Been using my Tablo Quad for over a year now. Very little troubles. But I have a question about the channel changing process. When viewing Live TV using the Tablo itself and I want to change the channel if I select the Up/Down button up pops up the channel Guide to which I need to scroll to find the channel then hit the OK button to begin viewing that channel. Which of course takes several seconds for the next station to display. For someone who channel surfs that is excruciatingly slow.
Of course that is with my current hardware/firmware. Previous hardware Quad/2.2.36 firmware. But it seems to me that it used to be easier to change channels using the Tablo. I rarely ever need to view live tv through my Tablo so not sure if it’s always been this way or there was a change.
Yes, it has been this way since the beginning. The reason it takes several seconds to view the new channel is that your Tablo has to process the over the air signal to a format your streaming device can display. Therefore, your Tablo must buffer several seconds of the live signal and process it before you can start to view it.
If you are switching back and forth between two stations your Tablo can do that much quicker since it continues processing a previously viewed signal for a while (not sure exactly how long - also depends on availability of tuners). Then, you can switch very quickly, which may be what you are remembering.
My Tablo is near my TV, so I split the antenna signal between the Tablo & TV. When I want to watch live TV I just switch the input to TV, then you will have no delay tuning channels. My Tablo is used to playback recorded shows only. Maybe a setup like this would be helpful for your situation.
I wonder…just how does one “view” through the Tablo without going through some other
device? One would think when I say “When viewing Live TV using the Tablo itself” it has to be through another medium. Unless there is some other way to access a Tablo that I’m not aware of. Whether it’s a Roku device or another.
(Editing: When I say Tablo below I mean Tablo and not Tablo because Tablo produced both Tablo and Tablo and Tablo style devices… sorry, let’s just say Tablo product marketing is pretty screwball)
Live TV via the Tablo, is pseudo live. As the Tablo always creates a chunked streaming form encoded (mpeg4) differently than native ATSC (mpeg2). So, it’s never as “live” as the original OTA broadcast.
So, usually, for a fast channel surfing experience, many will opt to channel surf true live using the ATSC tuner in their TV and just use the Tablo for DVR.
Channel surfing using the Tablo’s psuedo live has gotten better, but it can only be so fast… Even a few seconds will frustrate most. But do note that already tuned channels switch fairly quickly. For example if your able to use all 4 tuners on a 4 tuner Tablo, you might have fairly quick channel changes amongst 4 channels as long as you don’t venture outside of those 4 (talking about where tuning is still active Tablo wise for the 4 tuners).
interpreting someone’s issue… often why there’s so many post for problem solving reasonably simple issues. One persons tablo it’s self itself medium is a Roku while another may be an HDMI cable.
It’s unclear what you are aware of. This is a tablo it’s self, no other device.
