I would like to ask Tablo to consider adding a series recording option. I love the option to just keep the latest X shows. For things like a daily news show, I only want the latest show, and this works perfectly in Tablo.
But for series that are not timely, it would make more sense to have an option, “Keep three recordings until I delete.” Then, I could set it up to record Big Bang Theory, Dr. Who, Seinfeld, etc. etc. and only record 1/3/5 shows. Then stop recording until I watch and delete some. then it would record until I hit the target amount.
This gives me a library of programs I like to watch without constantly deleting and recording to get the newest programs airing. For programs that air maybe 8-10 times a day, that’s a tremendous amount of unnecessary churn over time.Also, it eats a lot of bandwidth uploading and downloading commercial skip information.
I tried protecting three recordings, but then the Tablo just records three new ones and keeps churning on those.
The user does have the option to record episodes rather than series. So if there is something that airs multiple times a day over a two week period, just go into that show, select 1/3/5 episodes to record, and you have accomplished your goal.
I don’t see any chance of an option to “record first available 1/3/5 episodes”. That just isn’t practical and not what 99% of DVR users want.
I am not sure I agree. It is handy for situations like the ION channel, which holds marathons almost every day… take Chicago PD, they will air 15 episodes of it in an all day marathon (all different, so not duplicates) and there is no way to just record 5 of them (or whatever amount you like), then stop and wait for me to watch them before recording more. It works like a charm on other DVRs by using the “protect” feature. But you have to manually do that… it might work on Tablo too, never tried it. But it would be nice if there was an automatic way to do it (kind of like an “auto protect” option, instead of just the regular “record”).
I can see where this request would be helpful. My wife and I will put on Family Feud as background while we cook because it is mindless entertainment and we don’t care if we miss anything. We will never watch every episode and I don’t care if I am watching the most recent episode or one from a couple seasons back. Why should Tablo continually delete and re-record episodes I will never watch? There could be a checkbox in the options screen to delete unwatched episodes to make room for new.
I follow your logic and don’t necessarily disagree. Although, inversely, why do you really care tablo records and deletes? It’s happening constantly on drives in PCs - caches, re-configs, settings, swapping and paging, etc, probably even more IO on Windows systems.
As for ION marathons… Me, and I know I’m not like everyone. I tend to wait until s01e01 then start from the beginning.
If I want a hit 'n miss like some shows on QuestTV, yes, I tend to take a “hands on” approach. Almost daily I check what my tablo has scheduled and will pick episodes one by one if that’s what I want. Of course, most want to click and forget.
Maybe a semi-auto option, have it record 10 episodes, then unscheduled the show… when you get down to 3, record more. No, it’s not what you want, but it may give you what you like.
Actually, it sounds like a really good idea. I think the mechanics work better than what I had in mind, these shows are like potato chips, there are so many of them airing (usually on several channels) that if you miss a few, it is no big deal, they will be back again soon. The only real exception to this is that some shows continue across multiple episodes (take Dr Who as an example), if you miss one, well that could ruin the entire story… and they do not come along often. And my big gripe (that Tablo cannot fix) is that many of the Dick Wolf produced shows cross-over, so L+O SVU finishes on Chicago PD, and sometimes a story will start on Chicago Med and then move to Ch Fire and finish on PD. Some of those aren’t even in reruns (yet, if ever). But I stray off-topic, Tablo cannot be expected to fix such a mess.
As for your method of reviewing the upcoming schedule and cherry picking something to fill in… yes, I do that as well. It seems I have a hobby – studying the broadcast schedule… in fact, the very best feature of Tablo is the Guide (others may be as good, but I haven’t seen them).
Which OTA channel has Dr Who!??! Actually BritBox has all the classics and Amazon Video has the new series.
I’ve encountered the cross-over effect – just try to give it an “oh-well” (it’s not easy) I can only handle early series of Wolf productions, they feel overly social engineered or politically motivated recently… right, straying.
Well, trying to keep my OCD in check, I try to wait a few days in between. There’s 2 weeks, and it only updates a day at a time, so not much changes overnight.
I have found APL Tablo works great - providing an actual list of your scheduled recordings as well as up comping shows - ordered and sorted in a manner I find productive, no goofy pictures.
Tablo does it’s best to suit everyone’s needs, which is impossible. Depends how much it bothers you, there may be work-arounds and 3rd party apps fill in some voids.
APL Tablo sounds neat… I think I will “Google it”.
I like the way that Tablo splits the Guide into Prime Time, TV Shows, Movies and Sports. Made it easy for me to find lots of old movies and football games that I wanted to watch. But a scheduled list in priority order… that would be nice too.
RetroTV, oh yea, I had that once… now I have cometTV
One of the 3rd party apps designed by tablo users! Nuvyyo has to design app to fit the needs of virtually everyone - we know not everyone will like it. Tablo users develop app to work the way to suit a more limited needs… or the way they need them too.