Giving the Tablo 4 a trial, and one thing keeps the experience from being excellent. 1080i source playback on my Roku 3s. I’ve got all the quality settings on the highest settings, all my devices are wired to my Gig network. Regular programming (non-sports) is tolerable, though any “panning” shots have significant judder. Could probably live with that. 1080i Sports is unwatchable for me on the Rokus. (720p content is good)
Same content on my PCs is fine. Sports can be watched. I guess I could live with CBS and NBC on my PCs, but I’d like to view those on my TVs as well.
I’d even consider moving up to the latest Rokus if that is a solution.
To ensure your TV isn’t contributing to the poor experience: Roku is connected to your TV using HDMI. Your TV may have different video configuration for its HDMI ports than if does for the tuner; many do. While watching Roku on the TV, go into the TV menus and look for advanced video settings such as Samsungs ‘Expert Settings’ for AutoMotion Plus, Digital Clean View, etc.
Thanks for the suggestion. I tried multiple different settings for smoothing, judder reduction, etc. No difference for the 1080i stations. (CBS, NBC) All the 720p stations (FOX, ABC) work fine.
The 1080i stations are converted to 1080p or 720p depending on your recording quality setting. The Tablo does not record in an interlaced (aka i) format, so that is likely what you’re seeing, the conversion procession is not perfect.
For sports, connect your antenna directly to your HDTV tuner, you’ll like life better that way.
I don’t watch anything live anymore, including football. Usually start about 2 hours after the games do, and can finish when the late games finish up. I know a lot of folks only watch sports live. My Windows Media Center box has no trouble recording the games (MPEG-2) in “tv tuner” quality. But the Ceton extenders I’m using are at the end of the road. More and more issues, so I was looking for another solution, which led me to Tablo.
As I said, it looks acceptable on my computers in a browser window, so maybe I can live with that. But I was hoping someone was using another type of streaming device than Roku that worked a bit better for 1080i content.
In order to watch sports in MPEG-2 format, I bought the Homeworx DVR (only $30) to supplement my Tablo. Fast motion (e.g. football & hockey) are terrific on this box which hooks up to a TV via HDMI (and records shows). I can record, pause and continue, etc. on this box which is dedicated for my sports viewing. It has coax in and coax out so it can be daisy chained with the Tablo (or other devices). Only disadvantage - it is not networked. I use the Tablo for everything else except sports…