I bought a Tablo 4G last night and started installing it today.
At first I couldn’t get any OTA channels until I looked around and read about turning off the internal amp (I do have an amp on my antenna) and got 2 channels (one with 6 subchannels, and one with 1). I changed my zip code a bit and picked up another channel. I don’t know if changing the zip code is what helped.
My TV (a Hisense U7) will pick up 15 channels (about 60 subchannels total. I don’t need or expect the Tablo to get them all. I would be happy with about the 6 strongest. I have a rooftop rotor but I get all those (FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC, CW and PBS) with one setting of the antenna. And once they are programmed in, I can tweak it a bit if need be.
With just those 2 channels, it’s pretty much useless to me.
I really only care about the OTA channels, and I mostly just want to watch something I can’t be home for or to be able to pause something and deal with a crisis before starting it up again. I have been using a different basic DVR for a fair number of years. (I don’t know if we are supposed to name them in this forum.)
They would stop working about every 12-18 months, but I learned to buy the extended warranty, insurance, whatever on them and so it cost me about $10 /year to keep a working one.
Even though they were pretty basic, they did what I needed. I would have been ready for years to pay double or triple the price they sell for if there were an equivalent which didn’t stop working so regularly.
I’d love to move up to something like the Tablo. But the most basic thing it needs to do is to actually pick up the channels I want to get on it.
If it doesn’t, I guess I’ll have to return it and order one of those pieces of junk that burn out the way incandescents did, but which lets me record the OTA stations I want to.
It’s a vertical square reflector about 2 feet by 2 feet with 4 bow ties on each side. We just had our first snow or I’d go up on the roof to check or take a picture.
Change the state of the amplifier in the tablo. Turn it off if it is on, turn it on if it is off. Run a new channel scan. We’ll determine what to do next if the number of chans changed.
I’ll need to know if you turned the amp on or off and if the number of chans increased or decreased.
Please also run a location report on RabbitEars.info using the Signal Search Map and send us the link at the top of the results page. It looks like this one…
I know it may sound weird, but give it a little time. I find that it took the Tablo a couple of days to “settle in.” Checking your antenna connections, and playing with the signal amplifiers on/off can certainly help.
You mentioned that you had an antenna rotor. Those a not especially useful with the Tablo as they have no way to tell the rotor which way it should be pointed for which channels. I have seen some good multi-antenna set ups if your channels are spread out.
I just tried changing from the amp off to the amp on.
With the amp off I had channels 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, and 20.3.
With the amp on I found no OTA channels at all. The 2.x channels and 20.3 were not found.
That’s been pretty consistent, I’ve changed back and forth the last few days.
I can give it a bit of time - it would be nice to get it working.
I do understand the limitations of working the DVR with a rotor. I’ve been using a set of cheap digital records for at least the last decade (I don’t remember how much longer).
When I’m recording, I make sure I have the rotor set right for what I want to record. When I’m flipping through channels, I just skip those that aren’t coming in well. It depends on the weather, the wind, how wet the leaves are on the trees, … .
It’s part of what I live with for being out in the woods and not that close to the broadcasters. And no cable, nothing gets run out here.
I’ve been moving slowly towards more internet streaming, but my connection moved up slowly over the 20 years I’ve been out here so that my most dependable connection is 6Mbps, and it has periods where it ducks to 3. The ATT Internet Air sometimes goes up to 100Mbps, but it tends to drop to zero mid afternoon (kids leaving school?) to where I can’t even count on the WiFi connection working for my mobile phone.
I checked on Starlink, but we have too many trees.
However, I’ve been working on getting a fiber connection for a while now, and they finally ran it to the outside of my house last week - I’m just waiting on the crew to connect it into the house and set up the router.
I get stations from 3 major markets, three directions. I can live with watching stations in two of those. I might get by on recording from one; I’ve considered putting up one antenna strictly for recording and using the current one for watching live.
That indicates that the signal from your antenna is too strong. Can you bypass the amplifier on the antenna? You should get Even more chans with the antenna amp removed and the Tablo amp turned off,
I’m not sure what you mean. It sounds like you are saying I shouldn’t use any amplifier. I’ve been at that situation before, hooked up to the antenna with no amplifier. And not able to receive from stations at all on my TV. It is quite a ways from my antenna to the TV.
Good… Lower expectations mean less disappointment. (Joking)
Whatever position your antenna was in when your TV got 15 channels is where to start. Keep it there and work on the Tablo setup.
Turn off the amp for the Tablo. You already have one on the antenna and it works for your TV.
Changing the zip code is only for the guide service, so forget that for now.
The Tablo has a reputation for having good but not great tuners. 2 or 4 doesn’t matter.
If the TV can scan well then Tablo should too.
Only after getting that out of the way… The rotor will move the antenna and TV or Tablo will have signal issues. If you move it far enough you have to re-scan again… TV or Tablo. Or reposition it back.
“I have a rooftop rotor but I get all those (FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC, CW and PBS) with one setting of the antenna. And once they are programmed in, I can tweak it a bit if need be.”
You got it! The next step in troubleshooting is to remove the last amplifier and check the result. If reception gets worse when we add more amplification, will it get better with less or no amplification.
I understand what you are saying but we have to take the next step.
Sounds like something I could investigate next spring - I don’t plan on working on the roof until then.
Just to be clear, the advantages of this would be that I could feed up to four tuners (two on a Tablo and two television sets, for instance) each picking up a channel from one of 3 antennas. I could get stations from 3 separate directions without using a rotor.
The setup would have me buy two additional antennas, the SmartKom, mount a mast without my rotor, but sufficient to hold the three antennas? (My memory from reading long ago is that the antennas should be separated by some distance to prevent interference. Is that right?) Based on the picture, on the mast, I’d run coax from each antenna to a mast mounted SmartKom 531981, and then coax into the house to another unit which interacts using Bluetooth, and that to a splitter to the 4 tuners?
Is this actually three boxes, the combiner preamp, a controller, and a splitter?
There are five coax connectors on the antenna combiner. Three antennas, RF out to the house, and a separate power?
If I remember, my amplifier is two parts. There’s a unit above the ceiling in the basement, plugged into the AC which sends power to the unit on the roof and gets back the RF from the roof. Does “remove the last amplifier” mean I should pull both of those units out of the connection, I go directly from the antenna to the first splitter as just coax?
Looking at the Rabbitears.info report you posted, it seems to me you should be able to get the full compliment of networks plus plenty of sub channels from a single direction (Detroit) at around 75-80 degrees. Available levels are not strong, but a good quality directional antenna would probably get the job done.
It is unlikely amplification alone on a modest antenna will work. The issue is not signal level, it is more likely s/n ratio. Improving that requires more antenna. Once you have that, you can increase gain via an amp as required for line/fitting/splitter losses.
Anyone who has seen my other postings knows I am a Televes fan. It’s simply because their stuff has worked for me. I’m sure there are other good manufacturers. Take a look at the Televes Ellipse Mix, or even the Databoss Mix if you really need the range. Point either of these toward the Detroit towers and you should get good results.
If you can get the antenna you have to work, great. If you can’t, then start with a better one. Just trying to help after many years of trial/error with this OTA TV crap.
