Tablo Amazon Fire TV/Android TV App (4th Gen) Update (v. 1.9.0)

Announcements
1

Hi folks -

An update is now available for Android TV and Amazon Fire TV apps for 4th Generation Tablo devices.

This includes the new Offline Mode feature and some new shortcuts for your remote, so if you don’t have automatic updates enabled, make sure to update your app.

Here’s what you can expect:


Tablo Amazon Fire TV/Android TV App (4th Gen) Update (v. 1.9.0)

  • Adds Offline Mode
  • Adds support for different PLAY vs. SELECT/OK remote control behavior on live TV and recordings
  • Bug fixes and performance improvements

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About Offline Mode
Offline Mode has been added as part of a commitment to make Tablo features more robust for all users.

With Offline Mode, if you have power and your home Wi-Fi router can provide an active local network connection (LAN) between your Tablo and your streaming devices or smart TVs, you can still access live local broadcasts and previously recorded programming.

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When Tablo detects it doesn’t have an active connection to the internet or our servers, you’ll see a notification in your Tablo app that Offline Mode is required. There is no way to trigger this manually.

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When you enter Offline Mode, you’ll see a notification banner at the top of your screen and some features will be unavailable.

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You can read more about Offline Mode and how it works on the Knowledge Base.


About Play vs. OK Remote Control Behavior

When you’re focused on a recording or a program that’s currently airing on the Home, Guide, or Live TV Grid screens, hit the PLAY/PAUSE button on your remote instead of SELECT/OK. When you do so, playback will begin immediately, bypassing secondary scheduling/program info screens.

Not all Android TV device remotes offer this, but if yours does, give it a whirl to get to your favorite show even faster!

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If you have any questions or encounter problems, post them below or touch base directly with support.

3 Likes
2

Thanks for adding Offline Mode. That was one of the reasons why I still have my Amazon Recast connected. Looking forward to trying it out the next time the internet goes out. Also, the Play vs OK change is a very good idea. Very useful additions to the Tablo interface!

3

Glad to hear that off-line mode is starting to appear. I am all Roku, so this doesn’t apply to me yet, but I am assuming it will work similarly.

I just want to clarify something. If I am reading this correctly, this will work if a running Tablo loses its internet connection, BUT will not work if a Tablo powers up without an internet connection. Is that correct? So, a UPS on a home network may go a long way to in a power outage.

Am I reading that correctly?

4

You are reading that correctly.

We’re working on a way to avoid that limitation, but in the meantime a UPS would definitely save you in that case.

1 Like
5

My ISP only supplies a router that can not be set to bridge mode. And the DHCP server resides on that router. When the internet goes down so does the DHCP server. So when a devices IP lease expires so does LAN access - unless you plan on allowing manual addresses this could be a hard to do feat for some.

Luckily my ISP rarely goes down. And if lasts longer the 12 hours the big one probably hit and we slid into the ocean.

6

I see in the Offline Mode Required message you posted that this works when either my Internet is down or the Tablo servers are down. Is this the case? Just want to make sure it’s designed to work in either situation.

2 Likes
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I just tested OffLine mode and it did work. It takes a few seconds for things to start streaming when first selected but things seem to start streaming faster upon second attempt.

  • Power Outage Followed By Internet Outage
    When severe weather rolls through or you have a planned power outage in your area and your power goes out, your Tablo will reboot once power is restored. During the reboot process, it will reach out for the current time via your ISP’s servers. If your Tablo cannot secure the current time, none of your applications will be able to access your Tablo until its internet connectivity is restored.

@TabloTV you are advising that the Tablo will apparently only need to get current time from the ISP’s servers after reboot for OffLine mode to work. Are you using the standard NTP protocol to query for time?

If so, then if I were to setup a local NTP server so that the Tablo could get time locally on my network (DHCP option 42), would that make OffLine mode work after bootup?

I’m thinking that you have probably hardcoded the NTP Servers setting so that the Tablo needs to connect to some specific NTP servers on the internet which means I would have to intercept all NTP protocol request and send them to my local NTP server instead. That’s providing that NTP time is all that’s required for OffLine mode to work on bootup without the internet.

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This is yet another example of why PSIP data should be utilised. According to the linked page, ‘The System Time Table (STT) supplies the current time.’ If true, this could be used as a backup (or replacement) for NTP. Internet not required.

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Unless you are one of the unfortunate few who receive channels from 2 different time zones.

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I believe that PSIP time is time-zone agnostic. See: this page about PSIP, under ‘Telling the time correctly’:

‘This is broadcast as the number of GPS seconds since midnight on January 6th, 1980, and is measured as UTC (GMT) time.’

11

The PSIP supplied time is not always correct. Here in the Chicago area, WYIN’s PSIP time was several hours behind for months. When you tuned into it, it would not show program info. But, when I tuned to a nearby channel number, the guide data would show (this is direct on the TV, not through a Tablo.)

12

Very good point!

Perhaps the Tablo developers should consider this if they implement PSIP data. Since Tablos have multiple tuners, they could pull it from multiple stations and compare. If they are different on a dual tuner, they could use one or both tuners on different channels as long as they were not in active use for viewing or recording. For the quad tuner, I would suspect that it would be easy to see which one was out-of-sync. However, I have no idea how diligent most stations are with keeping their PSIP data accurate. Based on your observation, there are some that are not.

If PSIP STT is only used as a backup to NTP after a device restart where Internet is not available, this should be a rare event. If implemented, it could provide an option where one does not currently exist.

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I live in a large U.S. city across the border from a large mexican city with lots of TV stations. I don’t think I would be trusting their PSIP data..

But I guess if you build a large enough Rube Goldberg machine anything is possible.

1 Like
14

I got excited when I saw the Select/OK Play/Pause mentioned in the update. I thought they had fixed the improper Select/OK behavior. Guess not… On AndroidTV devices Select/OK is supposed to have the behavior that the Play/Pause button has during playback. Playback controls on TV  |  Android TV  |  Android Developers
Instead the Select/OK currently provides no value before hitting another button during playback (what it does is covered by pressing down).

15

Has Fire TV playback been fixed so when clicking to jump forwards or back, when you stop you go into PLAY instead of PAUSE?

That’s why I returned the Tablo recently. With Recast (and I understand HDHomeRun) you can click-click-click and it goes right back to play when you want to skip commercials, review something, etc.

The having to press PLAY every time makes that really awkward.

Thanks.

16

Based on your experiences, I would agree not to use PSIP as a primary source. I do think it could be useful as a backup, though. If the Tablo needs time set and NTP is not available, try PSIP. If the guide is mostly complete, but has holes in it (something many experienced in recent past), try to fill in the gabs with PSIP.

17

I am using the Tablo app for the Amazon firestick. Do I have to uninstall the Tablo app and then reinstall to have the update or is it automatically been updated when I use the Tablo app?

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It should update by itself. If you want to check for updates go into the Tablo settings and there is a section to check for updates.

I think you have to do it from first settings page and then look for Tablo app. Mine updated all by itself.