Digital Tuner problems

General Discussion
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@Kimberly Were you able to get this resolved with Support? If not, send me a PM with your ticket number or email address and I’ll take a look.

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My Tablo Dual Lite shows five green dots on all of the channels in my guide. Yet, I have serious pixelation and skipping on a couple of channels. These same channels on my Sony TV and on my Tivo and on my DISH Network ota tuner do not have this pixelation.

Either the Tablo channel scan and it’s signal gauge aren’t accurate or something else is degrading the signal on the Tablo. Any ideas?

Thanks.

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Here are some of tablo’s excuses articles



FIY: the “green dots” are not dynamic, that is they are a moment in time at the insistence was when you did the scan. Signal strength does not take into account signal quality - which it seem you have problems with neither.

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djk44883

Thanks for those links. According to the third link, Tablo thinks my antenna signal is either weak or poor. I did a channel scan and then immediately went to the channel and watched the live picture. Even though the Tablo gave the channel five green stars, I experienced frequent “pixelization” and stuttering sound.

I have strong signals on my other tuners (TV’s, Tivio, DISH receiver)also and don’t have this problem.

Is there one Tablo model which has a better tuner than others?

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I don’t have them marked, there have been post noting the name of the tuners used. Best I recall, the Duals and (probably) Quad have the same but different tuners than the original two models.

Some uses have issues with over “amplification” signals. I had one channel not work on a second TV, with a good signal strength due to an amp on the long run.

These are less common, but surprisingly, too much of the signal causes problems. New fancy antenna’s often include an amp, or if you have a dist amp, it’s possible. Or, I’m sure you’ve checked the connections and secured the cabling, once there was a comment the F connector disconnected from inside the tablo. Use as few cable splitters as possible, not all are balanced on all three ports. 1 3-way is better than 1 2-way > 1 2-way.

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Chiron,

Go to this website and enter your address, then scroll down to the data on the left side of the page. Click on each station name to see added information. (Predicted signal level at your antenna, tower distance and degrees from you, and RF channel info)

https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps

Copy that page and post it here.

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Thanks JimH

I’ve been to other sites like that. It’s strange that the official FCC site doesn’t even have the station labels correct. Channel 4 has been Fox for over 10 years and NBC is now on Channel 12.2. Channels 12.1 and 12.2 are the ones giving me so much trouble, although I have no problem at all with them on my other tuners.

I’m using a Channel Master 2018 antenna atop a 16’ mast with an amplified distributor going to three tuners, Sony TV, Dish Network receiver and this Tablo.

KBTV-TV NBC 4 UHF R
KBTV-TV Facility ID: 61214
City of License: PORT ARTHUR, TX
RF Channel: 27
RX Strength: 109 dbuV/m
Tower Distance: 14 mi; Direction: 117°
Repacked Channel: 27
Repacking Dates: 9/14/2018 to 11/30/2018

KFDM CBS 6 UHF R
KFDM Facility ID: 22589
City of License: BEAUMONT, TX
RF Channel: 15
RX Strength: 106 dbuV/m
Tower Distance: 15 mi; Direction: 120°
Repacked Channel: 15
Repacking Dates: 9/14/2018 to 11/30/2018

KBMT ABC; 12 Hi-V
KBMT Facility ID: 10150
City of License: BEAUMONT, TX
RF Channel: 12
RX Strength: 89 dbuV/m
Tower Distance: 19 mi; Direction: 102°

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Using those distances and directions, I plugged in a location and did a scan based on that location. I am assuming that you are not using the distant Houston stations. So it appears that you have stations coming in from the east and southeast

Are you saying that you are receiving KBMT (ABC) on Ch 12.1 and (NBC) on Ch 12.2???

Ch 12 (ABC) is your weakest network station. Is your antenna pointed directly at Ch. 12 which is 102 degrees from you?

Update: I am a little suspicious of the amplified distribution amp. The Tablos are more easily overloaded than Television sets. Try removing that amplifier and putting an F barrel in to splice from the antenna coax to the coax running to the Tablo.

Post results here.

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JimH

Yes, since 2009 Fox has been on 4.1 and CBS on 6.1 with ABC and NBC on 12.1 and 12.2. The Fox on 29.1 is from another city about 40 miles away. Fox 4.1 and CBS 6.1 are owned by the same company and use the same studio and news cast, however they broadcast from different towers about a mile apart.

Yes, antenna aimed directly at 12.1

Yesterday, I took the antenna lead and connected it directly to the Tablo with no amplifier at all. There was slight degradation of signal, pixelization worse.

Tablo tech said that he would look at my signal online if I give him troubleshooting access, which I will do. He suspects interference and I guess he thinks he can pinpoint it through live access to the box. Or, perhaps, he will just identify that there is interference present and use that as an excuse for the Tablo underperforming the other tuners on the Tivo, Sony TV, and Dish receiver.

Thanks for your interest.

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The symptoms seem possibly related to multipath interference. It can affect different tuners differently. A tuner that shows instantaneous dB level would be nice to try (HD Homerun!). One possible way to mitigate multipath is to test pointing antenna a few degrees off axis from 12.1 with both positive and negative offsets 5, 10, 15 degrees. Try it both with and without that amp? Rescan rescan rescan! :expressionless: :wink: Also pointing antenna at few degrees upwards angle can mitigate multipath in my experience. Best wishes and let us know how it turns out and thanks for all the fish.

31

Okay, so my Tablo has been in remote access mode for three straight days. It resets itself at night, then I put it back into remote access mode first thing in the morning. Haven’t heard back from tech support.

I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos from Antenna Man, learning about OTA and such. I have two different dynamic signal meters, one on my Tivo and one on my Dish receiver. I noticed that the signal on 12.1 and 12.2 would mostly be around 95, sometimes dropping to 88 to 90 for a few seconds.

I changed out some cabling (all RG6) and added a pre-amp inline at the antenna. My signals all went to 100% and stay there. However, the pixelization on 12.1 and 12.2 continues.

I tinkered with the antenna, moving it a few degrees at a time one way and then the other. Signal strength did drop somewhat as I moved it. No change at all in the pixelization.

With regard to the multipath interference, I suppose that’s always possible, but I don’t have any of the usual culprits present. No airplane traffic to speak of, no high voltage electric lines, no two story buildings nearby, etc. There are some trees about 100’ in front of and in line with the antenna, but they don’t have any leaves on them at this time and the problem didn’t seem to be any worse Thursday when the wind was up.

My strategy now is to wait and let Tablo tech support do their test and see what they say. I’ve used the Tablo to record a few things on the other channels, but these two VHF stations aren’t reliable enough to watch or record.

Thanks for all suggestions and comments.

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Finally came to the conclusion that the trees in line with my antenna are causing deflection and interference.

Too bad, I really wanted to use this Tablo for my OTA dvr.

I guess I’ll sell it to someone who can use it. I hate for things to just sit around unused. Anyone interested, I’ll let it go for $100 including s/h in continental USA.

Thanks for all the help.

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