The following would reduce the load on the device and simplify the management/maintenance of recordings by users by making it easier for people to locate/find what they are looking for especially as the quantity of recordings grows.
Currently Tablo has three basic categories that recordings fall into TV shows, sports or movies. Don’t know if those categories have been setup in separate folders but it would make sense.
It would be nice to be able to create or even have a set of predefined sub-categories/folders within each major category to move recordings into, for example:
TV shows -
Action, adventure, drama, documentary, thriller, comedy, sports, … other
Sports
Basketball, baseball, football, soccer, …
Movies
Action, adventure, drama, documentary, thriller, comedy, sports, … other
All because Tablo is a dvr solution doesn’t mean it has to be like a hoarders house (a total mess filled with stuff you can never find). Guess I’m a person that likes things organized.
I just think 3 categories is not designed for those individuals that install a large 4 to 8TB external drive, expecting to build fairly large library content of recordings and not end up with so much that they have to scroll through to find that one recording they are looking for, but if people don’t like this then I’m sure Tablo will do what they think works best.
My plex server seems to be able to work as a DVR. It just has way more features and options then I need or want to manage.
I really don’t see user defined genres. The closest might be a recording filter like the one that exists for TV Shows on the legacy devices. And that filter is probably based on info provided in the guide by the guide provider. And the gen 4 doesn’t appear to use the same guide provider so who knows if that level of detail even exits
I’ve never looked at Plex server but you’ve given me something to look at and think about. Never know, maybe that is a better fit for what I’m looking for.
Too bad they don’t use the same guide as legacy. It would be great to have things automatically organized based on the guide provider. Probably cost a lot more for that guide provider service.
One HUGE advantage to using Plex (or Emby or Jellyfin or …) Is that you can use a RAID or otherwise back up your content. The Tablo is quite fragile in that regard.
I’m not interested in having my recordings split into other subcategories “folders”, but I’ve been thinking this one over for a couple of days.
In each of those categories you mentioned (Shows/Movies/Sports), there’s no reason that they couldn’t included your recordings in there somewhere. So, Shows → Biography would give you a list including what’s in your library (maybe with a mark or icon showing it already exists). If not that, there should be some way to search or filter your library by category, since they already show up in those subcategories before you record them.
What good would it do to put “your” recordings in there somewhere. Tablo can’t play them. Legacy recordings were HLS. You recordings would also have to be proper HLS and have the appropriate meta data, in the correct location, etc.
So you want to move just tablo recordings around not your recordings. The current categroies are based on the data set and meta data provided by the EPG. Because there is linkage between guide, and recording, and scheduled, I doubt anything could be moved until the recording is complete.
If you have used the TV Shows genre the actual show could often show up in multiple genre. So who knows where the genre materialize from.
Does this sound like something at the top of tablo’s to do list.
Definitely not at the top of their list. They have enough issues with various apps not working on various platforms properly that need correcting. Most things I’ve seen in this wish list aren’t a priority for Tablo until they get things stable for existing stuff.
A) I don’t think anything we’ve asked about is at the top of Tablo’s to-do list. That’s why their feature requests. Posting them here is a way for them to see what we might find useful. They’ll include what they want, but 99% of these, I’m sure, are single-user wishes.
B) “Moving” is not really something that would ever work, considering the directories with any particular show or movie are going to be a couple G and about 200 pieces, and even “moving” a file on a computer is truly arbitrary. It doesn’t copy it to a new part of the drive.
C) Looking at a movie in play right now, the screen is completely unhelpful. It doesn’t tell me the name of the movie, when I recorded it, but it sure has no problem saying "115 min | 2006 | R | Thriller. So the categories might defined by the EPG, but it’s there somewhere.
D) I know you’ve tucked your 4th gen away until it might actually be useful for you, but if you explore the genres in those three sections, many movies do show up in multiple categories. It could be just a simple filter, and nothing really needs to be “moved” anywhere.
E) Even if a show was Recorded, In Progress, On-Air, or Coming Soon, it wouldn’t matter. But it certainly would certainly help people who have hundreds of movies and shows recorded find something based off of genre. Because nothing is “moving”, just being filtered or sorted.
F) Your Legacy Tablos give you what it likely copied from the EPG whenever you click on a recording. The 4th gens do not – and it ticks me off – and the only way to figure out what a show or movie is about is to 1) hope it’s recent or coming up again soon because it apparently can’t keep the info stored and often can’t find info, 2) click around on your Android or FireTV (cuz it doesn’t work on Roku) to the section that says INFO. I’ve already complained about this, and no one seemed to think it was worthwhile.