Hi, I’m new here and just bought the Tablo 4 channel 4th gen DVR when I found out Tablo provided a 2 week free guide. Been a TIVO subscriber forever and decided I’d like to have a potential backup in case my 10 yr old Roamio dies in the future since TIVO is getting out of the hardware business (or so it seems).
One weird thing I found and didn’t know if this was typical is that certain channels that come in relatively strong (but not as strong as most) don’t get picked up on the Tablo channel scan like my TIVO.
Normally I would think the Tablo receivers just aren’t as sensitive as my Roamio, HOWEVER I do pickup other channels that normally come in weaker than the ones I expect to show up.
I’m going to reposition the antenna to hopefully correct it but was wondering if anyone else saw this odd behavior?
it would be nice to be able to force a channel to show up that doesn’t get caught by the scan, but I don’t see any option to do so.
The Tablo 2-tuner splits in the incoming signal 2 ways, and the 4-tuner splits it 4 ways, so your received signal could be weaker than what your TV or Tivo receives. If you haven’t, try enabling/disabling the Tablo internal signal amplifier - disable if you’re within about 10 miles of the towers to prevent overdriving the tuners. Using the internal amplifier is supposed to add 11dB of signal gain per tuner back to compensate for the loss of the multiple tuners.
Sorry, there’s currently no way to manually add or edit channels. The only thing you can do is change to a neighboring ZIP Code to get the device to see different channels.
Make sure you do another channel scan whenever you change your amp setting or antenna position.
Tablo is rather unforgiving of “iffy” channels. Also, keep in mind that if you have a four-tuner, it is splitting that signal four ways, so each will be weaker than the original.
A good quality antenna, mounted high, and aimed correctly is key. Can you tell us a little about your antenna set up?
Also, try it with the internal amplification turned OFF. Under certain circumstances this can help.
I’ve got a Clearstream 4Max antenna UHF VHF antenna mounted in my attic with a Wineguard 0.5 dB noise figure amp driving a 50 ft RG6 cable to a 1:2 splitter which connects to my 4 Channel OTA TIVO Roamio and 4 Chan Tablo.
I tried turning off the Tablo internal amp but that didn’t help.
What’s your distance from the antenna farm? I would think you’d be good up to 50-60 miles with such an antenna setup. Unfortunately, the Tablo doesn’t have a real-time signal meter. Does the Tivo have one? Technically, both devices would be receiving similar signal strengths based on your setup, so adjusting/optimizing your antenna using the Tivo signal meter should also work for the Tablo.
You’re right, from that data it looks like you should be receiving that channel. I would definitely try the zip code change idea, doing that helped me out a lot with the program guide and channel selection.
What are the RF freqs of the low-dB channels (2, 7, 10)? If they’re VHF-low then it might be the antenna. This looks like it could be the problem. Although, 10-1 might be UHF or VHF-hi and just too far away.
Channel 2.1 Boston transmits on channel 5, which is VHF-low. The Clearstream antenna is only rated for VHF-high (and reception is a lot worse than for the UHF channels). The low VHF channels are hard to receive unless you have a much bigger antenna designed for the low VHF channels (or live close to the transmit towers).
This appears to be the antenna rating, not the tuner rating. I would think the Tablo tuners would receive whatever signals your antenna provides. But @TabloTV Support would be best to ask.
Based on the previous post by @Scandy, check Mr Hop To It on YouTube on how to build a VHF low antenna.
The main ingredient is the element length. The Clearstream element appears to be too short. Maybe you could replace the VHF element on the Clearstream antenna with an element of the proper length.
Good luck - hope all this was helpful and leads to a solution.
I have the VHF add-on for my antenna so I’m getting good signal strength to my TIVO for that particular frequency, so it doesn’t appear to be the antenna.
Those were the specs I posted from the site. It seems like they don’t support the low VHF frequencies. I’ll have to put in a call to tech support to confirm. Thanks.
You’re welcome. As @Scandy says, this antenna doesn’t appear to support the VHF Low frequencies. Maybe the Roamio tuner is more sensitive than the Tablo and is picking up the signal. If the ZIP Code trick doesn’t work, you might try extending that VHF element to a length more suited for that channel RF frequency.
You can’t compare the Tivo/Scientific Atlantic tuner to the Tablo. SA was already in business for over 30 years when I first dealt with them in the 80s. The who’s who in the electronics industry were contracting with them to do design for them. They were the best.
Since tablo doesn’t display the channel frequencies and this area has at least 2 virtual channels 2-1, how do you know which physical channel tablo is using.
That’s interesting that the signal strength would come in so well for an VHF antenna that isn’t suited for it. Tech told me the 78 MHz should be supported so I’ll have to try what he suggests and maybe extend the antenna for the greatest signal strength.
