I’m using a 4-tuner Tablo with Android, Chrome browser and Fire TV and have noticed this issues on all the devices.
I love the Tablo other than the issues listed below. Unfortunately, from my perspective, some of these are deal-breakers for a $300 unit and have me considering sending it back. Please respond with which features are being actively worked on or are planned for future releases so that I can make an informed decision.
1.) Guide needs to restart at the last channel used, not the top of the list.
2.) Pressing up/down while watching a channel should allow you to scan through channels.
3.) Guide takes too long to load. Can it be auto-loaded in the background?
4.) Guide needs to wrap around from bottom to top and vice-versa.
5.) The Tablo needs to detect when playback is choppy due to poor WiFi and then automatically reduce the video quality. Maybe you could provide an option in the Settings menu to enable this feature.
6.) When clicking on a channel from the guide, it should jump directly to the channel, not a secondary menu where I have to click a second time. You could then provide a context menu while watching the show that would allow me to record, if desired.
7.) When watching a channel and then pressing the back button, it should take you directly to the guide and keep streaming the current channel (in reduced quality) in upper-right corner.
I really do not think #5 is going to be possible, and if it is, I can almost guarantee it’s not being worked on as it would be a fairly large lift and it would not likely be something many would want as you would effectively lose a tuner when watching a recorded show…
Each tuner does its own transcoding as the show airs. It does so based on a fixed setting (quality in the settings menu). For it to re-transcode it to another level, would require a tuner to be used on the fly as it does for the remote “Tablo Connect” feature…
As is, on a 4 tuner Tablo, you can record up to 4 shows at once AND watch an additional 2 recorded shows. If you had the tuners transcoding on the fly, you double the tuner usage.
For example, with a 4 tuner, you could only record 2 different shows if you were also wanting to watch 2 other recordings as 2 tuners would be transcoding the live stream and the other 2 would be tied up re-transcoding the recordings you were trying to watch.
As for number 6, if you click on the CHANNEL number instead of the show, OR if you press the PLAY button instead of OK, it does bypass the second pop up and go directly into the stream.
Daniel454,
-Thanks for the tip on #6.
-Regarding your comments on #5, I disagree. I’m more willing to sacrifice a tuner for a better user-experience. My experience with a few channels and recordings (not all) was that it would skip/studder/become choppy every 10 seconds or so. That was such a horrible experience that I ditched the channel/recording and moved on to something else. I’m assuming the issue was with my home WiFi, but that’s unclear. Perhaps that’d be feature #6.b (display WiFi and HDTV signal strengths as a troubleshooting tool). Note, my Tablo is directly WIRED to my router and my FireTV is using WiFi. I’ll try to run some tests this weekend to see if the issue goes away when I wire my FireTV directly to my router.
Video stuttering can also come from antenna reception. Because of the internal dynamics of a DVR, DVRs don’t always reflect the same signal strength that a TV does. It can also vary by channel or time of day.
People are going to come in here and tell you that you need to upgrade your antenna, wiring, router, and streaming box. Be prepared. Some of the suggestions may be valid, but you shouldn’t need to totally revamp your entire infrastructure for one app.
That being said, a lot of these are awesome suggestions, and represent part of the reason I am most likely moving to TiVo unless the Tablo product significantly improves in the next couple of months.
I concede I may be wrong, there may indeeed be plety of people that are fine sacrificing a tuner for real time transcoding.
Occasionally Tablo sends out surveys, IMO this should be added to the next survey to see what the overall market for it is.
Getcashmoney is correct, many will offer up many “solutions” to the issue, some valid, some not, some cheap, some costly. Truth is WiFi can be tricky in some cases and it definitely brings with it a LOT of variables from house layout, building materials, router location, brand, strength, settings (I had to turn off “Smart” WiFi routing to correct one installation) and even other things in the home interfering (Had a Roku too close to a fridge, the compressor would cause buffering issues).
As I second think through your solution it would definitely open up the product to work in more locations with a wider variance of conditions. Might be hard to market though to get the average consumer to understand the difference between turning on or off this feature and why it changes the number of simultaneous shows you could watch.
I’m sure, given your long lingering exit from here after having sold your Tablo, that you’ll be able to advise the OP about all those “people going to come in here and tell you that you need to…” and their solutions. But then does he really need all those “people who are going to come in here and tell you that you need to…” when you’ve already given him The Solution (that you will “probably” take yourself)?
The best for your new PVR and like “Old Mike” may you come back many times to tell us how much better your new PVR experience is\will be…
Actually, I think my experience using the device and being a member of the forum a long time BEFORE selling my Tablo would give me the ability to foresee the response from forum members.
I am still rooting for Tablo, I would think they would appreciate people returning to the forum to keep tabs on the product in the hopes of purchasing once again. I want them to win this market, and I think it’s totally possible.
I feel like I have a decent understanding of the product considering I used it almost 2 years on a number of platforms, both before and after upgrading my home Wi-Fi. I’m sorry if my experience offends you.
Daniel454,
You are certainly correct about the marketing challenge. Part of me wants to say Just make it a flawless experience and then sell a more expensive unit with even more tuners… But… The more economical solution is to give the user a setting they can configure.
Maybe you could keep it simple by providing two options in the Settings menu:
1.)Max Tuners
2.)Performance.
Number 1 Would be the default and when the user selects #2, they get prompted with a message they must confirm indicating that they will be giving up 1 (or more) tuners.
That being said, I certainly don’t want to make it sound like an easy change for the Tablo engineers. I understand the level of restructuring such a change would cause. I’m an embedded software engineer myself who has recently gotten into WiFi development. Just trying to give some feedback and gain some direction at the same time.
Cheers!
For everyone else, I greatly appreciate the “relevant” feedback. If it’s not relevant, please be courteous to me, the OP, and let your comments go unheard.
You can get a TIVO. It does most of the stuff you looking for and is already a matured product (VERY stable).It also have it drawbacks like subscription is device based (and not user based like Tablo) and does require other equipment for streaming. Now, TIVO features for end users is unmatched by Tablo or any other.For example, with a click of a button you can skip THE ENTIRE COMMERCIAL on several series on major broadcasting channels. Only that feature is a deal breaker for me. That’s a service that TIVO provides and believe or not is based on (real) people tagging TV on real time (to avoid lawsuits from major broadcasters).
I choose the Tablo because it allowed me to have one single device that then streamed to all my TVs (albeit via another device). The big advantage to me was that I could remove a device (the Cable Box) from every TV. Not only is it an extra wiring hassle, each cable box constantly sips energy 24/7. Looks like the TiVo option requires TiVo mini boxes at every TV, where I already have Fire TVs. Also looked like a subscription was necessary where-as a major draw for us cutting cable is eliminating re-occurring monthly payments.
It is more than a Tablo, but you can buy a Tivo Roamio with a 1 TB drive included and a lifetime subscription (no monthly fees) for $400. Might pay off in the long run.
As you said though, Tablo is appealing because you can use the devices you already have.
Both have pros and cons. To me was more like end users feature and stability. TIVO has more end user features (like the skip commercial) and is more stable.
Once in a while i surf here, because Tablo is a good idea, indeed. Execution no so i am afraid.
I would just be so much happier if my ROKU TABLO app was half as good as the Tablo Web app!
The ROKU apps is “usable” but the web app is MUCH better and featured ladened. For this of you using TABLO via KODI or ROKU, try the web app, not on your phone, I mean on a PC or MAC. It’s LIGHT YEARS better!
