4 Tuner Cutting Off Shows

I purchased the 4 tuner model new in June 2017. It is hardwired in my network and resides in a dedicated equipment room and has a 1GB Toshiba external drive. I have a mid size external antenna where our satellite dish used to be and am using the same RG-6 cables to connect the antenna. We watch it via a Roku Premiere Plus- we only watch at one location. I have a media PC running Windows 10. I use Tablo RIpper and Plex. The process involved is the show records, is ripped and sent to the media PC, where MCEBuddy and Comskip processes and converts the file, moving it to the Plex folder. We then watch it on Plex.

The problem-
Until a coupe of weeks ago this process worked very well. I began to get show lengths of 16+/- minutes where the norm was 41-44 minutes.

What I’ve done-
I read a similar thread here from 2015, and tried resetting the Tablo. This seemed to work for a few days, and then last night the problem returned.

I also changed settings for Tablo Ripper and began keeping the files on the Toshiba drive instead of deleting after ripping. After our latest round of failures (2 out of 3 shows last night; the third recorded the full hour), I went to the Tablo via Roku to watch the shows. They were each in 4 pieces- 25+/-, 1-2, 1, and 16+/- minutes.

I can watch all of these channels w/o interruption, so it is not an antenna issue. The Tablo feels warm to me, and I know these modern mini electronics don’t always do well in warm environments. I use a small 12V fan to cool my wireless modem in its case and the media PC external hard drive, and after my warranty runs out may do the same for this device.

I see I have a 12M warranty, so I want to see if I need to file a claim for this before it expires. Any advice is welcome.

First, I have (actually have two) the 2-tuner Tablo and have had no real issues.

However, many here will tell your the 4-tuner runs hot. Many recommend putting it on its side or purchasing an active cooler. WiFi, of course, will make it even hotter (not that it applies to you, just adding the comment for others).

I assume when you say you can watch all of those channels without interruption you mean watch them live?

If you have multiple pieces of multiple shows I would submit a ticket to @TabloTV and have them look at your logs. All I can speak from is personal experience and a few months back we encountered the same issues and when they looked at the logs it indicated signal/reception issues. I upgraded to a better antenna and decreased my recording quality by 1 level (from 10 Mbps to 8 Mbps) and we have had zero issue since then.

The most common cause of shows being cut into multiple recordings is weak signal issues. Was it windy where you live last night? In my experience, strong winds will have more of an affect on OTA signals than any other weather conditions. It is possible it could be a problem with your HDD as well, but if your HDD is going bad I would suspect your problem would be consistent & not random & wouldn’t have improved by resetting your Tablo.

As far as the heat issue goes, I too have a 4-tuner model & it too runs hot especially during heavy recording usage. I had two HDD’s go bad on me in the first 6 months I had mine. I suspected it was from the heat issues with the Tablo. I then turned my Tablo on it’s side & it definitely does not get as hot (the heat sink is on the bottom of the unit & turning it on it’s side exposes it better for heat dissipation). My third HDD has now lasted over 1 1/2 years.

Hope you get your troubles figured out!

Yes, I can watch live with zero issues. I have turned the unit on its side for now. I will look into submitting a ticket if the problem persists as well as changing the recording quality.

EDIT- I looked at our quality and it was the default HD 720-5 Mbps.

I can’t see upgrading the antenna, we are only 8 linear miles to the closest tower which carries most of our local stations. The show splitting this week took place on two different channels.

That’s an interesting tidbit…

It could be that you’re overdriving the tuner sometimes.

We’re always happy to do some troubleshooting so don’t hesitate to drop us a line: www.tablotv.com/ask-tablo

I think it was raining fairly heavily, but not anything worse than it has seen in the past. As far as the antenna goes, when I first set it up I tried one of those inside the window rectangular thin antennas and it was lousy. The external one I have now has multiple elements, so I do not see the antenna being the issue.

Given these details, check the connection at your external antenna. Perhaps some moisture got into it during the rain. Ensure its dry inside now, snugly tightened, and ideally has a weather ‘boot’ over the connection to keep it dry.

Rain itself has little effect on OTA signals, but high winds definitely will especially if you have a tree/trees between your antenna & the tower. Not saying this is your issue, but I have excellent reception & am only 11-15 miles from all of my local towers & yet high winds always cause me to have reception issues for I have several large trees.