I have a 4th gen Tablo that I’ve had for a couple of months. During that time I’ve updated it as updates have been available. I just updated it tonight. But no matter what it still is nearly unusably laggy. I initially thought the issue was trying use it without a hardline connection to my modem. But running a Cat6 cable to it seems to have had no benefit when streaming to my Chromecast with Android TV. It DOES seem to stream okay to the app on my phone. But going to the Chromecast, it lags off and on, both on live TV and recordings. Rebooting does not seem to help either.
FWIW I have strong TV reception from an attic antenna to channels only a few miles away. Not that I think that is an issue here. To me it seems to be a compatibility issue with the app on the Chromecast. Any ideas here?
I tried a Chromecast with Google TV today, and it acts like it’s underpowered for the new Tablo’s mpeg-2. Used it for a few hours, and set it aside and went back to the Roku, crap UI and all :-). The Roku’s that I have are perfect with the new Tablo, apparently have enough power. Now if they only had a decent UI, they’d be okay :-). I hear that the Fire TV hardware is good enough, too…but I’m not enamored with the Amazon ecosystem, either.
Seems like the NVIDIA Shield would be a more appropriate Android TV appliance for the new Tablo.
This is the first I’ve heard of something like this. But it seems like baseline functionality should be a pretty low bar expectation if the device is listed as being compatible. All of my other apps stream through my Chromecast perfectly.
I’m sorry you guys are having such a hard time with your CCwGTV devices. I had the faster 4k version and I never had a problem with it. I know that thee’s a couple hardware differences between the HD and 4k, and I can only wonder if that’s made the difference.
I’m not in any set ecosystem and see the benefits of many of them. I remember an issue with the onn. 4k streaming stick because it had better specs than the Chromecast.
I hate to see people rush out and buy a cheap Roku stick when they’re so very underpowered, despite working very well in most cases. They’re limiting in what they’re capable of and with the guess-work in which ones will work with Tablo right now… ouch.
I have no smart phone or smart system in my house. I find that the Amazon Firesticks respond faster (even the 1st gen 4k max). It has better voice recognition, is able to set timers/alartms/stopwatches (and of course check to see if your package is on the way). The only thing truly “amazon” about it is that you need an Amazon account to use it – which is no different than needing a Google Account or Roku Account (and I get way more Roku ads in my inbox than the other two!)
These are some of the differences between the two CCwGTV:
(IDK why they’re missing that HDMI and wifi specs – but looking at Google, they seemed to be the same). It’s fair to ask why I have neither the Walmart onn or the CCwGTV. I upgraded the tech around the house, adding new smart TVs in some rooms and upgrading the tech on the others. I use the 2nd gen Firestick because it’s the fastest STB in the house. I hold onto a Roku 4k Express+ because I need the camera app, frndly TV and Tablo on that TV. If I bought a different camera, I would switch to the 1st gen fire stick, which I found to be the best streamer until the 2nd gen cam out – and is just lying around twiddling its thumbs. I have tried many different streaming sticks and attachments (mainstream, nothing like raspberry pi or NVIDIA shield).
UI is to be desired on all of them and functionality is what a person must decide works best. I buy so many different STBs to play around with and test, who know… I might end up with another Walmart one to find out if it’s recommendable for the Tablo
Overall, though, I would always recommend a 4k device because thy will always look better than the HD version no matter which TV you use. They have better processors, usually more RAM, and put plainly, anything that’s only HD on a 4k TV looks soft/murky/just not as clear.
I’ll keep testing with what I have and give my input on that. If I reacquire the onn. 4k box, I’ll share my experience with that.
ITMT, if you give some more information on what you’re doing when it “lags” or has other issues, I will certainly do my best to figure out how to help. And to double check… Do you said Chromecast with AndroidTV … is it GoogleTV or is it your TV that’s AndroidTV?
I’m pretty sure it is the Chromecast with Google TV (HD). Not the 4k version. I’m probably going to get a Samsung Frame soon. I don’t know if that can run the Tablo App natively, but I haven’t purchased yet.
I think Samsung has its own OS — Tizen, if I am correct. I think Samsung’s Tablo app is in the works about the same as AppleTV and LG WebOS… we’ll see!
I picked up that $20 Walmart onn. box again and as I remembered, everything is great. 3g of available space sucks, so IDK where they come up with 8g…
Tablo is working perfectly on it. Bit of weather here so it’s hard to get a straight shot at watching a live HD channel, but other than signal loss (to be expected ATM), I have had zero problems with it. Live watching of FAST has had zero issue.
I donated the last one (and the 4k Chromecast w Google TV) due to the excessive ads on their new Home Screen. I just want my stuff! Using a different launcher fixed the seemingly slow OS on both and was a much better experience. Good on those who like the layout, it wasn’t my thing. So, they were given new life with deserving people.
I will continue to test this Walmart box for a few days, so let me know if there’s anything you want me to try and duplicate.
With the bad weather around here today, I can’t watch anything “live.” If I pause it for 5-10 seconds, there are no buffering problems at all. This is the same on Android/Google/Roku/Fire … stupid no-good stormy weather!
One thing to keep an eye on is how much internal storage you have left. It’s always best to keep around 2gig so that the stick can not only perform properly (buffering, etc.) but so that there is space available for any app or OS update. Falling too low can cause a lot of streaming problems all around.
I have a Chromecast with Google TV and have had no issues whatsoever with the gen 4 Tablo. It works quite well for me.
Definitely PLENTY of storage. I have a 2gb drive plugged in and have barely scratched the surface of its storage. I just looked up the Onn box from Walmart. Might be worth trying. I’m curious what people are finding tends to be the overall best interface for plugging into a TV. I only have experience with Chromecasts. And regarding live TV, I’ve tried pausing to let it buffer out a bit, but to no avail. Could my issue be with my router/modem somehow? I have an ATT unit with a Cat 6 cable running from the Tablo to it. Then Wifi from there. I initially ran the Tablo entirely on Wifi and thought that was the problem, but hard-wired to the router doesn’t seem much better.
I’m assuming you meant 2T external drive on your Tablo. The 2gig estimate was for whatever device you watch it on (Firestick/AndroidTV/GoogleTV). For example, older Firesticks will offload apps you haven’t used in a while to keep space open for those reasons mentioned above.
After a fresh install of the 4k onn, I was left with 2.9G after adding Tablo. (Disney, Max, Netflix, Prime, Tube were already on there, but might be because it pulled those from another device.)
I’ve been testing it all night long in DVR mode without issue. If the weather was better, I’d waste some time watching live OTA.
I’ve never hardwired my Tablo, but that’s because the cable is on one end of the apartment and there’s not a good wall to put an antenna nearby. I hope my Tablo has connected to the 5g, but since I can’t split SSID names on this router, I can’t say for sure (that would be nice to see in settings, btw). There are times 2g works better for viewing the Tablo, and days where the 5g is the only thing that works. It all feels pretty random.
I’ve only been recommending the cheaper Walmart streamer because a lot of users already have a device that they love (AppleTV, Roku), and there’s no sense spending a lot of money on a temporary device. Hopefully, the Roku app will be updated soon to fix the latest major issues. Eventually, we might get the AppleTV version. But for now… why not find something that “works”? IDK. Just a thought.
I hope you find something that will work well for your needs. Come back and tell us how things are going!
Yes. The two 2tb drive is attached to the Tablo. I was referring to storage for media adjacent to the Tablo.
Could you be having a problem with the Chromecast wifi rather than the tablo connection to wifi? Strong signal on 5Ghz wifi channel works best for my Chromecast. If you are connecting to a 2Ghz wifi channel, that could be slowing it down.
Happy to hear that. When I posted my experience, I assumed that there would be a flurry of “works for me” postings. Happy for you folks, enjoy it.
My point was just to say that it isn’t the Chromecast that is the problem, since many of us use it. Your problem is likely somewhere else.
I personally wouldn’t assume that hadn’t occurred to the other guy…Did quite a bit of checking of “somewhere else” possibilities around here before posting.
Anyways, I’m happy for you.
I ordered Onn 4k box and installed it last night. I tried it out a bit and it did seem better at avoiding lagging than the Chromecast. However, I didn’t watch more than a couple of minutes of live TV. I wonder if the people reporting good results with the Chromecasts are using the 4k version. I’m pretty sure I had the 1080 version. I don’t know why it would matter, but they use different processors (as 269587 posted). Maybe that is what is making the difference. I’ll try it out more and report back if the problem persists. But so far the Onn box seems solid (and is very reasonably priced at $20).
I’m glad you’re finding the onn. 4k box a better alternative to what you were using. I’d watched multiple reviews between it and the ChromeCastwithGoogleTV and still bought each of them. (Don’t ask, I appear to be an STB hoarder!)
There’s a slight difference in the CCwGTV models, as noted above.
I don’t know where they differ in the CPU, but with more RAM in the 4k model, it’s likely this reason that the 4k runs smoother than the HD version. From what I remember back then, the Walmart onn. 4k box was supposed to have the same overall specs as the 4k ChromeCast.
Thank you for keeping us updated. It’s amazing what you can accomplish for 2/5 the price! I hope this continues to work for you. (Just remember, leaving about 2G of internal space on your onn. 4k box will help it run a lot smoother.)
I have the 4k Chromecast and have had no issues.
I finally remembered that i had an OG Chromecast with Google TV 4K from 2021 (more or less). Had forgotten about it. Dug it out, upgraded the software, re-grooved it, and the 4K works fine with the new Tablo. Still using it after a day. Like it better than the Roku.
However, the HD still appears to be underpowered for the new Tablo, too bad about that. I’m returning the CCwGTV HD that I bought to check it out, no use for it.
Maybe a silly question, but I have a number of chromecasts at this point. I had some of the OLD chromecasts (pre-Android TV) that I pulled and replaced with the newer models. BUT, I think two of the three are non-4k. Is there any way to tell which is which by looking at them? None of my TVs/projector are 4k currently, so it wasn’t a priority when I bought them.
So, things seemed better, but now I am having a different problem. My ABC channel seems to play with live TV or via recordings. But my NBC and CBS (as well as many other stations) are both playing extremely laggy, but in a different way. The audio plays fine. But the video moves like slow motion getting further out of sync with the audio. Before (with the Chromecast) I’d get pauses in playback, now the audio and video aren’t in sync at all. When I started scrolling through other channels of live TV, lots of channels (including both of my PBS channels) had no sound.
I will add, in case it matters, that most of my transmitters are on the same mountain, about 13 miles away. So I can’t imagine signal strength has anything to do with it. I powered off the Tablo and rebooted and closed/reopened the app, but nothing changed.