I’m continue to wait to purchase two units for 5.1/AC3 to be implemented, as well as for the Apple TV 4 app to be released.
Will Apple TV support 5.1/Ac3?
@beastman - The AppleTV itself supports it, however I’m testing the Tablo BETA AppleTV App right now and it does not have 5.1 support. It will have to be a firmware update to the Tablo itself because right now when it transcodes the MPEG-2 stream (and audio channels) from the tuner it either throws away the 5.1 or down samples it to stereo. The change needs to happen at the Tablo box, not (just) at the player/app level.
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@AcesAreWld - The use-case I’m primarily interested in is scheduling recordings and watching them, both via Apple TV 4. Most of my other content is housed on Plex, and is 5.1, so I’m not too concerned that Tablo doesn’t support 5.1. Does the BETA function in the capacity of my use case? Thanks in advance…
Yes, it lets you schedule, watch, delete, etc. It’s pretty great!
@AcesAreWld - Cool. Does it perform well? I’ve read about big lags switching channels, but I’m wondering if that’s primarily an issue noticed by folks who are watching live TV. I personally would simply watch live TV directly from antenna…
Not sure yet… my time with it has been limited. I’ll keep trying and posting in the BETA thread.
The delay in tuning a channel only pertains to watching Live TV (Tablo re-encodes OTA to H264 which is why it takes 6 seconds or so).
Playback of recorded shows works very well with the latest releases of the Tablo firmware and various players (Roku and Nexus Player are my primary experiences).
I’d really like a Tablo, but I’m still waiting for Dolby Digital 5.1 to be supported before I buy a Tablo…
Any updates Tablo? Is this on your roadmap for this year, next year, ever?
I’ve been waiting for over two years, at first it was on their short term road map, then regular roadmap, then they’re aware of it but have more important things to do.
In one of these threads TabloTV said that they’re aware, but she has nothing more to say on the topic (which is understandable, the topic has been beaten to death).
They’ve done surveys of owners (they’re aware lots of people won’t buy one without 5.1), and 5.1 doesn’t seem to be a high priority item for owners, so why would Tablo spend their limited resources on it?
I wouldn’t hold my breath though. I think the next iteration of hardware will have it, I don’t see them spending the time on this one. But that’s my opinion.
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This is very disappointing having just learned this after purchasing a 4 tuner TabloTV. I really hope they add DD/DD5.1 soon, please!
I haven’t read this entire thread, so I don’t know if this suggestion has been made or not… I’m making an assumption that the majority of people who want DD 5.1 support have home theater set ups, yes? If so, then my suggestion/question is have you configured your A/V receivers (if you have them) to output surround sound for a stereo signal?
For example, on my decade old Sony A/V receiver I have the sound field set to what Sony calls “DD PL IIx Movie.” This means I get surround sound even if the signal is Stereo from the source. When a true DD 5.1 signal comes in, this over rides the sound field setting and I get the native source.
So for those wanting a true 5.1 signal from the Tablo, perhaps this is an interim solution.
Yep, this workaround has been previously discussed and recommended. Not ideal, but a decent stop gap.
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I was going to post on Tablo’s reddit AMA about 5.1, but someone else beat me to it.
This was their response: https://www.reddit.com/r/cordcutters/comments/4uuzij/we_are_tablotv_the_makers_of_the_dvr_for/d5t34l0
[quote]We know this is an important feature for some folks. As we mentioned before on the Community Forum it will require a significant investment in terms of time from both our engineering staff and staff from our chip provider.
That being said, every time we do talk about roadmap it’s definitely something that comes up and we’re always looking at alternative methods to provide multiple audio tracks within a video playlist.[/quote]
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Also, from the same link above, this comment from Tablo made me laugh
They haven’t totally turfed it… which is on par with what everyone has been saying that DD5.1 will likely be available when Tablo v2 is out.
Also the DD 5.1 was the most upvoted comment on the reddit AMA, but I guess still not enough people want it ;).
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