As the title states, I received my DUAL HDMI to replace my failing ChannelMaster DVR+.
My initial impression - wow this thing is sluggish !! Every button push and menu selection buffers and waits. In fact some fundamental operations are nearly impossible to perform.
I would have to guess that the single most fundamental menu for an OTA DVR would be the live TV grid. Too bad it barely works on the DUAL HDMI. If one selects “Live TV” from the side menu and jumps into the grid, trying to scroll up and down the channels is an exercise in frustration.
The cursor starts at the top of the channel list and if you want to scroll down the list, the cursor will jump down a few channels then buffer, then jump down a few more channels then buffer, etc. If you lose patience and click the remote too many times the screen goes blank, the circle of doom appears, and then the box must do a core dump of some kind and you are dumped back to the side menu. The same thing happens if you try to scroll horizontally across time.
How in the world could Tablo release a box that performs like this ?
One little trick I discovered is that the buffering is reduced if you set the cursor on the channel numbers to scroll up or down, or the time field to scroll right or left. I suspect this is because in those cases the show information does not have to be displayed at the top of the screen. It helps, but it’s still easy to overrun the CPU. And why should I have to find ways to trick the unit into working ?
I can post a link to a video if anyone wants to see a demo.
I also have several concerns about the software. For example, why can’t I page up and down on the grid instead of having to click through every individual show ?
I have a few days to evaluate this, but I have saved all the packing materials in case I decide to return it.