I tried the following experiment with my 2-tuner Tablo. I was watching Live TV channel 5-1 using the new iPhone web app, streaming it to my Apple TV, which works great, by the way. I then started recording the same show that was playing on 5-1 using the Safari web app on my Mac. So far no problem. I then started recording a show on channel 5-2. That caused the disruption of the Live TV broadcast on my iPhone. Why did it do that?
While I only have 2 tuners, I was only accessing 2 channels, even though I was accessing one of them for both Live TV and a recording (from a separate connection). I then reconnected to channel 5-1 on my iPhone in Live TV. It let me do that, without complaint. So it looks like I have two recordings going on 2 channels from my Mac while also watching one of those channels live on my iPhone. Shouldn’t this work? If the answer is yes, then why was my Live TV broadcast disrupted when I started up the two recordings, with one of them on the same channel as I was watching live?
It all depends on the order you do the events. If you put both recordings to start first (aka scheduled) recordings and then try to watch them both live you can on two different devices.
If you start watching them both live, and then put one to record one a 3rd device it kicks off the live stream on the other device.
Hope that makes sense.
In both of the cases I described I was only actually watching one show, streamed from my iPhone to my Apple TV. In one case there were two recordings in progress when I started watching the channel that one of the recordings was tuned into. In the other case I was watching the channel on my iPhone when I started the recordings on my Mac. In neither case was I actually accessing more than two TV channels. One situation worked and the other did not. It seems to me that since the resources required were the same in both cases, the order in which the recordings and the live TV are started should not matter. It should either fail in both cases or work in both cases.
Not true - starting two recordings and then tuning into one of them live means both those shows have already started recording on your HDD and will continue to record.
Watching one show live, then recording two shows including one that you are watching will cause the Tablo to create two recording files, which I assume is different from the live streaming file as the live stream is only kept for a few minutes at a time.
I agree you should be able to do both, but I can see why you can’t and as well how this situation wouldn’t be very common to most users. People will generally use the scheduled recording feature. If you want to do all this 3 tuner business, maybe return the dual tuner and get the quad tuner?
Tuners limit how many TV channels can be accessed simultaneously. I can never access more than 2 at a time, because I have only 2 tuners. If recording 2 shows on 2 channels while watching one of the channels live required more than 2 tuners, then I obviously could not do that. Equally obviously, it doesn’t require more than 2, because it works if the recordings are already on-going when I start watching one of the channels live. The Tablo is obviously using the signal from one channel both to create a permanent recording and show me the channel live. The fact that it doesn’t work when I start watching live before starting the recordings is a bug, not a shortage of resources.
Bug it may be, but a very small bug. Like I said, most users won’t be watching 2 shows simultaneously and then mid show decide to record one or both. Most will use scheduled recordings so it will be recording beforehand and a non-issue.
Maybe Tablo will fix this, but I wouldn’t hold your breath, there are still bigger fish to fry.