After Sony and six major cable MSOs recently came to an agreement on tru2way, other consumer electronics companies were invited to sign the same agreement. And now it seems others have, the signatories now include ADB, Digeo, Intel, Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony. As more vendors sign on to the agreement we’ll start seeing more options in two-way cable devices.

Their press release:
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One of the major issues for the Comcast TiVo deployment has been the need for a truck roll. The software development was predicated on the ability of the cable MSO to remotely deploy the software without the need to send out a technician. But that didn’t quite work when Comcast started deploying the software, the infrastructure for remote deployment wasn’t really ready to face the real world. But now TiVo’s Tom Rogers says that’s changing, according to Multichannel News:

Rogers said this software-downloading capability “will be ready shortly,” enabling MSOs to upgrade the features of the set-top box without requiring an expensive truck roll. This “auto flip” — an automated modification that can be done remotely — is vital to the next generation of DVRs, he said, noting that the first implementation will be on Comcast systems in New England.

According to Rogers, it took 18 months to develop the auto-flip capability for Comcast, and 10 months of that was just developing the statement of work! I guess we know why it took so long for the TiVo Comcast software to appear. Though, having worked for, and with, a number of large corporations in my career, I’m really not surprised. Rogers also has a gift for understatement:

He said that “the infrastructure that enables [the service] proved not to be very stable” at first.

No kidding. There is some more in the article if interested.

CNET’s Matthew Elliott just had the Comcast TiVo software installed yesterday and he’s blogged about his first 24 hours with the software at CNET’s Crave blog. Overall he seems happy with it, except for the performance. The slowness of the TiVo Comcast software is something that is oft mentioned, and both TiVo and Comcast have stated that they are working on updates which will improve the performance. I hope that Matthew sticks with it and gives them a chance to improve the performance, as he’s promised to blog about his further experiences with the software. If you’re interested in the Comcast TiVo software, it is worth checking out what he has to say.

Well, this could be the end of the push for DCR+. Sony had been the big name still pushing for DCR+, as opposed to OCAP/tru2way. Well, it seems that’s no longer the case. Sony has come to an agreement with the six largest cable MSOs in the US, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Charter, Cablevision and Bright House Networks, which collectively server 82% of US cable subscribers, over 105 million US homes. The national two-way cable agreement will see Sony supporting tru2way under streamlined licensing agreements. Other consumer electronics companies have been invited to join the agreement as well.

So it looks like OCAP/tru2way will end up the industry standard, and the DCR+ push is likely to fade away now. The full terms of the Memorandum of Understanding that covers the agreement have not yet been released, giving other potential signatories time to review it. I’ll keep an eye out for those terms once they’ve been released.

I’m just glad to see an apparent end to the stalemate. If the CE industry in general embraces tru2way then it opens the floodgates for more advanced cable products for consumers, which is a good thing.

The press release announcing the agreement is below.
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Well, we knew Digeo would be showing off their Moxi box for cable MSOs at The Cable Show. Back in January when I spoke with Digeo’s then-COO Greg Gudorf, he said that their Moxi HD DVR for cable would ship in 1Q08, clearly that didn’t happen. Now, according to a press release issued today, Charter will be the first cable MSO to deploy the Moxi Cable HD DVR 3012 - in 3Q08. It isn’t surprising that Charter is the first customer as they were one of the MSOs to deploy the first generation Moxi units, and Digeo is backed by Paul Allen, who also controls Charter. A little corporate nepotism. I just hope Digeo does better than FlipStart, which seems to be comatose.

Ben Drawbaugh from EngadgetHD was at The Cable Show and he got a picture of the unit on display. Is it just me, or does it look like a slightly shorter (no optical drive so I guess they didn’t need the room) version of the now defunct Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR? Only in black instead of white. I have to admit, while I thought the Mutli-Room HD DMR was hideous, this one is only bland. The change in color helps.

According to the press release:

The announcement marks the first order and deployment of Digeo’s second generation offering which incorporates a dual HD-tuner digital video recorder (DVR). The Moxi 3012 also includes the Emmy(R) award-winning Moxi Menu user interface, along with the following advanced features:

* Full DVR functionality
* CableCARD(R) multi-stream 2-way support
* Remote web scheduling capable
* External storage options up to 1TB
* Extensive data mining through the Moxi portal for real-time customer usage insights

So it is a dual-tuner CableCARD DVR. Sounds like it relies on M-Card, which fits with what was known about their canceled consumer products. They don’t disclose the internal storage capacity, but given the ‘3012′ naming scheme, I’d guess at 120GB. ‘Remote web scheduling capable’ is interesting, but the question is will Charter enable it? They don’t say if the external storage is USB or eSATA, and I can’t tell from Ben’s photo. The data mining is both intriguing and worrying. Is it anonymized? Just how much data do they track? How personal is it? Some people dislike even TiVo’s anonymized, aggregated data collection. And this is ‘extensive’ and ‘real-time’.

While they mention 2-way CableCARD support, they don’t specifically mention what is supported - SDV? VOD? PPV? I’d venture a guess that SDV is supported, since the Tuning Resolver Adapter is close to finalized. They could build that capability into the box. Since this isn’t a consumer device and the software can, and probably will, be customized for each MSO, I think it is reasonable to expect they’ll be supporting VOD & PPV. But without an OCAP platform I don’t know about advanced cable services in general.

And, according to the press release, Digeo is continuing to work on an OCAP/tru2way version of their Moxi platform.

I have Charter, though they never offered Moxi in my neck of the woods. If they do start offering this Moxi 3012 in my area I’ll get one, at least for a while, to see how it fares.

EDIT: I received the following via the contact form after originally posting this:

On your press release of the 3012 I have a few answers to your speculation

1) Remote scheduling will be enabled, current Digeo Moxi 9012 users already enjoy this feature. Scheduling is done by logging into the charter.net portal with your charter.net email address and going to the TV section. First time users will have to associate the box with their email there.

Unfortunately at this time it requires that the customer have our High Speed Data product in addition to the DVR and that both services be on the same account.

2) Expansion
This is already an option on the older 9012 and 9022 boxes as well. Currently the older boxes only supported USB expansion. I would assume that the 3012 is the same (unless it has eSATA ports)

3) 3012 model name.
Unless Digeo’s changed their naming scheme the 12 in 3012 should stand for 1 TV, 2 Tuners.

In the 9000 series there were two models, 9012 and 9022. The 9022 supported two TVs through the usage of a “moxi mate” box

I’m guessing givng the 9022 configuration that the 3012 should have no less than a 160 gig base hard drive (to compete with the Motorola 6416 which offers 160 gigs)

Hope this information is helpfull!

James Doster
Digital Coordinator
Charter Communications

The press release:
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Comcast has posted another update to AVS Forum about their ongoing issues with, and updates to, the TiVo software for their cable DVRs.

Hello everyone. I want to provide an update on the Comcast DVR with TiVo Service.

In the past, some users have noticed long delays (up to several minutes) when scheduling recordings (including setting up and modifying Season Passes). We made a change recently to correct this issue, and you should now see improved performance when scheduling recordings.

The software update for the Comcast/TiVo DVR that rolled out to part of the region at the beginning of April is on hold for the moment, but we are working to get it out as soon as possible. As a reminder, this release contains fixes for a perpetual reboot loop (with the front-panel display showing 8888), the Dolby Digital output on DCH set-top boxes, improves the Guide HD filter behavior, and other bug fixes.

I’m also happy to tell you that there will be another release targeted for the next few months that will provide noticeable performance improvements, particularly to scheduling and Guide. I can provide an update later on as we determine the exact timing for this release.

Thanks again for your feedback and your patience as Comcast and TiVo work to improve your user experience.

They don’t say why they’ve put the current update on hold and haven’t continued deployment. I’d have to presume something went pear shaped with the initial roll-out. I hope they resume deployment soon and get the fixes out to the rest of the user base.