SAP Issues with Tablo

HELP! Don’t know if this is a Tablo issue or an Amazon Fire Stick running the Tablo App issue. Within the past two weeks we have watched an NBA game on the local ABC channel and both time the play-by-play broadcast is coming in Spanish. Neither Tablo or the Fire Stick has the capability to select languages. The local ABC channel has told us it is not their issue as they have no control over what audio channel we are receiving. Today when the NBA game came on the play-by-play was again in Spanish. I immediately disconnected the local antenna from the Tablo box and connected it directly to the TV. Scanned all the channels and turned to the ABC channel. Everything was in English like it should be! So, the question is how do we switch the alternative audio from Spanish to English when no option is available to us. And before someone asks – watching the NBA games on ABC is the only time this issues happens. Thanks.

It’s usually the guide provider for Tablo. Send a ticket to Tablo support with the zip code and channel you are experiencing it on, and they should be able to help you.

The Tablo can only capture one audio track per channel, so that can cause issues with English and Spanish at times, where it captures the Spanish audio feed accidently. This has happened in the past, so it shouldn’t be a problem to fix.

Hope that helps.

Thanks very much. I will send them an email this morning.

Hrm… We have heard versions of this before and in general it tracked back to an audio track identifier problem at the broadcast source.

However, the fact that it was English on the TV but ‘el basketball’ on Tablo is ‘muy extrano’ (super weird).

Did you happen to record the basketball game?

No, I didn’t record either game. Please note that only the play-by-play and half-time was in Spanish. All the commercials were in English – strange! Also, note that our Sony TV does have SAP capability so when I connected the antenna directly to the TV, I was able to select the language, but English was already the default on the broadcast. As discussed earlier, our ABC channel (KGUN) is the only channel where we are having this issue and it has only presented itself during the national sporting events. I also sent an email to the Tablo trouble desk requesting a ticket be opened. Thanks.

Hrm… We likely won’t be able to see exactly what’s happening unless we can pull the data from a recording.

But we’ll consult with our engineering team either way.

Okay! The next scheduled nationally broadcast games on the ABC channel will be this coming Sunday. They currently have two games scheduled. I will record both of the games and hopefully they will be in Spanish for you to analyze. Would you do a remote access to the box to grab the recording? Thanks.

Yes - just drop us a note on Monday and we’ll take a look.

Since it’s just the content portion of the broadcast of live sports that’s not picking up the right audio track, our best guess is that your local broadcaster is switching to the network feed for the game.

And if the network feed’s audio settings aren’t correct, it can pick up the wrong track.

There are two ways this could happen…

1 - If the audio tracks are mixed up (Spanish is mistakenly set as EN)
2 - If the audio tracks aren’t marked (then Tablo just picks the first one, regardless of the language)

As I said, without having all of the data it’s just a guess but we have seen versions of this happen before. In general, it’s a problem with ALL shows on the channel, not just one though which is why we’re thinking the game feed is set incorrectly.

Thanks. I will advise you this coming Sunday. Yes, I have already contacted the local broadcast station several times and they claim (as you would expect) it is not their problem. However, it just came to me – this past Sunday before I switch the antenna to the TV, we were receiving both the Spanish and English audio at the same time for the play-by-play. Make any more sense? Thanks again.

They were overlapped? Hrm…

Then perhaps BOTH audio tracks were set to ENG? Weird!

@TabloTV, I’m just curious if it would be possible for Tablo to capture both audio tracks? Is it a hardware or software limitiation?

I am also having this problem. The Tablo is using the SAP stream on the ABC channel. The broadcaster says it is a Tablo issue capturing the wrong stream. It is in English, but out of sync and unwatchable with the added voice aided descriptions for the visually impaired.

Our ABC broadcast channel in Tucson (KGUN (9-1)) is a total mess. With college football it becomes even stranger. When the football game is a national feed, then we get the game in Spanish without any hope of switching unless we use the Closed Captions, which are in English. However, if the college football game is a regional game, then the broadcast (play-by-play) comes in English. The audio delays on just about all shows continues to drive us crazy as audio is really behind the video. Our biggest laugh is watching Jeopardy in the afternoon as the closed caption matches the lips, but the audio is behind so you see the answer on the screen before you hear the answer. The 3-5 seconds absence of audio at the start of most commercials is also irritating.

After reading this thread I’m confused about what audio channel tablo is suppose to chose when SAP is available. Or even how often SAP audio labeling changes or is allowed to change.

So I ran a test. I live close to the Mexican border so there are a number of OTA stations broadcasting south of the border.

With the exception of one channel it was hard to tell if the audio channels were properly labeled. Some had 1 audio channel labeled Spanish. One had 2 audio channels both labeled Spanish. One had 2 audio channels both labeled English. Since even channels labeled English could have Spanish audio for commercials,etc.

I found one channel that had 2 audio channels. Audio channel 1 was labeled as Spanish and audio channel 2 was labeled as English. Sure enough when watching via coax into TV audio channel 2(English) was selected. But via tablo Live TV only audio channel 1(Spanish) was selected.

Earlier comments by tablo support implied it might default to English:

"There are two ways this could happen…
1 - If the audio tracks are mixed up (Spanish is mistakenly set as EN)

2 - If the audio tracks aren’t marked (then Tablo just picks the first one, regardless of the language)"

So really, we need a resolution to this issue and the only way I see it happening is if Tablo lets us choose the audio stream, but I am not even sure if the device is capable. What a waste Tablo is in Tucson. Can’t watch ABC or even get the CW network.

Contacting the station is a waste of time. You never get through and they never call back.
They have no incentive since their feed works fine on any device EXCEPT for Tablo. Why is that, Tablo?

Have you tried opening an official support ticket with Tablo so you can work with someone directly or at least get some direct answers?

Don’t know where you are exactly located in the Tucson area, but we get CW (58-1) okay via our outdoor mounted antenna in Sahuarita. Agree, that ABC is a total waste using the Tablo and KGUN has stopped answering me when I confront them with the problems we are seeing. Like I said in an earlier posting I did advise the closest Best Buy of warning customers if they intend to buy a Tablo of the issues with the ABC channel. I almost told them to have the customers contact me direct if they have any questions concerning the Tablo since the sales team at Best Buy has no idea of Tablo is or how it works. Like I have said numerous times, we really like the Tablo and the way it works with our Roku. We are still doing a work around in going with You Tube to get the ABC channel without any issues and this give us access to the ABC App.

Nilex. Yes, I have opened two tickets with Tablo over the issue with the local ABC channel. They have reviewed recorded broadcasts off of our Tablo receiver from the ABC channel and determined it is a local ABC channel issue. Please note that this issue only started back in April of this year. Everything was fine with the ABC channel and Tablo until we were watching a NBA game on the ABC channel and all the play-by-play was coming in Spanish and we couldn’t stop it or change it to English. From that point on every national sporting event broadcast on ABC was coming in Spanish. So my point has been, and will remain, somebody somewhere either in the local ABC broadcast station or Tablo did a firmware/software change which really messed this us. Once again, we are point the fingers at the local ABC station.

(This maybe the first step by Mexico to take back AZ) :grinning::grinning::grinning:

Sorry, I was actually asking @dcol, should have just called that out in my reply. I know you had posted specifics about your interactions with Tablo support previously.