Well, in my location (Indianapolis, Indiana), with my Antop 400BV antenna, I am in a scenario where there are only a couple of “marginal” channels. So, It may indeed be a non-issue for me.
Here’s hoping!!!
Well, in my location (Indianapolis, Indiana), with my Antop 400BV antenna, I am in a scenario where there are only a couple of “marginal” channels. So, It may indeed be a non-issue for me.
Here’s hoping!!!
I agree. Had mine for 5 yrs and can count the failed recordings on my fingers and half were due to me or power failure. The key is a good antenna and signal strength - period. You can’t do OTA unless you invest in a GOOD antenna and cables. It has NOTHING to do with the Tablo tuners!
Had my Tablo more than a year now and never had a problem. The first thing I did before getting a DVR device got an antenna and see what are all the channel available what’s the quality of the signals in my area and read on all the different DVR and went to Tablo and then cancel my pay TV.
When we lived on Ft Meade, between Baltimore and Washington, the problem was severe. So was pixelization. Housing lease prohibited any kind of outside antenna, (or even wire) and since it was a military installation, FCC HOA rules did not apply.
After retirement, we moved and I put up a yagi in the attic. We are just a few miles from the antenna farm, and the terrain is flat. Reception is near-perfect, with just a few pixelization events a year. We haven’t had a crash / forced reset on our OG Quad since.
I’m glad I invested the time and money to upgrade my OTA antenna. I firmly believe the crappy reception provided by the indoor antennas to the be root of my problem.
It’s like starving is only an issue, if you don’t have anything to eat.
I too now have the Antop 400-BV antenna, and experienced only 1 segmented recording, in the past month, due to the Tablo crashing due to a weak signal, and rebooting.
With this antenna, I receive twice as many usable channels, and don’t worry about the marginal signal ones any more.
The biggest issue left is occassional, brief, minor pixelation.
That issue I expect to be resolved, once the antenna is installed on the roof.
I have multiple 2-tuner tablos. Both OG’s and duals. Having multiple units increases the possibility of reboot since scheduled recordings are spread across units. I’ve had one segmented (weak signal) recording in the last 5 months.
And that occurred 2-3 weeks ago. And the unit didn’t reboot since a recording on the same unit at the same time completed successfully.
Of course I had 4 stations repack at the end of March and if you use a good signal meter I can see strange S/N ratio fluctuations at specific times rotating to different channels. At least 3 of these channels are upgrading their equipment. During the evening these channels are indicating not only higher signal strength but also higher S/N ratios.
He’s not.
Thank you!
As I live some distance away from the towers (aprx 50 miles) and with somewhat hilly terrain in-between, I get this issue more frequently during rain or other less than ideal conditions… its annoying but I have had my Tablo long enough to know what the causes are… I am not sure if there is much I can do personally to improve reception other than maybe hire a professional to come and re-evaluate my antenna installation that I did on my own (its probably not ideal) …
50 miles and hills? Do you live in the country? Because you probably need an actual tower for the antenna. Even a roof or chimney mount is probably not going to give you the elevation you need.
@sodaman_2000 @Sam @jimzix @zippy @ben1 @ericgus @FlyingDiver @TabloTV
Ok, guys, I only have one remaining $200 question: Do any of you know whether the other popular OTA PVRs (HD HomeRun, Tivo, etc) have this issue?
IOW, do any of those other PVRs resort to an actual REBOOT if a particular channel’s signal goes way South?
And if not, what do THEY do instead, and would you say their approach is better, worse, or “just different” than Nuvyyo’s “Kill 'em all and let God sort it out!” approach?
I’ve had my Tablo for about ten months now, not one such occurrence, so I’m not able to contribute meaningful info on that front. I also have an AirTV player / DVR, a Channel Master Stream + DVR and and HD Homerun Connect Duo (in a separate dwelling). Of these, and this singular issue aside, I prefer the Tablo over the rest, all other things considered … if my Tablo did this, yet none of the others did, I’d still prefer the Tablo, overall.
One thing that might (might?) make a difference with the HD Homerun, is that fact it does not have to transcode before delivery. Just thinking out loud on that one.
Two things put me off about the HD Home Run stuff.
They don’t have a native AppleTV App. Yes, I know there’s a 3rd Party App (and it’s supposed to be quite good); but I don’t like the lack of dedication to this popular platform.
The Forums for the HD Home Run Quatro (most eqivalent model to the Tablo Quad) are filled with people complaining about poor reception (like low Tuner sensitivity) in the Quatro. That’s very disconcerting.
Now we have to balance that against the Tablo’s Segmentation bug and its inability to display interlaced video at 60 fps.
I thought the Tablo does Hardware Transcoding. Is that not the case?
Oh, and you didn’t answer the original question: Do the other PVRs have the reboot and/or segmentation issue?
Yes, the Tablo does transcode, whereas the HD Homerun does not. That was my point. Another thing I’ve never liked about the HD Homerun is the UI. The first thing I did after initial setup, was to fork out $25 for the Channels app (also available for Apple), which is outstanding. Another thing, is that you’re paying for DVR services, while doing all the heavy lifting yourself (install NAS / server, etc.). After going through all of that, I was even more appreciative of the Tablo than I had (already) been.
My (layman’s) experience with HD Homerun setup, features, benefits and impressions:
A bit off topic… what I like are:
I used a really big big paperclip, I’m 93.3 miles away from the nearest tower which sits in the next valley across from my mountain range and I can’t seem to get anything.
I upgraded my Internet to mega-satellite plus, which only has a 12 second latency, but I just can get streaming 8K video from Netflix… not sure why.
I’m willing to spend a ton of money, like $25 on a solution to these problems.
(exaggerations, but you know…)
Chimney mounted but yea as I said I expected the signal for some channels to not be super… so I am not surprised or bothered by it … Most days its ok just on really rainy/windy etc days its not great but as I previously mentioned in my situation its most certainly due to distance + environment as this sort of thing happened with just an antenna directly too.
Sadly thats about my actual budget these days… lol
Yeah, I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Channels App; but I’d still like Native support, like Tablo has.
The other thing I have read about HD Home Run is the absolutely HORRIBLE Customer Support. 'Nuff said!
I also don’t like the fact that I have to either dedicate a PC to be “on” all the time (don’t have that right now), or purchase a NAS (which I don’t have right now, either), whereas the Tablo Quad just requires either an inexpensive USB External, or an Internal 2.5 SATA drive (unfortunately only up to 9.5mm height, so max 2 TB).
I guess the bottom line is that the HD Home Run Quatro is on sale at Amazon for $129, with plenty of units in stock, as opposed to the Tablo Quad at $199, which no one can keep in stock!
That pretty much tells you all you need to know…
I don’t know other devices Tablo was the first device I use since we cut the cord so far it’s been great must just be lucky so far. I just read and research what the other are and decided on Tablo. I don’t want to experiment and waste time or money when Tablo serve our TV needs for local channels.