This afternoon I got a call that went something like this:
“Hello, this is Robert Scoble.”
“Hi, this is Michael Markman and I live right around the corner from you and wondered if you would like to see Moxi before you leave?”
“Sure.”
Now, Michael had emailed me before to let me know about Moxi and it sounded very interesting, so I wanted to make sure I saw it before I left. He pitched it as sort of a Media Center for cable companies.
Long story short I wasn’t doing much and the heat was keeping me from doing anything productive anyway, so I said “sure, wanna meet up now?”
Anyway, I just got back from spending a delightful hour or so with Michael.
I wasn’t prepared for what I saw.
First, I didn’t know much about Michael. He was creative director on Moxi. Ran the team that designed the interface, which won two Emmy’s! (That was a clue that this would be a step above other UI’s). He also told me he worked at Apple for about 10 years in the creative services department back in the 80s/90s.
Anyway, he showed me through the UI. I wanted one almost instantly. And that’s where the story falls apart.
Seems that you can have the best UI, a well-thought out system, with lots of great options, but if you can’t talk the cable companies into adopting it you’re dead in the water.
You know, I’m tired of putting up with a poor user experience on my cable box.
Everyone complains about the monopoly that Microsoft has, but at least you have a choice there. You can go with Open Office. Or Wordperfect. On the Office side. On the OS side there’s OSX and Linux. Wonderful competitors to Microsoft’s offerings.
But on cable or phone systems? We have absolutely no choice.
I want to buy Moxi. But the cable companies are keeping us from considering it.
And we won’t even talk about the IPTV systems that Microsoft showed me. Four HDTV video channels on screen at one time.
That’s blocked too.
Instead we have to put up with crappy UIs, poor feature sets, and crappy HD content.
Do you blame me for loading BitTorrent?
Anyway, thanks Michael for inviting me over. I sure wish everyone could use the system you helped design.
I give you a front-row seat on the future. Focusing most of my efforts now on next-generation augmented reality and artificial intelligence, AKA "mixed reality."
SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER: http://clevermoe.com/scobleizer-news/
BUY OUR NEW BOOK: https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Transformation-Robert-Scoble/dp/1539894444 "The Fourth Transformation: How augmented reality and artificial intelligence will change everything."
WATCH MY LATEST SPEECHES:
State of VR with Philip Rosedale (done in VR itself, very cool): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zAA1EVGUZU
At GEOINT, June 2017: http://trajectorymagazine.com/glimpse-new-world/
Augmented World Expo, June 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4xHILvLD8E
At Leade.rs, April 2017: https://youtu.be/52_0JshgjXI
+++++++++++
BIO:
Scoble gives you a front-row seat on the future.
Literally. He had the first ride in the first Tesla. Siri was launched in his house. He's been the first to share all sorts of technologies and companies with you, from Flipboard to Pandora to Instagram.
Today he's focusing on mixed reality, AKA "next-generation augmented reality" which will include a new user interface for EVERYTHING in your life (IoT, Smart Cities, driverless cars, robots, drones, etc).
That's based on his view thanks to his past experience as futurist at Rackspace.
Best place to find Scoble? On his Facebook profile at https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble
He has been a technology blogger since 2000, was one of five people who built Microsoft's Channel 9 video blog/community, worked at Fast Company Magazine running its TV efforts, and has been part of technology media businesses since 1993.
++++++++
SPEAKER PITCH:
Apple and Facebook now have revealed their Augmented Reality strategies, which means your business needs one too. Rely on Robert Scoble, the world's top authority on AR, to bring to your conference what businesses should do next.
SPEECH ABSTRACT #1:
TITLE: The Fourth Transformation: What's next in mixed reality (AR and AI) and the future of technology?
Here's an example of this talk at Leade.rs in Paris in April, 2017: https://youtu.be/52_0JshgjXI
Why "the Fourth Transformation?"
Soon we will have phones and glasses that do full on augmented reality. Everything you look at will potentially be augmented. This world is coming in late 2017 with a new iPhone from Apple, amongst other products. Microsoft is betting everything on its HoloLens glasses that do mixed reality and the industry is spending many billions of dollars in R&D and funding new companies like Magic Leap.
This future will be the user interface for IoT, Smart Cities, autonomous cars, robots, drones, and your TV.
This is a big deal and Robert will take you through what mixed reality is and how it will change every business.
Learn more about Robert's speaking style and contact his agent at http://odemanagement.com/robert-scoble/Robert-Scoble.html
++++++++
SPEECH ABSTRACT #2:
"The Next Two Clicks of Moore's Law."
Over the next four years, or two clicks of Moore's Law, a ton about our technology world will change. Scoble will bring you the best from his travels visiting R&D labs, startups, and innovators around the world.
He views the world through his rose-colored-mixed-reality glasses, which will be the new user interface for self driving cars, Smart Cities, IoT, and many other things in our world.
He'll send you off with some lessons for companies both large and small.
++++++++
SPEECH ABSTRACT #3:
"Personalized Meaning: What is Augmented Reality For?"
As we enter a far more technological world where even cars drive themselves, I predict we'll see a blowback toward the analog, more authentic world.
What role does augmented reality play in both worlds?
Get Scoble's insight into where augmented reality is going, see tons of real-world demos, and understand what he means by 'personalized meaning.'
CONTACT:
If you are looking to contact me, email is best: scobleizer@gmail.com.
++++++++
ENDORSEMENTS:
IZEA Top 25 Tech Influencers: https://izea.com/2017/07/07/25-top-tech-influencers/
Time: One of the top 140 Twitterers!
FT: One of the five most influential Twitterers!
Inc. Top 5 on list of Tech Power Players You Need to Know: http://www.inc.com/john-rampton/30-power-players-in-tech-you-need-to-know.html
Next Reality: #4 on top 50 AR influencer list: https://next.reality.news/news/nr50-next-realitys-50-people-watch-augmented-mixed-reality-0177454/
View all posts by Robert Scoble
Published
50 thoughts on “The future of cable TV that you probably will never get to watch”
Hey man, at least up there you can get DVRs… We’re still stuck in the past millenium down here. Just got a brand new LCD HD TV set and there’s no HD content to watch.
=(
Hey man, at least up there you can get DVRs… We’re still stuck in the past millenium down here. Just got a brand new LCD HD TV set and there’s no HD content to watch.
=(
Comcast’s UI has recently changed, going from they Suckiest Suck that Ever Sucked to Meh, Not So Bad.
Thankfully I have a Tivo with its great UI. It controls my comcast cable box via a serial cable.
I’m not sure why you have to be in a certain city to use Moxi, doesn’t it just piggyback off of the cable box? And why is it only in rural WA state cities?
Comcast’s UI has recently changed, going from they Suckiest Suck that Ever Sucked to Meh, Not So Bad.
Thankfully I have a Tivo with its great UI. It controls my comcast cable box via a serial cable.
I’m not sure why you have to be in a certain city to use Moxi, doesn’t it just piggyback off of the cable box? And why is it only in rural WA state cities?
Jeff: they can, but the current cable cards are only one way, Michael explained to me. The cable companies hate them cause you can’t buy pay-per-view content with them. New cable cards are coming out next year.
Also, the cable companies have their own programs under development internally so they are very unlikely to listen to an outside company.
Jeff: they can, but the current cable cards are only one way, Michael explained to me. The cable companies hate them cause you can’t buy pay-per-view content with them. New cable cards are coming out next year.
Also, the cable companies have their own programs under development internally so they are very unlikely to listen to an outside company.
We’ve got Moxi here in Minnesota (Charter). Not sure what/if the cable companies do to the systems when they get them, but you might be reassured to know Moxi ain’t that hot! It’s pretty reliable but the UI is very often sluggish, and on the [rare] instances the box needs a reboot it takes forever to start up (think it’s Linux-based right?). Also finding upcoming shows to record can be an ass with the on-screen keyboard. Or maybe it’s time I read the user manual :o/
Could be I’m complaining over nothing… Never tried Tivo so maybe I just don’t know how good we got it :o)
What’s your view on TV’s future? We heading for all-streamed content anytime soon? :o)
We’ve got Moxi here in Minnesota (Charter). Not sure what/if the cable companies do to the systems when they get them, but you might be reassured to know Moxi ain’t that hot! It’s pretty reliable but the UI is very often sluggish, and on the [rare] instances the box needs a reboot it takes forever to start up (think it’s Linux-based right?). Also finding upcoming shows to record can be an ass with the on-screen keyboard. Or maybe it’s time I read the user manual :o/
Could be I’m complaining over nothing… Never tried Tivo so maybe I just don’t know how good we got it :o)
What’s your view on TV’s future? We heading for all-streamed content anytime soon? :o)
Thanks for the plug, Robert, but I don’t want to overstate my role in this. There was work before mine, after mine, and all around mine that created what you saw tonight–including graphic and motion designers, developers, a very smart software architect, QA etc. etc.
It’s all in the details and geting as much crap out of the system as possible. That takes time and a large team. You posted earlier about the squeeze on getting to profitability before the investment runs out. None of this would have been possible without Paul Allen’s vision that a product of this complexity was worthwhile.
What I showed you is the fifth major iteration of the design. (The first three happened well before the first commercial release in 2004.) Key to getting it where it is now was paying attention to what users told us was hard, confusing, or sucky.
The reason you have to be in a certain city to get Moxi is that it is distributed through cable companies. In Comcast locally, they made a deal to distribute the Motorola DCT6412 HQ with a Microsoft TV interface as their cable DVR. The areas in WA that have Moxi (which uses the Motorola BMC9012 or a Moxi MP12) are part of Charter Communications.
Once we see a release of the next gen of CableCARD (officially called Multistream CableCARD or M-card for short) customers will have a much wider choice of home entertainment equipment. You can be sure that many computer and consumer electronics companies are planning to bring lots of goodies to market that works with M-card.
Thanks for the plug, Robert, but I don’t want to overstate my role in this. There was work before mine, after mine, and all around mine that created what you saw tonight–including graphic and motion designers, developers, a very smart software architect, QA etc. etc.
It’s all in the details and geting as much crap out of the system as possible. That takes time and a large team. You posted earlier about the squeeze on getting to profitability before the investment runs out. None of this would have been possible without Paul Allen’s vision that a product of this complexity was worthwhile.
What I showed you is the fifth major iteration of the design. (The first three happened well before the first commercial release in 2004.) Key to getting it where it is now was paying attention to what users told us was hard, confusing, or sucky.
The reason you have to be in a certain city to get Moxi is that it is distributed through cable companies. In Comcast locally, they made a deal to distribute the Motorola DCT6412 HQ with a Microsoft TV interface as their cable DVR. The areas in WA that have Moxi (which uses the Motorola BMC9012 or a Moxi MP12) are part of Charter Communications.
Once we see a release of the next gen of CableCARD (officially called Multistream CableCARD or M-card for short) customers will have a much wider choice of home entertainment equipment. You can be sure that many computer and consumer electronics companies are planning to bring lots of goodies to market that works with M-card.
Todd: yeah, and that system was designed years ago and the team that did that box has a much much better one, but the cable companies want to stick with the old cruddy one (and, only Seattle area residents get that — other Comcast areas get stuck with an even cruddier experience that isn’t made by Microsoft).
Todd: yeah, and that system was designed years ago and the team that did that box has a much much better one, but the cable companies want to stick with the old cruddy one (and, only Seattle area residents get that — other Comcast areas get stuck with an even cruddier experience that isn’t made by Microsoft).
But on cable or phone systems? We have absolutely no choice.
Ummm, switch providers or go (flaky) VOIP, or pure Sat or Direct TV…you have choices if you don’t stick with one provider or one tech.
Minus all the techno-jumbo and good UIs, this is all simple economics, not enough demand, too interactive TV edge-cased, and Cable can roll own, limited feature set sure, but at far less cost, meeting more of the demand. Plus two words: Paul Allen, the reverse Midas Touch, all to dust or rock and rolled spaceships.
But on cable or phone systems? We have absolutely no choice.
Ummm, switch providers or go (flaky) VOIP, or pure Sat or Direct TV…you have choices if you don’t stick with one provider or one tech.
Minus all the techno-jumbo and good UIs, this is all simple economics, not enough demand, too interactive TV edge-cased, and Cable can roll own, limited feature set sure, but at far less cost, meeting more of the demand. Plus two words: Paul Allen, the reverse Midas Touch, all to dust or rock and rolled spaceships.
And the number of people who care (or even know what you are talking about) is limited to a small set of softwareish edgey geeks.
poor feature sets
Most people aren’t using half of what they already have. People like simple, not complex operating system Interactive TV-like features. The TV is not a PC. And DVR’isms isn’t as much of a play with full season DVDs.
and crappy HD content
HD is still way way early in the game. Spending $5,000 upwards for a better picture experience is NOT mainstream. And HD over Torrents? Doesn’t happen, best get a slutty XVID/DIVX player or XBMC for torrenting.
And the number of people who care (or even know what you are talking about) is limited to a small set of softwareish edgey geeks.
poor feature sets
Most people aren’t using half of what they already have. People like simple, not complex operating system Interactive TV-like features. The TV is not a PC. And DVR’isms isn’t as much of a play with full season DVDs.
and crappy HD content
HD is still way way early in the game. Spending $5,000 upwards for a better picture experience is NOT mainstream. And HD over Torrents? Doesn’t happen, best get a slutty XVID/DIVX player or XBMC for torrenting.
Christopher: it might not be mainstream but everytime I go into Best Buy or Fry’s the big screen department is busy.
Yeah, getting HD stuff today over your computer is really a pain in the behind. Except for one place: Xbox 360. Lots of cool stuff shows up in the video section of my Xbox. I wish more would, actually, and there’s no way to select more, or pay for more. But I have a feeling that’s coming.
Christopher: it might not be mainstream but everytime I go into Best Buy or Fry’s the big screen department is busy.
Yeah, getting HD stuff today over your computer is really a pain in the behind. Except for one place: Xbox 360. Lots of cool stuff shows up in the video section of my Xbox. I wish more would, actually, and there’s no way to select more, or pay for more. But I have a feeling that’s coming.
IPTV looks pretty sweet, and being a cable user I can verify that the UI is crap and thats being polite.
From the screens on the moxi site I can’t believe that cable companies and the like aren’t climbing over each other to get this on their boxes.
I think with the release od IPTV, then subsequently we are going to get other IPTV vendors…and the UI will be a decider for each. I think the cable, and satellite tv users have been held to ransom with having say 2 or 3 companies each provides the same crappy ui…but with these software centric companies joining the game then these other companies will have to embrace UI’s more.
IPTV looks pretty sweet, and being a cable user I can verify that the UI is crap and thats being polite.
From the screens on the moxi site I can’t believe that cable companies and the like aren’t climbing over each other to get this on their boxes.
I think with the release od IPTV, then subsequently we are going to get other IPTV vendors…and the UI will be a decider for each. I think the cable, and satellite tv users have been held to ransom with having say 2 or 3 companies each provides the same crappy ui…but with these software centric companies joining the game then these other companies will have to embrace UI’s more.
I have a Moxi box (Motorola system, Charter) and it’s not all it’s hyped up to be. There is a long delay when changing menus, changing channels can take up to 15 seconds and start up time (due to power outage) can take 4 or 5 minutes. It’s better than nothing but it really lags behind the Tivo box I had with DirecTV.
I have a Moxi box (Motorola system, Charter) and it’s not all it’s hyped up to be. There is a long delay when changing menus, changing channels can take up to 15 seconds and start up time (due to power outage) can take 4 or 5 minutes. It’s better than nothing but it really lags behind the Tivo box I had with DirecTV.
I’d agree the Moxi isn’t everything it sounds like it is in hype, but it is still a very cool box worthy of Robert’s remarks, I think. I’ve had one for about a month and a half here in Charter’s homebase of St. Louis. It is much improved (thanks to software upgrades and network upgrades) over the Moxi experience last year. It takes about the same time to start up as a Dish Network DVR receiver and (IMO) has the best interface layout available — it just needs a few improvements throughout to make it perfect.
I’m looking forward to the day that 2-way cable cards or other advanced digital authentication technologies allow for an owned Moxi, though.
I’d agree the Moxi isn’t everything it sounds like it is in hype, but it is still a very cool box worthy of Robert’s remarks, I think. I’ve had one for about a month and a half here in Charter’s homebase of St. Louis. It is much improved (thanks to software upgrades and network upgrades) over the Moxi experience last year. It takes about the same time to start up as a Dish Network DVR receiver and (IMO) has the best interface layout available — it just needs a few improvements throughout to make it perfect.
I’m looking forward to the day that 2-way cable cards or other advanced digital authentication technologies allow for an owned Moxi, though.
Robert,
You’re right, consumers, scratch that, customers, don’t have a choice. That is, unless they know how to build their own box. The average user isn’t going to go to such an extreme. I have built my own box based off MythTV. It acts as my digital receiver, DVR, DVD, and multimedia player. With the amount of development, it will soon handle podcasts, and BitTorrent.
Add a resourceful entreprenuer, and maybe a venture capitalist, and a 3rd party receiver company is born. Screw the cable companies, just build devices that translate their signal, and add all the extra functionality that customers want.
Oh and, these boxes do HD too. They are already future-proof because you can add on to them, upgrade them, and update them anytime.
Robert,
You’re right, consumers, scratch that, customers, don’t have a choice. That is, unless they know how to build their own box. The average user isn’t going to go to such an extreme. I have built my own box based off MythTV. It acts as my digital receiver, DVR, DVD, and multimedia player. With the amount of development, it will soon handle podcasts, and BitTorrent.
Add a resourceful entreprenuer, and maybe a venture capitalist, and a 3rd party receiver company is born. Screw the cable companies, just build devices that translate their signal, and add all the extra functionality that customers want.
Oh and, these boxes do HD too. They are already future-proof because you can add on to them, upgrade them, and update them anytime.
The biggest problem with Moxi is that the box costs way more than any other product on the market, but doesn’t generate any more revenue. It also is an operational and testing nigtmare for the cable companies that deploy it. Rumor has it that Comcast and Time Warner will get rid of it once the Adelphia acquisition happens.
The biggest problem with Moxi is that the box costs way more than any other product on the market, but doesn’t generate any more revenue. It also is an operational and testing nigtmare for the cable companies that deploy it. Rumor has it that Comcast and Time Warner will get rid of it once the Adelphia acquisition happens.
I just had my MOXI box taken away from me today because ever since Time Warner took over from Adelphia, it has not worked right. THEY claim that it’s because MOXI sucks. THEY suck. This new box that they gave us is a POS. If I want to watch one thing and record another, I have to switch back and forth between tuners. The guide has advertising in it, which is really nice and classy, and the UI looks like crap. This coming fall, MOXI will be available as a Consumer Electronic DVR at stores like Best Buy. I’m so excited about that day I could just pee.
I just had my MOXI box taken away from me today because ever since Time Warner took over from Adelphia, it has not worked right. THEY claim that it’s because MOXI sucks. THEY suck. This new box that they gave us is a POS. If I want to watch one thing and record another, I have to switch back and forth between tuners. The guide has advertising in it, which is really nice and classy, and the UI looks like crap. This coming fall, MOXI will be available as a Consumer Electronic DVR at stores like Best Buy. I’m so excited about that day I could just pee.
I used to work for Microsoft in Redmond on embedded streaming media so I think I understand a thing or two about the subject and I can tell you that, yes the moxi has a nice UI but thats where the niceness ends. while it does have two ATSC tuners I had to get an external analog tuner from Digeo do non-digital channels. And with the change to switched video tehcnology that many cable companies are making the Moxi has no support at all. The support from Digeo has been horrible also. No phone line, you have to coverse with them through a chat window. What a mistake it has been buying this thing. The Moxi has been nothing but a headache and I would toss it out the window if I didn't care about the $800 bucks I spent on it.
I used to work for Microsoft in Redmond on embedded streaming media so I think I understand a thing or two about the subject and I can tell you that, yes the moxi has a nice UI but thats where the niceness ends. while it does have two ATSC tuners I had to get an external analog tuner from Digeo do non-digital channels. And with the change to switched video tehcnology that many cable companies are making the Moxi has no support at all. The support from Digeo has been horrible also. No phone line, you have to coverse with them through a chat window. What a mistake it has been buying this thing. The Moxi has been nothing but a headache and I would toss it out the window if I didn't care about the $800 bucks I spent on it.
Hey man, at least up there you can get DVRs… We’re still stuck in the past millenium down here. Just got a brand new LCD HD TV set and there’s no HD content to watch.
=(
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Hey man, at least up there you can get DVRs… We’re still stuck in the past millenium down here. Just got a brand new LCD HD TV set and there’s no HD content to watch.
=(
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JL: yeah, I’m hearing it’s a lot worse in Half Moon Bay. Might have to get DirectTV or something like that.
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JL: yeah, I’m hearing it’s a lot worse in Half Moon Bay. Might have to get DirectTV or something like that.
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Comcast’s UI has recently changed, going from they Suckiest Suck that Ever Sucked to Meh, Not So Bad.
Thankfully I have a Tivo with its great UI. It controls my comcast cable box via a serial cable.
I’m not sure why you have to be in a certain city to use Moxi, doesn’t it just piggyback off of the cable box? And why is it only in rural WA state cities?
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Comcast’s UI has recently changed, going from they Suckiest Suck that Ever Sucked to Meh, Not So Bad.
Thankfully I have a Tivo with its great UI. It controls my comcast cable box via a serial cable.
I’m not sure why you have to be in a certain city to use Moxi, doesn’t it just piggyback off of the cable box? And why is it only in rural WA state cities?
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Can’t they institute a cable car like new TV’s have these days?
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that’s card not car…..LoL
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Can’t they institute a cable car like new TV’s have these days?
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that’s card not car…..LoL
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Jeff: they can, but the current cable cards are only one way, Michael explained to me. The cable companies hate them cause you can’t buy pay-per-view content with them. New cable cards are coming out next year.
Also, the cable companies have their own programs under development internally so they are very unlikely to listen to an outside company.
LikeLike
Jeff: they can, but the current cable cards are only one way, Michael explained to me. The cable companies hate them cause you can’t buy pay-per-view content with them. New cable cards are coming out next year.
Also, the cable companies have their own programs under development internally so they are very unlikely to listen to an outside company.
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Let TV die. Social video will kill it.
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Let TV die. Social video will kill it.
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We’ve got Moxi here in Minnesota (Charter). Not sure what/if the cable companies do to the systems when they get them, but you might be reassured to know Moxi ain’t that hot! It’s pretty reliable but the UI is very often sluggish, and on the [rare] instances the box needs a reboot it takes forever to start up (think it’s Linux-based right?). Also finding upcoming shows to record can be an ass with the on-screen keyboard. Or maybe it’s time I read the user manual :o/
Could be I’m complaining over nothing… Never tried Tivo so maybe I just don’t know how good we got it :o)
What’s your view on TV’s future? We heading for all-streamed content anytime soon? :o)
LikeLike
We’ve got Moxi here in Minnesota (Charter). Not sure what/if the cable companies do to the systems when they get them, but you might be reassured to know Moxi ain’t that hot! It’s pretty reliable but the UI is very often sluggish, and on the [rare] instances the box needs a reboot it takes forever to start up (think it’s Linux-based right?). Also finding upcoming shows to record can be an ass with the on-screen keyboard. Or maybe it’s time I read the user manual :o/
Could be I’m complaining over nothing… Never tried Tivo so maybe I just don’t know how good we got it :o)
What’s your view on TV’s future? We heading for all-streamed content anytime soon? :o)
LikeLike
Thanks for the plug, Robert, but I don’t want to overstate my role in this. There was work before mine, after mine, and all around mine that created what you saw tonight–including graphic and motion designers, developers, a very smart software architect, QA etc. etc.
It’s all in the details and geting as much crap out of the system as possible. That takes time and a large team. You posted earlier about the squeeze on getting to profitability before the investment runs out. None of this would have been possible without Paul Allen’s vision that a product of this complexity was worthwhile.
What I showed you is the fifth major iteration of the design. (The first three happened well before the first commercial release in 2004.) Key to getting it where it is now was paying attention to what users told us was hard, confusing, or sucky.
The reason you have to be in a certain city to get Moxi is that it is distributed through cable companies. In Comcast locally, they made a deal to distribute the Motorola DCT6412 HQ with a Microsoft TV interface as their cable DVR. The areas in WA that have Moxi (which uses the Motorola BMC9012 or a Moxi MP12) are part of Charter Communications.
Once we see a release of the next gen of CableCARD (officially called Multistream CableCARD or M-card for short) customers will have a much wider choice of home entertainment equipment. You can be sure that many computer and consumer electronics companies are planning to bring lots of goodies to market that works with M-card.
LikeLike
Thanks for the plug, Robert, but I don’t want to overstate my role in this. There was work before mine, after mine, and all around mine that created what you saw tonight–including graphic and motion designers, developers, a very smart software architect, QA etc. etc.
It’s all in the details and geting as much crap out of the system as possible. That takes time and a large team. You posted earlier about the squeeze on getting to profitability before the investment runs out. None of this would have been possible without Paul Allen’s vision that a product of this complexity was worthwhile.
What I showed you is the fifth major iteration of the design. (The first three happened well before the first commercial release in 2004.) Key to getting it where it is now was paying attention to what users told us was hard, confusing, or sucky.
The reason you have to be in a certain city to get Moxi is that it is distributed through cable companies. In Comcast locally, they made a deal to distribute the Motorola DCT6412 HQ with a Microsoft TV interface as their cable DVR. The areas in WA that have Moxi (which uses the Motorola BMC9012 or a Moxi MP12) are part of Charter Communications.
Once we see a release of the next gen of CableCARD (officially called Multistream CableCARD or M-card for short) customers will have a much wider choice of home entertainment equipment. You can be sure that many computer and consumer electronics companies are planning to bring lots of goodies to market that works with M-card.
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I don’t know if you’ve noticed, by Comcast OnDemand menu pages proudly state that they are “powered by Microsoft technology”. And yes they suck.
See how evil monopolies are?
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I don’t know if you’ve noticed, by Comcast OnDemand menu pages proudly state that they are “powered by Microsoft technology”. And yes they suck.
See how evil monopolies are?
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Todd: yeah, and that system was designed years ago and the team that did that box has a much much better one, but the cable companies want to stick with the old cruddy one (and, only Seattle area residents get that — other Comcast areas get stuck with an even cruddier experience that isn’t made by Microsoft).
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Todd: yeah, and that system was designed years ago and the team that did that box has a much much better one, but the cable companies want to stick with the old cruddy one (and, only Seattle area residents get that — other Comcast areas get stuck with an even cruddier experience that isn’t made by Microsoft).
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But on cable or phone systems? We have absolutely no choice.
Ummm, switch providers or go (flaky) VOIP, or pure Sat or Direct TV…you have choices if you don’t stick with one provider or one tech.
Minus all the techno-jumbo and good UIs, this is all simple economics, not enough demand, too interactive TV edge-cased, and Cable can roll own, limited feature set sure, but at far less cost, meeting more of the demand. Plus two words: Paul Allen, the reverse Midas Touch, all to dust or rock and rolled spaceships.
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But on cable or phone systems? We have absolutely no choice.
Ummm, switch providers or go (flaky) VOIP, or pure Sat or Direct TV…you have choices if you don’t stick with one provider or one tech.
Minus all the techno-jumbo and good UIs, this is all simple economics, not enough demand, too interactive TV edge-cased, and Cable can roll own, limited feature set sure, but at far less cost, meeting more of the demand. Plus two words: Paul Allen, the reverse Midas Touch, all to dust or rock and rolled spaceships.
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crappy UIs
And the number of people who care (or even know what you are talking about) is limited to a small set of softwareish edgey geeks.
poor feature sets
Most people aren’t using half of what they already have. People like simple, not complex operating system Interactive TV-like features. The TV is not a PC. And DVR’isms isn’t as much of a play with full season DVDs.
and crappy HD content
HD is still way way early in the game. Spending $5,000 upwards for a better picture experience is NOT mainstream. And HD over Torrents? Doesn’t happen, best get a slutty XVID/DIVX player or XBMC for torrenting.
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crappy UIs
And the number of people who care (or even know what you are talking about) is limited to a small set of softwareish edgey geeks.
poor feature sets
Most people aren’t using half of what they already have. People like simple, not complex operating system Interactive TV-like features. The TV is not a PC. And DVR’isms isn’t as much of a play with full season DVDs.
and crappy HD content
HD is still way way early in the game. Spending $5,000 upwards for a better picture experience is NOT mainstream. And HD over Torrents? Doesn’t happen, best get a slutty XVID/DIVX player or XBMC for torrenting.
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Christopher: it might not be mainstream but everytime I go into Best Buy or Fry’s the big screen department is busy.
Yeah, getting HD stuff today over your computer is really a pain in the behind. Except for one place: Xbox 360. Lots of cool stuff shows up in the video section of my Xbox. I wish more would, actually, and there’s no way to select more, or pay for more. But I have a feeling that’s coming.
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Christopher: it might not be mainstream but everytime I go into Best Buy or Fry’s the big screen department is busy.
Yeah, getting HD stuff today over your computer is really a pain in the behind. Except for one place: Xbox 360. Lots of cool stuff shows up in the video section of my Xbox. I wish more would, actually, and there’s no way to select more, or pay for more. But I have a feeling that’s coming.
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IPTV looks pretty sweet, and being a cable user I can verify that the UI is crap and thats being polite.
From the screens on the moxi site I can’t believe that cable companies and the like aren’t climbing over each other to get this on their boxes.
I think with the release od IPTV, then subsequently we are going to get other IPTV vendors…and the UI will be a decider for each. I think the cable, and satellite tv users have been held to ransom with having say 2 or 3 companies each provides the same crappy ui…but with these software centric companies joining the game then these other companies will have to embrace UI’s more.
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IPTV looks pretty sweet, and being a cable user I can verify that the UI is crap and thats being polite.
From the screens on the moxi site I can’t believe that cable companies and the like aren’t climbing over each other to get this on their boxes.
I think with the release od IPTV, then subsequently we are going to get other IPTV vendors…and the UI will be a decider for each. I think the cable, and satellite tv users have been held to ransom with having say 2 or 3 companies each provides the same crappy ui…but with these software centric companies joining the game then these other companies will have to embrace UI’s more.
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Another reason I love Lawrence, KS. We have Moxi.
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Another reason I love Lawrence, KS. We have Moxi.
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I have a Moxi box (Motorola system, Charter) and it’s not all it’s hyped up to be. There is a long delay when changing menus, changing channels can take up to 15 seconds and start up time (due to power outage) can take 4 or 5 minutes. It’s better than nothing but it really lags behind the Tivo box I had with DirecTV.
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I have a Moxi box (Motorola system, Charter) and it’s not all it’s hyped up to be. There is a long delay when changing menus, changing channels can take up to 15 seconds and start up time (due to power outage) can take 4 or 5 minutes. It’s better than nothing but it really lags behind the Tivo box I had with DirecTV.
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I’d agree the Moxi isn’t everything it sounds like it is in hype, but it is still a very cool box worthy of Robert’s remarks, I think. I’ve had one for about a month and a half here in Charter’s homebase of St. Louis. It is much improved (thanks to software upgrades and network upgrades) over the Moxi experience last year. It takes about the same time to start up as a Dish Network DVR receiver and (IMO) has the best interface layout available — it just needs a few improvements throughout to make it perfect.
I’m looking forward to the day that 2-way cable cards or other advanced digital authentication technologies allow for an owned Moxi, though.
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I’d agree the Moxi isn’t everything it sounds like it is in hype, but it is still a very cool box worthy of Robert’s remarks, I think. I’ve had one for about a month and a half here in Charter’s homebase of St. Louis. It is much improved (thanks to software upgrades and network upgrades) over the Moxi experience last year. It takes about the same time to start up as a Dish Network DVR receiver and (IMO) has the best interface layout available — it just needs a few improvements throughout to make it perfect.
I’m looking forward to the day that 2-way cable cards or other advanced digital authentication technologies allow for an owned Moxi, though.
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Robert,
You’re right, consumers, scratch that, customers, don’t have a choice. That is, unless they know how to build their own box. The average user isn’t going to go to such an extreme. I have built my own box based off MythTV. It acts as my digital receiver, DVR, DVD, and multimedia player. With the amount of development, it will soon handle podcasts, and BitTorrent.
Add a resourceful entreprenuer, and maybe a venture capitalist, and a 3rd party receiver company is born. Screw the cable companies, just build devices that translate their signal, and add all the extra functionality that customers want.
Oh and, these boxes do HD too. They are already future-proof because you can add on to them, upgrade them, and update them anytime.
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Robert,
You’re right, consumers, scratch that, customers, don’t have a choice. That is, unless they know how to build their own box. The average user isn’t going to go to such an extreme. I have built my own box based off MythTV. It acts as my digital receiver, DVR, DVD, and multimedia player. With the amount of development, it will soon handle podcasts, and BitTorrent.
Add a resourceful entreprenuer, and maybe a venture capitalist, and a 3rd party receiver company is born. Screw the cable companies, just build devices that translate their signal, and add all the extra functionality that customers want.
Oh and, these boxes do HD too. They are already future-proof because you can add on to them, upgrade them, and update them anytime.
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BTW, Michael Markman has recently been fired by Digeo, the makers of Moxi. He was not the designer or the creative force behind the design. It is just a re-skinning of Nokia’s Navi Bars (http://www.nokia.com/EUROPE_NOKIA_COM_3/r2/flash/homeproducts/navibars/).
The biggest problem with Moxi is that the box costs way more than any other product on the market, but doesn’t generate any more revenue. It also is an operational and testing nigtmare for the cable companies that deploy it. Rumor has it that Comcast and Time Warner will get rid of it once the Adelphia acquisition happens.
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BTW, Michael Markman has recently been fired by Digeo, the makers of Moxi. He was not the designer or the creative force behind the design. It is just a re-skinning of Nokia’s Navi Bars (http://www.nokia.com/EUROPE_NOKIA_COM_3/r2/flash/homeproducts/navibars/).
The biggest problem with Moxi is that the box costs way more than any other product on the market, but doesn’t generate any more revenue. It also is an operational and testing nigtmare for the cable companies that deploy it. Rumor has it that Comcast and Time Warner will get rid of it once the Adelphia acquisition happens.
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I gots me my future of cable TV: It’s called MythTV.
http://www.mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythFeatures
Nothing like rolling your own, that way you KNOW the UI will be good, at least for you 😉
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I gots me my future of cable TV: It’s called MythTV.
http://www.mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythFeatures
Nothing like rolling your own, that way you KNOW the UI will be good, at least for you 😉
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Well as far fetched as it, IPTV too me only exists in two realms – the software version and online websites that cater to television.
Software versions that use multicast tech like PPStream, Amazon’s new unbox, and QuickTimes new unicast feature. And then the web versions like FreeTube ( http://www.FreeTube.co.nr ), Zorbitz ( http://www.orbtv.com ), or YouTube (http://www.youtube.com).
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Well as far fetched as it, IPTV too me only exists in two realms – the software version and online websites that cater to television.
Software versions that use multicast tech like PPStream, Amazon’s new unbox, and QuickTimes new unicast feature. And then the web versions like FreeTube ( http://www.FreeTube.co.nr ), Zorbitz ( http://www.orbtv.com ), or YouTube (http://www.youtube.com).
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I just had my MOXI box taken away from me today because ever since Time Warner took over from Adelphia, it has not worked right. THEY claim that it’s because MOXI sucks. THEY suck. This new box that they gave us is a POS. If I want to watch one thing and record another, I have to switch back and forth between tuners. The guide has advertising in it, which is really nice and classy, and the UI looks like crap. This coming fall, MOXI will be available as a Consumer Electronic DVR at stores like Best Buy. I’m so excited about that day I could just pee.
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I just had my MOXI box taken away from me today because ever since Time Warner took over from Adelphia, it has not worked right. THEY claim that it’s because MOXI sucks. THEY suck. This new box that they gave us is a POS. If I want to watch one thing and record another, I have to switch back and forth between tuners. The guide has advertising in it, which is really nice and classy, and the UI looks like crap. This coming fall, MOXI will be available as a Consumer Electronic DVR at stores like Best Buy. I’m so excited about that day I could just pee.
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I used to work for Microsoft in Redmond on embedded streaming media so I think I understand a thing or two about the subject and I can tell you that, yes the moxi has a nice UI but thats where the niceness ends. while it does have two ATSC tuners I had to get an external analog tuner from Digeo do non-digital channels. And with the change to switched video tehcnology that many cable companies are making the Moxi has no support at all. The support from Digeo has been horrible also. No phone line, you have to coverse with them through a chat window. What a mistake it has been buying this thing. The Moxi has been nothing but a headache and I would toss it out the window if I didn't care about the $800 bucks I spent on it.
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I used to work for Microsoft in Redmond on embedded streaming media so I think I understand a thing or two about the subject and I can tell you that, yes the moxi has a nice UI but thats where the niceness ends. while it does have two ATSC tuners I had to get an external analog tuner from Digeo do non-digital channels. And with the change to switched video tehcnology that many cable companies are making the Moxi has no support at all. The support from Digeo has been horrible also. No phone line, you have to coverse with them through a chat window. What a mistake it has been buying this thing. The Moxi has been nothing but a headache and I would toss it out the window if I didn't care about the $800 bucks I spent on it.
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