Manually Adding Channels

I live in an area where the major networks are all represented. I receive approximately 28 channels and subchannels. Every now and then one of the stations will add a subchannel that I would like to watch. I know I can rescan, but the ability to manually scan a single channel and its subchannels would be very convenient without having to re-select all the channels from a rescan. I have several digital tuner boxes used with older tv’s and they allow manual single channel scans.

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Thanks for the suggestion @EJC. That would make adding a new channel easier. 

I strongly agree with the suggestion from the original poster.  For some odd reason my Tablo refuses to add a channel to the lineup even though it is one of the strongest channels in our area!  Actually the Tablo tuner picks up those channels that come in much weaker than the station in question.  Of course I “ignore” those channels in my lineup.  I continue to perform the “re-scan” constantly but the Tablo never finds this station.  All other non-Tablo tuners in the household pick up the channel without a problem.  I am convinced that if I was able to add the channel manually, either by frequency or by display channel number or by broadcast channel number, that the Tablo tuner would also receive the signal, five by five.

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I had mentioned the easy add channel instead of having to rescan. I’ll have to Reagan again soon to add Cozi TV on May 1.

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I’m having the same problem that channel 8 (ABC) and 4 (FOX) don’t always appear when I perform a Rescan, even though when they do appear they have 4 dots of signal strength, and if I attach the outdoor antenna to a HDTV they register 5 bars of signal. I wonder if the Tablo has a problem to “too strong” a signal?

Put in my vote for adding channels manually. Here’s how I think the channel scanning feature should work:

Full Channel Scan:

  • Scans for all channels.
  • Re-scans should not delete list of previously scanned channels, it should just add new channels to the list.

Manual Channel Add:

  • Ability to manually add channel and specify the Channel Name/Callsign (Ion/WPXJ-TV), Broadcast Channel Number (23), and Virtual Number (51.1).
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There is another reason to manually add channels. Some channels have a week signal but are still present. For some reason the Tablo is not picking them up but if you put the antenna line into the TV you can see the channel. If we could manually add it in then we could then see how the channel performs through the Tablo.

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Yes you can over power a Tuner. I’ll give you an example:

I have 2 DB8 outdoor antennas stacked and mounted 30 feet off the ground. My local towers are less than 10 miles away. Even though the DB8’s are considered multidirectional, all antennas have a face. If I face my antenna in the direction of my local towers, the signals are too strong and overload my tuners. Tablo is not to blame here. It happens with with all my TV’s (3), my Silicondust HDHomeRun network tuners, and my Tablo.

My antenna is also about 65 miles from a neighboring city’s towers. I turned the face towards those towers. Now I pick up the channels from 2 cities and my local towers are now picked up from the back of the antenna which weakens the signals enough so they do not over load the tuner.

OTA is a tricky business.

Similarly, when I did my Tablo setup last November, I had to re-run the channel scan 4 or 5 times to get the channel list I knew existed (and are all 5 dots once found). Each scan produced a slightly different list of which channel was missing - so I kept doing it until I had success with getting all the ones I wanted. I’ve not had a single problem since then with any of the channel’s reception / recording quality (so I don’t think any are over-powered) - but a manual channel add would have been helpful.

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Finally after 9 tries I was able to get FOX 4, NBC 5, ABC 8 and CBS 11 to all show up at the same time. I would suggest they change the UI to only Add channels and not delete existing channels. Beside each channel would be a checkbox for Delete. To delete a channel the user would check the box and the “Add to Guide” would remove the checked Channels. The could update the “Add to Guide” could be changed to “Update Guide”.

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Do you have any pixelation issues with any of these channels?

No, and they all have 5 dots (I earlier thought they only had 4 dots total).

I agree with all the posters. I’m new to Tablo and am very impressed, but this is a feature that needs to be made available.

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So true, I wish.

Absolutely my situation.

Indeed, this would be a real bonus.

Add my vote for manual channel tuning.

Dilemma: Broadcast towers 2.9 miles away, clear line of sight. TV tuners pull all the stations in perfectly with passive fractal antenna. The Tablo drops out 5 of 17, including one major (NBC). Full bars for the stations it “sees”. Approximately 50 scans during this last week with varying zip codes. Frustrating.

Still like the Tablo though. It seems the boys are trying to address wants and needs as they arise. Will definitely stick around for the next round or two.

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Any update to this? Initial request is over a year old and this would be fantastic

A number of people have asked for and mentioned this request and I believe
Tablo has it on their list, but so far nothing from Tablo…