Many program icons / posters now missing

Support & Troubleshooting
1

I’ve recently added a new quad unit, and have downloaded the EPG and associated artwork at least 10 times, in an unsuccessful attempt to get the desktop icon artwork for the program/TV shows I want to schedule and record.

For many of my long and scrolling list of available TV shows, the icon merely shows a text title. There is no graphic/poster image.

When I look at my recordings, just as the scheduled icons are missing artwork, so too are the recording Icons. My Tablo desktop has maybe 50% of the artwork correctly and the remaining 50% missing

I notice when doing an EPG update that the progress indicator goes from 0 to 100%, over a period of several minutes, presumably updating the schedule itself.

Then, a second download progress indicator starts at 0%, and never advances beyond 0% even if I leave the Tablo alone for several hours with no activity by the user. It appears that the download may or may not have actually started, never progresses and never completes.

Perhaps this second download process, if it worked properly, contains artwork I am missing?

Any help and suggestions would be appreciated. I don’t know if this issue is new from the firmware update, or merely some old bug which only reveals itself when a new Tablo box like my recently purchased quad is being set up.

Thank you for any advice or assistance you can offer.

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image1284×2778 533 KB

2

Are the same images missing on your phone and desktop app? If so, that points to the Tablo. If the results are different on those two platforms then you likely have multiple problems.

Assuming it is a Tablo issue I would do the following: Reboot the Tablo (via the blue button) and wait a few minutes after it comes back online. Then run a channel scan, select your desired channels, and click “Add to Guide”. I believe the first download of data is for a 24 hour period so you can see the near-term schedule as quickly as possible and the second download is for the subsequent 13 days of programming. If this doesn’t solve your problem then I would repeat the channel scan but this time deselect all channels and then select only one channel you usually don’t have selected, then click “Add to Guide” and let the 2-step download process fully complete for that one station. Then run the channel scan again, this time selecting the desired channels, then click “Add to Guide”.

If instead you have different results on your phone and desktop app then uninstall and reinstall the app on your phone. For your desktop app, disconnect via the Tablo menu, then click the small red “X” next to your tablo. Then clear your cache, browser data, etc. from your browser settings. Close and reopen the browser and re-add your tablo after it is found.

If all that doesn’t work then I would contact Tablo support. Good luck!

3

Thank you so very much for your detailed reply!

I should have been more specific. All of my connected devices show the identical, partially correct homepage/desktop. (I am familiar with the other type of problem, inconsistent displays from one client to another, also having dealt with that one years ago.)

I will definitely try the procedure you recommended, and report back on my results.

Again, thanks very much!

4

I believe the initial download is “the schedule”. The artwork comes along more in the background. Seems like sometimes if you wait it out it populates as time goes on.

Particularly on a fresh scan or newly added channel. It has to sort through all the shows and movies - several thousands collecting all the data and pictures.

Maybe I’m mistaken, but this is somewhat my experience.

5

I am seeing the same problem as @RetiredEngineer reports although as of now I don’t have as many missing images. I have seen the issue before with new shows but now images are missing that were previously displaying properly for shows such as “Blacklist”. I have not updated firmware due to so many reported connectivity issues. I don’t have any new Tablo devices.

Just thought of something from the new firmware announcement,
Tablo Firmware Release 2.2.32
• Adds support for required guide data image change coming later this month

In my case maybe older firmware is the issue?

6

I went through the various steps, and it made a small improvement. The number of missing thumbnails has dropped from maybe 50% to now around 25%.

Based on using this equipment for quite a few years, I have to agree with the opinion stated above that time and background processing seem to eventually correct most if not all of this problem. I have also noted that thumbnail artwork may suddenly switch to a new and very different design without any intervention on my part, reinforcing the theory that background processing rather than user initiated downloads can effectively refresh these icons automatically.

I may repeat this process once again to see if I can gain additional thumbnails. Thanks very much to all for suggestions and recommendations.

1 Like
7

One follow on note as I saw a recent comment regarding scheduled shows becoming unscheduled after a rescan. This also happened to me too so please check your scheduled shows are correct. Some of them look right on the surface but the episodes airing today and tomorrow were unscheduled but subsequent airings were fine.

8

I actually encountered the very problem you predicted. Recent, Sunday news shows were not correctly rescheduled.

The major reason I bought my second and third Tablos was specifically to provide enough redundancy that I would not miss favorite broadcasts. This morning and early afternoon, my other older 4 tuner recorder came to the rescue and recorded all my shows.

9

I have the same Poster problem that OP posted. Here’s the details:

Original 4 Tuner Tablo running 2.2.34 firmware. The poster problem started for me before the 2.2.32 firmware was installed.

Just replaced a WD USB Powered 4TB drive with a new Seagate 4TB drive with an AC Adapter. To replace the drive, I deleted all programs from the Tablo, swapped drives, had the Tablo format the drive and went on. All schedules that existed before the swap still exist and are working fine. This did not affect the Poster problem either better or worse.

Here’s screenshots to show what’s happening:

Safari 13.1.2 for Mac on macOS High Sierra 10.13.6:

Safari
Safari1942×679 233 KB

As you can see some posters are cut off as if they are actually a wide format poster. Others are ‘generic’ blue posters with the text of the name.

Here’s Firefox 88.0 for Mac:

Firefox
Firefox2405×802 327 KB

And the Tablo for iOS app on my iPhone (HTML App 1.9.2-rc1 build 235):

Tablo iOS App
Tablo iOS App640×1136 199 KB

The Roku client shows the same.

The problem affects all Posters in the Tablo (PrimeTime, TV Shows, etc.) Movies seems less affected. Many movie posters look cropped so items on the edges are cut off. So the problem is consistent and has been for months. In fact it seems to be getting worse as some posters that were correct have been replaced with incorrect posters or the ‘generic’ ones.

EPG updates appear to work correctly every night as they should. Recordings are happening as scheduled.

I can verify that the “Optimizing Guide” procedure is happening about 3:30am-ish every day as well.

I can’t do the blue button reboot suggested above at this time as it is recording. But since this problem has started, I have had the unit powered off at least two times. And I have performed a full scan to add a new channel in the area.

Don’t know what else to try but willing to entertain suggestions! Thanks! - Chris

10

Chris,

I have spent many hours screwing around with this, and have exactly the same messed up icons as you do, after many months since I originally started this thread in February.

I have multiple players including many Rokus, Apple TV’s, iOS devices, Nexus players, and recently added an Amazon Fire Cube. Each and every player shows the same messed up icons.

As a Tablo owner for nearly 8 years, going back to the very beginning of the company, I have learned a number of things. When it comes to Tablo, some things just are not gonna work right, ever. Or if they were working right, may stop working right when an update takes place. To this very day, after endless updates over the 7+ year ownership, I have three different model Tablos which usually connect but sometimes don’t, usually allow remote access, but sometimes don’t, usually schedule and record properly but sometimes don’t, etc.

And I have come to accept the fact that this is a temperamental and, in my personal opinion, overly complex product which will never work totally. It is, however, a wonderful product nonetheless, supported by an exceptionally helpful and dedicated group of great people, trying hard to make things right.

In the course of my earlier complaints, which were posted in literally hundreds of posts in this forum, a significant number of inexperienced fanboys wasted a great deal of my time trolling and disputing whether my complaints were legitimate, most often using the specious argument that the problem could not exist since they were not experiencing it. Having three Tablo units online here simultaneously with every available player makes it abundantly clear that these problems are very often dependent upon specific user configurations. As a retired engineer, I sympathize with those who need to debug these problems. The sheer number and complexity of supported players and Tablo models makes it very difficult.
So does the variety of disk drives, routers, OTA environments, etc.

So, this particular problem remains puzzling. I find it also intriguing that the very same show, recorded at the very same time on the very same channel, may have different icons depending upon which of my three units is used for recording. Good Morning America, for example, a daily news show I have been recording/watching for years, has one icon poster on my 4 tuner unit with an entirely different one on my new quad recorder.

I hope somebody figures out why you and I and others are missing desktop icons. For the time being, I am willing to ignore this and other Tablo issues since they do not prevent me from using the equipment as originally intended.

Larry

2 Likes
11

Pretty sure it’s related to this item in the 2.2.32 firmware update…

NEW - Tablo Firmware Release 2.2.32 - Announcements - TabloTV Community

image

It would seem whatever change was coming back in February isn’t fully implemented still or something is out of sync in what the guide provider is providing vs how the Tablo is formatting it now.

1 Like
12

There is some more info here about some of these issues. Long story short is that hopes are for some of it to be corrected in the next firmware update.

2 Likes
13

It is altogether possible that this poster issue is entirely beyond the control of Tablo. The provider of the EPG may be totally responsible.

Not a big deal, but for those of us older folks with poor vision, it makes icon recognition way more difficult. The graphics are easy to recognize whereas the small text is not.

I actually bought the Amazon Cube since it permits voice announcement of each recorded title, given that the new quad Tablo server icons were mostly text only. For a mere $100, it provides me with a good work-around.

Larry

15

In the thread linked by smess just above, you’ll find this from Tablo TV:

The test data we were given was sorted by size but the actual data being provided since the switchover isn’t. This lack of sorting means that sometimes the incorrect aspect ratio image is used. The plan is to add sorting logic to the next firmware update.

16

One more data point. On my two 2 tuner units I saw different behavior. The tuner that had many recordings & schedules of both active and inactive series had more missing program icons than the tuner without any recorded or scheduled programs. I removed my scheduled shows and old recorded series that had blank icons and am now at about 3 missing icons out of ~220 shows with my 3 PBS stations.

I agree with the previous posting on having to give up on perfection when it comes to the Tablo eco system, especially with this fee based artwork. My tuner that had the most issues was seasonally offline for over 6 months, so the firmware update probably occurred on an out-of-date guide database as well.

The apps and user experience are better if you can minimize the number of channels and scheduled programs. Displaying cached program textual titles immediately and then letting us scroll rapidly through the text would be a better browsing experience than the current… wait for it… there is the icon now experience.

The experience is improved on my Roku 4K Stick+ vs. earlier FireTV stick, but I still need to move over to the A-Z column… nope, no “find This Old House” on the voice controlled Roku!

17

What’s a bit frustrating here is that the “beautiful cover art” is something that I am supposedly paying for with the guide subscription. I hope it can be resolved, but at least functionality has remained in place.

18

Are you referring to the cover art being cut off or entirely missing? If the former, it’s directly related to the guide provider changes I linked above and is a temporary issue.

19

Both I think. I’ve noticed the offset nature of lots of the artwork, as well as mainstream shows that previously had artwork now just showing text. Yes- I’m eager for the next firmware update that will purportedly fix this. Thanks!

20

I get the whole thing… but temporary?.

That announcement was in February, they said they were misinformed. Several months later, they still don’t know the new dimensions? The resolutions of the graphics our tables display, which they store?

Users believe they need to individually report they’re impacted.

Tablo has a history of posts stating it’s in the works dating back years. This will hopefully get sooner attention. If there were some information, beyond on the road map…

21

Yes, temporary, “lasting for only a limited period of time; not permanent.”