While I am not 100% sure exactly, the rebooting seems to coincide with the initial v6.2 firmware release on the Roku 3s and then seems to have disappeared for most after the most recent build update of the v6.2 firmware that was released last week. Sounds like firmware no?
I don’t think @RetiredEngineer will accept it’s a specific setup problem.
I’m in agreement on that count. My thought was more directed towards those convinced that the Tablo firmware is the source of the issue. My guess is that it’s a combination of the two.
Before the Roku/Tablo updates my setup never had a reboot issue. Now it does and it seems to have worsened since the latest Roku update.
I can’t see how any network setup or signal based issues would come in to play since the reboot occurs when specific actions are taken on the Roku itself via software. My setup is exactly the same pre/post firmware updates. I didn’t have the problem before but now I do.
Maybe there are undocumented differences in the Roku hardware and depending on build date you can have the issue or not. That seems more likely to me than external factors such as connection or signal.
I would like to clarify my position regarding this terrible mess.
Despite the fact that this is described as being an isolated problem and perhaps very configuration dependent, I’m here to tell you that I’m using six wired ethernet connected boxes to the most popular router on the market, and had no problems whatsoever with this configuration for over 5 months until the Tablo firmware upgrade took place two months ago. If there’s something in my configuration that suddenly went bad coincidentally with my configuration I highly doubt it.
One thing I have noticed that nobody seems to talk about: the time delay / latency between hitting a remote control button and the response from Tablo via the Roku box.
I experience a very substantial difference in delay time when hitting remote control buttons from the Tablo/Roku, sometimes instantaneous responses, sometimes delays of one full second or longer. It is surprising to me that the response time of the Roku box to my remote control actions should be so variable. I am wondering if there are Internet transactions that occur for each button push, beyond my local area network. The latency seems to be experienced on the wide-area network, perhaps because button pushes need to be mediated at factory Tablo or Roku servers. Is this what is going on?
I am raising this point because I find the rebooting problem is much more likely to occur when the long delay times in replying to remote control button pushes is being observed. Conversely, few if any reboots occur when the response time is instantaneous. I have nothing to account for the significant differences in latency time on my network which would cause some button pushes to be fast and others to be very slow.
As a retired engineer, in the spirit of attempting to try to fix this problem rather than merely complain, I am fully willing to offer any services I can to attempt to resolve this matter. I have yet to see compelling evidence that the problem lies strictly within Roku however, and Occam’s Razor causes me to believe that the problem is more likely to arise from Tablo programming issues, possibly combined with Roku programming issues.
I can say with 100% confidence that both companies pointing fingers at one another is doing nothing to fix this problem and leaves very unhappy customers, myself included.
The fundamental problem has been going on for months, and somebody has to take ownership and address a solution, rather than dismissing it as a rare occurrence.
Larry
Well said. I am equally disappointed tablo pointed the finger at Roku and guess what it wasn’t fixed. I get less reboots now but mostly because I’m scared to death to fast-forward. When I push my luck to see if it is fixed then I get a reboot. My enjoyment of the product is diminished and I can’t recommend it to others at this point in time. I have yet to read tablo say that they have re-created this issue. I’m here to tell you it is a problem. a big problem. More concerning than the problem itself is the fact that tablo has no idea of what is causing it. There will be no fix until they know what it is. This does not appear to be eminent.
Sorry guys, but there is too much to potential in this product to give up that easily. So far tonight I haven’t seen any reboots but last week was pretty bad.
I’m sick and tired of self righteous people who always think that the grass is greener some where else.
Tablo is the DVR that will change the game. No more big huge boxes under your TV and running RG6 all over the house.
But I know you can’t please everyone, so go give Tivo and try and see how frustrated you will be with them.
Since it isn’t a universal problem, and appears to be limited to a very vocal minority, to just say it is firmware is, I think, too easy.
I suppose you could say that the one of the firmwares might have issues with certain configurations, but even with that I believe that some of the folks reporting issues are stating that they have ALWAYS had reboot issues, even prior to any firmware updates.
There seems to be a lot of talk about finger pointing too, but anyone that is blaming Roku and Tablo without doing a reasonable amount of troubleshooting in their own network is doing nothing more than pointing fingers as well. If you HAVE done a fair amount of troubleshooting in your network then I feel for you, but if you haven’t then … Well…
I welcome any suggestions regarding trouble-shooting my network, my Rokus, my Tablo, etc. Any and ALL ideas are welcome and will be tried.
So far, all suggestions regarding hard resets, different button push sequences, attempting to isolate weak signal versus strong signal recordings, waiting for keyframe creation to complete, testing during Live viewing, etc. and, most significantly, waiting for the 2 month beta release which was supposedly rock solid, have yielded no improvement, except for a short period of no reboots immediately after a hard reset of both Tablo and Roku boxes.
I would greatly appreciate further suggestions absent any other apparent troubleshooting being attempted by Roku or Tablo. Thanks for any input.
Larry
BTW, I did recently report a noticeable correlation between reboot frequency and button push latency. Whenever the Tablo/Roku takes a longer time to respond to button pushes, the reboot frequency rises. Some times the latency is virtually zero and very rare reboots. More often lags of 1 second or longer to button pushes and frequent reboots. No clue as to why the response time is so variable. My LAN traffic is extremely low. Is the Tablo or Roku going to the WAN every time I hit a button???
Are you setting your router to use UPNP?
Have you looked into possible RF interference? (different wireless channel on router maybe)
Have you tried Hard wiring?
If already Hard wired, have you tried different Ethernet cables?
Are you running any nonstandard configuration (VPN, hardware firewall, etc.)?
Is there another router you could hook up temporarily?
Have you tried putting the Roku in the DMZ temporarily?
@philsoft, I’m also having this constant reboot problem when I FF or RW. Both my Tablo and Roku are wired. Other than that, I have no idea what all those other things are in your list of troubleshooting suggestions. I don’t recall Tablo saying one had to be a software/hardware/network expert to use this product.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my Tablo, and I’m not a fan of just complaining. But it is frustrating to have something crash several times during a one hour program. As someone stated above, I’m petrified of using FF or RW, which pretty effectively ruins much of the benefits of recording programs.
I did not have this problem prior to the last Tablo release, and the latest Roku release has not fixed it.
It seems like forever when I started this discussion. Thankfully I have not seen this problem lately. I am unsure what fixed it? I did do a major tune/move of my antenna. I had noticed that with the channels that did not come in well this happened a lot I mean 4-5 times during a show. I am sorry many of you still have this issue. Just a suggestion for Tablo. If you were to actually fly someone to the retired engineer you may be able to find what is the root cause of this issue. My gut tells me it is unlikely a Tablo issue but worse case It would be a great PR move. But then again that may be asking a little too much.
Maybe they can just ship him a Nexus Player or Fire TV to replace a Roku - would be a lot cheaper lol
You don’t need to be an electrician to use a microwave, but if your electrical is messed up your Microwave might not work. Same goes for networking, if you have issues in your network, things might have problems operating correctly.
The easiest place to start for you is probably to try a different Ethernet cable between the modem and the router, then try different ethernet cables between router and Tablo, and between Router and Roku. Then if you have access to another router you could try temporarily switching routers.
@theuser86 It’s a Roku 3. I’m sorry I don’t have the model number as I’m at work. But I didn’t have this problem before the last Tablo update and I was using the same Roku.
Everything else is also the same, except I did get a new router (as that was also crashing). I even hoped that the new router would fix this. It didn’t. And the exact problem existed before I got the new router.
I’ve been a Tablo/Roku user since August of 2014. I haven’t seen any Roku reboots until the recent Roku Firmware update. Now I reboot about once a day. The reboots seem to be coincident with using the remote with Tablo.
Just another data point, in case anybody is listening…
From a recent article. Roku will never admit it but It is know in the field for hangs/freezes and it has been for some time.
The current generation Roku makes use of a dual-core ARM A9 CPU running at 900 MHz which is quite underpowered for anything more than 1080p-pixel resolution. As a result, we can expect a device with a quad-core CPU and a minimum of 1GB DDR 3 RAM along with more video processing capabilities.
Meanwhile, gaming is something that can really evolve on the Roku with mightier hardware but that doesn’t seem to be the main concern for developers right now. The next Roku upgrade should bring all the major fixes and tweaks that are needed. Like many other devices, the Roku has its own flaws and it has its own share of hangs and freezes.
In case of Roku 3, the users had to get up, reach the device, remove the cable and then plug it in, so as to set it right. Things could be made much better with a proper reset button. Users should be able to press the reset button instead of removing power cables and this is a much easier process.
Full article: http://www.dayherald.com/fixes-and-new-features-to-be-introduced-in-the-roku-4-with-additional-4k-support/3230/
What do you have your Tablo set to record in, 720p or 1080? I wonder if that has any effect on the Roku rebooting?
I have mine in 1080. The reboot issue started for me when Roku released a firmware update about the same time the preview channel came out. I have not had a reboot since the Roku firmware update last week. (watch me get a pile of reboots this weekend…)
There is a recommended setting for the Roku for a reason. From my experience in the past, the Roku begins having issues with bitrates over 8mb/s since the 1080 setting is 10mb/s I can see why you might be having problems.
The idea that this problem is somehow related to recording at 1080 is just a red herring. I was the first to report this problem way back on April 8th. I have a roku 3 4200x and only record at 720p. When I first had the problem I was running tablo firmware 28 and the old roku app. The problem started immediately after the roku firmware was updated to 6.2.3332.
Now it could always be the case where the tablo app was coded in such a way that it got away with unusual code flow assumptions and these assumptions have been closed in the roku 6.2.3332 firmware.