NEW Firmware Release - 2.1.18

Announcements
41
I've seen a major uptick in momentary buffering instances on my Roku3's since the update. Each buffering is very quick...typically less than a second, but this almost never happened prior to the 2.1.18 update. Now it's happening every 5-10 minutes. Really annoying. I've done both a soft reset and a hard reset...issue persists.

3x Roku 3s (Cat 5 ethernet/Powerline ethernet/5Ghz)
Tablo Quad, set to 1080p recording

Anyone else seeing anything similar?


My setup is the same with 3 rokus 3 devices and a tablo quad all on gig-E.  In addition to the macroblocking I’ve seen an increase in the amount of buffering which is annoying given that it puts up the full screen message rather than just overlaying the message.
42

and I should have clarified that at any one time there’s usually no more than one roku streaming from the tablo.

43

I am beginning to wonder if there is a hardware flaw in the 4 tuner Tablo which prevents it from properly encoding 1080i video content material -> 1080p?    I would respectully ask the Tablo development team to provide the option for recording quality at 1080i (not 1080p) as whatever algorithm is being used to get to 1080p has signficant issues.     I understand this may not be an option for Roku however the current status of 1080i video content is unacceptable.    Its also becoming clear that a global recording setting 720p or 1080p may be suboptimal.    Why should a 720p channel be encoded at 1080p or why should a 1080i program be encoded at 720p?     If one is trying to save bandwidth for wireless streaming 720p is understandable however most high end smart phones are 1080p and user poll has already made it clear Tablo needs to improve the Living room environment


I want a nice EPG for Roku and support for additional client devices but I would submit to the development team there are picture quality issues with 1080p which still exist.
44

@snowcat - Thank you for the info regarding encoding of 720p content (channels).    I’ve rebooted Tablo and external hard drive.   Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

45

@7up, TabloSupport has already said that 720p content is always encoded at 720p, even if you have your Tablo set to 1080p.  The 1080P/720p setting only affects 1080i content.


http://community.tablotv.com/discussion/comment/4331/#Comment_4331
46

Update: I tried what @DaFury suggested and so far so good with the LiveTv buffering issue. My steps were slightly different: 1. Powered off the Tablo, waited a couple minutes. 2. Powered back on. Unit took longer than usually to boot up ( from previous full boots ). 3. Tried to connect from web interface and Tablo app said " no hard drive". 4. Manually unplugged hard drive waited 30 seconds and plugged back in. Unit has been performing flawless so far. Will update after I watch football today. also, I run at 720p regular for quality setting on Tablo.

47

So a growing number of users are getting macro blocking and momentary buffering since the update.

48

@DaFury


I am using a 2TB Seagate backup plus with no issues. But like I said in a previous post someone posted the exact same Amazon link to the same drive as bad. However, there is a difference in the numbers after Seagate BUP Slim RD 0143 (2000 GB)
Specifically RD 0143 vs some other number after the RD, I think it was RD 0302 as bad
49
Update: I tried what @DaFury suggested and so far so good with the LiveTv buffering issue. My steps were slightly different: 1. Powered off the Tablo, waited a couple minutes. 2. Powered back on. Unit took longer than usually to boot up ( from previous full boots ). 3. Tried to connect from web interface and Tablo app said " no hard drive". 4. Manually unplugged hard drive waited 30 seconds and plugged back in. Unit has been performing flawless so far. Will update after I watch football today. also, I run at 720p regular for quality setting on Tablo.


update: so it returned while watching football. Hit pause on the channel for a few seconds and has not returned yet after watching for an hour. Definitely looking like the reduced buffer time to speed up channel tuning is causing it.

50
Update: I tried what @DaFury suggested and so far so good with the LiveTv buffering issue. My steps were slightly different: 1. Powered off the Tablo, waited a couple minutes. 2. Powered back on. Unit took longer than usually to boot up ( from previous full boots ). 3. Tried to connect from web interface and Tablo app said " no hard drive". 4. Manually unplugged hard drive waited 30 seconds and plugged back in. Unit has been performing flawless so far. Will update after I watch football today. also, I run at 720p regular for quality setting on Tablo.


update: so it returned while watching football. Hit pause on the channel for a few seconds and has not returned yet after watching for an hour. Definitely looking like the reduced buffer time to speed up channel tuning is causing it.

I’m watching football now too, and it has returned. A couple of times, it’s had a couple of nearly instantaneous bufferings…followed by a buffering that lasted 2-3 seconds, and then no problems after that. I agree that it looks like the initial buffer may have been reduced to the point where it’s being exhausted. 


Not good.
51

Plex channel no longer works over Internet, works over LAN, since 2.1.18 upgrade. Anyone else having this issue or resolved? (Have ensured all normal settings checked like port forwarding, and Plex can stream non-Tablo media to Internet, just not Tablo channel).

52

I think you need to rethink the way the interface between the apps and the Tablo works.  Even cutting the sync time in half leaves me with several minutes of waiting before I can use it.  This is a complete deal killer.  I really can’t imagine what you are doing in all that time.  I really want to love this, and I could deal with the live channel tuning delay, but over five minutes every time you launch the app or web page makes it utterly useless.

53

Since I updated the firmware, I can not use Tablo with my Android devices (tablet and tv box) running 4.2.2 anymore. When I start Tablo on the Android devices, it wants to sync, and never stops syncing. I waited for two hours, and the bar did not move a bit. @TabloSupport What can I do?

54

As an update to this earlier post:

Updated my Tablo very early this morning.  My son says Tablo has
“crashed” 3 times so far today with the third time happening a few
minutes ago and prompting me to post this.
Getting concerned here.  Will watch for more crashes and report later.

Two important things to note.  1) What seems to really be crashing is the Roku app (surprise, surprise).  The Tablo isn’t rebooting.  Rather, the Roku just dumps out of the app and goes back to the Roku home screen.
2) I was able to confirm with him that this has been happening BEFORE this recent update.  The mixup was because after doing the update, I started asking around the family if there have been problems with the Tablo.  I guess this has been going on prior to this update, and nobody said anything because they already know how absolutely PI$$ED OFF I am at how horribly the stupid Roku box has been working since early October.  In other words, they knew it was Roku and didn’t say anything because "why beat a dead horse…"

For what it’s worth, here’s what’s going on:  When one is browsing through recordings and when one switches from, say, Season 2 to Season 3…When you land into the new season from the previous season’s listings, the listings in that new season keep showing the prior season’s listings.  i.e.  You go from Season 2 to Season 3…when you arrive into the Season 3 listings, it still shows Season 2’s listings.  At that point, poof, the app crashes and you’re back onto the Roku home screen. 
Note that the Tablo itself does NOT crash.  It does NOT reboot. The app just closes.

I’m sorry for the confusion and for, essentially, saying it was a Tablo crash when it really wasn’t.

However, I will say this.  In my opinion, the sooner Tablo can provide another alternative to Roku, the better.  My hope is Amazon Fire TV and/or Xbox (although I do know that coding for Xbox is very difficult).  From what I’ve read, Fire TV should be a close cousin to the Android world.  (I’m actually in the process of developing some Android apps for a client, and will probably be coding at least of one them for Fire TV - or at least I will try to).
In addition to Fire TV, I wonder if Smart TV apps may be a future possibility such as for Vizio or Samsung TVs (not that I have either at this time).

Bottom line:  The sooner I can start using my Roku box as the paperweight it is truly qualified to be, the better.  I’ll even take a photo of it being used in that capacity and post it on here if desired.  Unless Roku reinvents their wheel and comes out with a whole new box that actually WORKS, I think these problems will persist.  Sadly, I don’t see us going the way of Apple TV either.  Fun, fun, fun…
55

I updated tonight after being out of town for Thanksgivimg. I have also noticed more buffering roku3 and now I only have 2 options on my roku home screen. Live TV and recordings. This wasn’t like this before the update.

56

FYI, I did find this note that makes me wonder if there is some crazy problem with the different types:


Note that there are two versions of this Seagate Slim external hard drive: a Windows version formatted for NTFS and a Mac version formatted for HFS+. You should get the version for the platform that you work on the most. If you mainly use a Mac and you use Time Machine for your backups, you should definitely get the Mac version of this drive. If you mainly work on Windows and Mac is more of a secondary computer, you should get the Windows version of this drive.



57

4 tuner Tablo set to record at 720p, attempted to watch a live broadcast with Tablo via Roku tonight and after 5 minutes started seeing buffering.    I may have patience to deal with beta level products and software but the rest of my house is losing patience with Tablo and backward steps with firmware doesn’t help.

58

I am running at 720p Roku 3 wired and Tablo WiFi and I am not seeing this buffering on live TV you guys are seeing. I am wondering if it is an issue with how things are setup or maybe some interference or something? Or maybe the speedup is showing some hard drive issues? ie. not able to keep up with the output since obviously there is less data to start on the live TV now that they have increased the time to start?

Just a thought.
59

@Jestep, I think your thoughts on the HDD and the increased time to start are very real. I having similar problems when I went from a Generic 640GB HDD to the recommended 2T Seagate backup Plus.

60

@Johnnyzee yea makes me wonder about the USB2 vs 3 arguments I have seen. Although technically USB2 should be fine, when we start talking speed imrpovements maybe USB3 would have been a wiser choice :wink: