I have Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel set to record nightly. Every day, I see 6-20 sec recording and then another short recording both of which end up not playing on any client. Sometimes it records them for an hour and fails to play anyway. Very rarely it records and plays them correctly. So much so that I have started watching these shows on YouTube and not even bother with Tablo!
These channels (ABC and CBS) do record successfully (about 80% of the times) at other times. I just finished watching a one hour recording from CBS that played flawlessly. Even two shows at once record fine some of the times.
Anyone have any idea what is going on and maybe a fix for me to try?
From what you have described, it appears that you have marginal antenna signal strength and/or quality. Signal strength and quality will vary during the day. Just because you receive 5 green dots when you do a scan doesn’t mean that you have an excellent signal at all times.
The best solution for your problem is to improve your signal strength and quality. You didn’t say what type of antenna you are currently using, but for the majority of users, a quality antenna installed either in your attic or above your roof would be the best solution. If you live in an apartment or condo, you may have to settle for an indoor antenna, but again, buy a quality antenna.
I have a ClearMax 2 antenna installed in the attic. It is fine 99% of the time I am watching but it does cause occasional problems. So it must be doing that at late night on both those channels.
I live a bit south of you (Austin, TX), and I use the ClearStream 4MAX. I have occasional problems with channels 14-1 to 14-4 in my area - due to tropospheric propagation (known as “skipping” years ago), where a station in Houston (200 miles away) interferes with that channel, causing the channel to drop, usually from 10:00PM - 9:00AM. It is most problematic in the summer time, or when a big temperature change happens.
Occasionally there are a couple more stations that have problems, but they have the same issue with matching frequency stations in Houston (they are very rare dropping).
There isn’t much you can do about it, other than get a directional antenna (hopefully all stations are lined up), as the towers in my area are due south, but Houston is SE/SSE in direction, and the ClearStream picks up UHF close to omni-directional (best when aimed, but it does pickup to the peripherals). VHF is very directional with the antenna.
In the old days, you had “ghosting” when the TV picked up other channels, but now, the signals cancel each other out.