I didn’t mean to infer that Rokus were substandard devices - I own 7 of them, and they use both wifi and ethernet connections, and most of the time they work pretty good. They work better on the internet streaming apps, but that doesn’t mean they “stink” at local streaming. Almost every device I have has hiccups here and there, and must be rebooted.
And there is a reason why the Roku is the number one streaming device…
Indeed, it very well may boil down to network differences which ultimately explain the wide range of comments and opinions regarding Tablo playback on the Roku.
I will be the first to admit that my home netwerk is complex. Although I avoid Wi-Fi connections unless I am forced to do so (for my Nest thermostats for example) where ethernet is not supported, I am entirely hardwired with RJ 45 connections every place. I have a huge amount of traffic, including numerous live streaming surveillance cameras, and all sorts of Internet connected IOT gadgets, seven Internet radios, Lutron home lighting, and streaming devices.
I personally like the Roku boxes, but only have issues with streamin Tablo playback.
I believe very strongly that the app written by Tablo for the Roku is faulty.
I do not think either the Roku player or operating system is at fault.
I do not think the Tablo box, hardware and firmware, is at fault.
The recently released update to version three of the Tablo App for Roku makes an obvious difference, and shows some significant improvement, especially in crashing.
For those of you who continue to comment that your specific configuration does not show the same problems, I will repeat again that software bugs are, in no way, necessarily going to affect all users. The problem is experienced only by those who have a configuration or environmental circumstances which stress the system in ways which were never tested in developing the software for release.
I will also add, for the benefit of those users who have not been long term Tablo customers, that this is not a new problem. It has been solved in years past by making necessary software changes to Tablo software. The most memorable occurrence of this freezing and rebooting issue took many months for Tablo to acknowledge, and then fix with a new release of software. I personally exchanged well over 100 messages for this specific problem, and ultimately wound up buying non- Roku players for my key locations since my wife and I and many other people who complained grew tired of having crashing and rebooting on a daily basis. I personally went to my Amazon review of Tablo and dropped my reading from four stars to one star based on the prolonged and dismissive attitude of Tablo combined with many months of frustration. (I subsequently updated my review again after the repair was released, but have never gone back to four stars based on the continuing eight year saga of many bugs affecting playback, program guide, remote access, phantom desktop icons, etc.
Larry
One thing to consider, these devices are intended for a typical consumer environment.
As for the strain on the tablo device, the app has little to no bearing. All the processing is done on the client device. Tablo runs a httplight web server to interact with apps/client devices, extremely low overhead.
The OS on Roku, Tablo as well as Fire devices are all Linux systems. They are fundamentally little differences, just designed for a specific purpose on specialized devices.
In the past reading others with issues regarding “phantom icons” or recordings they can’t delete it often involves something about screwing around with their drive.
If it’s a “bug” it needs to be able to replicated so there’s a path for remedy. “Well it happened before, and now again. It’s a bug” - Declaring something a bug because you can’t reason it out due to complexities… doesn’t realistically make it a bug.
Tablo does not use EPG.
What ever “fix” there was… maybe it just took a while to happen again. Looking through Firmware Announcements, there’s nothing about fixes for Thumbnails being left behind. Maybe “Database optimizations added to nightly maintenance” – But then you’d have to allow it to happen, in order for it to have worked.
There are always a set of users with extreme issues while the mass majority enjoy without issue. This doesn’t mean something is absolutely wrong as there are an astronomic amount of variables between each user.
Just an F.Y.I. from someone not having Tablo issues. My home network is simple. I’ve tried to adhere to a minimalist approach when connecting to the interwebs.
No doubt that a simple network with fewer devices and lower traffic would potentially minimize problems.
I will point out, from eight years ago, that my then very simple network with very few devices had many Tablo problems. All of these problems were ultimately fixed with eventual software and firmware updates from Tablo.
More to the point, my recent problems occurred suddenly. The network was the same both before and after these new problems suddenly occurred after a year or more of no complaints and no problems reported. Updated software releases took place followed by immediate problems. My point is that a very heavily loaded and very complex network worked perfectly fine until software was modified.
Larry
djk44883
I have no desire to spend any more time discussing, debating, or analyzing where these problems arise.
Having written hundreds of thousands of lines of code in PDP 11 assembler, BAL, Data General Nova and Eclipse assembler, FORTRAN, and most recently Pascal, Ada, C, C++ and everything in between over nearly 50 years, I really don’t need to have a debate with you over what a software bug really is.
Furthermore, having lived with three Tablo units since 2014 and countless problems and updates, my life experience is very contrary to your explanation.
When you are old enough to have great grandchildren, and more understanding, you may eventually understand why sitting down to use a consumer TV playback device and finding freezes and crashes and sloppy desktop and other issues, especially when they suddenly occur after software updates, are a problem. I just don’t want to spend one more minute typing and replying to messages which offer no constructive recommendations.
Larry
I am old enough to be familiar with those defunct programing languages. I’ve seen DEC PDP …something before they were antiques.
I’ve also seen other’s pass through here with references along the lines I’ve been the Grand Poobah of the Technology Stuff for decades.
It doesn’t work for me, I know how to make things work, I’ve told them what’s wrong and how to fix it. Just because it works for almost everyone else doesn’t me there isn’t a problem… I can’t get it to work right.
Things work the same way they did when was Supreme Poobah and nothing has changed, so I do know.
Using the same thing for several years, with countless problems, and expecting a different outcome? Similar to something Einstein summed up.
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.