I was trying to watch Monday night football on my Fire tablet at home on my network.
Firmware 2.2.22
For some reason I had no sound only on live tv. I switched to a recording and the sound was fine. Sound for other apps was working fine too.
I am guessing it is some sort of codec issue with surround sound.
Anyone else experiencing this? I wasn’t sure I saw the same issue in any other threads, I am sorry if this is a duplicate post.
Thanks
Neil
@rucknrun Fire Tablets are based on Android so it’s unlikely that it would support Surround Sound.
I had to turn off surround sound to play tablo recordings on my pc.
This is completely stupid. Why can’t it support both? Obviously I want to be able to listen with surround sound where available in my house… but I should still be able to hear it when I’m on a tablet or computer without surround sound. You guys need to step your game up, we’re paying $5 a month for program data and the Tablo costs more than the new Amazon product. Now we can’t even use this universally if we want surround sound too? Get it together.
When did you buy your Tablo? This is a fairly new feature, you either bought the Tablo a while ago when it was never a feature nor on anyone’s horizon so you should feel blessed they added the feature.
Or you already knew about the feature prior to purchase and it’s either or function, not both. So then you shouldn’t have bought the Tablo to just complain about it?
Actually after reading this review below, there are so many limitations of the Amazon Recast it’s a joke to even compare it to the Tablo.
2 streams only? You can only watch on Amazon Fire TV devices? No Roku or Apple TV support? The list goes on.
And lastly, if you are using your tablet or computer remotely aka outside of the house you can get audio with the Tablo, just set the Remote Streaming Quality to anything less than Full Quality and the Tablo will transcode the 5.1 audio to 2.0 AAC for remote playback (aka Tablo Connect feature).
Please read the “Surround Sound & Remote Viewing with Tablo Connect” section.
Maybe if the device had a Dolby Digital Decoder, 5.1 might play on any device. But I’m sure these aren’t free. And device makers are cheap.
Per number 7:
All Dolby Digital decoders, whether 5.1-channel or two-channel, have a unique feature called “downmixing” that assures full compatibility with any playback system.
Thanks for chiming in to something that wasn’t directed at you whatsoever. But yes, I’ve had my Tablo for 2.5 years. And no, I shouldn’t feel blessed that they have added a feature which doesn’t work on all platforms, making it impossible to use. It’s literally no good to anyone who views content on both their TV and via Chrome or Android devices.
Also, your review of the Amazon Recast is wrong. There IS a version with 2 Tuners, in line with the low-end Tablo. There is also a version with 4 Tuners. Both also come with storage built-in, as well as the ability to add additional storage if needed. As for working with Roku and Apple TV – they haven’t brought that functionality yet – because it’s designed to work with the Fire Home Screen and Alexa. And for people like me who have switched out to Fire Sticks throughout their home, that’s better – it’s completely native and integrated, just like Netflix, Hulu, and other apps. Adversely, Tablo’s content is not searchable in this manner. Nor can you use voice controls. Excuse me, but I’ll take a fully functional integration with one device over a “can be used on devices you probably don’t even have” on several.
And lastly, I’m NOT using it outside of my home. And how absurd to even bring up that feature – oh cool, I can leave my house and make it work on my computer! Let me just uproot my desk and take it to the nearest Starbucks so I can actually watch something that is in my home. What a logical suggestion.
Listen, don’t come at me with your rudeness or absurdities. I have a legitimate complaint about this product rolling out a feature that makes it impossible to view content on all platforms with audio. And guess what? The Recast does support surround sound (it did first) and it works on any platform. They also include program guides for free, have integrated storage, and a complete integration with Fire TV. And you want to chastise me for my complaints? When you can’t even write accurate information about the comparable product I mention?! You need to sit down and mind your business.
Amazon’s Recast has the ability to record in 5.1 and downmix depending on playback device… Their product rolled out with this feature and Tablo is trying to catch up – but giving us a sad, halfway version of this feature that most of us can’t even use unless we forego watching on a computer or android device going forward. You’re right, cheap is the right adjective here.
The 4 tuner Recast can still only stream to 2 devices at one time. Another source which quotes the exact same limitation - if those sources are incorrect, I’m sorry for posting wrong information.
“Regardless of which model you choose, though, you can stream video to only two devices at the same time.”
Maybe the audio downmix is possible as others have mentioned, like a remote playback, and that’s ok… I’m just always concerned about the “headroom” of the device and constantly tying up “tuners” (CPUs).
Something for the Tablo devs to discuss and ponder (a flag that’s settable at the client and passed on call so that the server knows whether or not it has to downmix the audio stream).
You’re talking about two different things now… Streams VS Tuners
Recast does this:
Record up to 4 programs at once;
Watch up to 1 live and 1 recorded program on different devices, while recording up to 3 other programs in the background;
Watch up to 2 recorded programs on different devices, while recording up to 4 programs in the background; OR
Watch up to 2 live programs on different devices at once while recording up to 2 other programs in the background.
Yes, it’s less than what Tablo can do as far as viewing goes – but is honestly not an issue for anyone in reality. But, they both have the same number of tuners for simultaneous recording. We have 5 OTA channels, it’s not as if we’re going to need to watch/record more than 4 streams at once from that. There isn’t that much great television! If we were talking about OTA + Cable channels, then this would quite possibly not be sufficient…
Now, Tablo allows you to watch up to 6 devices at once (recorded content) – HOWEVER, if you’ve ever actually tried to do this, the playback is choppy. We’ve tried to have 4 different playbacks at once from recorded content and the experience is not great. And my house is running the top of the line Eero Mesh Routers which do support that kind of heavy internal traffic. This is never an issue when we have multiple users streaming content from services like Netflix, Hulu, Sling, etc. (we’ve tested this to determine if it was a router issue or Tablo issue). To me this signals that the issue is more than likely a Tablo issue.
Again – the need to have more playback than 2 devices at once is likely a rare need considering that this is only for OTA programming. The fact that it’s not supported by Recast and doesn’t really work as advertised by Tablo isn’t problematic for me.
The real issue, as actually indicated by my original reply in this post, is that there is no ability to downmix 5.1 audio locally. Remote playback isn’t a solution. I don’t even use the remote capabilities of Tablo. All I’m concerned about is being able to record the best quality video/audio and be able to watch it from whatever platform I’m using at the moment in my home. This should be a native functionality, not requiring users to hunt through forums or install codecs to make it work. This is not an unreasonable expectation.
It honestly just sounds like the Recast may be a better solution for your situation. In the end, the fact that as cord cutters we have many more choices than we used to is a win for all of us and we can simply go with the one that meets our needs the most.
In my case, I get way more than 5 OTA channels I record content on so I have more situations regarding in progress recordings and playback that would limit me if I were to move to a Recast. Also in my case, I don’t have a 5.1 system so some of the limitations you mention just don’t apply to me, thus given my other needs, Tablo is still a better solution for me.
Having said that, there are Android devices that support 5.1 playback, it just may be none of your devices are those devices so making a blanket statement about the functionality being no good to anyone who views 5.1 content on their Android device is misinformation in reality.
It should be fairly easy to incorporate a downmix codec which would function on the local device, not on Tablo itself. Audio can be recorded at 5.1, streamed to the device, and transcoded if required to the appropriate audio for playback. I honestly don’t understand why that would have been ignored when developing this new feature. Even free(ish) products like Plex have the ability to do this…
I have a feeling that this was just a rush to release new features to compete with Amazon’s Recast release. I get it, but it has to work on all platforms or it’s useless to us. I started recording programs with 5.1 which I now just can’t watch on my computer where I spend my entire day working in my office. I’ve now just had to stop recording in 5.1 which is a major bummer. It’s Sophie’s choice – better quality in some rooms, or playback everywhere.
It might be better for me, but I’ve got a Tablo now and don’t want to change over devices. This is a super easy thing that they should be able to remedy. If Plex can do it with a free service, Tablo can certainly do it.
I do have more than 5 OTA channels accessible here, we have like 50 in the area – I just only subscribe my Tablo to the ones we actually use and record content from (ABC, CBS, Fox, CW, NBC, PBS). There are a few others I kept in there, but for the most part that’s all we care about and I think that would be the same for most.
I don’t personally use any Android devices other than a few Fire tablets, which I don’t even use for streaming from Tablo – that statement about 5.1 playback not working on Android devices came from Tablo directly, same for Chome/browser playback on computers. I’m sure there are ways to get around both, but it requires installing/configuring different codecs to handle the audio, which I just don’t really have the time to do.
The bottom line is that this feature needs work so it can actually function for all users regardless of playback device. This isn’t a hard thing to do from the development side – Recast, Plex, and other devices/apps do it already. The wheel doesn’t need to be reinvented. And considering we’re all either paying a monthly fee to them or bought a lifetime subscription, I’d expect it to be a priority for a company that Amazon’s big guns are aimed at, where market share is being lost daily. They need to have the better product, this is one area they are not.
Doesn’t the Recast re-transcode the whole recording on the fly. If so that’s not the same as downmixing which only downmixes the audio on the fly.
And couldn’t the downmixing of Dolby 5.1 actually have a Dolby patent which would make incorporating a 5.1 downmixer not so easy.
Generally speaking, Plex (server) transcodes.
The ability to detect if the end device can actually perform downmixing somehow… well, you get my point. End device SW transcoding could be very painful.
Not saying it isn’t a good idea, especially if supporting a limited set of clients… or you could target the feature to just the clients that support it.
Edit: Let me add that end devices that somehow support downmixing would probably already “work” with Tablo shoving the surround sound to it already… you’d think?
I’m not positive on how the Recast handles the audio, I only know of the end result – 5.1 where possible, 2 otherwise.
From the standpoint of a software developer, it’s more likely that downmixing is the pathway forward. You always want to go with the easiest solution, and from what I’m reading on your comment, your suggestion would be to essentially have two versions of the audio stored, streamed as needed. At least that’s how I read what you said…
The easiest path is to record in 5.1, stream, and then have the local client transcode as needed. Transcoding is fast and seamless.
As far as Dobly goes, there are other codecs out there if a licensing agreement can’t work out. There is no need to use Dobly at all for this… this technology isn’t new and there are tons out there that are open source even.
When you see a device with a 500Gb drive that can only store 75 hours of recording you can safely bet it’s storing mpeg2. And that means it transcodes based on the target device.
I would rather have smaller recording files stored in HLS h.265, not transcode, and live with any restrictions.