(COMPLETED) Switching Channels without having to go back to the Channel guide

Remember, even if an attempt where made to accelerate, at best you only have the number of tuners you have.

There could be some pretty serious design changes required to support such a feature. And it’s possible that there could be some ideal hardware changes that could make the implementation “easier”, but regardless something might be doable with the existing hardware.

I like the request, but think the implementation would require quite a bit of work/change…

(just saying)

I had the Extend being used with Shield TV. Transcoding was definitely turned on by default, as I had to do the rapid clicking of the Y button to get into the settings of the HDHomerun View app to disable transcoding on the homerun and allow the Shield TV to do the work.

The extend transcodes by default and has no major delays switching channels. Its the reason why its the one that is recommended for HD over wifi; it transcodes to H264 at the homerun level. The connect sends the raw MPEG2 signal.

I always thought the problem with channel switching and initial playback delay of recorded episodes, was because tablo uses HLS live streaming as its client video player model. This is a HTTP file based architecture where the player obtains the list of .ts file to upload/retrieve for playback.

This is what I do as well. Cable from the attic to the utility room and split off to all my tv’s and my Tablo.

Without joining in all the drama, I think a PIP option to bring up the guide would be nice, such as what Pluto.tv does already.

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PIP would be nice, but not particularly useful in my 2 tuner. If I want PIP, I couldn’t record and watch at the same time. Maybe a 4 tuner option only.

Pressing the down arrow could put a small guide at the bottom of the screen that could be scrolled and a new channel selected (back button would get out of this without selecting a new channel). Alternatively, pressing the back button to go to the guide would leave a small (PIP) version of the current channel playing in the upper right corner.

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+1 this feature request. I often want to see what else is on live TV (or coming up in the next couple of hours) without actually leaving the show I’m currently watching. The Tablo clients should minimize the current video stream to a small window while showing the full guide (up arrow to open?). A non-full guide could show up at the bottom of the screen as a transparent overlay of just one channel at a time (down arrow to open?), allowing the user to scroll through the channels (up/down arrow once open).

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Good option. Works nicely for me as well. Simply switch inputs as needed.

I would honestly just like the ability to minimize playback to a window in corner and see the guide before i click back then stop playback all together and then click on something else.

The browser on the computer can do it, not sure why we can’t do it with the firestick/tv/roku.

On the pc, you can click the down arrow at the top right it minimizes the video and then lets you see guide and keep hearing what is going on.

I honestly don’t use the table anymore to watch tv. it is too slow, i put a splitter in the jack and went to tv and to table. table is used as a playback device for anything we don’t watch live.

For me, the Tablo is for watching full time, not just recording. I don’t have the cabling to connect every TV and not every TV has the same user experience. I prefer one place to go. This could be much better with the guide overlay suggestion. It’s not just that the stream takes a long time to start. The user interface is pretty clunky; needs to be much faster and re-thought in some ways. And you don’t have to actually tune or stream the channels to decide whether to watch them. Leave the currently playing stream running, minimize it to the corner and wrap the guide around it. Show me full show information in the guide, use the feature buttons of the device effectively to mimic the cable tv experience. Then if I decide to tune something else, when I select it, don’t stop playing the old stream until the new one is ready to start. Wait the 10-15 seconds if you must, but keep the first stream going during the wait. It would make it more seamless. If all tuners are used, maybe you can’t do that. And it would be great for someone from Tablo to give us a definitive answer on exactly why the buffering is necessary. This seems like a hardware performance issue. It’s a pretty inexpensive device, so maybe some compromise was made there. I would pay more for a ‘no buffering’ version, with 8 tuners.

I like the more complicated suggestions in this forum, but I’d be happy with this one simple feature - the ability to jump back to the last channel watched. This would help for one of the only situations where I would watch a live TV stream - watching two NFL games at the same time. Please consider adding this one to the road map ASAP.

2 Likes

+1 Please add use of channel up/down buttons for remotes. Selfish plug…I use Logitech Harmony universal remotes (programmable) with Android Firesticks and Roku TVs. If implemented, I expect the function would only work while watching live tv, not while watching recordings. I realize there will be a slight lag, but nowhere near the lag experienced from switching from a direct OTA-to-tv back and forth to Tablo.

+1 Please add use of Last Channel command for universal remotes. Would really be great for sports games, particularly NFL.

New note - I’d also love the ability to scroll in the guide (channel list) from the bottom channel to the top channel by continuing down. Or vice versa, from top channel to bottom channel by continuing up.

Thank you!!

That functionality exists on the Roku app already. It will work its way to the other streaming box apps as well.