I’ve posted a few times about the lack of “robustness” in the Tablo Android app decode logic. The current behavior seems to be 1) encounter something in the data stream that can’t be handled, then 2) stop and inform the user “failure to decode”, then 3) ask the user to “Cancel” or “Retry”.
Good. At least the Tablo recognizes there’s a problem and offers the user a solution (vs just crashing).
Bad. There are 2 problems:
This requires the user to manually intervene.
The “Retry” intervention simply attempts to decode the same data stream that tripped things up in the first place. The “Cancel” option isn’t necessarily any better as attempting to leave and then return to the same data stream still seems to run in to the same bad spot.
It seems to me a better solution is to have the app automatically return to the data stream a few times, each time flushing the buffer and then skipping ahead a few seconds to get past whatever error it encountered, and then trying again. Maybe after x attempts it then flashes the error screen and asks the user for intervention, since the entire data stream may be bad (eg weak or loss of signal).
I know on OTA recordings if this issue happens, the “real” solution is to back out, start the recording playback from the beginning, and and then FF past the “bad” spot before resuming playback. This tells me the recording is fine past the glitch point.
As far as live OTA is concerned, sometimes “Cancel” then reselecting the program again works. But other times, I have to exit the Tablo app, restart Android TV, and then go back in to the Tablo app to resume the live OTA program.
This lack of robustness does not exist in any of my 4 different TV tuners. If there’s a “blip” while watching live OTA TV, it just blips and keeps right on playing the program. Aren’t these TV tuners also just processing a digital data stream? Why don’t they get tripped up by data glitches? If I switch between the Tablo app and live TV using the TV tuner, Tablo is stuck and the TV tuner is fine.
Tablo, please pass this along to the Tablo app programmers if you are listening.
New user here and overall, very impressed with the device. The above referenced problem has occurred to me several times in the 3 weeks I’ve used it. Very annoying, and frustrating to non tech users (like my wife), who have difficulty getting past the error when it occurs. In my case I see the issue when there is a marginal signal, or windy conditions that vibrate the outdoor antenna. If the program is recoded one must back up and FFWD past the time the error occurred to resume the recorded show. I am using latest 1.6 App for the Fire stick FWIW. An ability to skip ahead a second or to when pressing “Retry” is all it needs, I think. Thanks!
I have had the Tablo for about 3 weeks and I just had this issue occur for the first time last night. Last night, reception was worse than usual. The Tablo handled minor picture break ups OK and continued playback, but it could not handle a more serious drop in reception. As others have posted, if you start the recording from the beginning and fast forward past the bad spot in the stream, the recording continues. That is an extremely annoying way to handle the problem.
I agree with classicrockguy, a better way to handle this would be for the app to automatically skip ahead 10 seconds and retry. It should do this 4 or 5 times before displaying the same error screen as it does now. (The Tablo should automatically do what we now have to do manually).