Missing some Channels

Support & Troubleshooting
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I am missing some channels when Tablo does a channel search. The channels are 58.1 to 58.3
Is this too high a number for the search? The tower is not that far away, 30 miles, and I get all the other stations. I use a rooftop digital antenna, so I should be getting these channels.

Does Tablo base the search on the zip code? Tried a different zip, but can’t seem to change it, always reverts back to my zip and I do not have GEO location on that device. Maybe I need to reset the Tablo to change the zip.

One other thing. Not sure about the line of site but I definitely don’t have a line of site on some of the other towers/channels that I do get, so not sure if that really matters. The channels I don’t get are all on the same tower 30 miles south of me which is sparsely populated from here to there.

Shouldn’t Tablo list these channels, even with poor or no reception? I have three other channels that are listed from another tower that I can’t pull in, but are listed anyway. Those channels show one red dot. 30+ other channels have 5 green dots. Channels 58.1 to 58.3 are not even listed. Does Tablo control what channels are listed?

Any suggestions?

1 Like
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Channels with poor reception, yes, channels with no reception, no.

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I get mixed results with my Tablo tuner. I routinely rescan once a week or so, will sometimes find a channel or two (or three) that is either not there (or was there and has dropped out), whereas my AIR TV player and Stream + boxes see them and each one pulls them in.

Sometimes a rescan the next day, will find them. Like you, I’ve wondered about that zip code thing. I’ve tried changing mine as well … sometimes sticks, sometimes not and it reverts back to the zip code it had chosen.

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Yes, I think the Tablo is too sensitive and doesn’t pick up everything.

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You’ll also see posts about a TV’s native tuner pulling in a few stations not seen by the Tablo and sometimes vice versa.

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So why is that? Does the Tablo have sub-par tuners? I had an HDHomeRun before the Tablo, and it picked up these stations. I returned that device because I couldn’t use my own drives for recording. Didn’t want to pay for ‘Cloud service’. They even charge for the app to be able to record and get a usable guide.

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I don’t think Tablo tuners are sub-par at all, but I did have the same experience as you, with regards to the HD Homerun (tuner seemed sharp). Like you, I also decided that between the two, Tablo got the nod. In my case - I live in an area where I can do a rescan once a month and find a few new / different stations, whether on my TV or Tablo (and sometimes see one or two drop out). Problem is, they are not always the same, so I don’t know what to make of it.

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At times signal strength does not directly convert to signal quality. The sound to noise ratio may be too low.

As an example I have a hdhomerun duo. It likes to rescan the channels over night. When I got up today it reported 41 channels.

I know I can’t receive 41 channels. So I just rescanned and it now reported 36 channels.

Of the 36 channels just reported from the rescan, three can not be tuned due to poor signal quality.

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I’m also having problems with missing channels that are received by and have good signal levels on different receivers than the Tablo, and I’ve tried combinations of different preamps and different antennas in different directions. My next step is an LTE filter on the Tablo.

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More proof that the Tablo tuners are sub-par. Let us know how that works out.

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Considering I’ve tried multiple levels of gain,my missing channels aren’t showing up as borderline on my other set, and I am picking up some weaker channels on the Tablo, it seems and I’m hoping my problem is overload from an interfering signal. FM Fool doesn’t show any super strong FM stations near me so I’m going to lean towards a strong LTE signal. And if thats the case, my guess it isn’t the tuner in the Tablo, but the internal preamp used to make up for the loss incurred by splitting one antenna input across 4 tuners. Especially if it covers the 700 to 800 Mhz range (the :LTE band/old RF channels 52 to 69). When I get the LTE filter I’ll let the group know how it works.

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For what is’s worth, I just got an LTE filter. I can see nothin positive it does for me and it costs me a little signal stength, making it even hard to receive weak channels.

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