Definitive time frames and software development features don’t really go well together.
3 Likes
It’s on the roadmap 
You know when you’re looking down a long narrow roadway, how after a certain amount of time it narrows to a single point on the horizon? Well DD5.1 is about 2 feet past that point.
2 Likes
It would be sarcastic of me to request what year we will see audio pass-thru, so I won’t do that. I’d be happy with an estimate of which quarter within the year, assuming it’s still on the radar screen and will be delivered in 2016…
There’s nothing to “pass-thru”. Tablo doesn’t merely send the raw ATSC stream out. It’s transcoded. So you could take a guess and try to sync disparate sources and hope the audio and video sync I suppose, but this really is a much harder problem than most people realize.
So… ideally the audio has to be inside the transcode and broken out to a pass-thru stream (where that’s required).
(today’s hack…not the future of course)
But hey, if it’s truly “easy” and Tablo does this with the existing device, I’ll gladly eat some crow.
That’s what I meant by pass-thru, thanks for explaining it properly!
1 Like
Easy and doable are two different things.
Tablo never claimed it’s easy, actually quite the opposite they keep saying how hard it is; but Tablo did claim that it’s doable in this generation of hardware.
1 Like
Obviously Tablo knows better than I. But still doesn’t make sense to me how to do it effectively at all.
I think they did at one time promise the feature by the end of 2014, so who knows, maybe they’re close to a solution now? I am curious (sort of).
Well I’ve wanted Dolby on my Tablo ever since I bought it. I have just about everything working well enough, just no Dolby. So, decided to not let it get to me and came up with the closest I thing I can find to real Dolby. Side benefit is I now have something fun to look at 2.
-Rodger
1 Like
I don’t recall them ever giving a timeframe. But I have email records from February 2014 stating that it’s on the “short term roadmap”. 
What is short term? 5 years or two? We know not 6 months.
What will come first? DD 5.1 to Tablo, or peace in the Middle East?
Anybody else have any? I think it’s time to start joking about it.
1 Like
Of course, peace in the Middle East. The earth will bite the dust in 7.5B years (absorption by the sun)–guaranteeing peace in the Middle East. Tablo w/ DD5.1 certainly is not going to make it in that timeframe; hence, it’s not going to make it. My advice: free up the resources to devote to a feature that can be delivered in the next millennium.
1 Like
The new Roku can play 5.1 do it all the time with net flix.
Does the Roku player support 5.1 surround sound?
Yes, the Roku player can support pass-through of 5.1 surround sound to your TV or AV receiver.
To enable surround mode on Roku, go to Settings>Audio>Audio mode and select “Auto”.
Note: 5.1 surround sound requires a receiver capable of decoding Dolby Digital and/or Dolby Digital Plus, depending on the audio format in the content.
Here are some services on Roku that support Dolby Digital or Dolby Digital Plus:
Amazon Instant Video
MGO Movies and TV
Netflix
Vudu
Programs that offer 5.1 surround sound can be identified by a “5.1” icon displayed near the parental guidance ratings on movie and TV show detail pages in the Netflix and Amazon channels. We expect other partners to add support for 5.1 surround sound in the future.
I do wish they would have made it more obvious in the advertising that they did not support 5.1. I would have bought the competitors product which does support 5.1. Tablo your now marketing to entertainment centers you need to address this or quit and go back to smart phone support only.
The Roku itself does not decide 5.1 DD audio. It only passes through the audio. Most HDTVs can decode 5.1 audio over HDMI. I have one of 5 TVs that doesn’t for some weird reason.
There are also playback devices such as iPhone and iPad that do not decode DD (aka AC3) audio natively without having an AC3 codec in the software player which requires licensing fees. The Tablo iOS app could not be free, thus requiring a fee per device. Look up why VLC on iOS cannot playback AC3 audio.
WORK?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
So you want Tablo to put in big bold letters “we don’t have DD5.1”.
That’s poor marketing
Maybe we need to subject Tablo to laws similar to those governing tobacco companies, eh? Big, bold letters on the side of the box: “This product does not contain DD5.1. This product will harm your home theater experience. Buy at your own risk.”
2 Likes
No that’s truth in advertising.
Edit any reviews we’ve done and mention no 5.1. I want Tablo to survive but I also want my 5.1 that my TV understands.