Installed an Antop 400BV Antenna in March of this year. 35-45 miles from two major cities (one south and one north) with trees and hills in between. Antenna mounted about 25 feet high. We get about 40+ stations from both cities, though only a dozen or so are of interest. Running three TVs off the antenna.
A month later we bought a Quad. Two TVs on Rokus, one Sony with Android. We have a Netgear Orbi RBK40 Router that is rock solid. The Sony is the TV we normally use, the other two don’t get much use. Started with the Tablo Preview app, which was slow, difficult to connect, and didn’t seem very friendly. After a month or so, switched to the normal Tablo Android app which seemed better and faster, but still seemed slow and took many clicks to get connected and use.
After playing with the Tablo app on the Roku recently, it seemed much better, faster, simpler, better thought out than the Android app. Last week I bought a Roku Ultra and put it on the Sony. It is wired to the router. I’m surprised how much better the user experience is with the Roku. Easy to connect, much faster, seems much better thought out. As a retired Software Engineer, my first reaction is that the Roku app has been designed and coded by the “A” team, while I don’t have the same impression using the Android app.
After about four months, the combination of the Antop, the Orbi Router, the Tablo Quad, and the Roku Ultra seem to be the right combination for me. Part of it may just be that I’ve gotten comfortable with how everything works. It’s almost trouble free (so far), and is almost as easy to use as the Direct Tv DVR I had before.
I have a Sony Android TV and other devices and I believe the difference is in the processor in the TV, not the coding. I also have a Sharp Roku TV and a TCL Roku TV and they are markedly different in performance which I am sure is due to a slower processor on the Sharp. I have Android tablets that work better than the Sony TV. If the processor is slow, everything will take longer.
rbryan i think you are on the right track. the software is modern so it is likely that one team wrote one tablo app and made it portable/customizable for any platform, up to the limits of each platform. here we see described the limits of one particular android platform.
Really, you’re comparing a brand new Roku Ultra… with what version android? The android app uses WebView which is based on Chrome and changes from earliest versions to latest versions.
As mentioned, processor. A brand new Roku Ultra… compared to how old system running android?
Comparing A team to C team mostly lets you feel good about the money you spent.
The Sony Tv is an XBR950 which is a year old with the latest Android operating system (I believe) and the current Tablo and Table Preview App. The TV at the time was expensive, so I don’t feel particularly good about spending that much and then spending again for the Roku. I have an older Roku stick on an older Vizio that provides a very similar user experience to the Ultra.
The issues I was referring to are more user interface issues. One of them is that it takes three or four attempts initially to connect to the Tablo on the Android app vs. consistently one on the Roku. Granted, this may be more Android issues than Tablo app issues, but it manifests thru the user interface on the Android app. Transition between various screens on the Roku app are smoother and more consistent than between screens and functions on the Android app.
The overall impression of the Roku app is one of being fully tested vs. the Android app which seems to be more a work in progress.
Coming from a Direct TV DVR experience, the Roku app just seemed more production ready to me. It wasn’t my intent to disparage the Android App, but rather to state my satisfaction with the Roku app implementation. I gather from other comments on this forum that I may not be the only person who is not completely satisfied with the Android app.
I run the Tablo Preview app on a Shield TV and have very few issues. Having said that, the Shield TV is a beast so as @rbryan said I would think this is more a processor issue.
I do have a Roku as well and I don’t disagree that app is more mature but that makes sense to me since I’m sure Tablo has more Roku users than anything else.