Audio sync issue

Support & Troubleshooting
1

I have a 4th-gen 4-tuner Tablo, and it works well, mostly. I have an issue with audio sync on the local ABC affiliate though. The audio gets anywhere from 1/2 second to a few seconds off. (Ironically, the station in question is actually owned by Scripps.) I can change to any other channel and audio is fine. When I try to change back to the “faulty” station, I get a spinning wheel and can’t tune it in. I have to wait a while before I can try that channel again.

Any ideas on this? I get full signal strength on that channel, so I don’t think it’s a signal issue per se. FYI, I’m using the AppleTV app.

2

Do you have the ability to connect your directly to your antenna? I’m curious if it does it when you bypass the Tablo. Also, does it do it when watching live, or recordings, or both?

3

I can connect it directly if I have to. I also have an HDHomeRun that feeds Plex on a NAS box, so I can check the channel on the Plex app and on the HDHomeRun app the next time it happens in Tablo.

This is all on live TV. We don’t currently record anything from that channel, since we have streaming services for the network shows that we watch.

4

I’ve had this issue with ABC on occasion with recordings being several seconds out of sync and it’s unwatchable. It happens rarely though, not like your case.

5

Yeah, we’re seeing this happen pretty much daily, sometimes more than once per day.

6

Here’s an example of my Tablo 4th Gen Quad’s video sync issue on a few channels, especially the Houston ABC affiliate (ABC13 Houston). Tablo’s recording is unwatchable. The audio’s fine, but notice with Anna Navarro’s answer, “What are bears?”, the video is waaaaaaaaaay behind the audio. The recording is completely unwatchable, and it gets worse and worse the longer you try to play it back.

The same TV show from the same antenna (via a splitter) recorded on my AirTV Anywhere is just fine. (I keep restarting to get rid of the unwanted graphical message “Press DOWN to browse more channels” at the bottom of the screen.)

You’ll notice with the Tablo recording at the beginning, I always start the recording 10 minutes early, so I can check it and restart the recording if it’s out of sync. Last night, I fell asleep before the show started, so I didn’t have that option. The only solution is to delete the damn Tablo recording and watch it on my AirTV. AirTV is MUCH more reliable than Tablo, but I prefer Tablo’s playback experience, but only IF the recording is a good one.

I’ve complained to Tablo for over a year now about this issue, and they’ve yet to fix it. I suspect Houston’s ABC13 sometimes switches to a different codec that Tablo doesn’t recognize quickly enough to handle, so it records in a way that can’t play back in real time without video hesitation. The AirTV software engineers are obviously much smarter, because I’ve never once had an audio/video sync issue with AirTV.

I’m cross posting this also to the TabloTV and AirTV groups that I own on Facebook. Note: TabloTV is such a crappy product, that I now have 2,026 members in my Tablo group seeking solutions to their own issues, compared with 102 members in my AirTV group.

I’m also recommending to all my Houston social media contacts that they do NOT buy any TabloTV products if they want to watch the channel 13 ABC affiliate.

Note: TabloTV has blocked me on Facebook due to their embarrassment about all the issues I’ve warned prospective buyers about. They’d rather sell their inferior product to an unsuspecting public. That’s fine, because they’ll join my group for help eventually.

@TabloTV @TabloEngineering @TabloSupport

7

Good morning, @ArtSmart ! What kind of troubleshooting has been done so we don’t repeat it? Also, what device(s), other than the AirTV Anywhere, are you using to stream the Tablo?

8

Your question isn’t clear. Here’s my setup: Indoor antenna feeding, through a splitter, both of my DVRs. One is a Tablo 4th Gen Quad. The other is an AirTV Anywhere.

I use a Google TV device to stream either of the DVR’s content to my old 50" plasma dumb TV via its HDMI input.

AirTV never has sync issues. Tablo has video way behind audio mainly on Houston’s channel 13.1 KTRK ABC13, but yesterday, it also happened on Bounce. I’d say ABC13 is out of sync about 30% of the time on Tablo, but 0% of the time on AirTV recording the same signal at the same time.

BTW, this is my fourth Tablo DVR, and the problem has existed on each and every one of them. First on a 4th Gen Dual, and then on all three 4th Gen Quads that I’ve bought since, returning all but the last one, which I’m still using.

I’ve complained about this issue to ABC13 and Tablo with zero results.

I used to save a bad recording or two so that Tablo could log into my DVR and see what’s going on. They never responded, so now I just delete the bad recordings immediately as you can see in the video link above.

Tell you what. If Tablo wants me to save a bad recording for them to examine, I’ll do it. But only if they ask. I’m done wasting my time with this issue that has plagued me for over a year now.

BTW, this sync issue exists on any playback device: Google TV, Android phone, Google Tablet. It’s a bad recording, not a playback issue.

9

I don’t doubt that the recordings audio/video are out of sync. If they were recorded that way, then there’s no way to ‘fix’ those recordings. The goal is to fix any newly recorded shows.

Have you already opened the Tablo settings and changed the Audio Compatibility Mode to ON? If not, please try this setting for a few days worth of recordings and check if the sync issues persist.

Also, do you have any issues with the audio/video sync on non-recorded or live shows watched through your Google/Android devices?

UPDATE: I just watched the video you provided and if that were occurring on my system, I would check my network. There’s a lot of buffering which might also cause this issue. Also, the audio looked to be slightly off on your AirTV too, at the very end of that video. If I found my network to up to par, then I’d start looking at the signal I’m receiving. You didn’t describe your antenna, distance from broadcast towers, whether or not you’re using an amplifier, and how many tuners your AirTV has.

10

This is quite curious. You clearly know what you are doing, so I don’t know what advice I can offer. It could be a network issue, but I assume that you know your way around a network. Also, you said you got the same results on your Android phone. I would also assume that you tried it with you phone while standing pretty close to your router, eliminating the concern of poor WiFi.

Is your Tablo hard-wired to your router?

Have you tried switching the wires on your splitter? Could it have one bad output, or a bad coax cable?

Do you know anyone else in the same TV market that is using a Tablo? If so, are they experiencing the same thing on that channel? Maybe you got a bad unit, or maybe there is some incompatibility between your router and the Tablo.

Beyond that, I think your codex idea makes sense, that is why I would want to talk to someone using a Tablo in the same TV market.

1 Like
11

That is one of the canned responses from support.

Doesn’t that give flat stereo, even for Surround Sound shows and a Surround Sound audio system?

I have no interest at all in doing that.

12

Audio compatibility mode (ACM) was created to address a specific problem that Roku introduced about October of 2024 with their OS 14. It changed how Roku handled sound and broke many Roku/TV combinations. If your set up was impacted, your Tablo became almost useless on Roku. Trying to watch OTA shows live, or previously recorded OTA shows would cause the system to halt and kick you back to the program guide or the recording list. It did not affect the FAST channels. It also did not impact users of other streaming devices, Fire Stick, ONN, Apple TV…

ACM was Tablo’s work around. It forces your system to play and record in a sound format that Roku will understand and work with. And, yes, I do believe that it limits your ability to use Surround Sound… but it works. (There was a long time that it didn’t work at all for some users.)

I believe Art said his system was all Google TV, so ACM should not be relevant.

1 Like
13

My system is also Chromecast. I followed the commentary from Roku users in different forums. Wasn’t that an outright failure of audio, with a suggestion to turn off Closed Captioning? I don’t recall it being an audio sync issue.

Coincident to my posting here, I received another periodic response to my recent Tech Support ticket.

“The Tablo responds to the OTA signal a bit differently than your TV does. The Tablo needs to encode all incoming signals to provide the DVR functionality, and this requires an interference-free and robust signal. A TV passes whatever signal it picks up through; as such, sometimes it will get more stations.”

“robust” is the exact opposite of the Tablo functionality. “Fragile” would be my term.

They suggest rescanning channels, as if that is an answer to any problem.