Offline Mode - Failed Spectacularly

Support & Troubleshooting
1

Ok, so a major internet service provider (not mine) has been busy installing fiber in my neighborhood for the past three weeks. The work has resulted in intermittent, random internet outages.

But I have the 4-tuner Gen 4 Tablo running via the app on Roku or Onn streamers, so I should have been able to watch local channels and/or recordings in Offline Mode, right?

Wrong! First off starting the app (either on my android phone or either streamer would take more than 30 seconds to figure out that the internet was down. Eventually, it would offer up the Offline Mode option. Then I would select a local channel (4.1, 5.1, 12.1,etc.) and the channel would begin to load and then get stuck at exactly 13%.

Every. Time. I tried clearing the cache on my android and restarting both streamers…no go. :face_with_diagonal_mouth: Then I made the mistake of hitting the reset button on the bottom of the Tablo. But since the internet was down, it couldn’t return to solid blue light status, and I was cooked.

I ended up switching to a standalone antenna connected to my main TV and watching for a couple of hours (without the ability to pause, rewind, or fast forward, obviously) until my internet was restored.

I’ve been a huge fan of my Tablo up to this point, but they need to fix the Offline Mode functionality and make it more stable and reliable. What’s the point of having it otherwise?

Anyone else having the same experience? Please chime in if you have suggestions. :+1:t4:

1 Like
2

Gee we must live in the same area? Had a similar issue this week. I have a FireTV stick 4k. The stick itself said no internet so guess what I could not even get into any apps like the Tablo.

3

I have found offline mode less than perfect, but it usually works for me. Sometimes I have to exit and relaunch the app a few times for it to offer offline mode.

And, yes, as you discovered, you still need an active internet connection for the Tablo ‘puck’ to initialize. So, if you have a power outage, and your power comes up but not your internet, you are SOL. I hope they are able to solve this in a future update.

I, too, have a direct antenna connection to my primary TVs. It allows me to catch the morning news if the Tablo goes down.