Why would a tvOS product manager have to be involved in a Tablo feature request?
The Tablo product manager responsible for the tvOS app
Again, what does the tvOS team have to do with a general feature request? There are three platforms currently in use, and regardless, the OP was referring to Android on GTV.
I think itās becoming very clear after my 5 months of using this product that people are generally using only one platform. There are a numerous inconsistencies between them. This tells me that Tablo already cannot make regular features work between devices, so adding a major feature like this would be very time consuming. Do they wait until it works on all platforms? Add it to one and upset users of a different one?
Even if they were able to get this up and running, many people would find that their devices ā already pushed to the limits ā are wholly underpowered for this extra feature. To add a live stream of an uncompressed mpeg2 video and at the same time ask both your network and the puck to do more work?
This is where zippyās comment about feature bloat comes into play. Zippy has listed many apps and services that offer live TV that do not have PiP. One I frequently use is frndly. OP listed other services (all paid) that include this service ā DirecTV and YouTubeTV are both paid services. (Yes, Plex/Pluto/etc have this feature, but theyāre not DVRs.)
We all want different things out of our devices and I think that Tablo is doing all that they can to keep things streamlined as they improve what theyāve started with. As the UI continues to improve and the UX becomes more cross-platform, theyāll likely add features that user have suggested. Maybe a simple poll when requesting a feature could be used to figure out the need for a feature. Itās probably easier for Tablo to collate than 200 different topics and 4,000 different comments about it.
ITMT, itās up to users to figure out which overall features might be more important than others. Tablo canāt implement everything that has been asked for. So, when a person posts a feature request, there are going to be dozens of people chiming in with how they feel about it. I canāt count how many feature request topics Iāve created where I seem to be the only person interested in the change.
In general, I donāt mind if some quirky feature gets added that I donāt want. As long as I can opt out of it, Iām fine.
The slingtv app has both a guide and a grid like tablo. You can launch āliveā view via the grid. But do you have the program playing in the background when you want to go back to the grid. And we know all these state of the art IPTV systems have this feature.
Call me when tablo has not only implemented all the missing legacy features plus a lot of other good feature requests
@269587 youāre obviously a power user. A lot of others only use one platformā¦and for them, that one platform is THE platform. I for one consider myself to be overall a power user, but I only use one platform (tvOS) because the rest of my family is not tech savvyā¦and they certainly only want one LiveTV platform.
This is why I donāt envy Product Managers.
And FWIW, Plex is a DVR
Most Plex users know it as an on-demand and live streaming service. I would consider using Plex any other way as a power-user type of situation.
Iām not a Tablo power user in any sense of the word. What I am is a person whoās had their little white puck (3 at one point) since October and been dealing with the frustrations of many different aspects throughout the process. Iāve come to learn what works best for me and which devices I prefer to use it on.
Iāve been through many different iterations of an app only being made for one or two devices and Iāve come to realize that having a backup isnāt a bad idea. Iāve had to switch between android/fire and roku at multiple junctions due to a feature being broken on a different device.
I still have frndly because Tablo has not met the point where itās 100% reliable. At this point, itās mostly an āin-caseā use due to Tabloās terribly run FAST stations (that donāt record, are off by odd amounts of time, or when they split/fail). The ability to go back 72 hours is enough for me and although the channel selection isnāt great, itās got much of what I need for older shows.
I didnāt mean to imply that one device was better over another. I was trying to explain that many features are missing across board and itās very frustrating. I take it that youāre in the beta for Apple and this has been your only Tablo experience so far. I also understand that you havenāt worked with your Tablo for very long, so itās hard to see how far theyāve come ā and we can all see (no matter the platform) how far they have yet to go.
It may sound at times like I give Tablo free rein and have nothing but commendations. It may sound at other times like Iād rather chuck it into the half-frozen Mississippi. But the last thing I want to deal with right now is a feature half-put together when other things are not up to par.
I think that any suggestion is going to be a hot topic. OG users donāt like many of the new features ā or are thrown by the lack of old features. Tablo has to do what Tablo thinks is best, and TBH, I donāt think they care what users think are good features, no matter if 99% of them want it. If you stick around long enough, youāll continue to see legacy users say things with regards to: Yeah, good luck ā weāve been asking for this for 5 yearsā¦ :-).
I appreciate the reminder that Plex can be a DVR and media server. It is a very valid point and I didnāt mean to confuse matters even more.
Again. I donāt envy Product Managers. All my family wants/needs is a mechanism to watch local TV on occasion throughout our home via our AppleTVs. A non crappy DVR is gravy. I hated - HATED - paying YTTV $73/month. Is Tablo perfect? Far from it. Is it good enough? For me, almost. Iāve already recouped my upfront cost of the Tablo and the HD antenna, so Iām good.
Can Plex Live TV/DVR use my TVās built in OTA tuner?
No. Plex DVR lists supported tuners here:
OK, Thanks, I missed that. I;ll just keep the Tablo as a fun backuo toy for now since I pay for Sat and YouTube TV anyway
bob
Plex DVR is, IMHO, the DVR most of you really want/need.