More and more crossed out play buttons

For whatever reason I am now getting more and more non recorded programs on my Tablo. It’s frustrating because I don’t know it’s not recording until it’s to late. My hard drive only has 350 GB of 2 TBs used so it’s not a capacity issue. It seems like it’s losing connection to my hard drive (toshiba canvio desk). I reset the tablo at it seems to work for a while(a day maybe) then it stops recording again. I’ve been pretty happy with my tablo but this is starting to get frustrating not having recordings when I should. I seemed like the issue started after the most recent update. Any guidance or support on this issue would be appreciated.

@jwhitesel Can you check a few things and send me the details? Support@tablotv.com.


Network connectivity: is your Tablo setup via Wifi or Ethernet? What kind of speeds do you see on your home network?
Remember to factor in inclement weather - has there been an increase in storms/bad weather that might impact the OTA signals in your area?
Antenna placement: make sure your antenna is in the most ideal location in/around your home. If it gets knocked over and the recording/signals get corrupted, your recording will fail.


My tablo is setup with Ethernet and it is right next to my comcast router. I have over 75 MBs internet access speeds on my home computer. My antenna signal is strong. It’s an outdoor rooftop antenna with an amplifier and I have solid green on all my channels. The only connectivity issues I seem to have is the Tablo and my Hard Drive. There is a single little blue indicator light on my hard drive that is supposed to be solid when properly connected. It only stays solid for a day at most and then it starts blinking.

@jwhitesel is your HDD on the tested/confirmed good HDD list?  I haven’t been following this thread so If you already answered, I apologize.

@jwhitesel That’s a good question from @PiX64 - have you noticed these connectivity issues between your Tablo and a different HD?


@jwhitesel

Check your manual for the HDD, that blinking light usually just means activity like reading or writing - I’ve found the Tablo when not recording or watching recordings still accesses the HDD for hours - I have no idea what it’s doing. DLing guide data? Optimizing the disk space? Je ne sais pas.

Even if you’re watching live tv, it’ll be using the HDD, guess it’s buffering to it.

@theuser86


I dunno if that is necessarily true.  There is a bit of onboard ram so its more than likely that the livetv buffer is kept in cache for a short time, and then transferred off onto the disk.  Only reason I suggest this is because 1) Ram is faster than seek/read/write on a HDD and 2) When i just setup a new tablo yestserday I didn’ tyet have a HDD.  I wasn’t able to record, but I was able to watch LiveTV…

@TabloSupport - Can you confirm?

@theuser86 @PiX64 You’re both right - the Tablo stores Live TV info temporarily on the HD in order to allow you to FF/RW Live TV. When you leave the channel, this information is wiped out. If, however, you don’t have an HD attached, this information is stored locally on the Tablo’s RAM.



Pix64, the only other HD I have was a seagate backup plus powered, that the Tablo never recognized. I tried to find info on my HD drive, and the only thing I could find was a solid blue light meant it had connectivity, and it never said anything about what a blinking light means. Recently the unit has been recording, but it’s so hit or miss. Recently its always a miss on something I really want to watch! The. It’s off to hulu.

@jwhitsel That’s stinks. Did u take a look at the list of know working compatible HDDs? I have 2 2TB WD canvios and they work perfect… Any chance at picking up one on sale? The 2 TB canvio is 89 with free shipping from amazon prime.

@jwhitsel - I haven’t received a ticket from you yet, if you’re still having issues, please don’t hesitate to send me an email. We’ll get you up and running ASAP. Support@Tablotv.com


My 2-tuner Tablo has been working great since I received it in early April, but recently I ran into the same problem as the OP.  I started getting failed (crossed out) recordings, most recently I had a full week of shows fail (and some others).  I did not notice because they don’t show on the Roku interface (I thought the lack of recordings was because of re-runs), but upon looking at the web interface I saw all the failures.  When I noticed the problem, I attempted to watch live TV through the web-interface to verify reception.  I got a weird error (sorry it flashed by too quickly), and then went into a loop trying to connect to the Tablo - eventually connecting properly.  After this occurred the unit seemed to be ok - so some type of reset evidently occurred.  Not sure what caused this, but my Tablo had not been power cycled in a while.  Hopefully this is something that can be resolved with future updates because I don’t want to have to babysit the device.  (I did submit a support ticket to Tablo)

My Tablo is wired, no reception problems (I actually watched a short excerpt of a program directly OTA, and later when I looked at the Tablo recording, it had failed - OTA and Tablo share the same antenna feed).  Using a recommended Seagate Backup Plus HD.

I’ve had this happen twice on my 2-tuner. Once it gets in that mode, all recordings will fail. On both occasions, when I noticed it, I tried live TV. When I did that, I got an error something along the line of “weak signal”. It appears the Tablo then reboots and everything is fine.




My usage might be unusual in that I might go an extended time (>1 week) without accessing the Tablo (but there are always scheduled recordings).




I just installed the 4-tuner today. It will be interesting to see if I see the same problem in it.




[BTW, I have a this signal meter – http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=DIGIAIR-PRO-ATSC&ss=192080 – which can measure MER, BER, etc. My rooftop antenna is providing good signals.]