Ii bought a Tablo w/antenna and 4 tv-tuners. I hooked everything up and did the channel scan. I only got 131 channels but none of them are local. I have spoken to tech support 4 times to no avail. First they said it was an internal issue then someone else said that wasn’t true. I have changed zip codes, adjusted the antenna, reset and turned off the amplifier and I still only get the 131 channels, none of which I am really interested in. The only purpose of buying the Tablo was to get our local channels.
So if you take the antenna over to a TV and scan using the TV does it get any channels.
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Antenna location is the most important thing.
Mine’s on a 5’ pole on my roof, aimed at the broadcast towers I care about most.
Where is the antenna?
Inside on a wall?
Inside on a window?
Inside in the attic?
Outside on the roof?
Most likely inside since they bought the Tablo with their Antenna
I tried that and it again got the 131 channels
Inside on the window
So you are saying that if you take the antenna over to an actual TV and screw the coax into the TV and scan using the TV tuner the TV receives the 131 FAST channels that tablo supplies.
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Yes, I believe they are streaming channels. No ABC, CBS, NBC, CW, etc.
I’m not sure what you mean by tv tuner. I ran a rescan on my Tablo app on my phone.
Connect the antenna directly to the TV and scan for channels on the TV. Do you get any channels?
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Not sure how to run a scan on my tv. I have the Tablo and all other streaming sites loaded on my Firestick.
Disconnect the antenna cable from the Tablo. Connect it to the TV. Use the TVs owner’s manual or lookup online how to scan for broadcast channels for your model TV. Let us know how many channels you receive.
As part of troubleshooting,
My first question is, how did you watch TV before getting Tablo?
@Zippy, wants to eliminate a bad antenna or coax by disconnecting the antenna/cable combo from the tablo and connecting them directly to a television. Once connected to the television, do a channel scan on the television. If you don’t pick up local chans on the TV then indications are that you have a bad antenna or cable. If the tv scan picks up local chans then the antenna/cable combo are good and the problem might be the Tablo tuner.
There’s more. If the previous test indicates a bad antenna/cable issue, check each end of the cable to make sure that the center conductor is pointing straight out and not bent over or mutilated in any way. If it is get another cable.
I went to the cw channel and it is very choppy.
When I go to any of the 5 channels they are very choppy and end up freezing.
You are going to need “bigger boat”. (Jaws ref). Seriously, the choppiness you see is an indication you don’t have enough antenna for the tv signal levels available at your location.
The good news is, there are tv signals where you are. It’s just going to take a bit more effort to take advantage of them.
We use a firestick to stream. We had YouTube tv but got rid of it.
The cable seems fine.
But we aren’t picking up any of the major networks.
Did you ever have a antenna hooked to the tv? Did you disconnect that antenna to connect the Tablo antenna? If so connect the old antenna to the Tablo to see if that works.
I don’t think you are understanding the “free local channels” tech involved. It has nothing to do with the internet or modern streaming. The Tablo has internal tuners that decode “free” local tv channels that are being broadcast over-the-air in your area from local transmitters on towers. The first step in taking advantage of this is to capture these signals with an appropriate antenna so the Tablo internal tuners can decode them. Only after this happens successfully can the Tablo then “stream” the content over your network to your TV (FireTV stick) streaming device.
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How far are you from your local TV station towers?
As @ClassicRockGuy said, you probably need a bigger antenna.
On the roof would be best, but maybe no feasible in you situation.