I was watching a show on the laptop, paused it to continue watching via Roku and the graphic with the blue bar in Roku shows the show being watched almost halfway but when I selected it to watch I did not get “continue watching from” option, only the play option. I tried it anyway but nope, it started from the beginning. I went back to the laptop to see where I left off but it started from the beginning there too. @tablosupport I thought this ability was there across all platforms?
When you paused it on your laptop, did you leave it at that point, or did you close out of that show (close Tablo or use arrow to leave it)?
I have been playing around with this functionality lately between different platforms. Here are my observations:
1. If you start a recording on one device, pause it and leave it open, and then go to a second device, the second device will not know your save point.
2. If you start a recording on one device, pause it and then get out of that show, and then go to the second device, the second device will find your save point.
So make sure that whenever you pause a show, leave that show before trying to resume it elsewhere.
Also, as observed yesterday, if you get to the last 5 to 10 minutes of a show, it will reset the save point to the beginning.
There’s no choice but to leave it open with the web app. There’s no exit. You pause it and then “back” out.
I don’t understand when folks say “exit” as there’s no exit to Tablo.
I don’t understand “leave” as the only way to leave anything Tablo is to use the back arrow on the phone, or with a browser, close the browser or tab. There’s no exit, no leave and no “stop” button, pause and back arrow which with a phone usually means it’s still running in the background, you’ve only left the interface. Similar with Tablo on the computer with browser - you an exit the browser but exiting a browser doesn’t send any command to Tablo to say “save this place”, you pause it and leave the screeen, or close the browser. There is no exit.
So, any device using web app - you can pause and nothing else, nothing more. Exiting a browser closes the browser, the Tablo is still sitting waiting for the next command which never comes.
So, any device using web app - you can pause and nothing else, nothing more. Exiting a browser closes the browser, the Tablo is still sitting waiting for the next command which never comes.
(maybe this will help some)
I decided to watch something on my Tablo…
1. Live TV - I watch, then I pause, I back out (leave the watch screen)… If I return to this same channel and if I did not force a tuner off of that channel… I may be able to pick up where I left off (more on this later), or at least find myself back to the original temorarily (limited) recorded stream. How would I force it off? If the Tablo, due to channel surfing or its need to start a recorded program or somebody else using a tuner… whatever the case is where the Tablo needs to switch that tuner to doing something else…
2. Fully Recorded - No tuners involved. I can watch, and hopefull back out, and ideally resume where I left off. I’m pretty sure this is the functionality that “should work” today.
3. Inflight Recording - There’s an active tuner being used to record the inflight show. I have no idea if resume works in this scenario or not, but in theory it could (vs. Live TV, where it could partially work, but not always work because the recorded stuff is transient and you may be beyond the limit of what it keeps on disk). So, ideally, you can make the whole resume marker thing work in this case, but can’t say if it does or not.
Most people just want #2 to work I believe, but again, I think it could work just fine in case #3 as well. Case #1, well… it can’t always work… it just can’t… so not sure if it should try lest people complain, etc…
Tablo is an always “on” device. It’s kind of like the Internet. Just because you got out of the browser doesn’t mean the Internet stopped.
You exit the Web app by clicking on the left arrow in the top-left corner of the viewer area. Please note that the arrow is not visible when the browser window is maximized.
@ShadowsPapaYou exit the Web app by clicking on the left arrow in the top-left corner of the viewer area. Please note that the arrow is not visible when the browser window is maximized.
That is exactly what I mean. It appears that once you click on that arrow, the save point is “registered” to the Tablo so that it will resume on any other device. Just pausing the show isn’t enough.
@snowcat, problem is with the web app you have to hit back to get to that page and it still does not save where you were. I just -retested just to be sure.
@ShadowsPapaYou exit the Web app by clicking on the left arrow in the top-left corner of the viewer area. Please note that the arrow is not visible when the browser window is maximized.
That is exactly what I mean. It appears that once you click on that arrow, the save point is “registered” to the Tablo so that it will resume on any other device. Just pausing the show isn’t enough.
That doesn’t exist on a phone.
On a browser it exists, but there’s nothing anywhere in anything that tells what the left-pointing arrow is or what the down pointing arrow is for, So we’re left to guess how each thing functions. That’s the biggest issues I have with the apps - there are not decent instructins and you have to search tons of help and FAQ pages - and still that wasn’t evident that the left arrow was for that.
Does not matter, though because it doesn’t even exist on a phone and that’s so far the most reliable method - the PC/Chrome browser does’t display all shows well on the TV. Just found out that’s why the shows I recorded were shifted down. i exited the browser and grabbed the phone and the same show displayed fine. But I wasn’t able to resume on the phone, had to drag the slider over to the time I’d left it.
On a phone you have to hit the curved return arrow - and then you have just gone to a different part of the app. There’s no clean exit on a phone.
@ShadowsPapaYou exit the Web app by clicking on the left arrow in the top-left corner of the viewer area. Please note that the arrow is not visible when the browser window is maximized.
The left arrow is in the upper right on my computer, non-existent on the phone.
In my Chrome browser under Windows, the left arrow is in the upper left corner and the down arrow is in the upper right corner. I didn’t check on the phone but I’m not surprised it wouldn’t exist.
On my Android phone, I just use Android’s go back button. That has the same functionality, and it exits the recording.
@snowcat yes, that is what I am talking about. on our phones it is not saving the last watched position 
@jestep @shadowspapa @sgnadeau Agreed I see the same ways to leave a show but I found different behavior when pausing/leaving and trying to resume playback.
@snowcat I am pretty sure I only paused and did not close out of the show. Sounds like that’s the reason there.
But here is what I’m finding:
Starting a show on a Roku 1 it’s not saving the spot for resuming on Roku consistently (that one blows my mind); but it does allow for resume of shows started in the web app AND the android phone app.
Starting a movie in the web app I must use the back button to back out of it in order to resume in Roku and the android phone app
Starting a movie in the Android phone app it will not allow resume from any platform including its own; regardless of whether I simply pause or pause and close the show.
@tablosupport I thought the android phone app was supposed to allow for resuming playback on other devices? And since the new Roku app will be limited in functionality for the foreseeable future I’m hoping they will be continuing to support and fix the Roku issues in the current interface as they are identified.
It apparently works correctly with Android Lollipop but not KitKat.
My phone is 4.4.2 whatever that is. I do numbers far better than names that show no sequence of build.
It does not work properly and worse, unless you twist the phone to landscape mode, the FF and RW buttons don’t work at all. They only work if you turn the phone to landscape, not portrait.
I tried it last night, it didn’t keep track of where I left off but no shock since you have to back out of it and can’t do more than pause - and backing out ain’t about to tell Tablo to track where it is.
I didn’t actually cast to chromecast but did just start playing a recorded show in the Chrome browser on my PC and tonight the buttons are different somehow. the left arrow is in the upper left.
Last time the left arrow was upper right and the down arrow was lower right.
WEIRD! Wish i had a screenshot from last night as I literally had to look for the left arrow tonight as it wasn’t where I had been seeing it.
In any case, no such arrows on the phone.
I too have 4.4.2 which I think is KitKat. And the only buttons I see are the 20 sec RW skip and 30 sec FF skip and both work in either landscape or portrait mode for me. I suppose the thinking is that with touch screens there isn’t a need for the regular FF/RW buttons although I don’t have the iPad nearby to check it it’s same there and whether the iPad has the back/drop down arrows.