Features needed for the Tablo Dual HDMI

Hi Scott, sorry I never responded to this. I pretty much dropped off the board after the first update was issued. See below for some more items for the list

@TabloTV - Thank you for continuing to push out updates. Timely updates are very reassuring that you are trying to improve the DUAL HDMI

Per Scott’s request, here are some additional ideas for software enhancements.

  1. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE kill this error screen:

I have no idea what it is trying to tell me, but every time it appears I click and it goes away. If you must have it, put it in a loop and click the “Retry Playback” button every second for 10 seconds or so. After 10 seconds you can tell us whatever we need to know, but my experience is that it will appear for 1 second and then be gone.

  1. When trying to watch a live show and both the tuners are in use, the current process is something along the lines of:

a) The spinner appears for several seconds.
b) If I’m not mistaken, the error screen shown above appears
c) After clicking “Retry Playback” a screen appears that no tuners are available.

I would suggest to always check tuner availability first after clicking “Watch” in live TV. If both tuners are in use, inform the user. I have to believe that would be nearly instantaneous.

BONUS POINTS: If both tuners are in use, present the user with the same “Resolve Conflicts” dialogue that you have on the Recordings screen.

For example, I have my unit set to record all Seinfeld shows. I probably have 30 shows recorded right now. If I see something on live TV that I want to watch, and you present me with the “Resolve Conflict” dialogue, I can quickly decide that I don’t need 31 Seinfeld’s and stop the current recording to watch the live show I was trying to select.

SUPER BONUS POINTS: On the “Resolve Conflicts” dialogue mentioned above, include an option to stop the current recording AND delete it. In my above example I don’t want a fraction of a show, I’ve got 30, I don’t care about the one that is currently causing the conflict, so allow me to quickly stop the recording and delete whatever has already recorded so that someday in the future I don’t start watching that episode only to find that it was stopped before the end.

  1. Add a 30 second skip button to the remote. Commercials are sold in 30 second blocks. When watching a show that’s in process and doesn’t yet have thumbnails (or even if it does have thumbnails) it would really be nice to hit a single button that will jump forward 30 seconds and then start playing. Adding on to this idea, a 10 second skip backwards would also be nice. In the event that the user skips just a little to far forward, the 10 second skip back comes in handy.

I realize that this might be difficult since the remotes are already in the field, but you should have asked be before you designed them… :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

  1. Add a priority ranking for recordings. I record several rerun series such as Seinfeld, Cheers, Big Bang Theory, etc. Since I’m just trying to build up a library of those shows, I would never want them to be a conflict with something that is a one time special event. If I could rank the reruns as “Low” priority, and say a one time Christmas special of some sort as “High” the Tablo could automatically resolve the conflict for me. (I missed a show I wanted once for this reason. It wasn’t a conflict when I set the recording, then became a conflict a few days later and I never noticed).

  2. I would like all screens to be transparent overlays. I often want to do something during a commercial break without leaving the show I’m watching (especially if I’ve built up a time shift). For example, sometimes I’m watching a show and I see an advertisement for a special I’d like to see. As it stands now I have to back out of the show (and lose an time shift I’ve built up) to set the recording. It would be nice If I could just call up an overlay (or split screen of some type) set the recording while I’m thinking about it.

  3. Oh, have I ever mentioned my thoughts about the live TV grid before… :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

Thanks for your consideration on any of these suggestions.

-Steve