They are waiting for standard to be finalized. If you want now see Zapperbox but only one TV.
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What does “Waiting for standard” mean?
The Zapperbox I returned it, so many not working features greyed out on all the screens and delays to recording DRM channels. The ADTH ATSC 3 converter box has much better picture quality and “can” record ATSC 3 DRM channels but with a super very limited DVR. I have used 3 ATSC devices or DVR’s so far and the ADTH has the best picture to me.
I think the ATSC 3 was a cloak to hide what the Over the air broadcaster’s really wanted, and that is a way to charge for receiving over the air broadcast. I think that is one of the hold-ups on the release of the standard for Atsc 3. They want to make sure that the scrambling technology is in place and enforceable. Until all the palms are greased there will be no standard.
Anyone got any news on the Apple TV app timeline ? You would think Tablo would want to keep all of us with GEN 4"s informed. Unless they are just not working on it at all. Given-up as we say.
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You’d think. When Tablo is silent about something, in the past that’s meant “given up for the present”, to be generous. When they’re working on something, they talk about it so that it factors into sales. That’s what this looks like to me, that they’ve given up on it and don’t want to say so. I guess that I’m the greater fool for having bought into a promised but undelivered future. I should really know better by now.
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If you own a product whose tech specs don’t appear to support a video format lower then h.264 and you buy a product that advertises it distributes MPEG2(h.262), a big light should turn on.
Crazy still at the beginning of January and no app for the Apple TV. Also, I wish they would allow the iPad OS app available in the Apple Silicon App Store. It would work great I’m sure on my M1 Mac mini.
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Why do you keep assuming that everyone looks at the product specifications for everything they buy? Who does that? Who goes through all these steps?
“Okay… I’m gonna buy a thing, but it doesn’t have this one small feature that I have no idea is or isn’t important. So okay, now I will spend a week reading the details of every product I will ever want to buy in the future to see if might be compatible.”
No one does that! And if go to buy a device and the company says “Coming Soon: available for______!” … why would I not trust the company to deliver? The consumer has no idea why the app doesn’t work. That’s the job of the programmers and developers first off, and secondly for a company to say let someone know that it won’t work.
Expecting people to do this much research is ridiculous. I am fascinated at how much you know about these things. It’s amazing and I take in so much of you share. But, until your numerous posts on this issue, I would have never understood that this was the reason! Good on you for learning this and figuring this all out.
All in all, Tablo has made a promise it doesn’t seem to be able to keep. Don’t get upset with the person who bought a product that’s supposed to work but doesn’t.
Do you think that everyone out buying a new smart TV have any idea what OS is on it or if it’s compatible with their favorite apps? Doubtful! And a user’s app choice changes over time. I have an LG that has served me well for a year. Then I subscribed to a service only on Roku & Android. Ooops. But wait, then I picked up a Tablo that’s also not compatible. But ITMT, I did my research into what would work for both of these because I liked the products, and any future TVs had to be compatible with these services.
I think you’re looking at this backwards. Most users have their streaming device and then go out and find services. They don’t buy a service and then look for a device to use it on. Some users have used Roku since the beginning and won’t use anything else. Doesn’t mean it’s better, just means they’re comfortable with it. So an expectation of “this will work” comes into play.
If the Tablo box said, “Coming Soon: Roku app!” they might pick it up because they assume the app is just around the corner and since the product is new, it might be out already. Getting home to see it’s not available, who do you blame?
Plain and simple, Tablo needs to be more upfront about what is going on. Has anyone got an official word that MPEG-2 is the problem? Or is it all hearsay and individuals reading specs? If they can’t make this work due to hardware restrictions, that’s on Tablo, not the user. You can’t make promises to consumers you are unable to fulfill.
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You only look at the specs if you want interoperability between multiple devices. If one device says it out outputs “A” and the other doesn’t say it explicitedly supports “A” what should someone expect.
Of course some people like surprises.
To me, it sound more like Tablo was surprised.
THEY took on the challenge. THEY are the ones that should know what other devices are capable of. After all, haven’t they been doing this for a decade?
The Tablo HDMI model that also streams just MPEG2 only works on Roku, AndroidTv, and FireTv (as well as straight HDMI to a TV). But the devs have managed to make the 4th gen work on both iOS mobile and Android Mobile (though there are limitations if you a watching a recording that hasn’t finished yet), so making it work on AppleTv seems doable.
They have worked mainly on MPEG4 streams for over a decade. This is still fairly new to them.
Does the legacy HDMI work on apple TV?
I agree it’s likely doable. I’m only saying that you can’t expect every user to spend hours doing research on when “coming soon” is or what is holding it back. MPEG-2 might have been a poor choice due to its limitations, but that’s what Tablo went with. To blame the user because they don’t understand why it’s not working is unfair. Tablo would have known the MPEG-2 limitation on AppleTV but still decided it was worth a go.
Going back to hardware limitation versus software, the 4th gen obviously has the ability to convert a file to MP4. There’s no reason that this couldn’t be an option to use this by default. Then, couldn’t the AppleTV users at least view their recordings but not the live OTA?
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I keep trying to jam my apple lightning charger into my samsung android tablet didn’t work. I then tried to use my samsung USB charger to charge my apple device - didn’t work. Why.
And how many barrel plugs are still used in in brand new laptops or other electronic devices? They’re certainly not compatible with my M2 MacBook’s USB-C charging port.
Do you remember how many different connections we’ve been through with USB? Micro-USB is still a very popular port – and it surely doesn’t work with every USB device for charging or data transfer…
Pretty much everything we own is powered by a 110v socket or 5v USB brick. If you unplug your TV from the back, will it power your desktop? I’m not sure of your point here.
As I see it, the differences in charging ports has nothing to do with this topic!
If I want and expect interoperability I read the tech specs. Maybe that’s why when considering ATSC 3.0 the place to start is whether your devices support AC-4.
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Samsung’s smart platform is not good. They just need to give in and go with Google TV. You can’t get some major apps due to them using their own Tizen OS.
You keep coming back to “It’s the user’s fault.” What makes you think Tablo bears no responsibility for this promise:
And even if a user does their own research and goes to that site, they see:
And then, OBVIOUSLY, the user is supposed to know that the words “coming soon” means: “this is not going to work because your audio and video compression aren’t compatible with the AppleTV”.
“Coming soon” has been on their product for months. I think every one of us would be fine if Tablo said, “hey, we can’t do Apple TV so you’ll need a different device,” instead of stringing users along.
I guess it’s also up to every person to ever gift the product to know what the person on the receiving end has for equipment as well.
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