Real Channel and Virtual Channel Numbers

I have three Tablos, one is aimed to the North for Canadian channels, the other two are aimed towards the Southeast to receive Seattle channels. When I do a scan for Seattle stations, channels 7-1, 7-2, and 7-3 are reported as KIRO-DT, KIRO-SD, and KIRO3 while doing the scan and if the additional CBS tower is not picked up they change to CBS, GETTV, and LAFF at the same instant when the scan ends. If the distant tower is also detected there are 2 sets of CBS channels listed, one with the first set of names and the other with the second set. They both show 5 dot strength most of the time but sometimes one or the other drop out (Real channel numbers are 39 and 51).

Now that I have overexplained this, here is my request. Could the Real Channel numbers be shown in a scan in addition to the Virtual Channel numbers that you currently show. This would help multiple Tablo users like me tune a different tower on each unit.

4 Likes

I’ll pass this along to our UI team :slight_smile:

I second this request. I can pick up 3 KIRO 7. Sometimes they can all show great reception depending on the weather. I’ve had to learn that the channels scan in order and pick the actual channel I want. And I’m west of Seattle. Also have this problem with KCPQ 13.

Yes Leaning6, I have to watch the scan proceed so I can try to figure out what towers I am receiving. I watch virtual 4-1 come up which is real channel 38, then 7-1 which is real channel 39, then much later in the scan 7-1 again, which is real channel 51, I guess. One 7-1 (ch39) is 27 miles from me, the other 7-1 (ch51) is 46 miles away according to TV Fool. But I could be wrong because there are 6 other translator towers within my reach that are all CBS. I try to select the strongest 2 and record duplicates to not miss any shows.
Another request would be to have a percentage shown for signal strength instead of one, three, or five dots. Why is no channel ever showing two or four dots? Could we just have a number?
On a positive note, the new firmware seems to do a little better with weak signals and just record a show in several segments instead of rebooting and messing up all recordings with a reboot.

I like both of Vorlon’s ideas. I too have watched the channel scans to see what order the virtual channels come in to have a sense of the real channel number and use that in combination with other data on the internet. Also, the 5 dot system is really only 3 and I believe it is somewhat optimistic. To really check the signal strength I temporarily hook up my Tablo antenna to a TV that does a much better job of displaying signal strength. It would be ideal if Tablo would also show a numeric signal strength. This would help people better choose and aim their antennas and also help those who may actually have too strong of a signal.

Experienced this situation / problem as well. When doing a channel scan & select on both my Toshiba Fire Edition TV and Channel Master Stream +, I can see the actual channel number, along with station name. This makes is easy (great) in determining which of the duplicates I want to select … and have often wondered if this were possible, or had been considered on Tablo. Good suggestion and topic here.