New Tablo Product: Tablo DUAL LITE

While I am a Tablo fan, it’s hard for me to recommend Tablo to people who are not technology enthusiasts for these two reasons, too few tuners and the complexity of adding storage.

I bought the original two-tuner model for broadcast sports, entertainment specials, and a few television shows I don’t get through streaming services. It’s worked well except for the occasional conflict and also switching between more than two channels when watching live TV, mostly news or weather. Buffering waits detract from the Tablo user experience.

I’d gladly buy a new Tablo QUAD with four tuners and a small hard drive, and I think such a device would provide a better experience for new cord cutters too. Let people add additional storage if they need it—maybe from Tablo. That’s another thing that would reduce the friction for new cord cutters, buying rebranded hard drives directly from Tablo that are guaranteed to work with their devices.

Tablo is so close to providing the perfect product for those wanting to cut the cord.

It’s worth mentioning that Tablo’s EPG subscription covers all purchased devices. In short, the cost of buying two 2-tuner Tablo’s is not bad (especially now). Let’s just say that this one item can make the competition look pretty silly/expensive.

Include a mandatory sound check with the toggle with the following message or something similar:

"Not all devices support 5.1 channel sound. A test sound will be played. If you only hear static or no sound your device is not compatible and will not be able to play 5.1 channel.

Proceed with test?

[Yes] [No]"

Selecting No backs out, selecting Yes starts the test. A 5.1 channel sound file is played for about 3-5 seconds. The user is then asked:

“Did you hear the sample sound without static?
[Yes] [No]”

If Yes is selected, then 5.1 channel sound is switched on with following message:

“5.1 channel sound has been switched on. If you start experiencing sound problems switch back to stereo to see if it solves the issue.”

If No is selected stereo sound remains.

It would probably help if you had a a button labeled [Example] that plays a stereo version of the test sound after stating the following verbal disclaimer.

“This is a stereo example of the sound you should hear during actual 5.1 sound test.”

The stereo version is the sound plays while the screen displays “Example” during playback.

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It’s not April 1st yet. :slight_smile: But still, that was funny.

My s̶e̶n̶t̶e̶n̶c̶e̶ time in tech support :face_with_head_bandage: taught me to never leave customer instructions open to interpretation. Otherwise everyday becomes April fools day :sob:

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Could another option be for Tablo to do what it already does but in addition capture the original 5.1. Then when playing back on your device, could the user select which audio stream they would like to select? I know this would show up on the AppleTV interface by swiping down to select from various audio options. I’m only not sure if this would be available for every other player. If a playback device doesn’t have the option, the user experience would not change from what it currently is. There wouldn’t be a way to make 5.1 a default option, but anyone can select it as an option during playback.

Doesn’t tablo via the xcode processor produce it’s video stream in HLS format. If so, does HLS support multiple audio streams in the same file? If it doesn’t wouldn’t switching the audio stream in the existing HLS file require a reprocessing the existing HLS file or multiple HLS files of the same show with different audio.

Pity.

They promised it 4 years ago and are still working on it and discussing it, I think that answers your question.

If they wanted to include 5.1 they would have found a way.

Whereas this might have been a problem 4 years ago, I thought most Androids and Apples nowadays can decode 5.1 audio.

Yes and no.

Yes, with regards to surround sound OTA generally speaking.

The “no” case is a licensing problem (some license one, but few license all). There’s 5.1, 7.1, and surround sound with magic sprinkles. Anything that has the word “Dolby”, “True”, or “Vision” in it could have difficulties because the powers that be closely guard their technologies and want to be paid handsomely for it.

@TabloTV is this possible?

Not directly with Tablo, no.

So people are saying the Tablo DUAL Lite doesn’t actually work. Say it doesn’t understand how to format an attached drive. Any truth to this?

Originally it had some issues. I wouldn’t mount drive and tried to record to cloud after Tablo support mounted drive for me even though I didn’t activate cloud. Also my first unit was reset too much apparently and the app no longer connected to tablo I didn’t realize it was a widespread issue until new firmware dropped tonight now it works flawlessly. The release notes on firmware addresses all issues I had.

Which firmware version? 2.2.18?

2.2.19. Sorry I didn’t take a picture of the announcement. I was just ready for it to actually work haha

So sorry you ran into these issues!

Glad to hear everything is running smoothly now though.

Details on the firmware update can be found here: NEW - Tablo DUAL LITE Firmware Update (2.2.19)

Sadly, Best Buy has a near zero rating on the product because of the early problem. So… anyone who bought one from Best Buy might want to submit a review or two.

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I’m glad I saw your post. I love this product, so I’ll post a review there. Thanks for the heads-up.

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