curious how (4th gen in case that matters) tabloTV works – what is saved?
In other words, does it just use the tuner to decode the channel and save that directly, or does have to decode and re-encode?
does it matter live vs. recorded?
What are the bitrates like?
From what I understand, there is 19mbps available in an HDTV channel. Typically divided between one higher quality (say 720p) channel of perhaps 9mpbs, and a bunch of lower-bandwidth subchannesl of perhaps 3mpbs apiece.
The 4th gen units record the native MPEG2 stream. If you have an external hard drive, the recordings will always still in MPEG2 format. If you just use the built in hard drive, the Tablo will convert the recordings to MPEG4 format after a while to save space. Live TV is always the native MPEG2 stream.
The pre Gen 4 HDMI models also record and play back the original MPEG2. Individual channel bitrates can vary greatly. As I mentioned in another post, two 1080i channels here have obviously different bitrates based on how often the drive blinks on playback.
That’s incorrect about the legacy models (before Gen4). They transcoded the signal so you never viewed the raw MPEG2 file even with live TV. The transcoded file is stored, never the original broadcast data.
Edit: forgot about the HDMI model. That one doesn’t transcode and uses the original broadcast MPEG2.
I’m just glad we can use the word “Tablo” to refer to 3 radically different devices. Who do you (I’m talking to whatever company is currently in charge of making the devices) think you are? Roku?
Edit: And yes, I do know there’s way more than 3. For those that invested in those short lived ones.
hey, that’s interesting.
Every now and then i get some (i guess) buffering. but now I can’t remember if i was watching live or recorded.
I have a somewhat convoluted network I’ve cobbled together over the years, involving ethernet over powerlines, and some older wifi access points.