I’ve been looking at it. I’ve not tried it yet but if I need is python, in theory it should work.
I don’t know if you’ve seen this post in Tablo’s blog. They did do a rundown of the different client options. Near the bottom they do mention the sticks are under powered. That would include the Chromecast.
https://www.tablotv.com/blog/best-streaming-set-top-box-tablo/
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I too would recommend buying one of the newer Roku boxes, Nexus Player, NVIDIA Shield, or even a Fire TV Box. The Tablo apps are not half baked as you claim, they are very solid, especially on Android TV in my experience.
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When I bought my Tablo just over a year ago, I was already invested in the Roku streaming sticks, which I have on all 4 TVs, and in addition, have a Nexus Player on the main living room TV, and a Chromecast on one of the bedroom TVs. Tablo is working solidly on all platforms, so I strongly believe that the 2 major factors affecting performance are the antenna signal strength at the Tablo, and network performance (assuming that software on all platforms is up to date). I’ve found that having a good router is crucial to having a good experience with the Tablo. My original router wasn’t doing it for me, so I upgraded to an Archer TP link C7. It’s not the highest end router you can buy, but it does give you excellent performance for the price, and has the address reservation feature as well, which makes the Tablo happy.
If I were to buy today, likely I’d go with Roku 4 where I could… my main living rook TV uses a Roku stick in the MHL port, which is nicely integrated into the TV’s remote. If that Roku dies, I’d likely replace it with a Roku 4
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If you have buffering issues with the plex channel you probably have a not so great network.
Start by updating your router firmware and reinstall the tablo plex channel.
You should be able to cast to your chromecast from the plex channel too, check that it’s working reliably on your phone or tablet first and then try to cast in 720p chromecast quality.
Tablo Exporter works great for me. Tablo Exporter - Export Tablo Recordings
I am on an iMAc with OS X. I just export only things I want to keep so I don’t need Tablo recordings to automatically load into my Plex severer.
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Thanks jayefgee. I was suspecting my WiFi at first as well but again other apps and services over the WiFi work just fine. Its very perplexing to me what exactly is going on. I have checked and I have the latest router firmware for my device.
Where are you setting the 720p casting quality? Is it in Plex or a setting somewhere else?
I think he means the recording quality. You set that within the Tablo app under settings.
Additionally, you can’t really compare the network needs of Tablo to other apps. Tablo seems to require a much stronger network than your average streaming service. I didn’t have to upgrade my router until I got a Tablo and realized how much room there was for improvement. Now that I have upgraded, everything runs better.
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@Spunky03 There’s lots of traffic here, but we’d be happy to work with you directly on this. If you want to, please feel free to PM me and we can set something up to get things working for you.
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PM sent, twice. No response.
Responded. Sorry, i’ve been traveling for work but i’m back now.
Okay, new course of direction.
Using SurLaTablo script to extract content to my Plex media server running on FreeNAS. Works great!
Now Tablo unit does what it does best, act as a DVR for OTA content!
I can’t get anything to go thru chromecast either. Highly annoying! I have it all wired too, so no wifi. Makes me think there’s a problem & it’s not just week networks. Most of the shows are only 720p too.
In the Tablo app, Live tv or recordings randomly stop & occasionally buffer. Never gotten it to play more than 2 mins at once. The Plex channel just says unable to cast. Ended up having to copy the shows off the Tablo so I can watch them since I have a house full of chromecasts.
The messed up part is if I just cast my phone’s whole screen… works great till it runs the battery down. After I turn off hardware overlays to get rid of the green screen of course. :-/
riffy, i share you pain.
As I noted I just gave up on direct access to the Tablo unit. It just got to frustrating. Now I just watch live TV on the TVs directly as I connected all my TVs to the antenna using this
and using the SurLaTablo script from here
to extract the content from Tablo to my Plex media server.
Now I can watch live TV without the Tablo being involved and watch my recorded content anywhere I wish through Plex.
Best part is that all this passes the wife test as shes very used to Plex and I have single remotes for all the TVs (I have Samsung SmartTVs everywhere which have the native Plex app available so no secondary streaming units anymore).
I still have Chromcasts on all my TVs that I use to cast from the Plex app when wanted.
Happy house and the DirecTV cord has been cut!
Your experiences with chromecast & Tablo are different from mine. I use chromecast to view recorded tablo content frequently. It is not always perfect, but good enough to let me enjoy shows on a living room and bedroom tv. I do not use tablo for viewing live tv.
My configuration is;
Tablo 4 tuner (wired to router)
Netgear R7000 router
verrsion 1 and 2 chromecasts. (currently wired, but I have used equally successfully wifi.)
I record at SD quality 480 2mbs. Good enough quality for me and I store lots of stuff on my HDD.
USB3.0 HDD with its own power supply.
Nexus 7 tablets (2012 & 2013) versions with android 4.4 and 5
A note on SD 480 at 2mbs - Several stations I record from are only broadcast in 480 so higher resolutions are wasted in my viewing scenario. I have also found that for wifi less data is better, particularly in busy electronic environments. If you can cast from your phone to chromecast, I would think you should be able to get the app working because your using most of the same pieces.
I’m recording at 720 & 1080. I didn’t even turn on any lower ones in the guide. I got a 2 TB drive just for the Tablo & here I am moving stuff off it instantly…
I really hope this is fixed. It’s clearly the Tablo that’s having the problem. I can throw other 1080p 35gb excessive bitrate 2hr shows at the chromecast & it doesn’t skip a beat. Tablo casts a 720p vid & it chokes. Something isn’t right here.
On a side note, at least it records beautifully. Hasn’t skipped a show yet.
I do like that script better than the app I was using, Tablo Ripper. 
Started messing with it today. Good suggestion!
riffy, glad I could help. As you can tell by my thread I was at wits end here trying to get mine to work and I very much agree with your thoughts that it’s something on the Tablo end. This is why I went back to basics and took as much out of the mix as I could. Firm believer in the KISS principle around here and with Tablo acting as a DVR only and having it just worry about recording it is doing very, VERY well! It’s like a whole new animal once I gave up on trying to have it stream content. Now I just sit back and enjoy.
Check out the SurLaTablo thread I mentioned. I posted a wrapper script that I run via cron on my FreeNAS box that pulls all new shows from Tablo at 5 & 35 mins after every hour. Then it calls my Plex server API using a wget to trigger a library refresh. Wife gets her content in Plex within mins after it airs.
I have it set up to run in the crontab every 5 mins. See what happens when 2 happen at once. hehe
I do agree this little thing works really really well but the no casting thing is killing me! I try to keep everything inside Plex but… YouTube, Curiosity Stream, Haystack, etc… I’ve changed from running Kodi years ago to just casting everything from my phone.