all!
Oh, yeah and it's a gateway/router/firewall too! Pretty neat thought!
I read it on The Register last night :)

LeapFrog

[FortKnox]

To connect multiple TV's to one cable signal, satellite signal, PVR, etc..., just use Leap Frog (there's a wireless one, too, check the website).

Nokia Mediaterminal

[nrc]

Nokia announced their Mediaterminal last year and it just now available ... in Sweden.

snooze

[sulli]

NYTimes talked today about how this would address the "problem" of MP3 conversion by somehow limiting MP3s to the box itself. Which of course makes it useless.

Meanwhile my Mac+iPod works fine. And DVD players are, what, $150? I don't see why this is of any value.

It's not that hard...

[2Bits]

When a product is still vapor, ...

Well, according the "specs", this thing is not that hard to build. It's basically a computer with the right interface for TV and sound system.

It's still vapor right now for sure, but there's nothing in this device (according the description) that requires anything not developed yet. If you have the $ and patience, you too can build one yourself.

New York Times Article

[severian]

The New York Times has an article on this server as well. The article is partly about this new server and also about the upcoming new products from Apple, Inc. and how there's a battle shaping up between the TV/consumer electronics companies vs. the computer companies to be the uber-media command center for your home. Interesting read.

As for my 2 cents, I'd prefer the computer as the ultimate command center. Why? Like other people have mentioned, pretty much all the pieces are already there. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, the software and hardware in the computer world are standardized commodities that can be mixed and matched to your preference (e.g. you can have a linux/windows/mac box with your choice of graphics cards, DVD drives, and PVR software) allowing for competition and best-of-breed components. This is in comparison to the "black box" philosophy of cable boxes and their ilk. Furthermore, as for resolution of display, TV sucks compared to even the lowest resolution monitors these days...

On the other hand, I guess I can understand that not everyone is able to mix and match components and put together their own customized system and would like nothing more than to plug in an appliance that does everything they want it to do.

I guess it boils down to the same debate between people who build their own computers specifying everything down to the CPU fan vs. those who buy a complete system pre-loaded and configured with every software program they need to run.

Garbage

[sulli]

This will be for RENT, not for sale, from cable tv suppliers, and it will have copy protection.

From the NY Times:

Mr. Perlman takes an engineer's pride in describing the company's solution to the problem of converting the contents of compact discs into MP3 files that can be stored digitally. Moxi has designed a specialized device, which would be rented to consumers on an hourly basis, that uses powerful microprocessors to convert 100 CD's an hour and store them as digital files. He said Moxi had taken significant pains to protect the digital rights of music and video content producers. The system uses cryptography extensively to place barriers against illegal sharing of copyrighted material, the kind of trading that got the Napster music-swapping service into legal trouble.

Forget it.

Re:What's point?

[Fofer]

From Moxi.com's description page:

"For the first time, all the great features available on your main TV can be enjoyed on any TV in the home. With Moxi, your family can...

* enjoy digital cable in the living room
* watch last week's favorite sitcom in the den
* pause the ballgame in the bedroom
* listen to music in the study
...all at the same time!

The Moxi Media Center supports up to four TVs, each with their own dedicated audio or video stream. "

From the NewsExpress link:

"A user in one room could watch a television program - live or recorded - while someone in another room could watch the same program but also be able to pause it or otherwise control the video recorder. At the same time, yet another person in the house could use the media centre to listen to music files. "

These streams are independent from from each other. (Thus further alienating the family members. At least with TiVo, we gather 'round and watch our shows together.) In any event, this is a cool box, and I'm certainly drooling for one.