thanks for the info, that’s a great web site (Tv tower locator).Do you have any experience on slight buffering? other than the usual fixes.thanks
Yes, TV Tower Locator is really informative. One of the best. Plus they give you a chart of all your stations by genre.
I do not get any buffering. This could be a network problem. My Tablo is hard wired to the network. Buffering may be a wifi or other network issue.
how is the signal since adjustment. Jim
Well, last night I thought I had made a huge mistake having him redirect my antenna more southeastward. The noise and pixelation were terrible on ABC and FOX from 6:30pm through about 9:00pm. However, later in the evening it was great. This morning it seems to be great as well, not noticing any problems as yet. NBC and CBS were fine.
Tablo support said yesterday my signals were really strong after the redirect, but that FOX might be a little over tuned; not sure I can do anything about that.
Now I need to figure out why are the channels I should be receiving the best actually turning out to be the worst during prime time? Of course this is when we want to watch ABC the most, go figure.
Also, during the day yesterday, after the adjustment, I did a channel scan and received around 48 channels. Last night I did another channel scan and received 100 channels. I’m sure this was mostly due to atmospheric conditions allowing me to receive much more distant stations.
What do you have set for your “Live TV Quality” and “Recording Quality”? I used to get buffering when I tried setting these too high. The recommended is “HD 720 - 5Mbps” Anything higher requires more bandwidth and more likely to result in buffering.
I’m getting 26.5 as well, which I am surprised it is coming in so well considering my antenna now pointing further southeast.
Update as I type this: I am now suddenly getting a “Weak SIgnal” error and the station is no longer coming up. Once again maybe atmospheric related and issue and the antenna field of view?
Not sure if this is relevant to the Max4, but I noticed it on my Clearstream 4 (very similar to your Max 4) and that is antenna height. In fine-tuning the antenna I found that raising or lowering it like… 12 to 18 inches actually made a difference. I know one of the biggest things they say is that height is everything, and that’s true, but once you get to your basic “this is as high as I can get it” point, there also seems to be adjustment in small increments at that height.
This was reinforced and even more noticeable on my new Antop 400-BV. I mounted it just above my clearstream 4 and the signal was ok but not impressive as compared to the clearstream 4.
I removed the clearstream 4 thinking that might be interfering as they were right on top of each other… no change…and then I LOWERED the 400-BV about a foot and the change was dramatic. I mean… really dramatic. Another 6 inches down and all my channels are around 29 to 32 SNR. I’d never seen them above 30 before and many were down around 25 or 26. (the ones I care about… I have others below that but we don’t watch them).
I have towers at about 40 miles southeast and another cluster at only 8 miles at like… west southwest.
My personal opinion in watching what you’re doing is that the Max 4 is better suited to areas with strong to medium signal and all bunched up within its 45 degree beam angle. In my situation I had over 50 degrees of separation in the tower locations and if I aimed the C4 at the far towers I’d start losing the close ones. The 400-BV has a much wider beam width (I think 120 degrees) so I can aim it at the far towers and lock those in while still having max signal on the close ones. Other things that came into play were the broadcast strength of the stations in the various locations.
Everyone’s situation is different and for folks like you (and me) it’s definitely not as simple as slapping up an antenna and everything is magic. Just tossing out my experience as something to consider. I loved my CS4, but for me the Antop is performing much better. And actually picking up Toronto off the backside at 42 miles… just in case I want to watch… 
Prior to your most recent adjustments and new antenna, were you ever noticing that everything was strong and wonderful during part of the day, but once evening sets in so does the pixelation?
This just has me totally baffled right now. I see nothing in the line of site I would even imagine could/would interfere. The signals are otherwise very strong according to Tablo support while monitoring my 4-tuner Tablo.
Yes, exactly. I set it up, aimed it kinda down the middle of where I needed it to be, got good signal on all stations. In the evenings, I’d pixelation on some stations. One station from the far towers and believe it or not, also from the towers only 8 miles away. That’s when I lowered it. Everything seemed perfect. A few nights ago I got pixelation on the most problematic station at the far towers. Aimed about 15 degrees more toward those far towers. Left height alone. Has been rock solid all week, checking morning, mid-day, evening.
Normally I would do all of the antenna fiddling during the day. Makes sense, right? It’s not dark! But if the problem times are earlier or later, then those are the times I needed to make the adjustments.
But yes… I’m up early with the dogs so I’d see issues around sunrise and also in the evening and seemed to correlate pretty much with dusk and dawn so I’m guess temperature inversion is affecting it.
So far the new antenna plus the fine tuning seems to have gotten it. The trees have leafed out the last week or so (they kinda just go… whoooosh… overnight… and… leaves!) and signal remains the same as before they leafed out. And have been paying attention during wind and we just this morning had a pretty good lightning-loaded storm move through and signal stayed solid and strong.
This becomes a problem for me as I had my antenna installed by the place where I bought it. I don’t have a ladder long enough to reach the antenna, and I doubt I will be able to get them out in the evening to make adjustments. Ugh…
yes i did have it at 5 then lowered to 3 and still get buffering. Im thinking it is a tablo issue, does not happen on my streaming channels or pluto tv, only ota channels.
Is your Tablo anywhere near your router? Maybe you can try direct wire to the router?
I replaced the ISP provided router with a Netgear Orbi and have two satellites. I never get the buffering, just the pixelation. 
It still not right? sorry to hear . Im getting buffering , tried all options that are listed. I have directvnow and it does not buffer. Only thru tablo. does not buffer connected directly to tv. want to get rid of sip router due to the renting it anyway, but hard to believe that’s the issue seeing it not buffering with streaming service. Have you tried directly to tv to see it it works better?
I have it wired in . it’s about 2 ft. from router. how’s the new direction been today? this sounds like interference if its only a certain time.
Your buffering issue could also be due to the app accessing the Tablo. If it has a poor or weak connection that can also be the issue. I have my AppleTV 4K also hardwired directly to my Netgear Orbi Satellites. I honestly see little to no buffering.
My reception was a bit better today. The evening new still has some pixelation and stutters, but nothing like prior. Hopefully it will stay this way, or get better. Still not sure what is the cause, unless there is someone doing something (like a HAM radio) not that far from me.
Happy Memorial Day!
Thanks. What is your internet speed? and are you thru comcast? Were running 400 from comcast.I do see ham radio antennas here and there.
My speed is 400Mbps through Spectrum. I checked both Comcast and Spectrum down here and Spectrum was the cheapest.
I just ran a quick test on speedtest.net and my iPhone received a download of 448Mbps with an upload of 22.6Mbps.
No Spectrum here, Comcast and Century link. Century link only offers 25 download max currently here.The issue here is the timeline on the apple tv shows up for no reason during live shows, it is at the end of the time line causing a slight buffer once in a while, its any channel at all. Does not show up on directvnow or pluto leaving me to believe its a tablo issue. Tablo support did not see any issues when I checked with them. Only thing I did not do is get my own router yet.Everything is wired in not on wi fi.