Why has it been frustrating? It is very functional, it plays Live TV and all my recordings very well. No buffering, great quality.
The scheduling of recordings I do through the web app.
Give it time, they just released the web apps today.
Hi,
I am new to Roku, Tablo, and using OTA having just cut the cord this past month. I have a temporary indoor antenna I borrowed from a friend to test out my ability to receive certain stations. I have a much nicer solution with better range on the way now that I validated I can get the reception for the channels I want.
I have WD TV Live Hub boxes for streaming media (mostly movies) to all the TV’s in my house. Even though they are a few years old, they do a superior job of in house media streaming over the piddly amount of media formats the Roku supports for streaming. With that said though, the Roku does a much better job at streaming Internet based sources so I have ended up putting 4 Roku 3 boxes in my house, 1 for each TV.
My only remaining piece of the puzzle is to get DVR functionality for the OTA programming.
I have looked into Tivo. Looks nice, quite expensive overall. So I started looking at Tablo, Simple.TV, Channel Master and whatever else I could find. I am very picky about my picture quality and was delighted to read about how well the Tablo boxes do (when the setting is set to high). So I started looking into it more.
I read some review from CNet that said the Roku channel from Tablo is pretty bad. That was written in May with a note that linked to a Tablo forum post indicating they were working on making it better.
So, there has been a Roku app for Tablo for a while now. However, this post says they just released the Web apps. What does that mean exactly? Is it Roku that just changed the way you make and publish apps onto a Roku Channel? Is it Tablo that has deciced to rewrite the entire Roku Channel offering, or were they forced to based on changes from Roku?
Basically, I’m really optimistic about the Tablo devices. They look great and picture quality is my #1 concern. However, they simply must work with Roku or my total home solution falls apart.
I dont mean to hijack this thread for any other purposes so if someone could just please clarify the comment about the web apps just being released and how that will impact my usage of the Tablo Roku channel that would be great. Any additional comments/hints/suggestions would be taken with great appreciation as well.
As someone who has used the Tabolo Roku channel from the very beginning, I sometimes struggle to understand what all the brouhaha is about. The existing Roku implementation, while somewhat basic, does most everything that it needs to do and does it very reliably. Like @theuser86 I use the web app for scheduling and do almost all my watching through Roku.
I’m looking forward to seeing the new version for a couple of reasons, mostly to do with the way information on Live TV is presented, but I’m not sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for it.
Just my 2c.
It sounds you already have a Tablo if you’re commenting on picture quality - why not just install the Tablo channel on the Roku and give it a try?
The web apps are web based applications for smartphones - it has nothing to do with the Roku.
Read my post above, the one you didn’t quote, about how the Tablo channel on the Roku works.
Thanks for the responses.
It seems likely I may also do most of my scheduling using the web app and the watching using the Roku Channel.
My comment on the picture quality was taken directly from the CNet review. I dont yet have the Tablo box. I mentioned that was my only remaining piece. But I do realize my post was quite verbose so that could have been missed. Sorry for that. From you other post, looks like you like the quality and also use the web app for scheduling. This is all great news.
Appreciate the help!
@petecis, the Roku app is very functional but lacks a lot of the features one would expect from a traditional DVR. I currently do all my scheduling via the web app but do 100% of my watching on Roku. It’s not really frustrating, I would describe it like this. The Roku app currently has everything we NEED but lacks of lot of features we WANT.
@petecis - To answer your question, our current Roku app is based on the ‘standard’ Roku channel interface. It’s a 1 size fits ‘most’ environment that many apps use.
However, because it’s 1 size fits ‘most’ it didn’t enable us to create an interface that had the same look & feel as our other apps, especially the ‘grid style’ Live TV guide. That being said, it allows you to do everything you need to do via the Roku interface aside from tweak your settings.
The Roku update we’re working on NOW is being done custom, from scratch to create a look & feel that more closely mimics our other platforms. It will look a lot more slick and have some features (like the grid style live TV) that weren’t possible with the standard channel interface.
The Roku update we’re working on NOW is being done custom, from scratch to create a look & feel that more closely mimics our other platforms. It will look a lot more slick and have some features (like the grid style live TV) that weren’t possible with the standard channel interface.
So think of the standard channel like a pair of jeans from Old Navy. They’re not fancy but they do the job. The new Roku interface will be more like a designer pair of jeans. Works to keep you from being naked, but with a lot more style :)
I too “stream” tablo through Plex (and this works fine). But I should NOT NOT NOT need to have my PC powered on in order to watch live or recorded shows.
Without Plex, the system is totally disfunctional. Constant buffering. This with always the latest Tablo and Roku channel updates. Even factory resetting Roku. Have tried all combinations of wireless and wired. And my network is top notch.
Streaming other Roku channels (movies, etc) is never a problem, nor is streaming Playon TV content. I also stream Vudo HDX via PS3 with no problems.
So, bottom line is that I stream a lot of HD via various means, and only Tablo falls on it’s face through the Roku app.
Again, as long as I know Tablo is working on the problem, I’m willing to wait for better Tabli/Roku performance.
The talk of the upcoming Roku update is more of a UI improvement, not a performance issue. I have zero performance issue with Tablo and Roku, no Plex involved. Is your Tablo and/or Roku wirelessly connected? Try hardwiring both.
“The Roku update we’re working on NOW is being done custom, from scratch to create a look & feel that more closely mimics our other platforms. It will look a lot more slick and have some features (like the grid style live TV) that weren’t possible with the standard channel interface.”
Thanks for the great update. However, I can see the future now, all these new Roku UIs require at least a Roku 3 to work properly and quickly. The older Roku models are old hardware and the UIs work slowly - people are still going to complain, can’t please everyone. Point and case, the new Netflix UI created a whole bunch of complainers for those who did not own a Roku 3.
So maybe keep the old UI for the older boxes? Two current versions of the Roku channel might be too much to ask for though.
Mine is connected thru wireless only and had no issues so far with the performance with the Tablo channel in Roku. Not once it said buffering. The roku app as far I am concerned is pretty good except ad skipping and the grid view for live channels.
@jaulfh, If you have fast internet service and have tried a wired connection then something else is suspect in your setup. I watch Tablo content (live and recorded) exclusively through my Roku 3 with a wired connection on 50mbps internet service and have zero buffering.
As someone who has used the Tabolo Roku channel from the very beginning, I sometimes struggle to understand what all the brouhaha is about. The existing Roku implementation, while somewhat basic, does most everything that it needs to do and does it very reliably. Like @theuser86 I use the web app for scheduling and do almost all my watching through Roku.I'm looking forward to seeing the new version for a couple of reasons, mostly to do with the way information on Live TV is presented, but I'm not sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for it.Just my 2c.
Have you seen /used TIVO interface or any other PVR? Have you seen how TIVO handle FF (30 seconds)/preview, Backward, Live TV, Live TV channel control, Channel grid, recording up to X episodes, Recovery deleted episodes, etc. And i am taking about very basic day to day features and not the crazy ones.
I have the Roku 2 XD, so it can only do wireless. I have the Tablo connected via wired connection. Maybe I’ll just need to buy a newer Roku. Bummer. While I am not thrilled with the current interface, it is the performance that most concerns me.
I pre-ordered the Tablo back before they were even shipping, so I’ve had this thing from the start. And it has never streamed smoothly to the Roku. However, interestingly, some firmware versions back it did stream much better (like 90% OK), but then a Tablo firmware update reverted performance back to old buffering issue that existed with the initial versions, and that still persists.
I failed to mention earlier that on my Roku I also have the Vudu channel installed and stream HDX movies with absolutely no problems. So no issues with my internet speed or internal network speed or the fact that the Roku is wireless. BTW, on the Tablo if I reduce the recording quality from 1024 to 720 I still get the buffering problem.
And am I missing something here? What does internet speed have to do with streaming from the Tablo to my Roku on my local network? Hmm…
Have you seen the cost of TiVo? Versus the cost of Tablo
It’s called capitalism, you get what you pay for. Tablo is great and it will only get better.
@theuser86
I know the cost of TIVO.
Equipment 50 USD (4 tuner OTA only at best buy brand new) + 14 USD,month (Year Contract) = 218 First yer. Second Year = 168 USD
Now the cost of Tablo:
Equipment 300 USD + 60 (1 TB HDD) + 80 (Roku 3) + 50/ Year (Year Contract) = 490 First Year. Second Year = 50 USD
Two year TIVO = 386
Two year Tablo = 540
Three year TIVO: 554
Three year Tablo: 590
In a three year agreement TIVO is cheaper than Tablo. And three year is a long way in technology these days.
You were saying about capitalism?
@theuser86
I know the cost of TIVO.
Equipment 50 USD (4 tuner OTA only at best buy brand new) + 14 USD,month (Year Contract) = 218 First yer. Second Year = 168 USD
Now the cost of Tablo:
Equipment 300 USD + 60 (1 TB HDD) + 80 (Roku 3) + 50/ Year (Year Contract) = 490 First Year. Second Year = 50 USD
Two year TIVO = 386
Two year Tablo = 540
Three year TIVO: 554
Three year Tablo: 590
In a three year agreement TIVO is cheaper than Tablo. And three year is a long way in technology these days.
You were saying about capitalism?
Tivo supports just one tv unlike Tablo. I have multiple connections to tablo and even when I am not at home. I have seen the tivo connection to stream which is worse than sling.
Yes if you want to watch just on one TV then your calculation is right and Tivo is cheaper. But most of the houses these days has atleast two tv’s if not more(4 in my house). If you caculate for that then tivo price keeps going up and also complicated to connect all the tv’s to one tivo.
@girimurthy
You are right about that.
But my point is that TIVO interface (on TV) is light years ahead compare to Tablo on TV (as today). Then that “cheaper” is not so “cheap” when you balance the functionality that you get (very rudimentary PVR).
Yes, you may stream to multiples TV (and using multiples ROKU) but you get a vary rudimentary user interface.
I trust that Tablo will improve user functionality on is Roku (that account for over 65% of streams) or people will do the same math.
Have you seen /used TIVO interface or any other PVR? Have you seen how TIVO handle FF (30 seconds)/preview, Backward, Live TV, Live TV channel control, Channel grid, recording up to X episodes, Recovery deleted episodes, etc. And i am taking about very basic day to day features and not the crazy ones.
@alex we actually went from TiVo to Tablo. The TiVo UX is top-shelf (mostly). But we watch 90% of our content through Netflix and Amazon Instant Video, and Netflix on my Premiere was a pretty poor experience. And of course Prime Instant Video is non-existent. We also could only watch anything that we recorded on TiVo on the downstairs TV, which was sometimes annoying.
I spent several months trying to figure out a whole-home TV solution that would utilize our existing Rokus. And along came Tablo. TBH, we’ve worked out the whole FFW/REW thing on Tablo pretty well now, so I don’t regret it in the slightest.
@pundit
I do use mostly Netflix, Vudu and other on demand providers trough ROKU 3. Very good product indeed.
For TV i was also looking for a solution to record major broadcasters (CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS). Aereo was a nice product but you already know what happened there.
About TIVO is not only the FF/preview, it is for example being able to extend the start and end per program (for example NBC CSI never starts/ends on time), being able to recover programs (sometimes a family member delete something by mistake). Being able to easily move live across channel for casual TV watching / recording. Being able to see the programing grid on the TV. Also, for example having a correct subtitles (which also Tablo lacks).
I agree, H.264 encoding is top notch (for a non-commercial device) on Tablo but user experience really required a heavy lift.