Quad Tablo - hardwired to Roku Ultra often displays reconnecting to tablo

Support & Troubleshooting
1

Using a Roku Ultra to connected to my Tablo Quad often displays the “Reconnecting to Tablo” screen, which will kick me back to the guide. This happened when connected over 5Ghz wifi and led me to hardwire the Roku and Tablo, which did not solve the problem. The Roku and Tablo are using the most updated software and I am quickly loosing credibility that dropping DirectTV was a good decision, especially considering the equipment investment.

Here are the details of my setup:

  1. Tablo four-tuner hard-wired through ethernet to Roku Ultra with Tablo Roku app.
  2. TV is about 15 feet from Roku and connected directly through HDMI.
  3. External roof mounted antenna with a very strong signal that picks up over 50 channels (several duplicate from other locations)

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

2

For something like that I’d submit a support ticket. The support folks might be able to diagnose what is happening on your network.

3

I assume you mean that the Tablo is hard wired to your router!? I am not sure how it could directly wire to the Roku itself. Myself, I have an old ASUS router and it can be a bother sometimes… usually powering it down and back up after a minute gets it going again. I tried recently replacing it with a new Netgear router, and it was worse… so I am still using the old ASUS… it works, well mostly.

4

Vogel,

" 1. External roof mounted antenna with a very strong signal that picks up over 50 channels (several duplicate from other locations)"

Very strong signals can overdrive the front end and tuner of the Tablo. Highest permitted level seems to be about -50dbm. A standard TV set can use signals to about -20dbm which is much stronger.
See this page: https://www.tablotv.com/blog/getting-technical-over-air-tv-reception/

Do you have an amplifier in the coax line from your antenna? If you do, then remove it from the antenna coax line and try the Tablo without it. (Test using your strongest signal.)

If you are not using an amplifier then try a cheap indoor antenna as a test. (Test using your strongest signal.) If that pesky “Reconnecting to Tablo” message goes away then you know that the problem is too much signal from your roof mounted antenna. That can be fixed with one or two cheap attenuators.

Good luck.

5

I have the Tablo Quad connected via ethernet to a linksys 1GB hub that is connected to my broadband Netgear router. The Tablo and Roku are on the same linksys hub both connected via ethernet to eliminate any WiFi interference. Unfortunately, that did not remove the error condition. While it is not frequent, it is annoying being kicked out of a channel with the message “reconnecting to tablo” and then being taken back to the TV guide.

6

Try removing the hub and hard wiring both directly to the router.

7

Not sure why you are using a hub… if possible, I would connect both the Tablo and Roku directly to the Netgear router. The more simple the solution, the better, in my experience. I am not familiar with your network though, so perhaps my suggestion makes no sense.

Also, I have had a great deal of trouble with my own Netgear router, and had to fallback on an old ASUS router. Don’t know if it applies to your situation, but I have found routers to be very sensitive pieces of equipment.

I am now using wifi for all connections, and I do have some disconnections (as you describe), but they usually occur at times I expect the Tablo may be busy (i.e. in the wee hours of the morning when it is downloading a new days guide … we are “night owls” around here, so we watch TV very late).

8

I also have this issue, but only on my Roku TV. Other standalone Roku devices never have this issue in my home.

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