So I noticed that sports recordings seemed a choppy on my 4 tuner Tablo (@720P, though it was the same at 1080p). Last night I recorded the Eagles football game on my Tablo and Fios DVR. The quality of the image is about the same, but the Tablo is noticeably choppy on fast moving plays. My Tablo and Roku 3 are connected via Ethernet to my router.
To test this choppiness I placed my Canon DSLR on a tripod in front of my LG LED TV. I recorded at a section of the game on the Roku3 and Fios DVR at 60 frames a second). I then loaded the the video files on my PC. I viewed both videos using VLC. When playing the videos I slowed them down 12% of normal speed.
When viewing the videos the side by side the Tablo video is very choppy at the slow speed.
So this leads me to my question: What frame rate is the 4 tuner Tablo recording at? It does not appear to be recording at 30 frames a second.
Thanks,
-MM13
I noticed the same thing on the HOF preseason game about a week back. I thought that it could of just been me for a bit as it wasn't consistent. I didn't try switching over to my TV tuner and see if it looked any better. I'll have to try that this week during some more games if I notice the same thing as football season is about to kick into high gear!
This is troubling to me. I noticed it since day one but hadnt had a chance to test it out. I remember asking @snowcat if the motion was as fast on his 2-tuner (on AVSForum) and he said it was. So I don’t know if this is a 4-tuner thing. One thing I know for sure, the Tablo is not recording at a minimum of 30 frame a second and this is a major issue for me.
-MM13
I just watched the recording of the Titans-Packers game this morning on my Tablo, and the game quality looked great (despite all the heavy rain throughout the game). I didn’t notice any choppiness.
Hopefully other people with 2 tuners and 4 tuners can chime in. I still have the 2 tuner.
I have noticed this too. Something is not right with how the 4 tuner Tablo I have handles the image.
When I first got it, 1080P recordings looked just aweful. It has improved with the recent firmware, but it still doesn’t look right.
@snowcat is there a way to extract and play the raw video files from the tablo? This would help with understanding if it is recording at a lower rate or if it is dropping frames for reason.
@MattMan13 this is some clever testing on your part, right on! I don’t discount what you’re seeing as I’ve noticed something isn’t right with the way running and hopping looks in football games… But I have a different theory as to root cause, which goes a little deeper than frame rate.
First the weird part… The odd looking running and hopping in the football game (which is very likely due to dropped frames) seems to look normal 5-15 minutes into watching the game… Why? Is Tablo and these forums causing me to lose my mind (probably could eventually) but no, my theory is either network congestion due to buffering/playlist scanning by the player (Roku, video player software, native player, Chromecast) or hardrive congestion as it is reading all the little file segments of the video playlist loading in the player. I believe this is present for all shows but takes much longer for 4 hour football games.
I haven’t wasted my time testing all this but I believe this to be a real issue that I’m just now trying to wrap my head around.
MattMan13 I would suggest you let a football game play for 15 minutes then do your tests again to see if all looks acceptable. I think it might… But ultimately, this is totally unacceptable product behavior.
I just let the HOF game run without pause or ffw for the past 15 minutes. No change in the frame rate.
I have the 2-tuner version. I recorded both the HOF game and yesterdays Browns preseason game. I believe I recorded the HOF game in 720p while the Browns game was in 1080p for sure.
My Titans game was on a 720p channel (so it records in 720p whether the Tablo is set to 1080p or 720p). When the regular season starts, most Titans games will be on a 1080i channel, so I am curious how they will compare.
I can’t be sure…but I’ve always suspected that the transcoding is at 24fps. Reason being, is that all of the film content (movies, most primetime shows) seems to appear more “natural” than the video material (soaps, sports, local newscasts, etc). Film is typically 24fps while the video material is generally 30 or 60fps, if I understand correctly.
I hope that is not true. 24 frames a second is not suitable for TV or sports.
When I take the files and ffmpeg them to mp4 it saves it as follows:
Stream #0:0: Video: h264 ([33][0][0][0] / 0x0021), yuv420p, 704x480 [SAR 10:11 DAR 4:3], q=2-31, 29.97 fps, 90k tbn, 90k tbc
29.97 fps
For most TV it would be fine. Most TV shows are actually filmed at 24p. Sports…not so much.
@Jestep hopefully that is what its saving them as raw. If so then it is dropping frames when streaming which should be resolvable if we can figure out why.
@MattMan13 here is an interesting read also, since Tablo supports many devices:
I’ve noticed choppy sports action since day 1 on my dual. World Cup was tough to watch…Hoping that this is resolvable as it’s my biggest gripe with my Tablo.
So… does the 2 tuner model record at a higher frame rate or is it the same as the 4 tuner model?
I just sent an email to Tablo support. I need a resolution to this issue as I am about to cut the cord.
-MM13