O Canada! > Canadian > Cogeco > Dcx3400?

Dcx3400?

Will it work on Cogeco? No.

How can they get away with this? Because nobody is stopping them.

Technically it should work on Cogeco. Whether they're willing to activate it is a whole other story, though.

A cup of coffee and a few timbits tells me that Shaw is selling that box for cheap as a loss leader, though.

reply to lazyfox2
I recently purchased a Motorola DCX3400 (320GB) off ebay and it has yet to arrive. Will it absolutely not work with Cogeco? :S

A Best Buy customer claims to have activated a Shaw 500GB DCX3400:

»www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/mot···dualt-en

Easy installation with Cogeco-Shaw Motorola 3400 | January 07,2011
by Scott Dougherty | Vineland, Ontario

I was a little worried that this great SHAW HDPVR would not be compatible with Cogeco Cable. However with a little research on the Cogeco website, they stated most Motorola Digital boxes are compatible. It has everything we need, and with the 500GB hard drive, gives us lots of room to build our library.

If you not had an HDPVR before, you will find features like pausing live TV, rewinding live TV, awesome.
Touch Screen Front operation, Channel or Time option for front display.

5 STARS

reply to lazyfox2
I'd love to hear if this does work out or not. I've been pining for a larger drive than the 160gig we have in the 6416, but no way am I willing to pay Cogeco's asking price for the Pace boxes.

reply to lazyfox2
Had I known this was possible I would have bought this for my father-in-law for Christmas rather than the DC550D. As I said technically there is no reason Cogeco shouldn't be able to activate it as they use the same back-end platform, but who knows what kind of hassle you'd run into trying to activate it. Same deal with CableCards. Some people have been able to get them activated no sweat, others get chased away the moment they mention the word on the phone. No consistency.

The good thing at least is that Future Shop has a spectacular return policy. I'd be tempted to order one and try it out just to see what happens, because there's no risk if it doesn't as you can just return it for a full refund.

reply to lazyfox2
Anyone have firsthand info on using a 3400 with Cogeco? Did your box arrive, Matty?

It has arrived and I called Cogeco Tech Support to activate it. I spoke with 3 people, the final person being a Supervisor told me that I should have verified with them before buying the box as he absolutely refuses to activate it.

This fellow (Ray) was very firm that Cogeco only activates models in their system because of reliability issues. I am now trying to sell it and perhaps find a DCT6416 or a Pace RNG200 DVR.

I thought $145 was a steal for a 320GB HD DVR, oh well

Was it a Shaw DCX3400? There are different versions of the Motorola platform with some compatibility quirks between them. I don't remember the details, but with the older boxes there used to be a way you could tell by the model number or something like that, and there were certain DCT2100s that were compatible with Cogeco and others we not.

Now having said that, the problem with Cogeco is that you'll get a different answer from different people. Saying that they only activate models in their system is a load of bullshit, because one can head over to Digital Home to see a whole slew of people using CableCards and other non-Cogeco devices with the service. You'll get one person who is totally cool with activating a box that isn't in their system, then you'll get someone else who swears up and down that Cogeco doesn't do that, has never done that and you're on crack for thinking that they ever would. I'm almost tempted to tell you to keep calling, because I get the feeling you'll eventually find someone willing to do it despite getting three who say they won't.

Another thing you can try is lying and saying it's a DCT6414. Worth a shot, you've got nothing to lose at this point unless they documented your multiple attempts to activate the box in the customer notes.

This DCX3400 was originally from a Comcast user in Michigan, it seems to be running the latest firmware and software versions that Motorola pumps out. Will the DCT6414 software/firmware work the same with it?

This box loads up fine and seems very responsive, the person I spoke with wouldn't even take the mac numbers to try it.

I'm also on Digital Home Canada and would love to know who that Best Buy Customer spoke to!

I'll try calling in again soon, I just want HD in my bedroom!

I would have just told them it was a 6416 and go from there. What they have on file at Cogeco's end shouldn't have any bearing on the firmware, the box will only download what firmware is available for it.

I called in and claimed I have a 6416 as it has DVR privileges, maybe the DCX700 has a better provisioning interface in common with the DCX3400?

My receiver is still not showing up at all on their system but seems to have up to date software/firmware:

S/W Ver: 78.53 - A28p0-4.1005.r-8
Firmware: 22.65

Does the M-Card inside of it factor into how to "speaks" with the cable provider?

its possible that the OOB frequency is set onto a different channel than what cogeco uses, causing activations and what not to not go through.

reply to exseven

I'm able to log in to the Diagnostics page and see my OOB frequency is set to 104.20 MHz and I would love to figure out how to manually change this!

EDIT: On the OOB frequency page I hit Menu on the receiver and was able to adjust the frequency to 72.75MHz (I think, which ended up giving me the correct time)

Since then I did a reboot and it's now locked on channel 0. I went into my Cogeco account and reprocessed it for activation, my fingers are crossed!