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Moxi Digital's Future Convergence Box Announced

Posted by timothy on from the until-the-fat-lady-plays-as-an-mp3 dept.

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.

6 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. I read about that! by Daath · · Score: 3, Informative

    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 :)

    --
    Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
  2. LeapFrog by FortKnox · · Score: 3, Informative

    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).

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    Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
  3. Nokia Mediaterminal by nrc · · Score: 3, Informative


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

  4. snooze by sulli · · Score: 3, Informative
    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.

    --

    sulli
    RTFJ.
  5. It's not that hard... by 2Bits · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  6. Garbage by sulli · · Score: 5, Informative
    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.

    --

    sulli
    RTFJ.