Deleting recordings can fragment some flash storage and when(time) the proper garbage collection/defrag(trim) occurs can be up to either the flash controller or the OS.
That’s why I always test using my system that is empty and has been sitting for a day or two. I also always use 720p channels and record the same amount at the same time. So I will try again with 2 3 1/2 NCAA football games recorded at the same time.
Of course it’s hard to make sense out of the Roku guide since the Live TV says they start at 4:30 PM PDT but the guide description says 11PM
For Sunday, free space started at 21%. So lost 1% over Saturday when the device was not in use. Two 1 hour episodes, back to back. and on the same channel. At the end of the night, free space was down to 15%. So a loss of 6% for 2 hours.
I think the reason you’re not getting a clear answer here is most users plug up an external drive and let it rip. I have 4TB drive hooked up since Dec '23 and its been riding between 40-50% usage. I record my movies and my wife’s records her shows and deletes them.
Unless Tablo wants to share their code, which I don’t think they will, you maybe beating a dead horse.
I would not be surprised if 75% of users were using an external hard drive. I don’t do that much recording. Plus, I’m one and done. I would not have bought the device if I could not get 50 hours like they say in their sales material. I have no interest in adding the cost of an external drive. Right now I’m setting at 29 hours of recordings that takes up 89% of the onboard storage. So now way will I get 50 hours.
I have a gen 4 2-tuner. I have tested making 2 4-hour 720p recording on an empty unit. I probably tried 7 times and never saw any reduction no matter how many days I waited. One hour of 720p used 3.1 GB. I decided to try again Saturday and finally over night I saw a reduction from 3.1 GB to 2.1 GB. So why all the previous tests failed is unknown. Only support could tell you why.
But I’ve unplugged the gen 4 and moved my recordings onto legacy unit all the various guide problems are fixed.
My 4th Gen is taking up ~6GB of internal storage for a 1 hour recording. For the past 2 days I have been recording a single 1 hour program in the middle of the night with no other recordings at all. The OTA channels that were recorded both broadcast in 1080i. Looks to me like the archiving feature is a joke. Tablo support has been no help at all with this.