iPhone / iPad app:
It would be awesome to have a realtime signal meter and an overlay with diagnostics on signal levels including noise etc. It would help people point their antenna to get the best possible signal. Advanced diagnostics will help the advanced users that are using attic or rooftop antennas with pre-amps etc. Including this in the iPhone or other mobile apps, it would help people aiming in attics or on roofs in realtime. The mobile apps are pretty awesome already, keep up the good work!
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I love this idea. Unlikely to happen based on previous input from Tablo.
Trouble with building-in this sort of capability is that it not only requires hardware resources and coding efforts but the result is often compromised performance. Kind of a shame for a 1-2 use thing since how many times do users perform installs? Couple of times, if they’re lucky?
I would rather not devote much hardware resource to s/n metering during installation as opposed to better jump functions and GUI improvements.
Perhaps a stand-alone hardware RF meter solution could be offered for install and returned upon installation? Sort of a loaner tool program.
OTA isn’t that hard but there’s enough BS out there which can waste time & money - verifiable site qualification is really the best way to smooth out the inevitable bumps along the HDTV reception road.
It would also appear that Tablo is coming out with the integrated antennae Metro product so who knows what that will ultimately bring to the “ease-of-installation” picture?
Having used OTA in dense urban areas for nearly a decade? My personal feeling is good luck with that. If you can pull it off, more power to you but one of my locations is literally LOS less than 2 miles to major broadcast tower - still giving me fits to this day using numerous indoor antennae setups.
Great idea. If I am fumbling around in the attic, trying to get the best aim on my yagi antenna, this signal meter would be really helpful.
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This is an obvious feature that should be in the product. SNR and Error Rate would give invaluable information in antenna pointing, debugging, etc.
And no, this should not be computationally intensive. Every HD tuner chip I’ve ever looked at provided these numbers in a register. It would be a matter of simply overlaying the information on the picture.
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I have it on my TV, used it once for initial setup and that was it. While I do see the benefit in having it on the Tablo, I can see a few other features being more important.
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At a minimum we need to know if the OTA signal caused problems during a recording or live viewing. The Tablo settings -> guide could provide this real time signal meter view, or at a minimum flag active guide channels that caused problems. I believe Tablo support checks the logs for error messages when a ticket is created. I also believe the green / orange / red channel status is only a snapshot of the signal quality when the channel was added to the guide, and is never updated.
We will use a TV to check the signal when the antenna wire is near a TV. The signal meter feature is for an antenna that is not near a TV set, which is a primary use case for the Tablo. Some comments in this thread questioned the need for a signal meter, but most problems posted to the community start with checking for a good signal. I understand that “live” TV is delayed streaming thru a buffer, so I would be happy to have a signal meter in the stream.
In my urban location I have seasonal variations where one channel is blocked by leaves in the summer. In another forested location I have a very strong signal that’s unusable on windy days. Tablo will not fix my reception problems, but I need to know if the DVR is causing buffering problems due to signal problems before sending a ticket to Tablo support.
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