It would be nice to be able to play a single stream from the Tablo, and have multiple TV’s watch the same stream at the same time. ie: some sort of multicast that was only using 1 Tuner for Live TV, and none for Recorded Shows. This would allow TV’s in different rooms to be watching the same show in sync with each other, instead of tying up multiple streams of Bandwidth, and each TV playing a different timeline.
6/8/2019 4:18pm CDT
Note: Edited to be slightly more accurate about Live TV vs Recordings.
I suspect you’re thinking some type of video distribution system/device. With tablo - network latency per device would most likely be a bottle net show stopper.
When I have two TVs on OTA (in the morning getting ready) with the news, I can tell there are millisecond delay with the audio. I suspect variations with the processing differences, with tablo, each playback device variations…
So you are saying that I can play a single stream from Tablo, and watch it on multiple TV’s? How do I do that? Or, were you just talking about OTA signals? I understand that each TV will be off by whatever it’s Sound/Video processing sync is, but that is not the issue. If it is off by a second or less, I am fine with that. Most of the TV’s are in different rooms, so there wouldn’t be any echo.
I am thinking of connecting a FireStick to this:
and using it to Multi-cast, as an alternative solution.
I just haven’t found a specific app that runs on my Samsung TV’s that can connect to a Live Stream vs an On Demand stored video.
suggest the HDMI are inputs and convert/encode to a streaming format - over a network. You need a source with an HDMI output - not on a tablo. Maybe a converter box like ones mentioned here Things you see at Wal*mart.
I truly have no expertise here beyond, currently tabo is extremely unlikely your answer, at least not without other devices.
As for as a feature request - sure, similar to what I do with music on Amazon Echo devices… so the possibility exists.
tablo doesn’t use 1 tuner per device (or recording)?
They asked…
Even if tablo plays the same show across several device, it doesn’t synchronize them… even if everyone could press play at the same time. Tablo doesn’t have a facility simulcast.
Alright, but it does reserve an entire tuner per recording(?) Technically that could be 1 tuner per channel, including sub channels. But I don’t think they’ve done that.
Well, I don’t really use tablo for watching TV, so I don’t have much experience.
So even though it can stream the same channel up to 6 devices (some limitations may apply) I have a strong degree of certainty it doesn’t sync them, even though it’s sending a simultaneous stream - it’s device dependent. (I’ll try to stay on topic )
No tuners are used for playing back recorded content, unless you’re doing it remotely.
One tuner is used per live TV channel being streamed, regardless of the number of clients receiving the stream.
There’s no way to synchronize playback of recorded content, except manual stop/start. Live TV will be synchronized to the limit of the various client’s decoding delays.
That is why I mentioned plugging the FireStick into one of the HDMI ports above. The FireStick has the Tablo App, and when it is playing to the HDMI, it can be simulcast via the URayTech using it’s multicast capabilities. I just need the appropriate App on the Samsung TV’s to stream one of the available Multicast Protocols provided by the URayTech. They say that VLC can do it, but it is not available on any of my Samsung TVs. The URayTech can simultaneously stream 4 video sources out to 4 separate protocols for each stream.
I am pretty sure it will do what I want, but I may have to use FireSticks on each of the Samsung TV’s to get an appropriate Live Streaming App.
I was just hoping to avoid all the layering, and Multicast directly from the Tablo.
For the record, I was not trying to multicast live TV, so I still don’t need to tie up any tuners on the Tablo, although, through the URayTech that would still be the same, because it is providing the stream to the TV’s, instead of the Tablo.
BTW, the bandwidth should only be the equivalent of streaming 1 video, since it is a multicast protocol, and is NOT point-to-point, so all the receivers just have to listen to the stream…
When I play Tablo recordings, Plex server recordings, DVD’s or BD’s I like to be able to watch them in sync through out my house.
In order to maintain the best quality I set up a 4X2 HDMI Matrix switch (4 in & 2 out) at my living room TV where I have a VHS/DVD player, Bluray player, Roku 4 and nVidia Shield connected to the matrix switch. I have run HDMI cables throughout the house and with additional splitters and switches I can watch the same program on all six TV’s or if I want I can watch a different feed in the rest of the house from what the living room TV is viewing. I could have purchased a 4X4 or larger Matrix switch and that would have provided even more options, but 4X2 adequate for my needs.
Using Roku and Shield remote apps on old smart phones, I can control those players throughout the house, the only downside is that the HDMI Matrix switch, DVD and BD players must be controlled from the living room (IR remote only).
I realize that this probably isn’t feasible for many people, but this is how I solved my multiple TV’s with the same signal issue. For viewing live TV, I have rg6 or rg59 cable run to each TV and both Tablo units again by using multiple distribution amps and splitters from an Antop AT 400-BV antenna. About the only time I use the Tablo for live TV viewing is when I’m using my tablet to watch sever storm broadcasts. That way I can watch one channel on the main TV and a different channel on the tablet.
ok, in this respect I see you using the FireStick directly to play across multiple devices. As far as tablo knows, in this setup, there is only a single device - source FireStick streaming it’s content. So, I’d say you’re not directly using the tablo and the source for the URay, and the tablo never sees the URay…
This is somewhat different scenario, that what I thought you were implying, watching TV using just a single tuner on the tablo in sync or several devices.
If I understood you correctly, a Live TV stream from the Tablo uses only 1 Tuner to stream that content, but multiple TV Clients can consume that same stream? How is that done, just bring up the Tablo App on each TV Client and run the Live TV for that show?
Playback of recorded content can only be consumed by 1 TV Client. So, multiple streams would have to be connected (1 for each TV Client), if more than 1 TV wanted to view the same Recorded content at the same time. Multiplying the Bandwidth used on the network by the number of TV Clients. None of the multiple TV Clients can be synchronized.
Is there a technical reason for the second bullet point?
To be clear: I don’t want to do the first Bullet Point, only the second one, and I’m not sure why anyone would want to do the first one, since you could just tune all the TV’s to the OTA signal, and avoid using the Tablo completely.
This is still a feature request a Single Playback stream from the Tablo to be consumed by multiple TV Clients. The solution I posted earlier is both complicated and expensive, so I am still requesting the multicast as a feature to the Tablo.
Only one tuner, but a stream for each client. It’s not a multi-cast.
Correct.
It’s not a trivial implementation, and the UI considerations in the client are even worse.
That assumes everyone has the OTA signal distributed to each TV. Which is not a good assumption. There’s nothing special about live TV vs recorded content playback streams.
A valid feature request, but I expect the engineering effort to do it far outweighs the value gained.
I think there may be some mis-interpretation of “stream”. Tablo uses HLS or HTTP Live Streaming, from what we’ve understood. From a networking perspective, each client or device gets it’s own stream, from a playlist. All stream from same playlist, single playlist. Perhaps from one may refer to this a a stream.
When you watch live TV, a playlist is created and streamed to each client. (presumably created in real-time, also allows for pausing and rewinding). So again, there is a network steam for each client or device.
For the most part, this doesn’t change things, I’m just trying to understand or clarify.
I assume none of these clients don’t want to rewind, pause, or fastforward.
And live OTA TV via coax defeats the concept of IPTV. And I’m still trying to find a free mechanism to connect my coax to my tablet, laptop, and phone.
Please forgive my lack of the correct Jargon. When I say stream I mean any output that is being streamed out from the Tablo to a Client TV via an IP Socket connection.
So, again, due to my lack of understanding of how the Tablo software is implemented. I assume that the Tablo has all the intelligence here and the Client Apps are pretty “Dumb”. ie: If any command (rewind, fast forward, etc) is sent to the Tablo, it does all the work, and the Client just shows the result. Meaning that the stream produced by the Tablo would have the TimeCodes, etc., and the Client TV app would merely display what was sent in the stream. With the Client not maintaining the “State” of the Stream etc. No different than “Live OTA TV”, you connect at any time, and display what is currently being streamed.
In this scenario, doing a Fast Forward, Rewind, etc., would work from any Client, because the stream would then change for all of them. Each Client TV would just display whatever was coming down the stream now.
Think of it like a “Live” Podcast. You can’t change the timeline with a Fast Forward, maybe a Pause or Rewind if you are persisting it locally. Sirius has something similar with a local buffer in their radios that has maximum of a few minutes. This is not practical with in this scenario due to the amount of Data and the limited memory of the Client TV/App.
I would also be happy with not being able to do much with the Stream, unless it was by the Client TV that started it, if that made things simpler.
To give some context here, I have a lot of TV’s (13 I think), so having it be able to watch something recorded when moving from room to room is a big plus, like for Parties, Watching a Game, etc. Limiting the control to a single location is not big of a deal. In fact, in a party situation, it might be a benefit.
As for defeating the purpose of IPTV, I disagree. Like another User stated in a different blog post, I have coax to all of the TV’s already, so I feel that “Live OTA” is fine for that. But to your point, if it is IPTV, then we should be “All In” there as well. Allowing All the Client TVs to play a single or different streams, up to the limit of the Tablo and the Network’s respective Bandwidths. If anything, this would reduce the bandwidth load on the Tablo and the network, leaving it available for other purposes.
I’m pretty sure that is NOT what’s happening. It’s my understanding that the client reads the playlist from the Tablo, then requests video segments as needed. So the FF/RW processing is actually happening on the client.
What you seem to be missing is that you can’t force all playbacks of the same show/channel to be in sync. So the client needs to be updated to provide a way to differentiate whether the client wants the shared stream or an individual stream. Which is really complicated UI.
Then of course you actually need to implement the multi-cast at the network layer. Which is not trivial.
So, like I said, a lot of work for a small subset of use cases.
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