Excellent point. As discussed in the past, there really isn’t a 1:1 comparison with OTA DVRs. They vary greatly, how the function, required hardware, playback options as well as technology differences.
Unlike many commercial cable/satellite conventional DVRs many had become accustomed to, were vastly similar in “features”.
I specifically mentioned the Channel Master DVR+ because the Tablo DualHDMI appears to be a drop-in replacement for the DVR+. Basically, disconnect the DVR+, the coax, the external USB hard disk, and the HDMI connector, and plug in the Tablo DualHDMI the same way. Then have the Tablo reformat the USB disk and everything else is good-to-go. That’s what I did.
Since the DVR+ was discontinued many years ago, folks are looking for an alternative as the DVR+'s started to fail from old age. That is my case. I know that there are other Tablo DualHDMI users here who are former DVR+ users.
So an apples-to-apples comparison is appropriate. The Tablo DualHDMI should be able to do everything that the DVR+ did since they perform exactly the same tasks. I am hoping that my Tablo DualHDMI could do more than the vintage discontinued DVR+
Yes, #12 and #13 are bugs. I know that Tablo Support is actively working on #12 and have promised it for the next firmware release.
#2 is needed in order to find a show that doesn’t appear (yet) in the “TV Shows” tab. For example, lets say that you see a blurb on a show that will be broadcast in 4 weeks. It isn’t in the 14-day guide yet. So, as is, we have to wait a couple of weeks for it to appear, then find it in the Guide, then click on it to record. Or, as I have done several times, forget to look for it until the day after the broadcast when my coworkers say, “Did you see thus-and-such last night?”. Sigh…
Or so that I can record things that aren’t defined. For example, I would like to record everything that has “soccer” or “futbol” in the name. Instead, I have to go through the list periodically and manually look for things and click on them. That takes forever. The computer should be able to do that. The DVR+ could do that… In Linux-speak, just grep for it.
Likewise, for #2 the Guide lists things alphabetically starting with the first letter. So shows that start with “The” are down in the “T” section. So “The Flash” is down in the “T” section, not the “F” section.
#7 has gotten better. With the latest firmware, it seems to continue to record the show and doesn’t seem to give up as easily as it used to; for me it only shows a problematic popup during playback. I think that #10 helps with that. And #11 would help with that also.
#12 and #13 are tablo support issues and I doubt they affect the functionality of the product.
If I can remember the product from 6+ years ago, the settings page didn’t contain either of these entries.
But when you opened a ticket they wanted the info so everyone ran around trying to find the original box. And if it had been recycled I guess it might cause a support issue.
I strongly vote for #4 and #7, as I have in various ways since the day I received my unit. As far as #7 is concerned I don’t know if the “weak signal strength” message is the same as the “Failed to decode audio” message, but as I mentioned above in this thread: “PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE kill that screen”
I’m not exactly sure what the intent was for that comment, but I respectfully disagree. I liken that to a statement such as “it isn’t fair to compare one car to another, they are all different”.
No, they all have to run reliably and be safe, etc. Any OTA DVR should be expected to work without all the software bugs that the Tablo DUAL HDMI has. They are too common to even document.
Here is one I encountered last night. All I was trying to do was watch a recorded show. I scrolled to the “Recordings” screen, navigated to the show I wanted to watch and clicked on it. I was presented with the spinner of doom. I waited for a fair amount of time and then started a video on my phone. Here is the video:
I would suggest the comparison between OTA DVRs is more like comparing a Car to a Bus. They can both take you where you need to go but you wouldn’t expect a bus to have a personal Infotainment system and the car to have seating for 50 passengers.
We can only search in the TV Shows list if we know what we are looking for. It took my wife awhile to figure out that Flash was down in the “T” section (“The Flash”) of the TV shows list. I have 31 stations and hundreds of shows that appear in the TV Shows list. And having folks manually scroll through that entire list to find something seems like the burden is being thrust upon the user.
#2 and #3 are different. The Guide vs. the TV Shows list. And what the Tablo DualHDMI already knows about vs. what it doesn’t know about (yet) since it is outside of the 14-day window.
If you go to TV Shows and enter “Flash” in the search box, it finds “The Flash” just fine. So searching works fine as it is now. I don’t see how adding the same search box to the grid view helps any. And I have no idea what you would expect the UI to show if you did that? Switch to the list page UI? Scroll the grid to the first occurrence of the show? Your #2 is already there, so give it up.
#3 is certainly a valid new feature. Which would require some programming work. Implementing the matching as part of the nightly guide update seem feasible to me. Seems like some sort of notification of the “found” shows would be required so the user can remove bad matches.
then the grid of icons, then the A to Z list. Where is this Search box that you are referring to?
Also, the firmware update appears to have changed this. Shows that started with “The” used to be down in the “T” section (The Flintstones, The Flash) but now they are up in the “F” section. So that is a definite improvement. Likewise, “A Different World” is in the “D” section.
I updated the table from post #12 (Feb 21) to reflect the released March 20 firmware. Tablo also indicated in their firmware release announcement that the handling of weak signal recordings has improved. For some recordings I indeed observed that; at least it kept trying to continue the recording and didn’t give up like it used to in earlier firmware.
How about providing discrete codes for the buttons on the Tablo remote as well as
• channel numbers
• menu
• guide
• exit (without powering off the tablo)
• and, all the typical buttons that are available on a universal remote (play, pause, stop, record, rewind, fast forward, skip back and skip forward)
The discrete codes would make it easier to program the tablo on RTI, Crestron, Control4 and other universal remotes, as well as corresponding pages on iPads.
By the way, Samsung TVs that have an OTA app provide these discrete codes and offer the ability to enter a channel number, etc. The Tablo should do the same.
