My apologies for helping de-rail this thread though.
Wish I had access to a Chromecast & Android device to help test it.
Back late 2015 when MANY people were complaining about issues with Roku’s (before Roku corrected it), I was one of the few that had no problem streaming even at the highest settings so it would be interesting to see how Chromecast does on my network…
Okay Daniel454, good points there and i concede there is merit there.
However if we take apps like Netflix and such off the table and focus on my local Plex server and Tablo, I can cast from my Plex server without issue where Tablo chokes after a few mins of any content of any quality.
Plex does real time transcoding too does it not? I could be wrong there as I don’t use Plex… I have used the “play later” program and it can operate similar to a media server, it does real time transcoding (poorly I might add, but it does do it).
Maybe Plex has a setting to turn it off?
Hi Guys,
Look. If @TabloTV will publish thier error free chromecast configuration, I think it would help us all improve our individual systems. I am already at thier idealized video quality and wired network configuration. Then one of two things will happen; 1) we resolve our local issues and things work or 2) we can improve our communication with Tablo who may not fully understand the issues we concerned as obvious as they may seem. Being on the same exact page with Tablo can only be a benefit.
Seconded!
Same here. I’m a Sys Admin in an Enterprise environment. I evaluate hardware/software all the time and make my recommendations to the brass all the time so this isn’t my first Rodeo.
It does, on the fly.
I’m not sure on the Client, but settings on Plex Server are Automatic, Prefer high speed encoding, Prefer higher quality encoding, and Make my CPU hurt.
How about it @riffy and @foxvalleyal? Will join the effort to obtain the @Tablo error free chromecast configuration so that we can further isolate possible issues in our local systems? As an IT guy you probably know an easy way to trouble shoot a system problem is comparison with a known working system.
I did some bouncing about the internet and read some commentaries in regard to streaming and Chromecast. Some points that I think may be worth putting out there:
Amazon Prime Video is allegedly one of the most consistent performers via Chromecast. The apparent reason for this is their highly effective (and very likely proprietary) adjustments on the fly for variations in bitrate, similar to how Netflix adjusts quality on the fly. This seems to indicate that at least some portion of our Chromecast brethren are suffering from inconsistent delivery. Obviously, the lower your quality settings the easier consistent delivery will be. (I think some form of improvement in this range for Tablo is doable in software, as I am under the understanding that Tablo is using HLS already)
Communication is key to expectations. I think that Tablo could publish their recommendations and limitations more prominently in order to mitigate some expectations that are not quite realistic for the lower end of the spectrum.
I really think that a more capable (and likely more expensive) version of the hardware could be effective. Maybe a “Tablo Performance Edition” with USB3, Gigibit Ethernet, onboard “fast cache” for better performance (think small SSD for multitasking live and active recording, before saving finished file to the external HDD) and enhanced cooling?
Yes, I would like to know. You have to have a baseline to compare to.
Plex transcoding has SEVERAL different settings available, both in the Client and Server. Their transcoding can be quite rough on the CPU of your server, but can be disabled in either location (individually in each client, or for everyone in the server).
I have a Zotac IQ-01 (i7 booksize PC) as my Plex Server, while storing all my actual media on my NAS. This allows me to transcode as needed. I do however set my strong client devices to direct stream/ direct play…
[quote=“Kartajan, post:52, topic:7502”]
Communication is key to expectations. I think that Tablo could publish their recommendations and limitations more prominently in order to mitigate some expectations that are not quite realistic for the lower end of the spectrum.
[/quote]Absolutely!!! But this is where the marketing team and engineering team usually disagree…
I think marketing expects you to run Tablo at the SD480-2 setting. (I shudder at the thought of that on a 65" screen…)
Yes, mine is running off my QNAP 453 Pro with the Quad-Core 2.0Ghz (burst up to 2.42Ghz). Not the fastest thing out there but fit my budget. I’ve had 3 concurrent users streaming movies no problem. The virtualization on that NAS is the bomb. The NAS technically only supports 8GB RAM but I’m running 16Gb without any issues so the processor must be unlocked. I run PlayON on a W10 VM with 8GB allocated.
Considering your NAS is barely rated to properly transcode a single 1080p stream, I am impressed.
Of course, everything depends on the match between client capability and source material. (Most of my library is primarily native BD rips for which I keep max quality possible per each client’s ability)
I could image a Chromecast imploding trying to play my library content…
My Plex servers is also set to “Make my CPU hurt”.
Running on a SuperMicro X7DWE Dual Sockets, Quad Core Xeon 2.8GHz CPUs with 32Gb of memory. Thing barely breaks a sweat with 3 kids and wife streaming stuff.
It would be nice if the Tablo did some error logging. As it stands now that have the thing sandboxed in and you can’t access anything.
It’s a stretch but considering the files are in m4v format and direct stream there’s not much transcoding going on.
WOW! Take a nap & I missed a LOT LOL
You guys are forgetting one thing. Tablo does transcode when it does off site streaming. :-o That option for “Remote streaming quality”. But again this isn’t a bitrate issue. Plex can transcode but chromecast can handle most things so it’s usually just a direct connection.
@TabloTV
You’re seriously going to tell me I have to look thru random blogs to find that information!!! It states clearly on where you buy it (Amazon here), on this site, etc… that it works with chromecast. Not that it kinda works, but that it works! That is just crazy that you expect your consumers to find info that way.
Also! I’ve said this multiple times now. I can play Tablo at 8Mbps perfectly fine till it hits some bad segments in the video files. Skip over that segment & poof it’s working again, At 8Mbps! Saying to lower the quality to some crazy low quality to get around this is horrible advice! Start looking at what’s wrong with the files.
Support keeps telling me they can’t reproduce it when I clearly have files I can reproduce this over & over & over & over in the same spots. THAT AINT BITRATE! This, it’s handed over to chromecast & out of our control thing, is bs too. If that was the case all casting apps would have issues. Something isn’t adding up here. Maybe Tablo needs to contact Google for more information.
@js98 & @Spunky03 Are right… @TabloTV @TabloSupport isn’t giving us any information at all. Just blaming networks. We are here to help get this fixed because we want it fixed. Let us help!