@Auream - good point. I disagree on wired vs wireless. If you have signal degradation with wireless you can absolutely see blocking tearing and the oh so fun buffering.
In any case good points u made.
@napercort - so your wired Roku 3. Does it have this issue? And to your Ethernet over power line, the answer is yes. I have personally used these in several cases where WiFi was to blame for poor picture quality and it solved the issue. I’d do a bit more testing in your setup thought and see if u can determine if its truly the same issue I saw and have seen time and time again with WiFi (its just not up to snuff for streaming HD video). I’d hold off on dropping any cash until u make a reasonable conclusion that its the case…
@PiX64 My wired Roku 3 seems to be pretty good. However the TV is a smaller picture and the TV is not 1080 but 720. The big TV that has the wireless Roku is 1080 but the stupid thing doesn’t allow me to adjust it so I am stuck there. I have moved antenna’s putting my big boy (SKY) upstairs to see if that makes a difference.
I noticed on the channel scan that most of the channels I need are full strength (of course not CBS). So it is possible that could fix the issue. I have Tablo at 720 and Roku’s at 720…we shall see. If it doesn’t, then I will look into the power line Ethernet option. Worst case it doesn’t help and I return it.
Question on that 200 or 500 for the power Ethernet?
I honestly think it’s a deinterlacing issue with the Tablo rather than a Network issue. I have 3x Roku 3s. One is on Ethernet, one is on Powerline, and one is on 5ghz Wireless-N. All three of the Roku’s displayed significant issues with 1080i OTA recorded at 1080p.
@Pix64 the issue that I am seeing is combing, not blocking or tearing. The combing artifacts can’t be caused by a poor wireless connection. So far, picture quality has been excellent minus the combing, so this is unfortunate unless we can find a fix.
I managed to do some testing on both TVs (720 and 1080) with both Rokus (2 and 3).
I confirmed that the combing is visible on both TVs and both Rokus when I am recording at 1080p and the channel being displayed is broadcast in 1080i. If I record at 720p the combing goes away. So I find agreement with what @Auream has reported.
I also notice “ringing” around on-screen text, but this is most likely related to the H.264 compression (my DSP class was too many years ago :)) )
@Pundit, thanks for the experiments. I didn’t really notice much ringing on my setup (like I said, surprised how good the picture quality is except for the combing), although now that you mention it maybe I’ll try to look for it. One tip (you may already be aware of this) is that most TV sets have the sharpness control cranked up way too high by default. Often the right setting for this control is 0 or close to it. I bet if you turn down your sharpness the ringing will be much less pronounced, even if it is being initially introduced as a compression artifact.
Note that the combing artifacts are highly dependent on the source material. Lots of fast motion, especially horizontal motion, will cause it to be much more pronounced. Also, some channels are 1080i, while others are 720p. So if, for example, your local NBC affiliate broadcasts in 720P, you won’t see this issue at all for any shows recorded from NBC. But if ABC broadcasts in 1080i, you’ll see it, no matter if its on Roku, iPad, or web.
I noticed this today while watching on my iPad (at home). I tried the web app and the iPad app and I could see the combing. I do have my unit set to record at 1080p so I will try changing that to 720p. I did not notice the combing when watching last night on my Roku 3.
@Auream (or anyone else) Given your example of NBC at 720 and ABC at 1080…if you record at 720…then would you still see it because the original was 1080 or would the recording at 720 adjust?
With 4 tuner Tablo TV I was initially seeing lots of poor deinterlacing artifact but resetting my Roku to output to 1080p and TabloTV to 1080p resolved all artifact. Image looks good
That doesn’t really jibe with what everyone else is seeing. I’ve been at 1080 on Tablo and 1080 on my Roku from day one and I’ve been seeing the artifacts from day one. Are you sure you aren’t watching 720p channels at the moment? Go back and watch a 1080i channel for a while, I’d be very, very surprised if you didn’t see the artifacts.
I will go back to the Roku 3 now and recheck right now. I am seeing horrible deinterlacing artifacts with Chrome web browser on PC at both 720p and 1080i channel video content with Tablo app @ both 720p and 1080p. Video content is essentially unwatchable via Tablo on PC
Perhaps I was watching film content programming or it was a 720p channel as I didn’t see the issue last night but I just looked at now and with video content (Price is Right on KCBS@1080i) there is subtle deinterlacing artifact with Roku3 outputting 1080p and TabloTV set at 1080p. I don’t have time now to test out 720p but there is definitely an issue with Tablo TV output at 1080p. Hope this helps.
Why even record in 1080p at all, given OTA channels only go as high as 1080i? That just puzzled me as soon as I saw the option in the Tablo configuration. It would seem the simple fix is to just drop the 1080p option altogether, instead going native at 1080i for the recordings. From a marketing perspective I get that it’s preferred to spec out 1080p, but if it doesn’t work – and it clearly does not – something needs to change, even if it’s just adding the 3rd option of 1080i to go along with the other p modes.
It’s definitely disappointing and I hope they get it fixed.
My config: 4 tuner Tablo Roku 3 Wired gigabit ethernet (Juniper EX 2200-C switch)
We are aware that the 4-Tuner seems to be experiencing an issue with deinterlacing when set to 1080. We’re working with our silicon partner to identify the issue and will release a fix as soon as it’s avaialble.
In the meantime you can set your Tablo to 720 which we recommend for the best combination of picture quality and bandwidth usage.