Slow sync, please redesign

It’s a good device, and I hate to say this, but the sync times are embarrassing for this product. There is no excuse for sync times over a minute with the amount of data being exchanged. It should happen nearly instantaneously over a local network, which can send multiple megabytes per second. This suggests there is something seriously wonky about your syncing protocol. I could see perhaps the transfer of the initial batch of thumbnail images to maybe take a few seconds. Please go back to the drawing board on this

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Actually, this will be forced eventually. So it’s a matter of “when”. With that said, obviously the re-design could be just as bad. Time will tell.

As long as Tablo keeps forcing IMAGES, the problem will get worse. Please program an option to be TEXT only or download TEXT and sync the images in the background.

What if you offered CLOuD for sync option at least for those of us that paid lifetime.

The problem extends beyond image vs text - on a modern network, the 50K images will transmit very quickly, and it should only be sending new images, which are comparatively rare - nothing that justifies the extraordinary sync times

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And why do you think that images are causing a slow sync? How much metadata needs to be downloaded to describe each upcoming show and episode? How much metadata needs to be downloaded to describe each recorded show?

And after the change and I want to enter the menus for recorded shows or scheduled recordings how much data would be sucked from the cloud and reformatted?

And how does the tablo server know what’s “new” for any specific device?

And my sync time is less then 30 seconds. But I’m not a digital hoarder. Once an episode is watched it’s deleted.

Only have channels you actually watch/record even if you can get 50 channels. The more channels, the more to sync, and might be for no reason. Could it be the database format, and maybe switch to MySQL or something? Just thinking.

Who knows how it is engineered. A simple solution would be for the server to implement every change to the TV schedule or recordings as a log, then simply transmit the log to the device that plays it back. It simply asks “give me every event since XXX” where XXX is the last sync time, and it transmits the (compressed) log. I’m sure there are many other solutions as well. It’s a pretty easy software engineering problem, which is why the slow sync times are so disappointing.

My tablo tuners can detect 24 channels. But since I don’t speak spanish I only store/add the english channels I plan on recording/watching. That’s all that gets loaded/sync’ed.

I’m sure there is a database of sorts and thus a schema. And if when you are using the WEB browser and you add or delete a channel you can watch the messages as the database is readjusted.

Each local record in the local database would need a last updated time to send to the server for comparison against it’s last updated time.

But first tablo would need to actually construct sync/resync metrics for each configuration so it knows what it’s trying to or could accomplish. Call me when the metrics have been defined.

With all the money and manpower that Apple has, the last IOS release seemed to have had trouble installing via WiFi. Installation testing is usually first systems test that is run.

New Tablo user (and a computer programmer), and I have to agree that the syncing borders on unacceptable. At the very least, it’s embarassing. There’s no reason it should take that long to sync.

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I agree that syncing is too slow.
I only have 7 channels available, so it doesn’t bother me much, but some users have many more, so I can see where they’d get frustrated waiting.

Well, I use 35 channels on Tablo - 78 available - and it takes about 40 mins when I do a complete sync. Not a problem because I just walkaway and let it go for 40 mins and then all is good for a few months until I need to change/add channels.

The sync has to do with schedule, which is always being updated. So as I say, sync and sync often. The less information it has to sync the better. Sure, it’s always irritating (always), but when you’ve away for several days, the time it takes can be maddening.

The one upside of the slow sync is that it brings me back to the forum. I never seem to think about coming here except when I’m sitting there waiting for it to finish syncing.

One other request regarding syncing… Why not allow it to sync in the background (and perhaps have it automatically sync periodically in the background)?

Yesterday, I opened up the iPhone app, saw that it was syncing, switched to a game to pass some time, switched back and realized that it didn’t sync in the background.

Why make us sit with the app on the screen for 5+ minutes?

They need to add background app refresh to the iOS app - switching to another app currently suspends it.

Use Background App Refresh

After you switch to a different app, some apps run for a short period of time before they’re set to a suspended state. Apps that are in a suspended state aren’t actively in use, open, or taking up system resources. With Background App Refresh, suspended apps can check for updates and new content.

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Another software engineer here. Sync times are non-linear at best. Its truly embarrassing to have to listen to my better half complain about it every time we start the app on our LG TV.

Having your better half complain about the slow start time for the tablo app on your LG TV might not be all bad. If the start time was supper fast, your better half might want to fill that talk time by giving you an in depth review of all the various reality shows they recently watched.

http://androidideas.org/taskbomb/

Run apps on your time. I have not tried it. Just googled and found it. Android phone sync solution.

Also fround Cronoid and installed it. Set for 4 AM.

For iphone users that want Kodi on without jailbreak

“Before you leave, just keep in mind that you will need to resign Kodi again using Cydia Impactor after 7 days.”

You need to do this every 7 days this way.