I’m sure this wont go very far but really hoping for an update if/when Engine might get ANY update anytime soon. seems like its been teased that we’d get an update for a year now but keeps getting pushed off. I really want this setup to work but the nagging issues with it are getting to the tipping point where i may need to start looking at a different solution i’m afraid. I’m the only one in the house that doesn’t curse it at this point sadly. main issues are needing to go in out/ in / out 3 times every day when you first go in just to get it to work, after a little while of watching a show it will say playback has ended to save hard drive space even though we’ve been actively watching…broken up recordings, pixelation (which i’d normally thing is a signal issue except i tested the tuner on a laptop w/ plex using the same cable run w/out an issue. that and just general lack of features compared to the other standalone tablos. ANY update when something might happen here or on what to expect if its small patches or something bigger would be appreciated as we are deciding if its worth waiting for anymore or if we need to jump ship
for me it was a great idea because the original tablo couldnt do 5.1 and would take 15 seconds to change channels so that got old pretty quick w/ the others in the house. plus i already had a shield tv so it made sense. I know the standalone tablo’s can do 5.1 now but do they still suffer from the painfully long channel changing times do you know?
Channel switch times have greatly improved, but it’s not instantaneous (still irritating). There’s not really a way to get around that. But it’s OTA… so unless you’re a Vizio (sucker) user, you probably have a traditional tuning TV, so that’s the answer to most of that.
we may end up just switching over to using the Live TV on our plex server which uses the same exact usb tuner but hasn’t had any issues. I just prefered the tablo interface for OTA
I also use Plex DVR. Works reasonably ok. Has a better commercial cutting capability.
In my lab my primary Plex Server has a dual tuner Hauppauge. I have tested 8 tuners with Plex DVR though (in the form of two Quad HD boards). I also own two Tablo units, both are 2-tuner, one is hard wired and the other WiFi.
Then, there’s also “my own” creations (where the 2 QuadHDs currently live)…
awesome! what did you setup for your own creation?
the big thing that tablo engine beats plex for OTA is the ff/rw mechanism. tablo is very smooth and easy to understand to quickly ff through a recorded show. plex not so much…plex actually USED to be really good at this and changed how it worked for some reason and hasnt been the same since
No, it isn’t worth keeping any longer. Jump ship. I’m sure Tablo hardly makes any money off the Engine product so they will not waste their resources on it. Most of the Engine’s profit goes to Hauppauge and NVidia. Just as they have refused to do anything with their Kodi client.
The Engine is an out-of-the-way product for them. Not in their mainstream of development. I would have never bought it from them for that reason - never mind the promises. If it gives other people in the house headaches, ditch the stupid thing.
sadly thats what i’m thinking too. only downside is if i do i have to completely rethink how we do OTA DVR at home. Plex is an option of course but not AS polished for general users. its improved but not quite there yet. so not sure what the next best alternative might be
Tablo is not meant to be a real-time TV engine. My $30 Homeworx beats the Tablo at this hands down. The Engine fiasco was Tablo’s attempt at becoming such and I think they realize it’s not a winner for them. They’ll keep it around but not do anything with it. Most people use Tablo as a recorder and server.
Can’t you get a “real” Tablo? My wife understood within a few weeks not to force the Tablo to do what is sucks at. Now she intuitively jumps between real-time (using the TV) and recorded (using the Tablo). She only uses the Tablo in real-time when she knows she will stay with a program for a full hour.
BTW let me say that Tablo’s Engine software is piss poor. I have a $35 Raspberry Pi into which I plug in a Hauppauge USB tuner. The software I use to play and record on this setup is TVheadend. It beats the pants off Tablo’s Engine. On a $35 stripped down box!
If Tablo thought they could retrofit their HLS based software and design to real-time TV, big mistake. You might be running with such a “retrofit” the rest of your life unless Tablo rewrites their Engine from scratch…
we really use it mostly as a record and watch system but do watch live tv on occasion too. if it was just me i’d deal w/ the long channel changing time and would have stayed w/ the old dual tuner tablo.