No doubt. I think there are going to be a lot of changes in the next few years and more products offered to the consumer. People are ditching cable and satellite and a lot of the younger people haven’t had it since they left home. I think the manufacturers are seeing the market now for the OTA devices as more people cut the cord so they are making a comeback.
I haven’t had cable in like 6 years now I think. I used to be the freaky one but now it’s becoming normal. hehe
I looked at some of the reviews on Amazon… Every single review has a comment from Tablo. Wish they put that much effort into their software. I don’t know how I didn’t see that since I bought mine from Amazon. The reviews & the comments have some rather cringe worthiness to em. I like the 5 star one saying they love it, best thing since sliced toast. Just wish this & that, oh & maybe this worked tho. LOL Or the flip side & the comments are pretty much… buy a NP or suffer, just like on here. But… the best one is this:
“We do agree that box style streaming devices work best with Tablo which is why we generally recommend them over stick style devices like Chromecast.” says Tablo
WTF! Where does it say that on the website? NO WHERE!
Random question:
If you don’t have a sub & scheduled a repeating recording, does it have the info for that show it recorded? It says you have the data for 1 day so I’d think it would have the data, wouldn’t it?
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R:
You carefully forgot to mention the previous sentence in my rebuke which gave credence to the one you remembered.
If you’re going to quote me do it without excising relevant information like some sleazebag lawyer.
Where did I quote you at?
I see you said you enjoyed the upgrade from chromecast yadda yadda… I never said nothing reflecting that post. Actively chose to ignore that post cuz you sound like you’re saying we are grousing and bitching.
If you mean this from awhile back… I did said that part of your other not so friendly comment.
I’ll even add that you’ve managed to put in a back handed or insulting tone to each & every post I see in my threads. I guess that’s what you’re calling “our positive experience in hope of improving yours”? You’ve even deleted some of the posts now looking back.
Thanks Jerry! You’ve helped enough.
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R:
My, my, my, three irate rants in a row from our poor put upon Chromecast gladiator and habitual whiner. Must have touched a nerve. Hope this gets out before your next rant comes barreling in. If you’re going to berate those who advocate choices you’d best grow a thicker skin. Until then, rage on.
Again… Thanks Jerry!
R:
Shucks, glad to lend a helping hand.
Hi @riffy,
I am probably not typical in that I set most of my recording at 480 @2Mbs. Most of the recording I do is from 480 only stations. I also use the Tablo to record news for viewing at my convenience but don’t care if this is lower quality.
My kit;
Tablo 4-tuner (wired)
Chromecast V1 & V2 (both wired)
Netgear R7000 (with IP reservation enabled for Tablo)
(rev 1.0.4_30, the latest 1.0.6 router firrmware appeard to cause problems for Tablo)
Nexus 7 (2013) Android 5 / Nexus 7 (2012) Android 4.4 / ASUS ZenPad 170 Android 5 / chrome bowser
Clearstream 4v + VHF retrofit in Attic.
Winegard pre-Amp
Hi @TabloSupport how about publishing your test configuration to help us triangulate on possible problem components please.
All, the flame ware is not helping the situation at all here. Can we please put our adult pants on?
The bottom line here is that it’s a given fact that stick devices will always be limited as to what they can do and will never be as powerful as a bigger box style units.
However the point here is that casting is a supported feature of the product (Tablo) and it should work for the users regardless. It should be up to the user if they wish to use it or not and if the quality is acceptable for them but it’s not cause the product feature just doesn’t seem to work at all for a lot of people and when users seek help here they get sales pitches for other products.
It’s also quite sad that other apps (Plex, Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, etc…) can be cast just fine, without issue, without buffering. This to me shows that it pretty much as to be something with the Tablo unit. Occam’s razor folks.
Now, with all that said let’s get back to the point at hand which is getting help from Tablo to solve peoples issues and not toss around insults.
Agreed. I went in to this against my better judgement, just didn’t know how bad it was until I started peeling the layers back. I have access to a Galaxy Tab 10.1 I can do some testing on with Chromecast. I may not be able to get to it until the weekend.
Helping hands are always appreciated foxvalleyal. Especially those willing to go the extra mile and actually test something out for themselves and share with the group.
OK guys - let’s all chill out and quit it with the name calling.
We’re all adults here (I hope) and this type of nasty banter contravenes our forum rules.
Disagreements are OK. Just stop with the mudslinging.
Now on to the matter at hand…
As for this, we did specifically say this in a blog post:
Stick vs. box
While their lower prices make it tempting to pick a stick-style model over a box-style model, sticks generally offer lower performance hardware than their set-top-box cousins.
https://www.tablotv.com/blog/best-streaming-set-top-box-tablo/
We also mention that people using Chromecast may have better success with a lower recording quality (and therefore lower bit rate) in this blog post: https://www.tablotv.com/blog/choosing-right-tablo-recording-quality/
Chromecast is affordable which is why it’s popular and why we do support it. But to have the best possible experience with Tablo, we recommend spending a bit more for a box-style streaming solution that has better performance.
While some folks use Chromecast regularly with no issues, we realize that not everyone has a great experience with this device. Unfortunately it’s quite difficult for us to diagnose Chromecast problems because once the video is handed over from the Tablo app to Chromecast for streaming, we don’t have a lot of visibility into what’s happening with the cast.
Additionally, Chromecast seems much more sensitive to any blips in the quality of the video stream than other streaming devices. Broadcast video (especially if your signal isn’t crystal clear) can have significantly more errors within the stream than video from say, Netflix which has been carefully prepared in multiple bit rates for smooth delivery. This is why you might be seeing issues with Tablo video vs. other apps or from one recording to the next.
As we mentioned in another thread recently we are working on significant changes to our Android apps and part of this will include updates to Chromecast integration. We’re hopeful this will improve the experience for users.
In the meantime, the best way to squeeze the best performance out of Chromecast is to reduce your recording quality so you’re not flooding it with too much bandwidth, ensure your WiFi network is solid, that there is no interference from other devices, that your antenna signal is strong and that the device you’re casting from is powerful.
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Hi @TabloSupport, Thanks for providing input. Would you be so kind as to publish your chromecast test configuration as we have published our configurations, to help us get the most from our systems? You probably test with multiple variations in routers and tablets. Please let us know your most effective combination.
That probably leaves several people out of the race. Define “WiFi network is solid”. Like Wireless AC solid with Wireless AC devices? Define “your antenna signal is strong”. Like 5 bars signal strength on every Channel? This sounds more like building the perfect beast. Most people aren’t running the latest and greatest hardware in their environment. I know I’m not as I’m still on wireless N and don’t have plans to upgrade the rest of it around the Tablo.
I Already limit recording to 480 @ 2Mbs. Both Tablo and chromecast devices are wired. Your configuration at Tablo support that does not produce the errors would be extremely helpful to know.
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I agree with you foxvalleyal. Designing a device for the high end of equipment and configuration is not good. I always thought that if you want the most users you design to the lowest common denominator to ensure the widest acceptable use. Anyway, just my $.02 on that.
As for the rest of Tablo supports comments I don’t buy it. I can cast a multitude of other applications just fine in high quality over the same wireless network without issue but when I try to cast Tablo it chokes. Sorry, but standard debugging says that we need to look at the device having the issue not the peripherals if it can be shown to be working with other apps.
Oh, and my Tablo is hard wired to my network switch and not using WiFi until it needs to go to the Chromecast.
And to js98 about recording quality. I’ve tried from lowest to the highest and get the same results. Buffers like crazy regardless of setting but if I extract the same show from Tablo and put it on my Plex server, casts and plays perfectly.
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Exactly. Why is it that I can run and watch Dish Anywhere Android App all day long on a not so great HP Slate 21 Pro running 4.1 wired to a EoP and the Tablo randomly stops playing?
Hi Guys,
In my configuraton the recording quality and wifi issue are off the table, since my configuration is completely wired and at the lowest possible quality setting. If @TabloSupport will publish their error free test system chromecast configuration then I can look at the different components and possibly resolve at least my issues. Please help me on this request?
Also, if Tablo is going to say you need a kick butt network to support their device then they need to define what a kick butt network is. To share with everyone here I work in IT and I am pretty sure my home equipment rivals most business’. I’m not trying to toot my own horn here but it’s what I do for a living and have been doing for 22 years. I don’t buy crap. I use my equipment at home for testing and learning and most of it matches my work equipment. I’m sure most people are not running a VMware server farm over iSCSI back ended by multiple FreeNAS arrays on dual socket quad core Xeon systems.
Anyway, all I am saying is that I just don’t buy what Support is shoveling. 
I don’t think you can compare Tablo to MOST other apps though. Almost all other apps have the ability to modify the data stream on the fly. Real time digital to digital transcoding to modify the bitrate as needed. Plex, Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, they all can do that, Tablo can not.
I do believe Tablo has tried to work with the lowest common denominator by providing you the option to adjust the video bit rate. Had they tried to incorporate real time bit rate conversion according to transfer speed, the box would have had to be a lot more powerful and been priced outside what most would spend.
Had they JUST set it up for the lowest denominator, those with high end networks with higher power streaming boxes and no local interference would have complained that the video quality wasn’t good enough… SO again, they tried to make it work for as many people as possible by giving you the video quality settings.
With all of that said, Yes, I agree it should probably work better with Chromecast based on what you have all said. Sounds like Tablo is working on that as well.
My main point was not to argue that you don’t have a legitimate gripe (you do) just that I do believe Tablo TRIES to work with as many variables as they can AND that in general, a Tablo video stream can’t be compared to 90% of other apps out there as the video handling is different.