Signal Strength View

Would be nice if you could drop down a menu while watching a program or something that if you are seeing static, it would show you a live status of how strong your signal is. Sometimes its a strong signal and its just how the channel is transmitting, other times you need to adjust your antenna

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@emarch - This is also a popular request and is something we’re looking at. 

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This would be VERY helpful, particularly if you can see it on your iPad. I really want to be able to go up to my attic, with my iPad, and tweak my antenna angle with a live strength meter. Ideally, and I know this might be hard to do in realtime, I’d like to be able to see the strength of all the channels in my list (not necessarily all possible channels). It might also be nice to have a dedicated iPhone Tablo signal strength app (separate from the regular Tablo app), because iPhones are just more portable.

+1 for a separate app to aid those in installing and tweaking an antenna

This would be VERY helpful, particularly if you can see it on your iPad. I really want to be able to go up to my attic, with my iPad, and tweak my antenna angle with a live strength meter. Ideally, and I know this might be hard to do in realtime, I'd like to be able to see the strength of all the channels in my list (not necessarily all possible channels). It might also be nice to have a dedicated iPhone Tablo signal strength app (separate from the regular Tablo app), because iPhones are just more portable.

YES YES YES ,  I would say this issue is the single biggest problem for those of us who live outside the “metro” areas … and its the one that took me months and months to get sorted out … and it is probably one of the bigger problems cord cutters face when starting out… anything to help with this effort would be very much appreciated…  Using an iPad (or better an iPhone/Android) device would be a huge timesaver in getting over this one and might I say major issue.

There are a couple of great web sites where you enter your address and it maps out the station tower location, relative strength and compass coordinates for antenna aiming. EXTREMELY accurate!

It’s not real-time but can tell you very accurately using a compass where and how to aim an antenna, of course there are antennas that aren’t so sensitive to direction or aiming, too. 
I’ve always always been on a roof-mounted antenna. I’ve never had cable or satellite. For one thing i’ve only ever lived in an area where you could GET cable for 3 years, out of 57 years that means means 54 years I’ve lived in places that never had cable (or pre-cabled years!)
So I’m very good at buying, using, installing, aiming, etc. as that’s the only way I’ve ever gotten TV, ever. Always OTA TV, never had anything but!
Can’t call me a cord cutter, never had a cord.  
:wink:
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There are a couple of great web sites where you enter your address and it maps out the station tower location, relative strength and compass coordinates for antenna aiming. EXTREMELY accurate!

Those sites are helpful, however, they don’t take into account local obstructions like adjacent buildings and trees. And for attic or indoor mounting, they don’t take into account objects in or attached to the walls and roof. Residences in outer suburbs (and hilly areas) have different problems for this issue than those in urban and rural areas.


When installing my Mohu Leaf antenna in the attic, I had someone watching the signal strength meter on my TV, switching channels to check the strength of several. It took me about two hours to find the best spot (there’s not a whole lot of room, so much of the time was me adjusting my position so I could hold the antenna steady for several minutes).
There are a couple of great web sites where you enter your address and it maps out the station tower location, relative strength and compass coordinates for antenna aiming. EXTREMELY accurate!

Those sites are helpful, however, they don’t take into account local obstructions like adjacent buildings and trees. And for attic or indoor mounting, they don’t take into account objects in or attached to the walls and roof. Residences in outer suburbs (and hilly areas) have different problems for this issue than those in urban and rural areas.


When installing my Mohu Leaf antenna in the attic, I had someone watching the signal strength meter on my TV, switching channels to check the strength of several. It took me about two hours to find the best spot (there’s not a whole lot of room, so much of the time was me adjusting my position so I could hold the antenna steady for several minutes).

Yes I used those sites as a STARTING POINT … but as @Joltarin says there are a ton of other factors like reflections (where you might actually get a much stronger signal pointing your antenna AWAY from the compass location because the signal is reflecting nicely of say a very large metal warehouse many miles away and that path is free from any obstructions whereas the compass direction is obscured by hills… houses and other signal killers.


It took me the better part of a month experimenting with various locations/antennas because of the odd reflection issues I have in my neck of the woods … and I also live on the side of a hill which makes things even more interesting… in the end I ended up with an externally mounted larger antenna then the laughable leaf I tried in the beginning … (my area is just too much for little antennas like the leaf sadly)

In the meantime you can tweak your antenna, do another channel scan and see if your results are better or worse. 

In the meantime you can tweak your antenna, do another channel scan and see if your results are better or worse. 

Kinda hard to do when your antenna is on the roof and your Tablo is in the living room and its just you. (hence the point of the topic) – I have done this … sitting on my roof and its not really a whole lot of fun with an iPad in one hand and your other hand ensuring you don’t tumble off …

@ericgus - Yep, it’s a two person job for sure. 1 on the roof, one with the iPad. 

@ericgus - Yep, it's a two person job for sure. 1 on the roof, one with the iPad. 

sadly it was solely me … hence the real need for somekind of “utility” in the iphone/ipad app that makes this task easier.

The way several of us setup our antennas was using a Homerun and a iOS or Android app. I used the iOS app.


http://smile.amazon.com/SiliconDust-HDHomeRun-Compatible-Streaming-HDHR4-2US/dp/B00GY0UB54/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1420909938&sr=1-3&keywords=homerun

http://genhelp.com/Generally_Helpful_Software/Signal_GH.html

I used http://genhelp.com/Generally_Helpful_Software/Signal_GH.html as well.

@TabloTV

I’d be happy with any app that does real-time signal reporting from the Tablo, computer, iOS, Android, etc.

I just factored in the cost of a homerun into my investment when I did my payback analysis for cutting the cord. All the homerun is, is a tuner. Some genius should be able to write an app like Signal HG that runs off the Tablo Tuner. I would even pay for that!

+1 for paying for it if someone else wrote the app.

@TabloTV


I have contacted the person that wrote SignalGH and he asked to look at the Tablo SDK to see how hard it would be to adapt that app to work on the Tablo. He said he could not find it on the Tablo website. Can you help with this?
There are a couple of great web sites where you enter your address and it maps out the station tower location, relative strength and compass coordinates for antenna aiming. EXTREMELY accurate!

Those sites are helpful, however, they don’t take into account local obstructions like adjacent buildings and trees. And for attic or indoor mounting, they don’t take into account objects in or attached to the walls and roof. Residences in outer suburbs (and hilly areas) have different problems for this issue than those in urban and rural areas.


When installing my Mohu Leaf antenna in the attic, I had someone watching the signal strength meter on my TV, switching channels to check the strength of several. It took me about two hours to find the best spot (there’s not a whole lot of room, so much of the time was me adjusting my position so I could hold the antenna steady for several minutes).

I agree 100%. Absolutely. And the more I think of it, the more I like the thought of a “live” indicator. 
I live in an area that is surrounded by TREES and our place is LOW relative to other homesteads in our area.
I also gave it more thought - taking into thought our 3G and 4G data issues at home, when I lay the cellular coverage map over the Polk County property and tax map, the 3G and 4G signals stop at our property lines!

I even had people at the cell phone stores either laugh, or watched their jaw drop in disbelief - especially when I joked “did your people plan it this way”. 
So that being said, I have to reconsider and add in my positive thoughts for a “yeah, they could be handy” and honestly I might even end up using it if it existed.
Hey, one can change their minds if they read/see/hear other information that helps formulate a new opinion. 
Ah, you know what I mean! I thought it over from different points of view and decided you folks were more right. In short, I was wrong, and I throw my hat in in support of this request for what tiny bit that’s worth hahaha.
To quote Yukon Cornelius “I changed my mind!”

BTW - one of the “converters” we have, I think it’s one my parents gave us a few years back after TV went digital and we still had 2 older sets in my shop, had a live signal strength meter and sound. It beeps - the louder and faster the beep, the stronger the signal. You don’t even have to look at the TV screen is the nice part, but you have to run a LONG extension cord to your roof to use that as your signal indicator. It’s good for 2 people, my wife at the converter box, me on the roof, window wide open, her shouting loud enough for the neighbors to hear. (they may wonder what the two of us are up to!)

If a converter box can do it, it’s at least doable but how much overhead and code would it mean for a Tablo? I guess that’s up to them.Â