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Motorola DCX3510-M owners' thread

135K views 149 replies 49 participants last post by  Hmm888 
#1 ·
Shaw Cable is rolling out these units as of Nov. 15, 2012.
Please use this thread to share information or to discuss issues/questions, if you own one or more of these HD boxes.
Cheers and happy viewing.
 
#3 ·
I've had this unit for about a day now. Coming from the old SD menus on my Moto 6416, everything looks quite nice. However there is a fair amount of lag when using it. Press menu, nothing happens... press menu again three second later and it registers as two presses :mad: The box itself looks good, fits better with the rest of the boxes on my stand.
 
#6 ·
I saw on another US forum someone say that the DCX3510-M displays about half as many days in the guide as the DCX3400.

but I assume that the guide data is highly dependent on the carrier's implementation of the software, so maybe this doesn't apply to Shaw's version?

so can any of you with the 3510 on Shaw verify this?
 
#9 ·
I had a tech onsite to replace my 3400 that the expander has not worked properly for over a year and after more than 1/2 hour of updating firmware the guide started with days of information, that was good. Then he tried to go into the user settings the old way (including the Motorola information included in the box) with powering off and pressing menu on the remote within 2 seconds and it broke the box. He was also not able to go into what he called the "diagnostic" settings as well. It turned on with the same look as normal but the "ok" and "menu" buttons flickered on the front but no longer did anything. The only way to get the box working again properly was pulling the power (something I am very familiar with from the 3400 and expander). It looks like Shaw changed that operation and incorporated some of the settings in the "options" selection from the menu while powered on but if you try to go the other way it breaks it. Now some very disapointing information: the new guide is lacking features that the old one had, the most important being the ability to see other times and channels a show is available by "info" "view upcoming times for this title" from the guide. I was unable to find any way to do this in the HD guide. I also do not like not being able to record from the guide by pressing the "record" button on the remote without it bringing up a second menu asking what options you want to use for the recording. The biggest problem we have with the 3510 is the closed caption options. Both the 3400 and the old 3416 had settings for size,style,color and much more and now the "new" one only lets you see the CC as black background with white letters (but they actually look more grey and do not look good). I do not know if this is Shaw only allowing some of the settings or if Motorola changed it as there seems to be no way to go the the user settings from the power off - menu within 2 seconds to see. There is a bad delay at times trying to use the guide as already reported but I do find watching recorded shows using the forward and jump works better than the 3400. The new HD guide also only shows the old SD channels but only allows you to go the the HD version. I do not like that as it is very confusing. So what was channel 208 (Fox East HD) is now channel 82 (old Fox SD) but you are displaying you are watching channel 82, not 205. I know there were some channels that were showing different time feeds for SD and HD so I am not sure if you can do that anymore. I have the 1TB expander attached so time will tell if the Shaw introduced issue on the 3400 of always losing the connection to it or having the unit lock up is gone. Overall I am not happy with the 3510 and hope Shaw will get the issues corrected and not ignore them like they have for the 3400.
 
#14 ·
...The new HD guide also only shows the old SD channels but only allows you to go the the HD version. I do not like that as it is very confusing. So what was channel 208 (Fox East HD) is now channel 82 (old Fox SD) but you are displaying you are watching channel 82, not 205..
I checked on Shaws website, and on page 28 of the downloadable manual it states that you can turn off this 'HD Grouping' and display all channels numerically and keep the HD channels separate from the SD ones.
 
#10 ·
The HD guide colors are also not very easy to read and the size of the show descriptions are so small and that is with a 50" plazma. You can make the guide channels larger and see less at one time but it does not make the show descriptions larger. I just find it hard to understand why they have removed so many options that the old guide had for customizing it. Your recorded show descriptions are a grey background with lighter grey letters and I have no idea why that is what they choose.
 
#11 ·
@brianwetzel .Thanks for the detailed info .At least the new guide seems to repopulate pretty quickly .Were you aware how long the full two weeks took ?
Certainly hope the expander freezing problem is fixed for you .
I gather you don't have the option of using the old guide ?
From my perspective, if i was buying new it would definitely be the gateway.
 
#12 ·
1 day in and the 3510 already locked up. I was recording a show and watching the football game and the unit stopped working just like the Stampeders. I backed up the live game to see a play and it never responded to anything from the remote again. It was showing the game delayed and after about 5 minutes it powered off and did a boot all on it's own. After it was back up it was working but the recording was messed up. The unit works better for watching recorded shows and is very responsive and no delays going forward or back but using the HD Guide is terrible. It needs you to hit entries multiple times to get them to work and it makes me wish the unit had the old guide. They missed the mark on so many things that I do not believe it has been released. You are not able to use the guide while watching a recording and I miss the ability to click "view upcoming times for this title" the most as the only way now is do a search and enter the show by trying to spell it and you get to try to move the cursor around and select letters with the "hit and miss" how many times do I possibly need to enter the key I want on the remote before it works. The guide must keep the information local (I have heard something about it having an internal modem for this?) as after the reboot it did it already had days of shows in the guide right away. Only important if it keeps rebooting of needs the power pulled as much as the 3400 did with the expander.
 
#13 ·
Thanks for the information Brian, this is some disappointing news though as my 6416 has had constant pvr expander connection issues and just recently wiped all recorded shows from its drive and I was looking to the 3510 as being my salvation.

The view upcoming is a feature I use often so that is terrible they removed it and if the menus are so laggy I don't understand how they plan on putting it on the 3400s. Hopefully they can do a update that will fix these problems because going with the gateway system is not much of an option in my house because there are 3 different people who all want their separate drives.

Would be nice to hear if RW99 is finding the same problems cropping up with his unit.
 
#15 ·
I think the initial version of the HD Guide worked that way but the current one certainly doesn't, at least not on the 3200s. The 'HD Grouping' only allows you to put all HD channels together in the guide to speed viewing of them or just the regular channel list. They still substitute the HD version where applicable and that's where the confusion begins.

We have all been used to learning the channel numbers of the channels we watch and now we are being forced to go back to the 'old' channel numbers rather than use the 'new' HD ones we have become accustomed to.

Just another 'fail' on Shaw's part where it comes to delivering 'options'.
 
#16 ·
This thing sounds like a joke ....... this is poorly thought out.....don't they know that 3400 users (& other PVR owners) would be important customer's for the 3510...........drop this, drop that.......no Info on when the same episode runs???? BS......can't bring up the guide when watching a recording...if true BS?? They need to hire someone from a company like Oppo to make sure what their doing even makes sense.....

A bunch of stupid imcompetent people.......and HIGH AND CONTINOUSLY RISING PRICES FOR THEIR SERVICE !!!!
 
#19 ·
DCX3510 First Day

Even with the uneven early reports, I upgraded my aging 7 year old box today to the DCX3510. Picked it up at the local Shaw office, and in fairness, I was warned by the Shaw Rep at the store about the HD channel replacements. Shaw seems to have many of these boxes in stock (here in Victoria).

I have to admit, after about an hour of use, I kind of like the SD numbering of the HD channels. I've set it to the 'Group HD Channels' settings to keep all the HD channels at the top of the list.

The one feature I miss the most.... 'Search', but I only used this feature on occasion.
 
#22 ·
Yes, it has a "search" but not the quick way to see a shows other times and channels from the guide. I have been dealing with so many glitches since Saturday that it is almost a joke. Watching a recorded show and without touching the remote all of a sudden it drops to live tv and when you go to the recording again it only starts from the beginning and not where it dropped. I did get some help from Shaw to get further into a show faster using the page up and page down as they will move 5 minutes at a time. I complained that they removed one level of fast forward and it was taking very long to move forward. The strangest issue is I had was no sound on a recorded show that I know had sound when it was recording. I tried everything but ended up watching it with only closed captioning. Then it happened again last night and the show was still being recorded. I was recording 2 channels and the show I was trying to watch from the beginning was not the one on the unit front at the time. When I changed the channel to the other recording channel and then started the show again it now had sound. So I waited until the recordings were done and pulled the power. After it booted up it was on channel 2 as usual for this box and when I started to watch the recorded show again it had no sound. I stopped it and changed the 3510 to the same channel as the recording and when I started it again the sound was back. How is that for a bug. I still do not understand how they removed the swap button from doing anything unless they did not mean to and it is another bug.
 
#23 ·
Had my new 3510 installed today. Some things I have noticed:

* The guide repopulated VERY quickly. The full 2 weeks in under 20 minutes. The SHAW tech told me that they have allocated additional bandwidth just for guide data when I asked him about it. (this could be specific to my area, I don't know).

* The new numbers for HD channels don't bother me. Yes, you have to get used to the 'old' channel numbers, but I look at the guide to see what is on, I don't really care what channel I have to go to get my program - besides, the HD channels are all nicely labeled with a little 'HD' in the corner.

* Guide colors. I find the guide very easy to read. The colors don't bother me at all. It looks really sharp.

* Lag. Yes, there is a bit of lag especially when you initially press the guide button or when scrolling from one page to another within the guide (1 - 2 seconds typically). For me, its not a deal breaker. I expect future firmware updates will make things smoother.

Overall, I am very happy with my purchase. Compared to the old DCT's this machine is spectacular.
 
#24 ·
The DCX-3510 stays cool and quiet as opposed to the DCX-3400. I like the form factor too. It is a little bit larger than the original 3200. This is the smallest DVR I have seen as of yet.

The guide is quick. I did have an issue today with a TBAs. Just unplugged the unit and then plugged it back in after a minute. Then it was repopulated.

I am glad this came out when it did. :)
 
#25 ·
I agree completely with 'Alberta Blue's' review. In fact, after 2 days, I haven't experienced any major glitches yet (like the random stop of recorded playback that some have reported).

I have noticed that if you fast-forward a recording, then hit play, it starts playing 5-10 seconds before the point that I stopped fast-forwarding. A minor nuisance, to be sure.

Overall, I am happy that I upgraded, tho.
 
#26 ·
The fast forward jumping back a bit after stopping is by design and is one of the changes that I do like. The idea is you go through the commercials and when you see the show is on again and press play it starts back a bit so you do not have to back it up yourself or miss a bit of the show. The old way you would try to guess when stopping the fast forward or have to back it up but now just wait until you see the show is back and press play. I also like recorded shows having the season and episode in the description now. The guide has already improved in response from the first few days but still is slower than the old one (or I am getting used to the delay). I still have had the random drop to live TV watching a recorded show, including one time tonight, and 4 times now have had a recorded show not have sound but I know how to fix it as long as both tuners are not recording different channels from the one without sound. The best thing about the 3510 over the 3400 is it has not lost the connection to the expander yet and does give proper space information for the internal and external disks but only with a bar graph and not %. Really miss the "view upcoming times for this title" from the guide.
 
#27 ·
On Demand Issue?

Just got the DCX3510. Having trouble with Shaw on Demand. Occasionally the button needed to purchase is not visible either in the quick menu (left of the guide) or in the full Shaw on Demand page. Powered off and on the box and the option to "buy" the free TV show appears from the quick menu however it generates an error and does not play. Tried this on multiple subscribed TV channels.

Anyone else have On Demand issues with the new DCX3510?

Thanks
Tim
 
#32 ·
Just got the DCX3510. Having trouble with Shaw on Demand. Occasionally the button needed to purchase is not visible either in the quick menu (left of the guide) or in the full Shaw on Demand page. Powered off and on the box and the option to "buy" the free TV show appears from the quick menu however it generates an error and does not play. Tried this on multiple subscribed TV channels.

Anyone else have On Demand issues with the new DCX3510?

Thanks
Tim
FYI My problem was an incorrect back end configuration by shaw. They had set it up my new hw as a 2 way instead of a 3 way device or something like that. Wasted an hour and half getting it sorted out but it is now working.
 
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