How to switch between 2 live channels

Support & Troubleshooting
1

like most of the rest of this group, I rarely watch live tv.  the exception to this is the late night talk shows.  I like to flip around during commercials and watch 2 shows at once.  I can't figure out how to make this work on Tablo.  every time I switch channels, I lose the buffer for the other channel.  what am I doing wrong?

I have the 4-tuner and both roku and chromecast.  I prefer roku for this tv because the remote doesn't hurt as bad as a tablet when I drop it on my face in bed. :}


2

When you switch between to shows that are both tuned, you should be able to go back and forth with at most 1 sec between them.  And when you switch, you should be able to rewind to back when you very first started watching.


Is that not happening for you?  With a 4-tuner, you should have the ability to switch rapidly among 4 different stations.
3

The other possibility is that your hard drive isn’t set up.  If it isn’t, then you are stuck with just one channel.   Please go into the settings on a web or tablet interface and make sure the hard drive is recognized and formatted.

4

Thanks for the quick reply snowcat. My hd is fine. It wouldn’t record if it wasn’t. Is there anything special I need to do when switching?

5

I would try it out on a web browser or tablet to make sure it is working fine.  When you are watching one channel and you have one or more other channels that are already tuned, the channel numbers should be highlighted.  Also, when you switch, it should be immediate instead of the usual 15-20 seconds.


Another way of testing is to have multiple devices tuned to different channels at the same time.   If the 2nd device gets an error, then you can tell something is wrong.  I would send a support ticket at that point.
6

Thanks. I’ll try it tonight

7

I haven’t tried this, but is it important to select the channel to view and not the show itself?

8

On the Roku, there is only one option in the live TV tab.  You just select the show/channel.


If you use a smartphone via a web browser, you have to select the channel, not the show, if you want to watch that channel.

If you use a computer web browser or the tablet apps, selecting the channel immediately starts playing the channel.  If you select the show, it will give you some options.  You can look at info on the show, you can record the show, or you can play the show.
9

FYI - This will not help your particular situation based on how you are viewing but I do not use Tablo for live tv at home. After I removed the dish network( :smiley: ) I split the antenna connections, one going into tablo and the other to the house coax. Then I fed all the coax to the tv.


This helps me wtih 
1) Watching live tv it does not take a long time(buffering)
2) I can switch between channels easily and
3) It does not take a tv turner from the tablo so it can still record 4 shows when I am watching even two live tvs in two rooms
10