@ericgus - We’ve been doing some extensive testing on Roku 3s in the office and we think we’ve found something similar but slightly different. Doing more testing today to confirm.
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@TabloTV - Here’s my situation. I just received my Tablo on Saturday, and have been trying to put it through its paces. Not passing the wife test so far!
Roku 4 in main room, hard wired to router.
Two separate Roku sticks in different rooms.
Checked download speed yesterday and it was 91 Mbps, so obviously my internet is no problem.
Live TV is ok in the main room, but get tons of L,PW’s on the sticks. Playback from a recording in any room is a nightmare- tons of L,PW’s. FF on the Roku 4 hasn’t been a problem, yet, but haven’t tried it on the sticks.
Really wanting to cut the cord, but there is no way I can do that yet and keep my wife happy (who is not tech savvy at all).
Zero problems on any device live streaming hockey (from NHL) or football (NFL Sunday Ticket). No other issues on any other streaming service, even SlingTV.
Great to hear that you believe that you have been able to replicate the issue!
I’m already looking for the options to switch to Channel Master, but when i read this, I will still give Tablo the chance. Thank you for acknowledging the problem. I’m hoping the issue could fix sooner.
Another quick update regarding the ‘loading - please wait’ issue as seen on Roku 3…
We believe we have tracked down the source of the frequent ‘loading please wait’ messages on Roku 3 devices. Our testing shows that when Roku 3 units are hardwired (using Ethernet) with a Tablo set at the 1080 – 10 Mbps recording quality, that the Roku’s Ethernet driver may become overwhelmed causing some packets to be lost.
As users have seen, this can occur multiple times during a single recording playback instance. The same video plays fine on all other Tablo apps on all other devices. With the Roku 3, when the overload occurs, it appears to take up to 20 seconds or so to resolve, which the user experiences as the infamous ‘Loading – please wait’.
This issue became problematic in firmware after 2.2.2 because previous firmware used a different kernel which appears to recover from the error much faster, thus obscuring the problem.
We do plan to work on finding a firmware workaround for the Roku’s Ethernet behavior, but in the meantime, decreasing the Tablo’s recording quality to 1080 – 8 Mbps seems to eliminate the majority of these instances on good quality networks.
Please note that we have specifically used Roku 3 in identifying this issue. Older Roku 2 models do not have Ethernet connections so should not be affected by this. We will be working to test newer Roku 2 models that do have Ethernet connections to see if we are able to reproduce this same state.
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Thanks for keeping us updated.
Sounds like you’re peeling back the layers of the onion. Do keep in mind that some of us have had issues with the “Loading please wait” issue even at 720 recording quality.
Sounds like maybe the Roku WiFi phy layer has more buffering than the Ethernet phy?
FYI- having the same issues on a Roku 4.
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As am I - and I really thought the Roku 4 wouldn’t suffer from such an issue as it supports UHD streaming that is reported to be 15Mbs…so there must be some combination between the Rokus’s ethernet implementation and the Tablos stream that makes it lose its mind.
Thus, it would be worthwhile to see if the Roku 4 actually does choke on 4K UHD (15 Mb/s) sources like Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. If not, the Ethernet port and its associated driver / buffering would seem less implicated, particularly at 10 Mb/sec slower Tablo rates.
Considerably faster Roku 4 would also, presumably, handle 10 Mb/sec Tablo packets. with fewer or no issues. Higher internal overhead in the new Tablo kernel may be starving the Ethernet stream at these 1080 10Mb/s rates.
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xxx ccc xx cc
I don’t have a 4K TV, but my hardwired Roku 4 at 1080p…
Amazon Instant Video
The Man in the High Castle S1E1
10 minute window
Peak: 27355.46 Kbps ~ 27 Mbps
Average: 10890.66 Kbps ~ 11 Mbps
This is Roku’s fault for their dumb naming convention.
The most recent old Roku 2 model 2720 does not have an Ethernet port. The current Roku 2 model 4210 has one.
The Roku 2 XS was discontinued before the Tablo even came out.
I am having the same problems on a Roku 3 on WIFi and 720p, and the problems happened immediately after applying 2.2.6, not 2.2.2.
Prior to that I was not having playback issues, but a couple of recordings seemed to have failed, but all of a sudden showed up after applying 2.2.6. Since rebooting all systems, the LPW seems better, but is still there. Also more recordings have seemingly failed, but I don’t know if they are really still there in the background.
I have a hard time believing 2.2.6 (or the process of applying the update) is not somehow also involved in these issues.
Rescan to see if you’ve gained any stations. It’s a good idea to rescan at least monthly.
I can tell you it does not choke on 4k playback…I have 4K Amazon and Netflix subs and watched content from both without issue at their reported 2160p resolution. Leads me to believe there is an interaction between the specs as implemented by Tablo and Roku that is creating the issue.
Possibly, but Tablo would see that when doing analysis with WireShark - which they stated they’ve done a lot of the past few days.
No surprises here AFAIAC.
I would just leave it as you say, “an interaction between specs as implemented by Tablo and Roku” and not get back up on my soapbox. I am trying really hard to hold my tongue and stay chilled…
Curious … FYI I am not using 1080 settings and see this but that general theory could explain a great deal… if I have time I will try using it via wireless and see if it goes away… Thanks for your continued work on this.
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I also have seen LPW on other Roku channels but never on Tablo until 2.2.6. arrived. The other channels may have server demand which briefly overwhelms them or my Internet connection could be temporarily interrupted for those cases. For Tablo, it is a new issue absolutely coincident with 2.2.6. And, unlike the others, from a locally generated stream in the Tablo. The basic question is, what has changed here. To me the answer is 2.2.6.