Playback Stops After FF During Long Programs

Support & Troubleshooting
1

Here is my home setup:

  • Table 4-Tuner Device
  • 2TB WD Elements HD
  • Wired Connection to Home Network
  • Roku Streaming Stick and Amazon Fire Stick

During any 30-minute show, I have not seen an issue. With 60-minute+ programs, as I’m fast forwarding through the show, I will inevitably hit a point where, after hitting play, the progress bar on the screen hits maybe 10% and just sits there. Usually after 3 - 5 minutes, the show will resume, but not always. Other times I have to back out, watch something else for a while, and come back to Tablo/Roku. I don’t watch much content with the Fire Stick natively, but last night I had a program freeze up on me on the Roku, so I went to my other TV with the Fire Stick and it also couldn’t play the content until the Roku was able to. I assume that means the problem is from the Tablo, not the Roku.

With extremely long shows such as the Golden Globes the other week, it was much worse. We had to wait 3 or 4 times during that program for it to unfreeze, and it never seemed to unfreeze for the last couple of times until we switched to a different player (Netflix) and came back. It could have eventually gotten there, we just felt like it had been several minutes.

To be perfectly clear, the problem usually manifests itself like this:

  • Start a 1-hour show.
  • FF through the first commercial break, no issues.
  • FF through the second commercial break, usually no issues.
  • Around the third or fourth commercial break, I’ll be fast-forwarding, watching the thumbnails, hit play, and the progress bar gets stuck at about 10% (there isn’t a % displayed, I’m just guessing).
  • Sometimes I can wait and after several minutes it will just start playing. I have seen it give an error if I wait long enough, but I have probably only seen that once and the error was generic.
  • The Tablo never says it is disconnected.
  • Sometimes I can play other Tablo titles for a bit, but they usually encounter the same error after their first commercial break. Then I have to wait for both that and the original program to work themselves out and I can watch either one without issue (at least for a few more commercial breaks).
2

That’s that damnable Roku bug, mate. Maybe give support a call and see if they can help you out.

3

I’m in two minds whether to advocate calling support. On the one hand, they need to finish and roll out the firmware update before there is a fix, so all calls probably slow that process down. On the other hand, not calling may remove the sense of urgency and diminish the scope of the problem.

4

Me too. I know they are working on it but I can’t know how hard. This sucks. It is difficult to put up with. An ETA on the next update would be nice.

5

The program does nor have to be long. Just hit FF several times. It can freeze on 1 or 2 but will always freeze if you keep hitting FF, usually within 7 or 8 times.

6

I have found the best work around is stick with 1X FF and always wait between hits. I don’t think it’s the speed. I think it’s hitting the button repeatedly in quick succession.

1 Like
7

So this is a known issue… where is it documented at? I don’t see it in this Support page. Am I missing something? @TabloSupport would you prefer me to call in to report this?

8

Here’s one place:
https://community.tablotv.com/search?q=roku%208.0

You could, but it is a known problem, and they’ll just tell you to wait a bit for the firmware update that fixes the issue.
By the way, it was Roku that introduced the problem with Roku OS v8.0.

9

A progress update on the beta testing would be nice. An ETA even better…

10

Have to leave it to @TabloTV to announce it.

11