Backchannelmedia

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Sep. 23--KIRKLAND, Wash. -- Charter Communications Inc. may be central to Paul G. Allen's vision of a "wired world," where communications, entertainment and information are linked in a user-friendly environment.

But a small company in this Seattle suburb is a key part of bringing the vision to life.

Digeo Inc., maker of the Moxi Media Center, lags TiVo and other manufacturers in penetrating the market for digital video recorders. But Moxi is making a big splash with some cable customers, because it's easy to use and packed with features.

Allen founded Digeo in 1999, then merged it with Moxi Digital in April 2002. Charter, which Allen also controls, has tested many of Digeo's products and uses Moxi in 45 of its markets, including St. Louis.

The Moxi box combines high-definition tuning with a big memory for recording and pausing television shows. The on-screen guide groups movies, pay-per-view, sports, favorite shows and high-definition programming in an Emmy-award-winning user interface. Although it works with high-definition sets, it can be used with other televisions as well.

"It's a set-top box on steroids," said Michael Markman, Digeo's senior marketing director. Moxi is connected to the Internet as well as to the cable system, one reason it has so many more capabilities than the usual set-stop box. Its 80- to 160-gigabyte storage capacity is another.

Newer Moxi boxes include built-in DVD and CD players. You can rip MP3 files from CDs and customize a ticker to update sports, news or weather on the bottom of the screen. Viewers can click on a ticker item to see the text of the story. In the future, the company expects to add viewing and storage of digital photos and on-screen management of phone calls.

"Once you get to use it, you'll never give it up," said Mike Fidler, who recently left Sony to become Digeo's chief executive. He had a Moxi box in another market before joining Digeo. When his family moved to the Seattle area, "my little one wanted to know why you couldn't get SpongeBob anytime."

Charter has been offering Moxi boxes to high-definition and some other digital customers for almost a year.

"It's taken off very strong from the beginning," said Mark Dickinson, advanced services manager for Charter, the nation's fourth-largest cable-TV provider. Customers like being able to record one show while watching another, and being able to pause and rewind television shows, including live sporting events.

"The term 'Moxi' is really catching on," Dickinson said. "People are starting to say, 'I Moxi-ed a show last night.'" As Moxi brings on new features, Charter can update the boxes over its cable, Dickinson said. "Customers don't have to trade in the box" or wait for a technician to drop by the house.

Charter began marketing Moxi's multi-room system a few weeks ago. The system uses the regular box in the main television room and smaller boxes in other rooms that link to the main box over existing cable wires. Both boxes can control recording and other features. For now, Charter is offering a two-room system.

But Digeo has a lot of catching up to do. The company said 160,000 cable accounts have the Moxi system to date, including many customers with multiple boxes. In addition to Charter, Adelphia and several independent cable operators are using Moxi.

By contrast, Scientific Atlanta sold 542,000 personal video recorders in the second quarter, and Motorola sold 640,000. Charter uses Scientific Atlanta digital video recorders in some markets.

"They have somewhat of an uphill battle to fight in terms of convincing cable operators and cable TV customers that they have a viable product," said Mike Paxton, a senior analyst with In-Stat, a research company in Scottsdale, Ariz.

"It's a very good user interface," Paxton said. "It's not markedly better, but it is more user-friendly."

Fidler said Digeo is working hard to convince more cable companies to offer Moxi. The company has a trial going with Comcast and is in discussions with Time Warner Inc., Cox Communications Inc. and Rogers Cable in Canada.

Fidler said Moxi will win more customers as more people get used to the ease of recording and pausing favorite shows.

"This technology will be in every household," he said. "When you can provide a better experience for the customer, people will respond."

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