Digeo to Cut Pricing on Moxi HD DVR

New Model to Have 160 GB of Storage Capacity, eSATA Port

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 5/7/2007 12:04:00 AM

With the introduction of its next HD digital-video recorder, Digeo will drop the box’s price to cable operators by one-third compared with previous devices.

CEO Mike Fidler declined to disclose pricing details but said Digeo is now bringing itself in line with pricing from other set-top-box providers. “Recognizing that the market is very competitive, we’re trying to make sure we offer a product that is appealing and drives the right economics,” he added.

The company’s Moxi user interface has won Emmy Awards, but Digeo has had difficulty landing deals with cable operators in the face of competition from Motorola and Scientific Atlanta. Digeo’s set-tops have been deployed to 400,000 subscribers with eight operators.

In January, Digeo announced plans to sell its “digital-media recorders” directly to consumers starting later this year.

The new Moxi HD DVR will begin shipping in the fourth quarter of 2007. Digeo said it will have a version of Moxi written for Cable Television Laboratories’ OpenCable Application Platform that could be ready as early as then.

The DVR will have 160 gigabytes of storage capacity, twice that of Digeo’s current models. Fidler said the company tested the box with up to 1 terabyte of external storage -- enough space for 1,000 hours of video. When it ships, the Moxi HD DVR will include an external Serial ATA (eSATA) port, he added.

Other new Moxi features include overall improved speed from optimizations Digeo made to the underlying software. The DVR will also provide Web-based scheduling, including the ability to identify whether a recording conflicts with an existing one and let the user know “in near real-time” over the Internet, president and chief operating officer Greg Gudorf said, adding, “It’s remote scheduling done right.”