From my experience, if you turn on surround sound and your Roku can’t play the sound, it means that your TV or AV Receiver (whichever one the Roku is connected to via HDMI cable) does not report to Roku via the HDMI cable that it can support DD 5.1. You can confirm this by checking the Audio settings and see if you can select a Dolby Audio option. If only stereo shows, then you are affected by this. My solution is to use a Onn Android TV device on one TV and a Google Chromecast 2020 on the other. The android devices have a setting to turn off surround sound passthrough and the sound will still play.
I have three TVs older than 2013 that I can’t use a Roku on for this reason. However, my TVs bought in 2015 and 2020 have no problem playing surround sound via Roku.
Twice I have unplugged my Tablo unit and the first recording afterwards had chirping noise that made it unbearably to watch. Do not unplug it and everything is fine.
This problem is unacceptable. It’s been posted by many users. If you want a file with the noise I have it. Only Tablo makes this annoying crackling and chirping noise. The chirping is ont as often as the crackling but it’s very annoying.
I tested left and right even checked with Tablo through Firefox and the issue is still present.
Tablo needs to step up and put this problem on the priority list.
It’s been going on for almost 2 years. This is it for me. If things don’t change, I’ll cut the cord all right the Tablo CORD!!
I was one of the original posters on this issue and I can say that after I turned the Surround sound to “On” in Settings, the chirpping noise in recordings went away! My devices that access the Tablo are Apple iPhones and iPads, Apple TV, and Amazon FireTV sticks, The Apple TV and FireTV sticks project to Vizio TVs. I’m enjoying my Tablo. My Tablo firmware is current - version 2.2.42.
Guys, set your Tablo to Suround sound “ON”, and, set all your devices that access the Tablo to be able to play Dolby Digital. That fixed my problem a year or so ago! Read all users’ recommendations above, please. Stop blaming Tablo, like me during the early start of this thread!
I don’t have the network Tablo, so I am not sure if that surround is DD or DD+. If it’s DD, then it’s rare for a device to not support it. Bandwidth and drive space are not much of an issue these days, either.
Even on my HDMI Tablo, I had to enable it or it would downgrade to plain stereo. The audio is normal DD 5.1.
Firefox 111 I really appreciate your answer and I applied and so far no noise. I still am blaming Tablo because when I opened a ticket, there was no instruction or suggestion to enable that option. It’s such a widespread issue that it seems all to normal that Tablo either change code to fix it or issue a warning with the software.
I would not have been so stern if a suggestion was given at first.
Turning on Surround Sound can impact some users - it’s not necessarily a magical fix for everyone!!
Current Surround Sound Device/Platform Limitations
Supported streaming set-top-boxes, sticks, or mobile devices must have the appropriate device-level passthrough settings enabled and (if applicable) be connected to a device (TV and/or audio device) that can decode 5.1 Surround Sound.
ALL recordings are recorded with Surround Sound/5.1 - if your device is not capable - there is NO audio. It does not play back on every device and there’s no way to get audio.
That annoying noise disappeared when I turned on Surround sound. I guess it’s NOT the fix for others! Well, for those who are still suffering from that noise even after turning on the Surround sound, make your Tablo a boat anchor - what can I say?
As mentioned in this thread, Enabling surround removes noise from computer but when listening to recordings on Samsung Tablets, NO SOUND. What a piece of work
Depending on your needs, you can use something like the Android app ota2GO to be able to listen to recordings on Android devices that don’t natively support surround sound…
I use it on my Pixel 5a phone by downloading recordings to the phone and then by integrating VLC or MX Player to enable playback of those downloaded recordings.
Glad to provide what is hopefully useful information.
I don’t agree that Tablo is on life support. The surround sound on Android devices limitation you are encountering is just as much because of limitations of most Android devices not natively supporting 5.1 surround sound.
I’m lucky with my choice of devices. After setting the Surround sound to ON, the chirping noise on Live and Recordings went away. That was more than a year ago. I have Apple iPhones and iPads, AppleTV and FireTV Sticks connected to Vizio Smart TV’s. Don’t blame Tablo. Blame it on the device(s) you are using for NOT supporting 5.1 Surround sound (or is that DDS or AC3?).
In this context would it be the users? Blame it on us for not purchasing products which support technologies we have no real need. Many programs aren’t truenly encoded with 5.1 surround sound.
Watching classic TV recorded in a 4:3 format… To be fair, most broadcast not from the major network - on a nice new wide-screen, how foolish are users for not going all out and getting the premium sound?
