- What is exact model number of the HDD you have?
- Have you tried upgrading the firmware on said drive? Plug the drive into your computer and download the firmware upgrade utility from WD. This has fixed many issues for some.
Misleading error: "Player Error Unable to tune to channel. This is usually caused by poor reception"
@ventz If the disk is going offline, it could throw out the ‘weak signal’ error. Feel free to send us a note and we can check your Tablo’s logs to see what’s going on the with the drive.
@theuser86 -
1.) It’s a “WD Elements 500” (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-elements-500gb-external-usb-3-0-2-0-portable-hard-drive-black/9271045.p?id=1219010357721&)
2.) I haven’t yet, but that was on my todo for tonight since I’ve eliminated everything else (cabled, network switch, antenna, coax, etc.)
@TabloSupport - thanks. Already did (created a ticket titled “Weak Signal - but seems to be due to USB turning off”). Yea, it seems like it’s just going offline and it’s not recognized until unplugged/re-plugged. The thing that gave it away was going to shows from that day (originally) and seeing that they “recorded”, but when you tried playing them it said they had not recorded. That sort of pointed me at looking at the disk. Next time it happens, I am going to check the web interface to see what it thinks the status of the drive is.
(update - forgot to hit send on this)
It looks like there are no firmware upgrades:
I ended up downloading the firmware utility and forcing an update (even though it claimed it was the latest – and if it was the latest, this was from the factory).
Anyway, let’s see what happens. I will wait a few days and report back.
UPDATE: So far so good. It looks like doing a “forced firmware update” after it said the drive was updated actually helped.
I wish there was a way to tag an answer so that it will go to the top after the question 
Anyway, will keep an eye and post updates.
Glad to hear it.
- What told you the drive was up to date the first time before you forced the udpated? Just the WD website? Or the actual WD utility?
- How did you force the firmware to update if the WD utility told you it was up to date?
1.) The windows utility - when I loaded it, it said the firmware was up to date, but you could still press “update firmware” at which point it gave a dialogue that said it was already up to date but you could do it anyway. One of the drives (the main one plugged in) was updated. I had another one (same model) and that one was not. They were purchased ~9-10 months appart.
2.) It was an option after it told you it was up to date. The “force” was simply re-installing the latest firmware over the drive.
UPDATE: Definitely working, but one big negative – ALL of the shows from pre-firmware are non-playable. They still show up as items/artwork/metadata, but when I hit play it starts them and then doesn’t load. (this is on a Roku)
Using the VLC plugin, they don’t even show up.
Via Web, it says “recording file not on disk”
That is weird - that shouldn’t happen.
Can you please try accessing the Tablo using the Chrome browser on a computer? Go to my.tablotv.com and then connect to the Tablo.
Before you do this, please power cycle the hard drive and then power cycle the Tablo.
Sadly I already deleted via the UI. The folders were there yes (via the IP:18080), but I didn’t go through the sub-folders to see if it had the right chunks.
The results were the same via web (used Chrome - yes @ my.tablotv.com). I did not try power cycling however.
The forced update definitely seems to have fixed the “signal” bug.
I see your problem was in April.
I bought a Tablo July 2nd …received it July 10th
Set it up that night. Failed to set up 4 times then
finally came on.
Worked great for 10 days.
This morning could not receive several of my regular channels
that I watch often.
Then I tried recordings.
They existed but several of them did not record some of the episodes.
Started one just to be sure some of them were ok.
Tablo shut down three minutes into recording playback.
The nice blue LED just started fading out …then died.
That was the end of it.
I had set up the Amazon Fire TV as a nice interface since they now
have a Tablo app inside.
Also bought the 2 TB external hard drive.
Bought very nice upscale antenna.
(trying to get rid of uverse now that they have AGAIN increased my bill to $185.00 per month.
This started as a " guarenteed " no price increase for one year. Started at $99.00
Now Tablo is dead, money spent ($500.00 or so). hmmm
Worked great for a while. (ex-wife like that too)
Oh well… a fool and his money are soon parted… or so I’ve heard
I ordered another one. Walmart refunded my money on the first one.
LOL
Yes if it’s within 30 days you can get the seller to exchange it. If not, Tablo will replace it if it fails within one year.
Ironically I am now starting to get this error on one of my channels … I will retest in the weather is forecast to clear skies just to be sure but our other TV using an lesser antenna gets the same channel just fine.