A prominent set-top-box (STB) vendor funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is prepping two retail DVRs (digital video recorders), at least one based on Linux. Digeo's “Moxi” recorder and Home Cinema Edition HD DMR (digital media recorder) anticipate new FCC consumer-choice laws that kick-in this summer.

(Click for larger view of Digeo's current Moxi device for cable operators)

Paul Allen's Digeo venture is perhaps best-known in the Linux community as the employer of Andrew Morton, Linux 2.6 maintainer and right-hand man to Linux creator Linus Torvalds.

Digeo acquired Linux STB vendor Moxi in 2002, after Moxi announced several products. Since then, Digeo has marketed Linux-based CPE (customer premises equipment) to cable operators. Now, the company is poised to enter the retail market, thanks to new FCC consumer choice laws that kick in on July 7.

The new laws require cable operators to separate security devices from set-top boxes, so that operators can't monopolize the customer's choice of equipment. Further, cable operators will be required to “support all third-party digital-cable-ready products with CableCARDs,” according to an article at TWICE.com.

Digeo's retail strategy will include two product lines, TWICE reports. Moxi-branded retail products will focus on multi-room, high-definition multimedia distribution, using firewire-over-coax to connect “Moxi Mate” extenders to a central Moxi hub equipped with a CableCARD slot.

Digeo CEO Mike Fidler, a former Sony Electronics executive, said, “Right now, CableCARD for PCs [is] available only for Vista-based products,” as quoted by TWICE. The retail-version Moxi hub could still run Linux, though, since it is not a PC. Dozens if not hundreds of Linux-based devices — including many Sony digital TVs — have CableCARD slots.

Digeo's Linux-based Home Cinema Edition HD DMR, meanwhile, is more PC-like, being based on an AMD reference design. It lacks the Moxi's multi-room capabilities and its CableCARD, but adds a broadband connection, for use with interactive, Internet-based HD content download services that Digeo is in the process of aggregating, according to TWICE.

Additional details reported by TWICE include:

• Incorporates a 5.1-channel A/V amplifier
• DVD/CD drive, possibly recordable
• OTA (over-the-air) ATSC broadcast tuner
• “In-the-clear” QAM digital cable tuning

A few more details about Digeo and its retail strategy can be found in the complete TWICE story, here.

Earlier this week, Apple announced that it, too, is entering the set-top box market.

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.