Failed to record due to weak signal

I’ve had a rash of failed to record due to weak signal in the last three weeks or so.

So much so, I’ve been watching the episodes live to test on a dual tuner Tablo while it is also supposed to be recording, and I’m seeing no pixelation while watching, but still seeing the episodes not recording due to the error code.

Is there any settings to try to change or is my Tablo getting a little old in the tooth and just not working well at the tuner level anymore?

Rescanning shows all green on the channels as well, but they look great on live tv, but failing to record about 60 percent of shows spread over all channels that have recordings scheduled. The ones that do record have no pixelation or errors of any sort.

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Good to see this thread. Same here, watch channel works fine recording failed due to weak signal? Makes no sense should fail both in that case.

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same problem here, did anyone get a resolution, i have submitted a ticket today.

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same problem here :frowning:

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Ditto

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We haven’t had any changes that would result in more failed recordings. The reasons/error codes behind failed recordings are usually fairly safe, and intentionally not open to interpretation. I.E, if it notes a ‘weak signal’, it was probably a weak signal.

OTA TV can change depending on the time of day, interfering frequencies, inclement weather, etc. That said, we’re happy to check out your Tablo’s logs if you feel like a recording’s error code wasn’t accurate. Just send us a ticket :slight_smile:

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is it just me, or is your link broke ?
When I hover over it, my cursor changes as if “ticket” was a link, but nothing happens when I click it.

There’s is pretty, and blue, but mine is too, and works. :wink:
https://support.tablotv.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

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Thanks ! Yours worked - the other one still doesn’t. I don’t get it, but I did get it submitted.
Windows 8.1, using Chrome for this.

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Totally my bad, @kkoceski, it was a paste error! Sorry about that.
Thanks @Radojevic:slight_smile:

I have had very little trouble with my Tablo over the last three years. Every firmware update has made it better. But recently, and maybe since the last update, I’ve been having similar problems as stated in the title of this thread. We are constantly getting shows recorded in 3 or 4 individual segments of like 2 minutes for one then 35 seconds for the next then 21 minutes for the third and the forth segment says it failed due to weak signal. This has never happened before the latest update. Don’t get me wrong, we have had many failed recordings before due to weak signal but they were only one shorter recording that was typically all pixelated and impossible to watch. Or simply a title of the recorded show with no available recording at all.

I’ve never considered weak signals a Tablo issue before. During bad signal conditions (summer usually) we get the same results watching live TV using the TV’s tuner. Wisconsin is hilly with lots of trees that leaf up and we are about 50 miles from the towers. It is somewhat common during bad conditions on a few of the channels. But like I said, these split up recordings are something new.

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Are most of the fragmented/split recordings from the same channels? Can you try removing & re-adding the channels to your Tablo? Do they still receive strong reception ratings?

It is happening on several channels. One of them having traditionally one of the strongest signals of the 46 or so we receive. I’ll have to wait for the right day/weather/atmospheric conditions to delete and add channels however. I usually don’t like doing it in summer when some channels can be hit or miss.

Same issue. NBC will NOT record. All other channels seem fine so far. I do get weak signal errors on my TV on certain channels (WB especially) and when I am recording on those I get pixelated recordings that I am unable to watch. NBC is one of my strongest channels and I never have a weak signal error on that channel while watching. Tonight I am watching American Ninja Warrior with a clear, strong signal, but the recording on my Tablo says, “Recording failed due to weak signal.” This is also a relatively new occurrence for us (we don’t watch a lot of TV in the summer but this wasn’t happening in late spring). Since this does not seem to be an isolated problem I am hoping it will be looked into. Thanks!

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Hmmmm… I’ve had some recordings on my local CBS station w/ this exact same issue… was considering adding a 2nd antenna just for the CBS station, and adjusting current antenna a bit south to see if I could pick up two nearby towers…

Let me know if there is any resolution…

take care

I wanted to join in on this as well. We’re getting some random recording failures, as well as periodic weak signal alerts as well while just watching TV, typically PBS (1080i incoming). We didn’t have this until the last Tablo firmware update. All of our stations are 5 green on the channel scan and rock solid. We’re anywhere from 2 to 7 miles from the transmitters for all of our stations. Very close in city proximity.

This has been happening with us a lot. A scan shows all the phoenix stations are strong, 5 green balls, but the CBS recordings fail into multiple segments. You can see the picture in the recording suddenly pixelate and fall off the cliff.

I am OK with that, generally, but what is painful is that we end up with multiple segments. The DVR should just continue with the bad signal, or pause, then continue when the signal comes back. There is no good user experience with dealing with 5 separate recordings.

My latest experience was trying to record the NFL game on CBS. The DVR saved the game into multiple segments, but then gave up because there was a new NFL game on FOX, and so, we never got to see the CBS game in completion. Had to move to CBS all access to stream the game after the fact.

And, yes, we have the 4 tuner Tablo

So, please, stop with the multiple segments!
And, please, fix the NFL recordings, so that we can actually see the whole games and not just partials.

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Similar issues here with multiple recordings during the same program. The channels recording are all with 5 green dots and only after the last firmware did we start seeing this issue. Monday night we recorded news on two stations (on the 4 tuner model) and had 4 recordings on NBC5 in Dallas and 3 on ABC8 in Dallas. On NBC all recorded but were partial segments during the 34 minutes of the program. Some from 9 seconds to others at 4 minutes but the entire program was not recorded. Tuesday night it worked like normal. On ABC I get full recordings at times, failed recordings on the same date,and then multiple segments. Had the unit for almost 4 years and it’s been working great until about 2 weeks ago. Any thoughts on how to correct this?

@eki @Gregk22 When you have issues with weak signals and partial recordings, running a fresh channel scan (and hitting ‘Add to Guide’) will ensure that your Tablo has the latest information on the quality and broadcast parameters of your local channels. It’s a good first start.

If this continues, please do touch base with support so we can take a closer look at your Tablo’s logs. Other factors could be at play including issues with your hard drive: www.tablotv.com/ask-tablo

My similar problem seems to be a Tablo coder/decoder (codec) problem.
I bypassed Tablo and am able to watch crystal clear direct to my TV.

It’s always primetime shows that goof up temporarily. Tablo should fix this bug!

FYI, signal shows all green dots (excellent reception), yet audio/video is trashed. Only affecting 1 channel. All other channels are clear. This qualifies the problem to a specific frequency/channel codec issue.

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