Moxi Mate MP-1000 Digital Video Recorder (Black)

The MOXI DVR unit itself is by far the best DVR ever made. Unfortunately, the Moxi Mate (this review) is simply a gigantic disappointment. The concept is OK, but the implementation is just extremely poor. Essentially, the Moxi Mate is acting as a relay point between a Moxi DVR and the TV the mate is connected to. It simply pulls data from the DVR and projects it on the TV. In theory, this seems OK because it allows the user to view live tv and recorded content from the Moxi Mate without having to purchase another expensive DVR or rent another cablecard. The problem with this is that the Moxi Mate is just a middle man, and a very very slow, sluggish one. It doesn't have a tuner itself, so it has to pull video from the Moxi DVR, and not from the coax cable itself. Every single user input is very slow and it takes the unit about 4-6 seconds to change channels and to recognize fast forward, rewind, and play commands, making the Mate simply unusable. I am not sure why the Mate has a hard time pulling video from the DVR and why it acts so sluggish. My home network is very sophisticated and wired and I do not experience any latency issued between any of my devices. I even spoke with tech support and they said that delay in the Moxi Mate is normal, which really is a bad sign that the delay and sluggishness is expected. The Moxi Mate SHOULD work without delay, as I have other devices that essentially do the same thing (stream video from one device and project it on another) with an Apple TV and an XBOX360. These devices do the same thing a Moxi Mate does (except for streaming live TV), but do so without the delay. This means that technology exists to stream HD video from another device on the local network, just the Moxi Mate simply does not do a good job of it.





I bought the 3 room bundle (3 tuner DVR and 2 mates). LOVED the DVR, but hated the mates. I returned the mates and bought a 2nd DVR (only 2 tuner this time), and for my 3rd room, just used a vintage series TiVo.





I'd recommend people absolutely buy the Moxi DVRs instead of these mates. It is costlier, but it's best to have an actual DVR for each TV that you frequently watch, and for less used TVs, just plug straight into the wall, or rent a cheap standard def set-top box. Remember, if you've got a newer digital TV, even if you plug straight into the wall, you STILL get major networks (Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, etc) in HD without any equipment, and you get your standard cable channels in standard def.





Either way, AVOID the mate for now until they fix the extreme laggy issues which make it unusuable.


Moxi Mate MP-1000 Digital Video Recorder (Black)