Really disappointed (at first) it's getting better

General Discussion
1

I was super excited to see what Tablo could do, two days in I see what it won’t. Bought the Table Quad and put a 1T internal hard drive.
I’d already tested my Antenna on my Roku TV ingot 66 channels, all the locals and lots of others Spanish included which is great when my mother in law comes to visit.
Hooked up to the Tablo and the same antenna and I get 12 channels and of the 3 locals NBC is so weak it wont record and only 1 Spanish channel.
I understand something about the tuners using up signal or something but this is really really bad and unusable.
Anyone have a work around for this. Will it improve if I get a rooftop antenna. I’ve got a flat indoor window type now.

I love the idea, now if it would just work like it’s supposed to.

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It may be worth getting a better, attic or rooftop antenna long-term. Depending on your exact situation and the specifics of your configuration it may vastly improve the number of channels you receive. At least if you purchase a better antenna from some place you can easily return it, you can see if it makes a difference and if not you at least know and haven’t wasted the money.

The Tablo devices do have an internal splitter since they all have at least 2 tuners. This as you mentions does result in slightly less signal being available to the Tablo tuners as compared to directly attaching an antenna to a TV that has 1 dedicated tuner although the Tablo devices also have an internal amplifier to help minimize the impact of the splitter.

So again, to answer your question, yes, if you are using a standard flat indoor window type antenna upgrading to a better antenna may well resolve most of the signal issues you are encountering.

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I have two of these RCA indoor amplified antennas and they have worked pretty well for me. Could try something like this before the outdoor route.

https://www.amazon.com/RCA-Amplified-Indoor-HDTV-Antenna/dp/B000HKGK9I/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=rca+indoor+antenna&qid=1614441850&sr=8-3

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Great, just ordered, I like that you don’t have to stick it to a window, worth a try before going rooftop.

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Thank you…yea it’s crazy going from 66 channels down to 10-11.

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Yeah, it has a lot of flexibility since it has the dipoles. I’ve used it in two TV markets (previously in Columbus, OH and now Phoenix, AZ). Best part is I think it is a “free return” item on Amazon, so if it doesn’t work for you, you’re not really out anything! :grinning:

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What is the make and model of your current indoor antenna? I doubt going to another indoor antenna will help enough, but you can definitely try it. How far away are you from the broadcast towers? Do you have straight line of sight in that direction? There are so many factors into perfecting your OTA signal strength.

OTA signal suffers from the digital cliff effect. When going from your HDTV tuner to the Tablo tuner the small signal loss can be just enough for you to fall off the cliff and lose a ton of channels. See link below for a better explanation. Best thing to do is improve your OTA signal by either placing your current antenna in a better location or getting a larger / better antenna. Also do not split the OTA antenna signal, one straight coaxial cable run from the antenna to the Tablo is best.

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Well, I got the RCA and it did the same, only 11-12 channels BUT now getting the 3 major and a few others we watch and strong enough to work with the DVR so I’m happy. Still might look into a roof mount to get more channels but this is fine for now.

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Short answer is yes.
It’s like night and day.

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Thanks, will look into it…mainly how to get the cable into the house to the
Tablo. In the mean time, the RCA rabbit ear is getting the basic channels fine.

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To not have to worry about grounding an antenna on the roof and dealing with running and sealing cabling, we put our outdoor rated antenna in the attic and that put it high enough to get everything we need.

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What that will work? That’s awesome I already have holes where I ran surround speaker wires through the attic…hmmmm. So it doesn’t need line of sight like the indoors do? Did you have a power outlet up there already?

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If the outdoor antenna is big enough and you’re close enough to the towers then yes an attic install without direct line of sight can work.

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Good overall principle, the higher up the antenna is (even rabbit ears) the better reception you’ll get. My RCA on the ground floor is pretty good, but upstairs, it’s great. For that reason, I keep my Tablo upstairs since I have pretty strong wi-fi. Reception also varies with positioning the base of the unit (even laying it horizontally can sometimes do wonders), as well as experimenting with the dipoles.

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Can you tell me which one you use?

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I have this antenna mounted in the attic above my garage. Works great.

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A note about attic mounting, it may not be common, but if it’s you…

If your attic is accessible, and you don’t have a radiant heat barrier or metal roof, you can also try installing an outdoor TV antenna within your attic.

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I have a Mohu 50 bidirectional window thing and the RCA rabbit ear thing. both do great hooked straight to the TV but when hooked to Tablo it gets the basics but consistently won’t record either ABC or NBC due to weak signals. I’ve tried several different spots. I don’t even care about tons of channels I just want ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS and I get them just not consistently strong enough for the DVR to record. I tried lowering the recording quality with no difference. I guess next step is to figure out the best attic or outdoor options. Thanks

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Attic antenna worked, getting everything we need at least.

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Glad to hear you found a solution for your problem.