Cloud DVR Breaks Up, Partial Recordings

I don’t know if there is an answer to this, aside from getting an external HD. (Or if that’ll even fix it! I am just using the Cloud DVR right now.)

Pretty much every recording I have has been either split in more than one piece, or just stops playing at some point early one, or both.

One hour long show dumped after just seven minutes.

Another half hour long show split into two recordings (4 minutes and 26 minutes, the latter dumping out after 7 minutes). Another half hour long show says it is still “Recording now” even though it ended hours ago.

Is this all about the Cloud DVR and my network connection? I notice “Uploading now” a lot with shows that should be finished. I wonder if upload speed is the problem.

I want to go and buy a USB HD, but I don’t want to buy it if this problem will persist. I want to return it if that’s the case, but I can’t since it’s a refurbished unit (bought directly from Tablo).

Signal is not the issue here. I have a full signal (according to Tablo’s scan and my own results on the TV’s tuner) on nearly all channels…

How fast is your internet’s upload speed? In Mbps?

Do you get pixelation in your recordings? If yes, then it is weak OTA signal. This is likely caused by the 1x4 internal splitter in the Tablo which results in a small amount of signal loss. And the cause would likely be the digital cliff effect. Digital OTA signal is all or nothing, so while the signal will be fine for your HDTV tuner, the very small amount of signal loss will cause your signal to fall off the cliff and you get weak / poor signal. See link below. Your HDTV does not have an internal splitter.

Do you currently have any splitters or couplers between the OTA antenna and Tablo? The best thing is a straight run of 1 coaxial cable of RG6 cable (not RG59 cable used in my old homes which has more signal loss).

Another helpful read.

OTA signal is more complicated than you think. Issues would be overdriving or interference too. Another good read.

https://www.tablotv.com/blog/getting-technical-over-air-tv-reception

If you search, many other users have what’s oftermed termed segmented recordings. So that part may not be specific to Cloud DVR and/or internet speed/traffic. Obviously the “Uploading now” is specific to Cloud DVR.
That’s not to say, your situation is not related to Cloud storage.

Again, you’ll find whole bunch of users which have no signal issues visible/noticeable, getting errors from their tablo “weak signal” with nothing to go on. The “green dots” are just some measurement at the instant of the scan, it’s not a constant. Saying weak signal with out anyway to verify or remedy is, well not reliable from my perspective.

Sorry, no of this is actually helpful, just you’re not alone.

Thank you all for all the input.

I do believe that it is Cloud DVR and network speed related. I have 100 Mbps down, which was clocking in at closer to 50 last night. But the all important (for this) upload speed was occasionally less than 5 in tests last night.

I tweaked the recording level down to 3, and have some test recordings going this morning.

I don’t think that it’s OTA signal related, and there is no pixelation in what it does record.

I have pretty much decided to get a hard drive in the end, either while I am out today (spotted a WD Elements 1 TB at OfficeMax/Office Depot) or via Amazon.

Give the HDD a try and let us know how it goes.

Which Tablo do you have? The the Dual or Dual Lite? Or the new Quad?

I have the Dual Lite.

And I went ahead and ordered a WD Elements drive heading my way tomorrow (Amazon 1 day).

The recording settings change seems to have helped, as I have been watching the recordings I made this morning (on my phone) and they don’t stop or split into segments.

But live TV is buffering a lot, so that would jibe with a slow upload speed at home. I will have to improve the WiFi somehow to clear that up. Moving the router to the reception “sweet spot” is not an option…

I believe Cloud storage is not used for live TV as a local HD would be. I think they have enough flash ram for some limited storage.

Changing recording could also help lesson the “specs” for signal quality, and might have also been a benefit.

I meant Live TV remotely, not on the same network (with the Roku). Live TV in home is 100% fine.

Roku doesn’t support Tablo Connect aka remote viewing. How have you setup your Roku remotely?

Not on Roku. The Live TV buffering issue is separate, I am doing it on my phone.

The Roku is only being used on my home network. I only brought up live viewing (on the phone) due to upload bandwidth issues on my network.

The HD has arrived, and I will put it in the system when I get back home tonight.

The Remote Streaming Quality setting on the Android app is stuck at Full Quality.

This is an apparent bug which was supposedly fixed months ago…

So far so good with the new HD.

I had to do a factory reset of the Tablo to get to the point where I could format it, but it seems to be working (so far!). I have thrown some hour long recordings into the mix to see how it handles them.

I also am able to adjust the Remote Streaming Quality down after the reset…I have it set to 1 Mbps now. Hopefully, that will deal better with my upload rate…

Have you made and adjustments with the recording quality, putting back where you started?

Not yet. I am still not altogether sure that the upload bandwidth won’t be an issue.

But I might try some later.

In what respect? You’ve set Remote Quality separate. With local storage, what issue is there with upload?

Since the broken recordings seemed to be linked to “uploading”, I wonder if that problem goes away with the HD. I don’t know if “uploading” means to the Cloud DVR or what. I’m also wondering if watching remote recordings at 5 would cause buffering - it didn’t at 3.

The Remote Streaming still buffers at the lowest setting (500), but not as much.

The Recording Quality setting doesn’t depend on your upload speed if you’re using a HDD.

I misunderstood, I thought you spent money on a drive so you didn’t have to worry about upload bandwidth. Its not clear what your concern is though.