I have 3 of them in the closet. Can’t get myself to throw them away even tho I now use my phone for everything. More convenient… it’s ALWAYS on me. hehe
Oh & I ditched their software within a week LOL EventGhost!!
Did Snapstream own BeyondTV?
Thought I remembered that but wasn’t sure hehe that’s defiantly how I got that then… with the remotes.
You could say they went…BEYOND TV
They went belly up or something didn’t they? I know when I was looking for a replacement FireFly I couldn’t find one for anything.
I think maybe investors gobbled them up.
I have used the Channel Master DVR for about a year now…
Their Tuners are not as good as the Tablo… for picking up signal quality, but otherwise, the guide, the internet channels, the youtube casting, and the slim profile + remote control (that also has programmable TV buttons) are a really nice feature.
I bought the tablo though to be a whole home DVR solution, I’m still in the getting my feet wet for experience.
It doesn’t compare to the ease and native guide using of the Channel Master, but I can see it’s advantages. However, I’m using 1st Gen Chromecasts for my TVs, and this might ruin my experience I fear.
Chromecast is a very useful device, regardless of generation. The thing is that it really was made for “casting” individual items (like youtube clips etc), which doesn’t automatically translate well to the “watch TV” usage model.
Admittedly, since Tablo advertises it as a supported device, they should be ensuring it works as advertised.
@Kartajan All the rest of the apps of the world, like Plex, Netflix, Hulu, etc… (basically everything but Tablo) would disagree that it is a good model.
Plex/ Netflix/ Hulu all run well, but they are typically used in the individual items strength case of Chromecast. The constant stream of un-cached data is not a strength of Chromecast.
I don’t know what you mean by that. I queue up multiple shows at a time when I watch tv on my chromeast, almost always on Plex. Just watched 4 news shows with one button in Plex. So… I don’t understand what you’re saying.
It’s actually my normal daily way to watch the news. Just list the new shows by air time & hit the play all button till I’ve had enough news. It’s one of the perks of the chromecast, you can keep queuing up stuff as you’re watching something.
Casting as a process works best with data that is cached.
example: the Deadpool movie is not going to be different tomorrow from today. All the bits can be pre-loaded before I actually watch them.
I cannot say the same for tonight’s newscast (live). Once I record it, I can.
Chromecast doesn’t use cache. It’s either directly linked to the content or it’s reencoded for the chromecast on the fly.
I’ve watched Live TV on my chromecast for a long time before I got a Tablo too.
The Chromecast is actually running a pared-down version of the Chrome browser, and the applications on the device are Web applications that receive the aforementioned HTTP requests and react accordingly.
(Chromecast has 512M Ram and 2G of flash memory)
HLS does a similar thing. Both need cache to function.
NEVER did I say it can’t work, just that it is not the optimal case for that device.
I didn’t say you said it didn’t work. I’m saying this is exactly what chromecast is made for. It is designed to play content seamlessly from many sources. Queue em up & you have a constant stream of things playing.
I know it’s basically a chrome browser on a stick. The cache is not enough to do anything other than to keep a small buffer of what’s playing, not preload a show like Deadpool. In other words… It is made specifically for a constant stream of un-cached data & it is it’s optimal case for use. It is what it was made to do & why it has no UI or remote.
It’s actually quite ingenious in it’s simplicity, I think. It’s quite clever how Google did this. But it’s a different type of device than all the rest because of it too. It doesn’t function the same as them, & it’s not meant to.
Your entire 1st and last paragraph. = YES
it works by breaking the content into a sequence of small HTTP-based file segments, each segment containing a short interval of playback time of content. More cache= more segments ready to be played, and allows more time for error correction before the next chunk is loaded.
I like the Chromecast, just like to keep the “right device for the job”
Again I still don’t get why you think it’s not the right device. I don’t know why so many people on this site think the chromecast is so weak & feeble & can’t handle anything. I’ve never seen it not be able to play anything but Tablo content.
Media device… it’s the only thing it’s made to do. Who has a TV on with a chromecast connected to it to randomly play a youtube clip or two? No one, it’s being used as the main media device in many livingrooms such as my own.
So again… the part I don’t understand is why you are saying it’s not the right device.
I guess I’m just spoiled. I went from Ceton Echo via WMC to Nexus Player to NVidia Shield, and the experiences I had compared to friends who were casting x/y/z from their phones to their Chromecast have obviously colored my perceptions.
(I consider Android TV to be the best whole-home enabler I have yet seen)
And I don’t consider Chromecast to be feeble. I look at it like a smartphone vs tablet vs PC. Each has their best use case, and each has a not so great use case.
LOL I’ve done the reverse! I’ve gone from dedicated PC to box to stick to chromecast. Hate the NP & Shield. They’re slow & not as flexible to me. I’ve gotten rid of most of them but an old FireTVStick for emergencies. One downfall of the chromecast, no internet no worky! So I break out the fire stick on them rare occasions. I keep thinking I should use an old phone instead tho since the fire stick is so locked down by Amazon.
Also, I’ll admit, having a phone like a S7 Edge has really made chromecast shine. It’s a super fast phone so I can even cast the whole screen with out sync issues. Makes all the android apps so snappy & fast & lag free. Phones will only get faster so… don’t ever see me going back to the others. Oh! & my phone is always ALWAYS with in reach. hehe To bad it lost the ir blaster my old Note 3 has. So even in the bathroom I can continue to watch what I was watching. 
TMI momment:
I just got rid of most all my old stuff recently. Was talking about this yesterday even, that I still have a few things I can’t get myself to let go of yet. Stupid stuff like 3 FireFly remotes that have to be at least 10 years old now. Ended up filling up half the trash with it all. It was kinda sad & kinda funny at the same time to see & remember it all. Also been in a process of switching my server from windows to ubuntu, only cuz I can’t figure out how to get zoneminder to work on arch. hehe Server does a lot of other functions other than media for me. Pools 9 drives together for a 16TB nas too.