I have now had my Tablo 4 tuner DVR for just over 1 year and the problems still continue even after replacing the first Tablo DVR and buying 2 different external Hard Drives (1-1TB Western Digital USB 3.0 and 1 Seagate 500 GB SSD USB 3.0, both of which were immediately identified by tablo, I constantly have issues with lost connections, Waiting 20 - 60 seconds for channels from the guide to show up even immediately after doing an update, changing stations isn’t easy like going channel up or down which cannot be done. I have been requesting an on screen interactive TV guide while still being able to view the active channel and still have no ability to do that on my Roku, Android TV or Android TV Box. I constantly get weak signal notifications or constant freezing or pausing of channels for extremely long periods of time. (If my Antenna is directly connected to TV I have had no problems of any of the stations). I use a Roku 4, a Mi box 3, Android 7.1 TV Box and Windows 10 PC. I had my first box with the same problem as the second one.
“Waiting 20 - 60 seconds for channels from the guide to show up even immediately after doing an update”
I assume you are talking about using the update guide button on the settings page. If so this updates the guide on the tablo server. It’s not atomic to all tablo apps on all devices. The various apps pull any updates onto the device at various intervals based on the app.
You either believe any weak signal message or you don’t.
Try out the quick channel select feature. See link below.
The firmware updates have done little to improve the sensitivity of the 4 channel tuner. I also have the same issues with my Tablo 4 channel OTA tuner as it pertains to signal capture while my Samsung TV shows none of the same issues. This would suggest a weakness in the tuner hardware. I have dropped channels while in the process of recording to the point that one program will be consistently broken into 3 or 4 segments rendering the recorded program un-usable since they won’t playback. My antenna is on my roof and works flawlessly when connected to my TV tuner which would suggest that Samsung’s Tuner HW/SW combination if far superior to what is in the Tablo, at least in the model I have.
You are comparing apples and oranges. Your HDTV has 1 tuner with no splitter. The Tablo has an internal 1x4 internal splitter. Even though the splitter is amplified there is some signal loss.
This signal loss results in the signal falling off the “digital cliff” and thus the all or nothing effect. If you can’t accept that, just take a hammer to your Tablo cause nothing will “fix” the Tablo to your liking.
Get a better or bigger antenna. Or a preamp for your antenna. Those are legitimate suggestions.
OK, since I also have the Tablo 2 tuner DVR that I mothballed in favor of the four tuner model the 2 tuner in theory ought to work better? I’ll test that theory out and let you know. The fact that this happens when only a single program is being recorded doesn’t seem to matter.
Actually, I believe the OG 2 tuner and 4 tuner models use the same 1x4 splitter.
That explains why my 2 tuner unit fared no better in my tests. I guess I need to research a solution. I had intended to replace my antenna after my roof is replaced. That should increase signal strength. It’s possible my antenna has degraded, I was talking to my neighbor who has had the same problem with reception and his antenna is about 15 years old. I know if they moved the transmission towers for at least one station and it has been a problem since even though it’s only 13 miles away. My old antenna had a range out to Hartford CT and Long Island NY. Thanks for the information!
If you’re going to replace the antenna, try replacing the cable run with new RG6 coaxial cable. This will also result in less signal loss. Long cable runs or older RG59 cable results in more signal loss.
Curious, how did they “degrade” or wear out their antenna? Replacing an inadequate antenna or relocating an adequate antenna can have similar results. But neither of these are the same as the performance of the changing over time.