Good reception on TV tuner but Tablo has messed up Live TV

Support & Troubleshooting
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I have a 4 tuner model Tablo. Got it 3 weeks ago.
I tried Mohu curve, and Mohu Sky. Also Terk Horizon.
I live in an apartment in Manhattan (10035) 7th floor.
Never got all the channels I wanted with Curve or Horizon or both with splitter.
With sky only got all the channels when in one position. I discovered it was because the metal of the connector was touching the metal window frame. This seemed to serve as a better antenna than the commercial products. Using tuner of my Panasonic TV with metal rod taped to the coaxial cable was able to get all the channels I want at the same time with clarity. With Tablo live TV and same metal rod taped to the coaxial cable (using with and without the Mohu amplifier) It does a lot of buffering, non-syncronized audio & Video. and pixelation. So I know great reception is possible but Tablo not processing it well. Tried all of the different recording data rates, with no difference.

Using Seagate portable drive 1.5 TB seems to work well.
Apple Time Capsule 802.11n & Airport express 802.11n are the routers. Tablo connected to express.

Help!
Sincerely,
Daniel

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Tablo has an internal 4 way splitter so the signal really needs to be good. Have you tried Winegard FL5500A designed for bo t h uhf and VHF or HD Frequency? I don’t have any experience with HD Frequency but have one on order.

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It turns out the computers here that are connected by ethernet are playing well, but those with only wireless have the problems.

I’m not ready to keep buying antennas. I’m thinking of buying a 75 to 300 Ohm UHF/VHF Matching Transformer to connect to the window frame. It seems to work perfectly, but needs a nice clean connection.

Do you think 802.11n is too slow for streaming tablo video?

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We haven’t experienced any issues with 802.11n; if hardwiring those PCs isn’t an option, try changing your recording quality to a different setting. You can do this by navigating to http://my.tablotv.com/ > Settings > Recording quality. Try the 3Mbps on live TV or live TV. Do you have the same buffering issues then?

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I also put it on 2mbps but still have problem.

my update is that I have a matching transformer connected to the window frame in our apartment with masking tape. this is coaxial cabled to radio shack amplifier then connected to Tablo.

tried first directly connected to TV. perfect reception with all channels i want.

im assuming amplifier addresses power need for 4 tuner tablo.

so i’m thinking network issue.

the router from Verizon FIOS handles DHCP with airport network in bridge mode…

i’m thinking of removing the FIOS Router and letting airport network handle DHCP.

also have ethernet switch, but tablo is not part of that branch.

airport network has one time capsule in living room with connection to internet.

airport extreme in bedroom with tablo etherneted to it.

macmini in living room etherneted to time capsule.

macmini in bedroom etherneted to airport extreme.

also have macbook pro connected through wireless.

live tv is filled with buffering, pixelation, repeating of small segments of same video and video not synced to sound,.

NOTE; all of the computers are having this. i was wrong in earlier post. didn’t watch long enough. good for 10 seconds then falls apart. i flipped through fast before.

im assuming that perfect reception on direct to tv shows reception is good.

i’m also assuming radio shack amplifier addresses strength of signal needed by 4 tuner tablo.

this leaves network.

i’m also assuming perfect reception is theoretically possible and others have achieved it.

any thoughts are welcome.

thanks

6

If you’re seeing good TV reception and your cabling connection is solid your antenna is most likely good enough.

Don’t worry much about the 4 tuner internal splitter. If the antenna works on TV 9/10 times it’s fine for 2 or 4 tuner Tablo. People love to add amplifiers around here but a person may create more problems by doing so when It’s not technically required.

My NYC antenna is on a rooftop in Queens. Elevation is king!

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Are you having problems otherwise concerning wireless performance? (e.g., Do other VOD services like Netflix come in OK?)

Using a mixed Wireless-N/AC network myself and don’t have issues casting from the Tablo to any device. (All clients are wireless. Tablo is connected via Ethernet to a Netgear Nighthawk R7000.)

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My setup is very similar to yours and it has worked great with Tablo for 18 mths. and I run everything from a mac mini too. I am not familiar with the Verizon modem but I did find out that it works better for me with the modem doing DHCP and be sure to NOT have both of them doing DCHP. I have over 20 devices on the router and all have reserved IPs. Good luck with yours

MY SETUP: Tablo 4 tuner since 6/14 with a 2TB Seagate usb portable drive both setting on a DEEPCOOL WIND PAL MINI Laptop Cooling Pad 15.6" Slim Design 140mm Silent Fan Blue LED, Zyxel PK5001Z modem from CenturyLink on DSL at 6.144Mbps with the radio OFF wired to a 6th Gen Airport Express in bridge mode (in front BR) with a 5th Gen Express on the other side of the house (wireless in the rear family RM) set as extended network. Using 3 Vizo 1080 tvs using 2 Roku 3s (wireless) and 1 ATV and new NP from Santa. I record on the recommended HD 720 and have ~1TB recorded on a 2TB drive. We watch 4-5 hours of recorded shows most days (2-3 hrs minus commercials). We also use the Rokus for Netflix, Amazon and Hulu and see 2 or 3 reboots a YEAR. We do not use it for live tv (split at tv) and do not use Tablo Connect. (two 20-30 yr old Radio Shack antennas – one split between tv & Tablo the other split between office and BR) I get 73 stations on Tablo – all 5 green dots and use 25 in the epg. The broadcast antenna are about 10 miles away.

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Plain, old school rabbit ears like tv used to come with works excellent in Universal City, TX. It is connected to a convertor box and old school vhs recorder because my Mom has lots of video tapes. I was thinking of suggesting Winegard I have, but why when rabbit ears are working perfect. Mom just needs to learn to leave tv on channel 3 and only change channels on the converter hox.

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Update:

I bought radio shack high gain adjustable amplifier. up to 30 DB.

still connected via matching transformer to window frame aa antenna.

on tv reception is perfect on all stations but one

However, on Tablo most stations have solid reception,

but several have same problems:

buffering, pixelation, repeating of small segments of same video and video not synced to sound,

The fact that not all channels are messed up implies that it is not the network as all stations should have problem if it was the network.

So i’m thinking I need an even more powerful amplifier as it gets split up 4 ways on Tablo.

Can anyone recommend how high I should go? 50 dB Gain?

Can the Tablo be damaged by too powerful amplifier?

What brand / model would you recommend?

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You never know for certain with antenna reception due to all the variables except - I’ve found there is no indoor substitute for a good outdoor antenna system. And good doesn’t necessarily mean super large depending on your distance from transmitters. I realize that doesn’t help those who have limited options. Can’t say I like your window frame antenna even though it seems to resonate well enough for some channels on your TV tuner. Also an amplifier has limitations as to how much it can restore an inherently weak signal no matter what the rated db boost claims. Much depends on the quality of the signal being delivered as the amp will amplify noise as well as signal and is known to degrade overall performance in certain situations. Winegard has a couple of antennas that can be used both indoors and outdoors. I believe Home Depot carries them. If an outdoor antenna is not doable I’d try something like that in your situation.
.

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to really answer your concerns, need some data. go to tvfool.com and run your address through. Any channels that are “green” are the ones that should only need non-amplified antennae.

re: buying antennae, you can make your own that is actually tuned to what you want to pick up…

re: network: I would suspect that you are probably having a LOT of interference on your wifi as I am reading. Apartments are especially bad due to neighboring networks. If at all possible, I would attempt to hardwire anything not a tablet/ phone.

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5 GHZ made a world of difference I my apt.

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5GHz is better than 2.4GHz because it is newer (Not available on old HW), less crowded (because the 2.4GHz only stuff was also cheaper).
The problem with wireless is that you are almost never in optimal conditions. There is always something else out there interfering with your traffic- other Wi-Fi, microwave ovens, garage door openers, etc…

Wired, even 10/100, is much more consistent. (But it has all those ugly wires to trip over)

And your neighbors will eventually also go to 5GHz…

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