I’ve known all along what the issue was, but Tablo support kept telling different. Now I know I was right.
The 2 RF channels that my Tablo wouldn’t pick up, despite them having strong signals. Were RF 3, which are the virtual 33’s. And RF 18, which are the virtual 63’s. (I’m in NYC)
When I first bought this, my very first Tablo, the HDMI dual tuner. I’ve had plenty of other brands DVR boxes before that. So I know how they work. So I couldn’t believe seeing the Tablo not getting these strong channels. I tried rebooting it, resetting it… nothing. No matter how many times I re scanned for channels, it always missed these.
So I got in touch with Tablo support finally, he asked me to put the box in a remote access mode so he could access the box remotely, so he got on the box, checked the channels I mentioned, and he confirmed that yes the tuner it seeing a strong enough signal for these channels, but it can’t lock into them, so it must be because these channels are missing some data, so the tuner rejects it. But I asked him so how come EVERY other tuner I have picks them up perfectly fine. So how come ONLY the Tablo tuner is missing this missing data? But he stuck to his that this is the reason. He recommended I try to contact to channel itself. So I did that! I actually got in touch via email with MeTv local station manager (RF3), and he showed me all the charts showing his channel is perfectly up to code with all guide data and info included. He had no idea what Tablo could be talking about.
But I realized what the REAL reason must be. And now I know for sure I was correct.
Both these channels, RF3 AND RF18. had a few sub channels that are Audio Only channels, like radio channels. So I thought hmmm this must be connected, cause the only 2 channels that have Audio only channels are the only 2 channels missing on the Tablo. So I actually spoke to a Tablo tech, and told him to look into this, cause it looks like they set the tuner to skip over Audio only channels, but that’s causing it to skip the entire RF channel, including the videos channels it carries! But he chuckled and told me I don’t know what I’m talking about. That is not it. Oh well
Now. Today, RF3 was recently sold to a new owner company, and they now cut off all the Audio only Sub channels. (And a few video sub channels as well). And guess what. Now that RF3 has no more Audio only channels, my Tablo for the first time picks them up now no problem! I JUST KNEW IT! I knew this is was the issue. If they only listened they easily could of corrected it probably
First, glad to hear your problem got somewhat “resolved”, at least in the sense you can now see that channel.
If your conclusion is that the Tablo, with it’s current design, will skip over channels that have audio only sub channels, what is the reference to “easily could of correct it probably”? I’m not arguing that you may have identified a limitation, or even an oversight in the Tablo design, I’m asking what you believe could be done to correct it short of changing the Tablo design? It doesn’t seem like this would be easily corrected.
Isn’t there metadata for each channel/sub-channel indicating if it contains audio only or video. And if video what the audio streams(if any) are. Seems like someone’s software could just ignore audio only sub-channels.
And one would think this would have to be fixed on the ATSC 3.0 HDMI model since this combination might be more common. Especially since the only ATSC 3.0 station broadcasting in San Diego appears to be doing audio only channel mixed with video channel via ATSC 3.0 broadcast.
I don’t know about your situation, but PBS in the Portland, Oregon area broadcast their FM audio signal on RF 10 and my Tablo sees it and plays it just fine.
I believe a software patch could redirect the tuner not to reject Audio only channels. Or if that isn’t possible. At least fix it in upcoming tuners? I thought
That really surprises me. That pokes a big hole in my theory. But I still have to believe I’m right in my case. Maybe your on a different Tablo model so different tuner than mine? Not sure
Well, I have one of the original Tablos, so if anything I would think that yours would have a better tuner.
Anything broadcast on a television frequency should be receivable if the signal is strong enough. The only reason I can think of for why it doesn’t show is if they didn’t encode it correctly.
It’s been a long time since college, so I’m sure I’m missing something
No matter where it’s ATSC 1.0 or 3.0 everything that is broadcast in a OTA RF has a large amount of descriptive metadata. Maybe some of it isn’t correct.
That’s what the station manager confirmed for me, that all the metadata was up to code. Tablo tried blaming it on that. But he showed all the charts of the data showing it broadcasting perfect signal with perfect metadata etc.
Hi,
Stations in SW Florida have audio sub-channels, and my Tablo Dual Lite has no issue. In my opinion having audio channels is a total waste…
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