Motorola Dcx3400-m Hack

[Melissa Hassel]

TheDCX 3400 is a lot faster than the previous DCT Series cable boxes thanks to increased processor power, additional flash and S-DRAM. The new DCX 3400 set-top boxes also decodes both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC services while the DCT predecessor only handles MPEG-2. This means that the DCX3400 will support for both 2-D and 3-D TV, Dolby Digital and Digital PLUS audio and automatic video formatting for 480i/p all the way up to 1080i/p via HDMI.

While both HDMI and Component video outputs work at the same time time, the HDMI resolution takes priority so if you plan on using both outputs to feed two different displays then both displays must have the same resolution capabilities otherwise the HDMI display will only work and the component video display will not sync if it is a lower resolution than the HDMI display.

1- UHF Remote Control: UHF remote controls have existing in the satellite industry for

more than 30 years. UHF, assign able remote controls are necessary

when more than one cable box is housed in the same equipment rack or when

a single PVR is used throughout the house as a media center or hub. A harmony

remote is almost a must with a Shaw Cable box.

Shaw continues to be one of the most reliable providers of HDTV programming and distribution. As you can seen their new Motorola cable boxes are a great improvement over previous product offerings but there are still a lot of features and options missing from the Shaw hardware line-up offered by other providers.

The USB port on the front of the DCX3400 will in most cases serve NO Function from a consumer/user standpoint. This port is used for diagnostics and programming by the cable service provider or manufacturer, it has no consumer function to it other than a USB power port.

The manufacturer Motorola makes these cable boxes and programs them to the specifications of each cable company. At this time we do not know of any cable service provider allowing functionality from the front or rear USB port other than for their service and maintenance, at some time in the future they may upgrade the software operating system to enable use for the USB Port but for now the only use would be to provide 5V power, so sorry but your memory stick will not work.

HDMI is primarily a convenience cable with looks similar to a USB Plug on a computer and carries both digital audio and video on one convenient cable with one jack to plug in. Component video cables require three cables for the video signal, Red, Blue and Green as well as two cables for the audio signal Right and Left or a single Toslink or Coax digital cable for audio. With one cable clearly HDMI is more convenient to hook up and leaves little room of error and wrong connections. One of the strongest benefits of Component Video is that it a single direction analog cable and carries only video signal information on it with NO Copy Protection or Digital Rights Management information.

Now as long as the transmitting signal resolution stays the same at 1080P both the cable box and TV remain synced however if you change the cable box channel to a NON HD Channel or a HD Channel transmitting in a different resolution or a different source such as a DVD player the HDMI, HDCP Handshake, authentication protocol and then approval and SYNCing needs to occur all over again which is why you see the blue or black screen for a few moments at the Display and Cable Box or DVD player communicate with each other to determine the new resolution and display and transmission requirements.

Since analog connections are not bi-directional and do not communicate, carry or contain HDCP digital copy protection, displays to not have to communicate or verify with the cable box copy protection and simply receive the signal via the Component video cable and then SYNC it and decode it at the maximum resolution based on the single sent from the source, this occurs almost instantaneously and there is usually no loss in picture unless the signal being sent is outside the parameters of the display.

Because component video connections do not carry any HDCP digital copy protection, most commercial and multi-display installations use Component video for distribution. The one exception to this is Video Walls and Matrix video displays and digital signage which usually used DVI connections.

Can you please tell me how to hook up the external hard drive? I just changed over to co cast from directtv and got 2 motorola dcx-3400-m hd-dvr receivers, when I plug in my western digital 1TB external Esata hard drive absolutely nothing happens, is there a way to get into bios or something to turn on this port? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

There are no bios settings on the motorola boxes and the hard drive should just be plug and play if the hard drive is BLANK, EMPTY and formatted in FAT 32 windows format. If you have a blank, formatted drive all you need to do is plug it into the esata port and the Motorla DCX3400 will see it and a pop up screen will ask you if you wish to format the drive for use with the cable box.

If you are using hard drives which were formatted to another cablebox or satellite system and have data on them then the motorola cable box will not recognize the hard drive since it has data on it and boot up and copy protection associated with your previous direct TV satellite receiver. In order for your Hard Drives to work you will need to connect them to a computer (Windows or Mac) and erase and reformat them in FAT32, Then when you connect the blank HD to the motorola DCX3400 the pop up screen will appear and you will be able to format the blank drive to the cable box.

HDMI unlike DVI and Component video is a bi-direction communication cable which means it not only sends signals to the TV, Monitor or AV Receiver but needs to receive signals back from these devices in order to sync or handshake and allow the transmission to continue. HDMI is meant to be a point to point transmission method and anything you put in between the sending equipment ie Cable Box or Blu-ray player and the receiving unit ie TV or Monitor will interfere with the handshake or syncing and potentially create problems.

The best way to overcome HAND SHAKING issues is to connect your source, blu-ray player or cable box directly to your TV and then the output of your TV back to the audio of your receiver. This allows your TV to do the switching instead of your receiver and thus minimizes the handshake/sync issues with HDMI.

I should note that some blu-ray players restrict output on their units to 1080i when using component video and 1080P only when connected by HDMI. This is not a technological problem but an engineering choice once again brought about by the content providers (movie industry) to restrict 1080P output to HDMI copy protected devices only.

The bottom line is if you are planning on using HDMI make sure all your equipment is connected to the internet to allow firmware updates to the HDMI spec and be prepared to upgrade your AV receiver every couple of years to the latest HDMI spec if you are planning on using your AV receiver to do the switching of your HDMI components.

Each cable company programs the features of the cable box they wish to offer. For example when you first received your DCX-3400 the external hard drive feature was turned off and then later the cable company decided to open up this feature and presto your External hard drive is working fine with the DCX-3400.

Since your DCX-3200 boxes are seeing the internal Hard Drive on the Motorola DCX-3400 your network (either ethernet or MOCA) is working correctly however as I said the only directory programmed to search for and play back video is the internal HD on the DCX3400.

The only two things you can do is call, email, tweet or mail a letter to your cable company asking them to upgrade the firmware in your motorola cable boxes to allow you to access the external hard drive connected to the DCX3400 and patiently wait for a firmware update.

my dcx 3400 makes a loud clunking noise like an 80s computer. It sounds like a helicopter noise kinda like dunka dunka dunaka and it is a really annoying. Is this normal? If so i will have to switch to another service provider because the noise is too loud for a bedroom which is what I wanted this product for.

Both Telus Optik TV and Shaw Gateway systems have their pros and cons and there is no one best system for everybody. Each person has unique needs and preferences which will determine which system is best for them.

While technically the ethernet jacks on the Motorola cable boxes are capable of networking with other cable boxes and potentially network control and access SHAW CABLE has not enabled the ethernet jack on their version of the Motorola DCX series cable boxes therefore the short answer is NO you cannot control the Shaw Cable Boxes via ethernet.

Several cable companies in the USA use the same Motorola DCX series cable boxes and have iPhone and iPad apps to control them, PVR anywhere and remote internet programming and access. Some cable companies even have iPhone and iPad streaming but once again Shaw has not turned on these features.

In order to get 720P or 1080i or 1080p resolution you have to be on a channel that is broadcasting in 1080i or 1080p. If you are watching a channel in 1080i or 1080p for example the format button will allow you do down convert or down scale it to 720 or 480 to allow playback on older HDTV sets. Same for example you have an older HDTV set which is only 720P compatible, feeding it a 1080P signal may result in no image since it cannot sync with the resolution being output by the cable box. In this case you would need to change the format button to 720P.

For example TSN Channel 20 in Edmonton is STANDARD Definition and is broadcast at 480P however TSN HD is Channel 219 and is broadcast between 480 and 1080p depending on the programing. Hockey games for example are usually 1080i.

Hi I just purchased the DCX 3400. My TV is a 1080p plasma. When I did the setup I was online with Shaw in Vancouver. It seemed that the picture was not as sharp as with my old STB. The tech support guy had me press the menu button and where the resolution section was had me change it from 1080i ( there did not seem to be a 1080p option) to 720p. He stated that Shaw only broadcasts in 720p anyway so the 1080i option was not required. It did not change the sharpness so I changed it back. My question is, in many of your postings you mention a 1080p signal. Does Shaw broadcast in 1080p in Edmonton?

3a8082e126