@TabloSupport, thanks for the explanation. I see that 720p = 5, does this mean that the bitrate to my Roku (from Tablo) is 5? How/where does the “Roku recommends a bitrate of 3.8” fit into this?
@mbellaire Yep, the regular 720p setting is sending 5. The 3.8 number comes directly from Roku’s devs - in a lot of cases, this is more of a ‘guideline’ but we were seeing way too much variance in the results to keep sending in 5 all the time.
I will say that on my network with one wired and one wireless Roku 3, they both handle the 1080p Tablo setting just fine. Maybe it is because I have a pretty advanced router.
Yeah - that’s the variance we’re talking about. Part of the problem was that we couldn’t reproduce these types of issues here.
@TabloSupport - I believe you about the variance in the Rokus. I’m not a fan of Rokus, but I’m forced to use it for Tablo (as adding a 3rd device to the mix is silly). I entered this conversation because there IS a way to verify the Netflix bitrate over time and for @mbellaire and me, there is no problem with Netflix sending 5800kbps. Like @snowcat I’ve not had a problem with my wired Roku 3 handling my Tablo set to 1080p.
@TabloSupport After the update, I have only had to restart the Roku 3 one time due to the loading screen freeze up. The chromecast/roku setting has been working for me.
@jkline - As improvements are made to the Tablo Roku app I hope to be able to set my Tablo to record at 1080 again with my wired Roku2 XS (I had to switch to 720 after one of the earlier firmware updates).
I want to report that I still have buffering issues 80% of the time on a CBS recorded shows with the new Roku setting and 20% of the time on any other setting. While this is a decrease it is still not acceptable.
I am seeing less on all recordings on stations other than CBS. To the tune of about 20% of the time which is down from around 60% before the new setting. Which is better but still not acceptable in my opinion. CBS recordings are a total nightmare where it makes it in watchable on the Roku 3 at this time.
I have the 4-Tuner model and I also agree that I experience more issues with the CBS station than any of the others.
I still have DirecTV and there are no pixelation issues on CBS but OTA I notice it a lot. My signal strength is showing all 5 green dots for 28 out of the 31 channels I receive.
@Brent Hm, that’s weird. We haven’t really heard of buffering issues being specific to a channel before. We’ve obviously seen pixelation be channel specific (reception…). If you’d like, you can send me your Tablo’s MAC in a ticket and we can log in to take a look.
@TabloSupport does the quality setting effect the LiveTV Transcoding or is that just used for recording scheduled programs?
Thanks
Add me to the “Loading, Please Wait” club. Last night while trying to watch the Colts play, I Googled “Tablo L” and it filled in the rest so this is a wide spread problem. I have my issue with Live TV and Recordings, with both of my ROKU WiFi connected TV’s (Roku2 and Roku3). To further the notion that this is a TABLO/ROKU issue, I do not have this problem with my iPad Tablo App, which eliminates the ROKU. Once I learn to issue a formal support “ticket” I will do so to ensure proper attention is paid to this.
I love the Tablo model, which is why I bought into this. But this is a show stopper (Pun Intended) if is not resolved.
Tom (Indianapolis)
@Tom_S The “Loading, Please Wait” issues are 99% of the time related to a bandwidth/network issue. The main thing that confuses folks here is the “Netflix streams fine” point.
The reason for this is because the Tablo transcodes video in real time, while services like Netflix can send your network or device(s) specifically low quality streams if they’re having trouble keeping up with the high bitrate. The Tablo can’t do this since we’re playing video in real time.
Most of these complaints centre around low bandwidth devices (like the Roku) and/or devices with small/weak Wi-Fi antennas (like the Chromecast). We’ve added a new recording quality in 2.1.16 with these devices in mind.
You can switch to it by heading over to the Tablo web app at http://my.tablotv.com/ and going to the Settings menu.
Under the ‘Recording section’ switch to ‘HD 720p - Chromecast/Roku’. This new setting will become active for all future recordings and Live TV - it won’t become active for any old recordings.
If you’d like more details on this, or if you have any further questions, feel free to send me a ticket.
Thanks TabloSupport. I switched to Chrome/Roku as you suggest and will see what that does. Last night while watching the local news (not chrome/roku), I had no issues while the broadcast was coming from the News Studio, but when it was coming from a reporter in the field I would get “Loading Please Wait” often. Does this make any sense to you, or offer a clue?
My WiFi is also 802.11g. If I were to upgrade my router to 802.11n would I have less issues? My Tablo/Router connection is Wired Ethernet, but the Roku TV’s are WiFi.
Tom Schaefer
OK, I switched to the Chrome/Roku setting and the last 5 minutes of the local news last night was unwatchable due to continual “Loading Please Wait” messages. I will document a formal Help Ticket. Meanwhile, I have attached the antenna directly to the TV which bypasses the whole point of the Tablo. I understand that this is a start up company, and I am on the edge of some great ideas here, but there has to be progress made soon.
I currently have my Tablo set to the “720/Chromecast/Roku” quality, and haven’t noticed any loading messages recently. However, when my Tablo was set to the “Recommended 720” quality I had some of the same odd problems you’re reporting. Specifically, there was a Tonight Show episode where he had on an elementary school football team and cheerleaders. In the segment the team runs out and a bunch of confetti is dropped - this caused my Roku2 XS (wired) to choke. I could rewind and play the segment again - would stutter each time - even though the rest of the program played just fine. Maybe the Tablo Roku app is asking the Roku hardware to do too much? I hope I don’t get more loading messages, because I am certainly not lowering the quality any lower. I hope that in the future Tablo can optimize their Roku app so that higher qualities are possible with the “slower” hardware (at one time my Roku2 XS could play at the 1080 quality setting, so it is possible). FYI - Playback of the same Tonight show segment mentioned above via the Chrome browser worked ok.