Any Tablo users in the Sacramento California area? I have an outside antenna that is about 20 feet above ground and I am about 12 miles from the TV towers. I do have a lot of trees in my neighborhood. I have a consistent problem with getting commercial skip to complete on local Channel CBS channel 10. I have hooked up the antenna to a digital TV with a better signal indicator than the Tablo and all my local channels have great signal including Channel 10. I am using a Televes DATBOSS Mix UHF VHF Amplified Outdoor HDTV Antenna with LTE Filter] I have tried it both with the amp on and off and no difference. This one channels recordings always say “Commercial skip failed do to weak signal” It also does not process the fast forward preview.
Anyone in my area have the same issue? I am wondering if it is the channel and not really a signal issue. All recordings on this channel look great.
Woops… forgot to say I am using a Tablo Quad 1TB OTA
The processing of fast forward previews is a requirement for the recording to be passed along to be processed for automatic commercial skip.
Since you mentioned you do have a strong signal on this station, it’s likely interference potentially caused by the trees you mentioned that is introducing a significant amount of errors into the broadcast stream.
I get the same thing for time to time on a channel that gets a good signal (no trees here) . I watch the show and there’s no glitches at all but I have the message “Commercial skip failed do to weak signal”. Makes no sense!
Exactly. I have used both the Tablo and a TV to tune the antenna and both show the signal is excellent. I never see any issues with the picture also yet it always fails commercial skip and says it is due to week signal. I believe it is something else but @TabloSupport pulls the logs from my unit and just tells me it is weak signal. Something is wrong and I do not think the signal is the issue.
I think Tablo flags anything wrong with a broadcast stream as a weak signal. We have several channels owned by HC2 in the Minneapolis area that are fraught with broadcast stream errors making recording those channels a nightmare, causing failed recordings, thumbnail, or commercial skip issues. These are not technically due to a weak signal as everyone who receives the broadcast will receive the exact same broadcast stream errors. Per Tablo, it sounds like other things can cause localized broadcast stream errors.
This channel has no visual or audio issues with any recordings. All shows record beautifully with no problem other than not getting thumbnail previews and commercial skip.
Yep, the channels I mention sometimes look very clean (often they are not) and even though they look clear as a bell commercial skip rarely works and thumbnails sometimes do not work. Your problem seems to be either an error riddled broadcast stream or a true weak signal neither of which show any visible issues. This first dumbfounded me but I was able to make sense of it after finding this forum: Minneapolis, MN - OTA | Page 240 | AVS Forum which covers OTA topics and issues for the Minneapolis area. I believe this is the similar forum for Sacramento: Sacramento, CA - OTA | Page 577 | AVS Forum.
Commercial skip is hit and miss. I’ve generally been disappointed with it.
Whenever I talk-up the Tablo DVR and it’s attributes, commercial skip is something I don’t use as a selling point.
That is why I do not believe it is a signal issue. It is either the station is missing something in the broadcast that Tablo is looking for or Tablo is blocking out this channel for some reason and the only error it can give is weak signal.