I agree there are pluses and minuses. My feeling is they did it to improve picture quality. I’m older and my eyes are not as good as they once were, but I put my Legacy unit away because it was very obvious when I played them side by side. I was never bothered by the delay in video, but that was a big complaint and why some people chose the HDHomeRun over the Tablo.
Can’t please everyone, however, all who complain can’t use streaming of any type. Just saying.
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it was very obvious when I played them side by side
I’m surprised to read this. I could not discern a difference from the legacy Tablo set at the highest quality level, and I have quite a large screen to use for comparisons.
Having only a couple 4th gens I can’t speak for older devices, but I will say that in most cases, the differences were very negligible. Where I did notice video quality drop was older 480 shows. It was the reason I added my first drive. Although, I do wish there was an option to allow manual compression for certain shows/movies regardless of internal/external storage.
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I understood the reason because of the transcoding and at the time I was using a HDHomeRun. I didn’t do a side by side comparison, but the picture quality didn’t seem that different. I was not going to get a 4th generation. The Legacy quad was meeting my needs outside of the dated guide. I picked up a 4 tuner from Best Buy for $99 and figured I would try it out and if it didn’t live up to the hype, I could return it. The 4th generation just had a crisp picture in comparison.
It’s usually people that enjoy sports that notice a big quality difference. That type of content makes compression more noticeable. You almost never hear people say the compression looks bad on my criminal procedural drama. Perhaps part of it is that people aren’t watching as closely. Shows like that you aren’t scanning the TV looking for the play.
They did mention the firmware update at the end of my survey coming in… fall this year? I think that was it.
After the firmware update, you’ll need to use the 4th gen apps to watch and record FAST channels with a legacy device.
@TabloTV after the firmware update a Legacy device could run either the original Legacy app or the 4th Gen app as desired?
Yup.
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@TabloTV I am curious, if a Legacy device records a FAST channel with the 4th Gen app then obviously that recording will be stored on the hard drive.
Will the Legacy app see this recording in the Recordings list?
That is a good question…
Appreciate the honesty!
Doesn’t this bring up the whole question of FAST virtual tuners, recording quality, etc, etc. It’s not like the gen 1 units are over powered.
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@TabloTV after the firmware update, will a Legacy Quad still be able to use the Tablo Connect feature to connect outside the home network?
Yep. The firmware update will be a ‘choose your own adventure’ situation. Once it’s done, you get to choose how you want to proceed. And if that’s sticking with the current status quo, that’s fine.
Well, that’s reassuring at least. How does that ‘choice’ work exactly? Right now, I don’t believe I have any say so in updating my legacy tablo or not?
You always have the choice as to whether or not you process a firmware update.
We’ll nag you about it because we want you to be able to enjoy the benefits of the bug fixes and other improvements in each firmware.
When it comes to the legacy transition firmware update, even if you do update you’ll still be able to continue on as before with your legacy apps if you so choose. You’ll just be enjoying some other tweaks and fixes along with the ability to use the 4th gen apps if you want.
I am curious as an advanced user of Legacy. Would you have a recommended procedure where I could backup my Legacy firmware using various linux tools and physical connectivity, and then should I hate the new firmware, or if it proves to be totally buggy, I could therefore write back my current legacy firmware? e.g. - I have connectivity tools whereby I backup various chips on my laptop enabling me to modify the machine bios. I was thinking my capturing the contents of a few chips on your board would enable us to return to the “now” firmware status if desired. Hope that make sense?
As you can tell from this thread many of us legacy users have devices that never even hiccup at the slightest. So, obviously we would love some new features but not at the cost of losing what for now is near perfect performance day after day after day. I can’t remember the last time my Tablo has had an issue whether or not I am viewing it in or out of my home.
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The main reason for me is to save the 50 bucks for the guide.
Ah… gotcha. Not something I think about because I bought the Lifetime subscription years ago, and it’s more than paid for itself.