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Digeo To Ship Full-Featured Linux-based PVR
Gentu writes "Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, has embraced Linux in his latest product offering, Moxi. Moxi is a PVR system from Digeo with some additional cool features, like wireless ethernet support, internet/router/firewall/gateway capabilities, DVD playback and more media functionality in general. OSNews has the article, screenshots and more information. "
This looks like just what I would want in a PVR. Linux is a robust operating system that is especially well suited to gadgets like this one. I've always thought that WinCe has too much bloat to be practical in this sort of application. With the DVD playback feature thrown in, I'm hooked.
It's cool that this runs on linux, but it would be nice to see some of the higher layer software or tools provided in open source form.
I would love to get one of these and start writing collaboration apps that run on it, but if the development model is closed, how can I?
Sold. I -love- my TiVo, but the lack of HDTV functionality is going to kill them if they don't rectify the situation quick. Several people I've talked to about getting TiVo are reluctant not because they have HDTV now, but because they want to be "ready" for it in the future. They don't want to invest in a technology that's near a dead-end.
Moxi will be available via cable providers or other Premium TV companies, and the hardware will be custom for each one of them.
IMO, that will be the biggest problem for them. Standalone TiVo is ubiquitous. It can be used with just about any source... anyone's cable box... any satellite system.
Of course, 90% of consumers (maybe more) are sheep. It might work out well for Moxi since the hardware will be coming from "their cable company" and not some third party. Do you think most cable consumers have any clue who makes their cable box and what features is has? To them this thing will be just another cable box with some cool stuff.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
I hope this thing is expandable, it would be cool then to have it be the wireless hub as well, serving out connections to laptops, etc around the house.
It will be interesting to see if they're as liberal is TiVo with the hacks though.
The article states that the unit will have MSN Messenger built in. This might be a stupid question, but how will they get a licensed MSN Messenger on the Linux box? Doesn't that mean Microsoft will have to create a Linux port?
Confucious says: Man who runs behind car gets exhausted.
// jeku.com
take a look to freevo ( http://freevo.sf.net ) & MMboX ( http://mmbox.tuxfamily.org ).
Ordinary analogue terrestrial,
digital terrestrial (previously known as On Digital and then ITV digital
Digital Satellite, and
Various cable TV companies
I'm a digital satellite viewer myself; more on that later.
The various cable TV companies also offer cable modem access. For some companies, this is a seperate device, such as a standalone modem which is connected seperately to the TV set-top-box; but some cable companies have ethernet ports built into their digital decoders. These provide you with simple-to-configure (assuming you have an ethernet card and appropriate cabling to keep your PC a fairly good distance away from the TV, because there's nothing more annoying when you're trying to watch a film then to have noisy PC's running (or kids playing noisy games on the same)). In that sense, the device could easily be a router. (However, having had past experience with UK cable companies, they will advertise such as device as X, but it's really only a Y)
How this integrates with the plans of the TV cable companies, who usually run their own systems on equipment that they supply, not catering for user-acquired decoders, I don't know, but it may be an attractive prospect for some of them.
Back to the digital satellite. Sky also provide a PVR service, called Sky+. Essentially, it's a hard disk, connected to a satellite tuner, connected to a quad-LNB dish, allowing the box to receive MPEG-2 streams from two channels, record one, and view another at the same time, together with nifty features that TIVO users would be familiar with. I don't have one of these, but I expect one day I'll be persuaded to part with the GBP300 plus GBP10/month service charge. Because the satellite system is one-way, with interactive services provided over a telephone line, I can't see much use for a router in it, unless Sky plan to break into the ADSL market; although I'd still be uncomfortable with that (eggs, one basket, etc.).
Now, what I'd really like to see developed is a satellite/cable receiver, which records MPEG-2 to hard disk, and dumps the same to DVD-R instead of to video. I'd bet the movie industry would hate this idea though. However, given that the UK market for satellite receivers is far more open (you can buy them in the shops, and self-install, dealing with Sky only insofar as getting a contract to receive subscription channels and a viewing card), some bright spark out there should hopefully be able to design one of these. Let me test it for you!!.
Moxi looks awesome. One of Digeo's partners is Scientific Atlanta. TimeWarner's digital cable boxes (most of them) are built by this company. In fact, the new "DVR" that TimeWarner is releasing soon is Scientific Atlanta's Explorer 8000. And from what I've read, it sucks (right now).
Which leads me to ask, why doesn't TimeWarner wait for ScientificAtlanta's Moxi-based device? I mean, TW is pushing HD in several markets, and yet the Explorer 8000 doesn't even support HD (even though the literature says it does... check the wiring diagrams, no HD).
Hopefully they will offer Moxi soon. I love my TiVo, but a sweet device like Moxi, integrated with my digital cable service, combined with HD support equals TV HEAVEN.
"And like that
Part of the reason why this isn't exactly true is because Microsoft announced it is completely dropping UltimateTV now that TiVo has partnered with DirecTV officially (and dropped the DirecTiVo monthly price to $4.99, which MS can't compete with)
Paul may piss off the people working on the X-Box, but he's not going to affect UltimateTV one iota.
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
I was loving it right up to the point where they explain that these will be available through the cable companies and enhanced tv providers. This means that it will be rented by and owned by companies that control what shows can be recorded, and can prosecute anyone caught 'tampering' with the device in any way.
If I could simply buy the hardware, great! But they know that they will make a more steady stream of money offering essentially a tivo like cable box to cable companies who can rent them to customers for $20/mo or more, who will gladly pay for them rather than $400 or more for a Tivo.
It's a great business idea, and I see them putting Tivo out of business in the larger markets. Tivo (and other pvr companies) will have to maneuver furiously to maintain their current customer base, nevermind a growing base.
But all is not so happy in geek land. You won't be able to record shows, or even pause shows, that providers don't want you to - and eventually that'll be most movies, lots of first run shows, etc. Skipping commercials may be disallowed at the providers descretion.
It's essentially a bid to take back TV, while providing customers with a facade of extra functionality. I bet they'll win, since eventually service providers will be required to use such devices if they want to carry certian premium channels - though that's a while away, it's coming.
-Adam
Hell, it won "Best of Show" at CES in January and they still haven't shipped a product. Their claim to having a deal with Dish Network also turned out to be completely bogus. Then, they nearly went bankrupt, fired their founder/CEO and got sold to Digeo.
Don't get me wrong. The stuff Moxi demo'd at CES in January was incredible and if they can pull off even a fraction of it, they'll eat TiVo for lunch (assuming TiVo doesn't respond with similar features). However, their kitchen-sink approach is hugely ambitious and it'll be tough for them to ship all the cool stuff they demo'd at CES, such as wireless distribution. That, coupled with the fact that they're selling boxes only through cable companies and other TV service providers, rather than as standalone devices, will probably keep the feature set minimized.
So don't hold your breath about getting everything they're capable of delivering.
It should be noted that the Replay TV 5000 supports USB 802.11b adaptors. I decided to pick one of these up since it can use the net instead of requiring a phone line like Tivo
Note to self: RTFA.
Here're the Big Questions:
Can the cable companies forbid us from modifying the source?
At least parts of it are going to be GPL. Will they still be able to resist giving us the source code?
Even if they do give us the source code, can they forbid us from patching it and modding the box?
Is there legal basis for charges based on "violating the spirit" of a contract?
What's this Submit thingy do?
It would be cool to see a low cost PVR board that
supports Linux to come out of this.
Right now I use Nuvrec (on a 1.5Ghz AMD) and
when the recording is done I make a second pass and encode an MPEGII file.
Nuvrec works great with a Wintv card at 720x480x30fps!
But I'd like to do hardware mpegII encoding.
IIRC, Tivo isn't x86 based. This is (it uses the C# processor from cyrix). This means it should be easier to roll your own PVR.
And why not also mention MythTV ... another open source Tivo-style project that continues to be actively developed as a "media convergence" system, but already sports most of TiVo's features.
Visit: www.mythtv.org