Good day,

I'm just wondering if somebody tried to buy and activate one of the these new all-digital cable boxes DCT4312 or DCT3416 and it worked? As far as I know Cogeco now has all-digital support, but not sure if they would be able to activate DCT4312 or DCT3416 box.

I really like these new boxes because they are smaller than DCT6208, DCT6412 and DCT6416. They have the same size as older non-PVR boxes like DCT2224 or DCT2500. Also you can buy such box for just around $150 on eBay but technically this box is identical to DCT6416 - it has big 160GB HDD and HDMI output. I guess most people don't know yet what are they and thus affraid to buy them yet.

Any information regarding this matter would be greatly appreciated. If nobody can confirm this information, I would probably try to buy one such box and attempt to activate it with Cogeco on my own expense. In worse case if this won't work I will sell it back on eBay.

Thanks!

Please put your location and service provider in your UserCP Profile. I don't believe all areas of Cogeco are all-channels-digital yet, although some areas may be.

As long as the area you are in has Phase 3 DCT64xx set-tops in service you should be good with a DCT34xx. They use the same codebase. However, if your area only had Phase 2 or earlier boxes in service, it is possible that Cogeco won't be carouselling the appropriate versions of the TCL and iGuide.

Hello and thanks for your reply.

Yes, my area supports all these models. I had DCT6208, DCT6412 and even DCT6416 activated with no problem. I called COGECO and they said that "other models that is not in this list" are not supported. Well, will see. I just bought one (DCT3412). When I get it I will post results of activation here. If anybody tried to activate DCT3412 or DCT3416 please share your experience.

Now one more tricky question: Did anybody try to activate QIP6416? This is brand new beast that allow to share DVR content to non-DVR QIP2500 boxes via existing coaxial cables. So far I see that this technology is only available to US consumers, but I still wonder if such box can be activated in COGECO.

Thanks!

Now one more tricky question: Did anybody try to activate QIP6416? This is brand new beast that allow to share DVR content to non-DVR QIP2500 boxes via existing coaxial cables. So far I see that this technology is only available to US consumers, but I still wonder if such box can be activated in COGECO.

You will not be able to use any of the QIP boxes on the Cogeco cable headend. The QIPxxxx boxes are designed for use on BPON (Broadband Passive Optical Network) headends. BPON is a fibre optic network and all services are IP based rather than RF based.

Aside from the QIP6412 and QIP2500s, you need a NIM100 for each set-top in order to use the home networking features of these boxes. You would also require an ONT (Optical Network Terminator) installed in your home.

Well, here we go. I just got DCT3412 off eBay, powered on and connected to cable and TV. Box was previously activated and was flipping the channels but no picture or sound was available. So I decided to go ahead and perform reset (as I did many times by now on other boxes whe I got them from eBay).

Well, things did not go smooth as I expexted. After I presses Power and Menu together and connected Power cord, I got boot menu as expected. Than I selected n dl to download firmware/software or whatever from Cogeco. At this point box started looping through Fr1-Hunt-Fr2-Hunt-Fr3-Hunt-Fr3-Hunt-Fr3-Hunt-Fr4-Hunt-Fr5-Hunt-Fr6-Hunt-Fr7-Hunt-Fr8-Hunt-Fr9-Hunt-Fr10-Hunt. After repeating this loop several times (I did not count how many times - 2 or may be 3-4) it will end up with error Eb 09 and go back to n dl menu. I tried to repeat several times - same result.

My understanding that box is going through the list of 10 standard frequencies, so may be it cannot find the right one? Another option (I think I saw this info somewhere on this forum) is that Fr3 is the right freq but there is no matching software so it skips it.

So, no luck so far. Anybody has any idea?

Please let me know, I desperately need help!!!

Thanks!

The 'Fr1...' display means that the set-top is in 'Hunt mode' looking for a valid OOB (Out of Band) frequency that has a base platform software object broadcasting on it that matches the ROM ID of the set-top. Each model and phase of Motorola set-top has a different ROM ID so even though the 3412 and the 6412 use the same firmware that firmware has to be carouselled on two different background services -- one using the ROM ID of the 6412 and one using the ROM ID of the 3412.

As for the Eb09 message:
A sanity check failure has occurred. The code execution check bit for the loader flags field was not cleared. The good news is that your box thinks it found code to download. The bad news is that it thinks the code is no good.

When I get back from my workout later this morning, I can post a list of all of the Eb download error codes and the Ep general error codes if anyone is interested.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_use_a_Motorola_DVR/Boot_Error_Codes

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_use_a_Motorola_DVR/Boot_Error_Codes
Nice list. That's about 1/3 of the error list but it covers most of the big ones. One correction:

It lists 'Eb 11' as an invalid unit address. That is incorrect. The correct error code for an invalid unit address is 'Ep 11'. An 'Eb 11' is a failure of the boot loader to lock on to a valid OOB signal.

The 'Fr1...' display means that the set-top is in 'Hunt mode' looking for a valid OOB (Out of Band) frequency that has a base platform software object broadcasting on it that matches the ROM ID of the set-top. Each model and phase of Motorola set-top has a different ROM ID so even though the 3412 and the 6412 use the same firmware that firmware has to be carouselled on two different background services -- one using the ROM ID of the 6412 and one using the ROM ID of the 3412.

As for the Eb09 message:
A sanity check failure has occurred. The code execution check bit for the loader flags field was not cleared. The good news is that your box thinks it found code to download. The bad news is that it thinks the code is no good.

When I get back from my workout later this morning, I can post a list of all of the Eb download error codes and the Ep general error codes if anyone is interested.
How did you over come the the Eb09 error message?

the same thing is happening to my pvr, anyone know how to rectify the problem?

You detail all the info you have on what your unit is doing, and then you contact a Motorola repair facility and see if they can / will repair it for you. I'm not sure if this can be fixed or not.