Be aware before you buy a tablo, if you have channels in different markets and use rotator or different method to recieve those channels, you cannot add channels without losing the others. It is a very short sighted flaw in the tablo software that only allows you to save channels from one scan at a time. There is no rf channel or manual method to add channels. Very surprising considering tablos main customers is the chord cutting community. And very disappointing.
1 Like
Hello @Roger3, and welcome to the forum. I’m not sure how big of an issue this is.
Do you have a question about how to resolve this for your situation?
Misery does love company though, as the majority of DVRs are similar in this respect.
Yeah no one ever wants the Tablo Gen4 to be easier to use…
My old Channel Master DVR+ and Stream+ both permit a manual add/scan of a single channel. So do other vendors.
1 Like
Please detail those other vendors please.
No. People need to do their own research.
Indeed. Yes, yes, they do.
Well, looks like you have plenty of options for your DVR needs. (?)
Tablo is already easy to use for most. Adding manual channels would make it more functional, not necessarily easier.
I’m still not sure how large the set of users is that need to manually tune channels.
I’m just guessing. So, another guess. There are features of Tablo that a are superior and you’re just missing the channel scan flexibility that you’ve seen (and apparently experienced) from other DVR options (?). It’s possible that a future Tablo product/update might have that feature added (unknown). So, if Tablo is your “must have”, I’d wait and see if it gets better in that regard. Historically, as this option has been brought up many times in the past, I’m not terribly optimistic that we’ll see this soon (if ever). Thus, if this is very important, you may well have to consider other options. And as you mentioned you already have and at least know about some of those options.
1 Like
For you. Not everyone has the same user experience.
I don’t like having to do a complete rescan with the Tablo Gen4. It sometimes takes an hour for it to update… When it doesn’t fail.
If a “function” takes 1 hour today and the same “function” takes 1 minute tomorrow - it’s the same “function” but one of them is “easier” to use. No waiting.
So you both are saying that the Tablo is fine the way it is.
If I would like improvements then I should buy a different device. From a competitor. Nice.
1 Like
Help me understand - in what situation(s) do you need to do a complete rescan? To get new channels?
When the Tablo rescans, I would think that it could do a better job in displaying newly added or removed channels on the scan results while keeping its original selection. This would make it easier for users to know what channels have changed without wiping out their original selection of channels.
I don’t necessarily need a manual channel scan and I was asking @Roger3 about their specific situation.
We’ve been mostly happy with the device when there’s not an infrastructure or functionality issue that takes days or weeks to resolve. I definitely didn’t say to buy another device.
There are ways to tune in different markets. I was just asking the OP if they needed help.
New channels… Channel changes took over a month to resolve an issue that they resolved previously in a few minutes.
Channel change is frequent in Dallas.
This weekend I’m sure you are aware that:
KLEG 44.1 no longer broadcasts NTD it’s now CRTV
KLEG 44.2 is dark
KHPK 28.7 (new) is now broadcasting NTD
KFWD 52.6 no longer broadcasts JTV Spanish
1 Like
Yes, I think it would be nice if Tablo allowed you to rescan for NEWLY DISCOVERED channels, without loosing channels already saved, but even if it did, Tablo does not have the ability to tell your rotor to turn. So that would screw up the DVR function anyway unless you manually turned the rotor before the show came on. I don’t know of any DVRs that have such a function. Please correct me if I am wrong.
There are other solutions…
You could set up more than one antenna (hopefully you aren’t pointing at more than two markets) and either use channel filters to tell the system with channels to pull from which antenna.
You could also set up a second antenna AND get a second Tablo… one antenna/Tablo for market A, and one for market B. You can have multiple Tablos on one network and switch between them.
I know these may not be a perfect solutions, but what do you want for a $100.00 box?
Seems like the Tablo would also need a way to control the rotator so it could point the antenna it the direction of the station it was about to record.
@classicrockguy posted a different solution for multiple markets.
It also possible to get two antennas and use a combiner but I presume the OP has ruled out any other solutions.
The thread is “General Discussion” not Support.
1 Like
No, not aware. I’m not a big TV watcher and (thankfully) my wife only cares about the main network broadcasts. We usually only do the recommended quarterly rescan.
So I can see how different everyone’s use case is, but the main simplicity of the device is standard and should work for most. Slow rescans could be another issue entirely.
The OP could also just buy another $99 Tablo and a 2nd antenna instead of an expensive Smartkom device. Talk about complicated!?
I sort of envy OTA consumers who live in “simple” markets with a single antenna farm within easy, unobstructed range with little or no interference or other nasty complications. My real world experience is that I (and others I know) aren’t so lucky.
So many “use cases” and potential solutions once your OTA world is not so simple. I’ve posted more than a few times about the Televes Smartkom (and its big brother the Avantx), because for specific use cases they simply work. Yes they are expensive ($200 and $400 respectively).
However, they are not complicated to setup and use. You simply feed them 1+ different antenna feeds from 1+ antennas via each antenna coax, choose from a “smorgasbord” of all the received transmitter signals from your overall “antenna cluster”, and then output the resulting “select menu” of transmitters to your various tv tuners via a single coax (split as needed). Your tv tuner scans then only “see” a nice signal-balanced set of only the transmitters you chose. Very clean.
1 Like