"Displeased" is putting it mildly!

General Discussion
87

Blockquote How is recording live TV different from …recording TV,

Well, you don’t use a computer (normally) to record TV, you’re not reading what I wrote.

Blockquote How much less does your Windows 10 PC allow your drive to sit idle? for more than 30 seconds?

I wouldn’t know, I don’t have one of them. Now, on my Mac the drive (in the old days) spun down quite frequently. Computers write in short bursts. The software (on the drive) buffers the write until enough has been accumulated to fill a sector, or until a pre-determined amount of time has passed that the software figures the writing is complete. Unless you are copying or download large amounts of data the drive spins down frequently.

DVR’s, on the other hand, are constantly writing. Video takes huge amounts of data to record just a few seconds, more than a sector can hold. As a result the drive writes almost constantly.

On a TiVo, Tablo, Homerun, etc., if you are watching Live TV (vs. recording a show you are not tuned to) the device is constantly writing and reading, storing the show you are watching, and reading the stored data to display it on your TV/Monitor). If you pause the drive doesn’t stop, it is still writing what is coming in so that when you resume the data is there for the reading, while it is still writing what is coming in. At some point decent software will also begin deleting what has been temporarily stored, which is why there is a limit on how far back you can rewind (BTW, this is where Tablo has a problem that I have complained about many times).

So, a DVR uses its drive far more heavily than a computer. The drive I had on my Tablo got so hot I could barely touch it when tech support asked me to remove it. I have since switched over to a flash drive, it still heats up, but since there is no mechanical movement it doesn’t get quite as hot.

88

Cats are extremely vicious animals. They will attack anything that moves in front of them and can be perceived as possible food (or as a red dot from a laser pointer). Cats have been know to devour their “owners” when the owner passed out in the home. So, sure, I can do that. :grin:

89

I meant the tablo, recording is recording, weather you’re watching it now, or saving it for later. Statement,

Recording live TV is attributed to heavy use? as apposed to just recording? recording/storing vs watching live TV I don’t understand a significance difference.

It’s great you use a Mac, but comparing your tablo to “in the old days” of computer technology. Today there’s often lots of services and background activity. Scanning, indexing, logging, unknown gobbledygook.

Lots of variables. Huge is relative. 3Tb drive1.2Gb is negligible. Sector sizes is often “logical” for backwards comparability and lets account for larger block size. Filesystems can be tuned for specific storage and use.

It’s “constantly writing” while recording. It’s not actually constantly as buffering and cache here. It’s not like video tape.

Don’t some of those device store the raw data stream? That’s a lot more data than the “average” or default setting for tablo’s transcoding settings. They aren’t all equal. Computers outside of your home aren’t just waiting for someone to click a mouse.

compared to “my Mac the drive (in the old days)” …probably

90

Yeah, I know. I guess I wasn’t clear… my lifetime guide is on my Tivo!! And Tivo will not allow me to transfer to a new DVR. Therefore the Tablo policy is superior to the Tivo. And thus my point, Tablo is better (at least in this regard). Tivo has good points too, but overall, I like the Tablo better… better support, easier upgrades, better guide (allowing transfers to new equipment).

91

I’m not getting into a long discourse on hard drive fundamentals, take a major in CE like I did then you’ll understand them. I tried to be brief, but to fully explain how they function.

By “in the old days” I was speaking prior to SSD, that’s what a lot of Macs come with now instead of a mechanical drive, which TiVo, Tablo, etc., typically use.

Mechanical drives still use sectoring. Sectors vary by the drive itself, unless you are using a variable sector drive (only Apple used them, and only up until they started using Intel chips). Microsoft never managed to master variable sector drives, so they went with mechanical sectoring, which is what every mechanical drive uses these days. Buffers hold a set amount (read the specs on your drive), when the buffer fills to a certain point, usually sector or track size, it begins the write process, conversely, when the read buffer empties to a point it reads in the next sector/track. This happens much faster when you are dealing with audio or video than it does with data, hence why I said DVR’s use the drive more heavily than do computers.

End of discourse, end of discussion on this topic.

92

Understood.

I like the Tablo system better as well, which is one of the reasons I selected it over the other options out there. What I am not thrilled with is the tech support, from a small company I expected better. Larger companies have larger support staff, but that doesn’t equate to better, just larger.

Like Displeased I am not thrilled with their support, both the hours and the lack of attention to the customer’s issue (at least from my experience). I gave up on them for the two issues I have because they didn’t pay attention to what I said and wasted a lot of my time suggesting things I told them that I already tried. The group here resolved the one issue (kudos to the people who stuck with me on resolving it), but the second issue is a software issue that only their support group can address.

93

I read one of your earlier messages, wherein you said that the Tablo had made your mechanical HDD hot (before you switched to a flash drive).

A couple of things; (1) on one of my Playstations, I have switched to an SSD… long story, but it works quite well as a replacement for mechanical drive… I was afraid to try a regular flash drive… this particular Playstation is hacked and the drive is connected to a USB port, not internal. I use a SATA to USB adapter… works quite well. (2) On my Tablo, my WD Elements is in near constant usage, but runs very cool to the touch (I just checked). My Tablo is a 2 tuner model and I cram the schedule as full as possible, so the drive is nearly 100 percent all the time. They say (who?) that the larger WD Elements have White Label “Red” drives in them. Drives designed for NAS usage and therefore are better able to handle constant usage. I dunno. I just purchased my first real Red drive for my desktop (not a NAS), but they say it will work in a regular desktop too… and I need a good drive in my desktop… I run a media server from it… Serviio. Man, I have a ton of gear… hehehe. Hard to keep it all straight sometimes. Computer type gear is my retirement hobby!!

94

This wasn’t even the topic - to put it mildly, it was hijacked :grey_exclamation: Now this disappointing :disappointed: because the user felt mistreated and here we are taking away their displeasured topic with tech chat.

95

…even after Nuvyyo acknowledges that their phone tech support is problematic (as is having to wait 2-3 days for email responses…also unacceptable), I get condemned for being too assertive and trying to get them to wake up to reality (which may, at some point, even help you guys out). Thanks for that!
Oh, well…maybe it’s best to leave things just as they are and not bother to try to make changes!
What was I thinking?.. Sorry!

96

Thread officially no longer hijacked!:wink:

97

Yup, customer service sucks!:exclamation: More often tech support is a miserable experience. When you do get through, sadly much is outsourced and (from my experience) staffed with ESL [English Second Language] employees.

Entry level phone answers are basically “screen readers”. Following the same online instructions you already (supposedly) tried. Doesn’t matter, they can’t skip and if you don’t follow along they’re lost. Sure, demand to speak to “supervisor”. They’ll had it off the someone next to them “need supervisor”.

This is paraphrased with sarcasm - “OK big boy, I can fix that! I’m here to help you! Make everything right!” You’ll hear that often, they’re suppose to make you feel good.

Tablo may have in house support, great. Send them an email explaining what you already went through, asking (pleading) not to reply with a boilerplate response! Just like a screen reader, they have steps to follow, and send you instructions of the same things you told them you already went through. (maybe this isn’t your first time… citing reference numbers, “we’ve been through this before”)

It’s been noted time and time business hours eastern time weekday only is ridiculous for live tech support. This is somewhat obvious when you’ve grown and service timezone coast to coast and many (most) users can’t be home while they themselves are at work. Apparently Nuvyyo’s profits doesn’t reflect this as an issue or priority – complain, threaten to return your device… after years they seem to think they know what they’re doing.

To throw a fit about getting cut-off after hours, is viewed my some users as excessive. I don’t believe it’s a “good idea”. Being mistreated by a multi-million dollar corporation and thinking “I’ll show them” by exposing how they treat users - is unrealistic.

My experience with phone support. Called during my lunch break sometime past 11am (eastern), third in line… after 20minues, third in line… I didn’t have anymore time to spare, even if I got through, I’d never make it through. I called later after work just after 4pm (eastern) and got through in 10minues! The call lasted probably 10-15min.

I have emailed them, a couple days back and fourth, but never more than a day without a response.

I may not be completely happy with it, but I don’t find it unexpected. Life happens :neutral_face:

98

I have a financial product that I’ve been using for over 15 years, small competitor of Quicken. They have three people who work software support, they alternate: one works weekends 10am-5pm, one works days 9-4, one works evenings 2-10, support is chat only, but they have serious knowledge of the product making a second level support practically unnecessary. If deeper knowledge is needed a ticket is created and sent to someone in software development who then owns the issue until it is resolved.

Small companies can offer stellar support, if they choose.

99

As great as this company is, I image you’d agree this is not typical, and a staff of 3 is less than a small corporation. However it is wonderful they have the resources and truly care about their user base to support available.

Waaay better than Quicken, been using it for almost 30yrs and become unhappy every year. Now SaS, I believe it’s a bloated advertising application which barley handles a simple check registry.

100

In the beginning, when the product was new (and still buggie) they had a larger staff, but as the product stabilized they moved the extra support to other areas. Three is about all they really need now. When I do have an issue I’m rarely waiting for support for more than 10-20 minutes (20 is usually during tax time). Tablo could do likewise, then when their product becomes more stable they could probably cut down as well. A large support staff is only needed if the product has a lot of bugs, or if the online knowledge base is poor.

101

I believe there product is stable. It’s the general consumer, not understanding nor caring about network topology, why one antenna really is better than another and if they’d read something… they’d known what would/not work.

To be fair, most end users don’t know “wifi” isn’t anything more than wireless networking - it’s not “the internet”… You got wifi?

When marketing tells them this antenna is “HD compatible”, well what more do they need? (what is HD incompatible?

I’m trying to set this thing up… what do you mean I can’t use my Roku!? Read what?

“I’m trying to make this do what I want, and it won’t”… what do you mean it doesn’t work like that?? oh, it says so If I’d had known what I was buying?

Ok, I plugged the phone jack into the tv and I still can’t see anything…
(these are some of the comments that come up from time to time here)

On the surface many here may find these absurd and think someone is in over their head. To be fair, it’s not everyday stuff “end users”, really understand nor deal with. Ok some of it is just not taking personal responsibility. But tech means different things to different people, like common sense.

So how long does it take to talk someone through configuring their wifi? Waiting while then to fumble through, I don’t see that button - OH, click that first, ok, now I see it! should I click it now?

102

I appreciate the input (vs. the condemnation) but I have to adamantly disagree regarding this statement “Being mistreated by a multi-million dollar corporation and thinking “I’ll show them” by exposing how they treat users - is unrealistic.”
Publicly exposing problems (in general) is the only way to truly get the squeaky wheel oiled!
Complaining privately generally (or talking to yourself in the mirror) generally accomplishes nothing!
I was made aware that they monitor these discussions. It seemed like (and as it turned out, it was) a good idea to complain about this here!
Their approach to phone support is outrageously pathetic!..and totally inexcusible!
…and having to wait 2-3 days for an email response is far less than desirable as well!
This forum is intended for everyone!
Not just the (so-called) experts, who may very well not need Tablo’s support…and therefore take a “who cares” attitude when others get hung up on while needing their assistance!
Why the “defense mechanisms” were in high gear is a bit baffling (under these circumstances) but the bottom line is it did get their attention!!
…and that was the primary objective!

103

Ok, so you wanted attention, and allow everyone to decide who/what you’re “about” - good job. :boom:

Yea, it was never a “secret”. TaboTV often announces, as well as replies often to numerous post, TabloSupport posts regularly too. Any one can click on the :mag: and figure that out - self awareness. good job :sparkler:

again with the :mag: you can find “phone support” or “tech support” issues going back to 2015… but now everyone knows for sure good job! (if they haven’t found it a serious business issue yet, really, now suddenly it is?)

everyone who agrees to the TOS!!! you kind of skimmed over that, it’s not a free-for-all.

This is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion

This my not be such a good job. This just may be your misinterpretation. May here are users sharing their own experiences. - I’ve already made “this mistake” so you don’t have too. Well, I do know that doesn’t work, others have tried it and nothing happened, try this instead. There are so-called helpers for those coming here actually looking for assistence.

It’s not just that you were throwing a fit complaining, you didn’t make one constructive statement in your opening post… kind of sets the tone “who you are”

I hope they don’t regret not letting you get a TiVo instead. :neutral_face:

104

It is funny you should ask this. As one on the other side (if there is such a thing), I think you’ve displayed quite a few “defense mechanisms”.

This is a forum, a public forum, where people are generally allowed to air their opinions, experiences, etc. (within reason… or the TOS, of course). You are upset about being disconnected while waiting to speak to a customer service rep. Most of us have had similar experiences, I know I have… and I got over it. If I could help you to do the same, then that would make me a happy camper.

1 Like
105

Assumptive, sarcastic, condescending, ridiculing.
…and a nice, (un)healthy dose of NPD.

106

image