Tablo Connect from Abroad

Hello guys, I am about to head back to Germany after getting my Tablo hooked up stateside.

Will I have to worry if my mom’s public IP address (WAN) changes periodically? If that happens, will I no longer be able to connect remotely? I am not sure about this, because as I understand it, both the Tablo and Client communicate with a Tablo server when they are on the same LAN, and relay their MAC addresses, but also WAN and LAN addresses. If however the WAN address changes, then the link between the client and Tablo device will no longer work, correct?

Someone mentioned using a VPN to help here, but I am not very savvy with that stuff, and I don’t think a FireTV can run a VPN anyway.

Anyone got any experience here?

Firstly, you should always worry.
She’s your mom. :slight_smile:

My mom has a Tablo Dual tuner model, running firmware v2.2.10.

I just verified that after my mom’s public IP address changed, I can still remotely connect to her Tablo using:

  1. MS Windows 7 Google Chrome browser on my laptop.
  2. Android Tablo app on my tablet running Marshmallow OS.

I know her public IP address changed, because I see a new Server Host IP address in her Tablo Settings screen.

By the way, the Server Host IP address will be a different IP address for the same Tablo depending when you’re connecting from inside the Tablo’s network (it’ll be a local LAN IP, a.k.a. private IP), and when outside the Tablo’s network (it’ll be a WAN IP, a.k.a. public IP).

Keep in mind, for web browsers, you’ll lose Tablo Remote Connect ability, if you clear your browser cache.

Thank you for your very informative response. Oh boy, that means if I ever reinstall Chrome or clear the cache, that I will have to wait a year, until I am visiting my mom again?? That would suck.

By clearing the cache, does that mean deleting the history? I cannot find the option in the settings to clear the cache.

Thanks!

Tom

Browser cache refers to more than one type of object, which can include: cookies; history; and other things.
The Tablo Remote Connect cookies are the ones that are important for Tablo.

By the way, I just found the 2 cookie files for my environment.

My environment:
MS Windows 7
Google Chrome browser

Tablo Remote Connect cookie files location:
C:\Users\Radojevic\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Local Storage

Radojevic is my username, I’m sure yours will be different. :wink:
AppData folder is usually set to be hidden.
If you don’t know how to unhide the AppData folder, then you probably shouldn’t be messing with files within it.

Tablo Remote Connect cookie filenames:
http_my.tablotv.com_0.localstorage
http_my.tablotv.com_0.localstorage-journal

I copied the 2 cookie files from my laptop at home to my work desktop computer at my office.
I was able to connect to my mom’s Tablo from my office computer without ever actually syncing with it at her house.
Ha!

Hey great tips, Radojevic, thanks for the info. I went and saved these files to another location just in case I accidentally delete them in the future. :slight_smile:

I would suggest you use tablo ripper then open a Plex account it will store all on plex. You will find it much easier to access your stuff from overseas through plex.

Ok guys, now I am back in Europe, and the streaming is not working at all. I cannot stream local channels, nor can I stream my recordings. Connecting to the Tablo works well, and is even fast. This is frustrating, because I also have a Slingbox Pro HD hooked up, and that works fine. The Slingbox has the same circumstances to work with as the Tablo (hardwired and 1mbps upload available).

I was able to stream in the states, even at the airport, but back here in Europe it just does not start any stream.

My download bandwidth here is 15 mbps.

Any ideas? If I cannot get this working soon, it will have to go back.

What ports does Slingbox use and what ports do Tablo use? Maybe ports used for Tablo are blocked. I could not stream at one location and went to Starbucks and it did work.

Did you set the Remote Streaming Quality to 1 Mbps on the playback device?

This is under Settings on said device. It is specific to each device.

Hello, I set the ports on the Slingbox to something totally random. I can’t imagine the devices are interfering with each other, because the whole setup worked stateside.

Yes, I have the remote streaming set at 1mbps. I have also tried 500kb, 750kb, and 1.5mbps without success.

To me it seems that the combination of having to transcode the original recording on the fly, read and write to HDDs of different vendors, and streaming this stuff through the internet is simply too error prone. I sure wish this would work, I have already invested over $400 and a lot of time.

This is odd…although I didnt use it on a PC (I used it on a phone/ipad using Wifi) me and the family were able to stream from Paris to get local Austin, TX, TV no problem. I did notice that sometimes, it would get hung on the startup and I would need to go back to the guide and select the channel (not the program) again…but it worked very well actually.

It would be an interesting test to see if your local IP provider is blocking specific type of traffic, but that doesnt make sense because your Slinbox is working as you describe. Very odd indeed. It is pretty straight forward and from my experience you shouldnt have to jump through hoops to get it to work.

Well what is weird is that sometimes streaming works on the iPhone app; not great, but for some recordings it works. But the iPhone is too small. I really want to get it to work on my laptop, as it worked when I was stateside. I have tried different streaming settings like 500kbps, 750kbps, 1mbps and 1.5mbps.

What does seem to make a difference is the recording quality. At 720p, I cannot get any of those recordings to start streaming. Apparently, transcoding those then to a smaller format to stream is not working.

When recording at 480p, this seems to be transcoded better for streaming. Or perhaps it does not need to be transcoded at all with a 1mbps upload bandwidth. This I do not know.

Even with this working better however, pausing and resuming does not work. It will note the pause bookmark, and ask to resume at that spot, but always restart at the beginning of the recording??

Hey mate, if you have your recording quality set to 480p, try setting your remote player to Full Quality. That tells the Tablo to send the recording as it was recorded - so pause and resume should work. Transcoding somehow creates a temporary recording, and the Tablo doesn’t remember the pause position for those.

Hmm, well I tried that, but my 1mbps upload bandwidth chokes the stream too much. Funny, because from what I have read, a 480p recording should not require 2mbps; rather it should be less than 1mbps.

Depends on which service provides the stream.

Here’s how Netflix streams for me at various quality settings:
Low: Basic video quality, up to 0.3 GB per hour (~667Kbps) (384p)
Medium: Standard video quality, up to 0.7 GB per hour (~1.5Mbps) (480p)
High: Best video quality, up to 3 GB per hour for HD, 7 GB per hour for Ultra HD (~6.7Mbps -> ~15.6Mbps) (1080p -> wish I had a 4K TV)

Well, yes I suppose my original statement could be wrong. I just looked on google again, and it seems 480p ranges between 1.3 and 1.5 Mbps. Seeing as my upload bandwidth is 1.3, unfortunately I cannot watch the 480p recordings as they are, and they must be transcoded. That means that the pause, resume, and thumbnail features while scrubbing do not work for me (seeing as the transcoded video is a temporary feed). Too bad there is not an option for 360p recordings. The quality wouldn’t be great, but it would at least work well.

Ok, so I just watched my first football game (Packers vs Lions) from abroad. I noted each time that the Tablo stopped to buffer. This happened on average every 30 seconds, and lasted 1-5 seconds each time. This was watching Fox live, with a 1mbps upload bandwidth, and 15 Mbps download. Both devices are hardwired.

The funny thing is, during the commercials, the stream rarely stopped to buffer. This makes me think that the football game is broadcast in a higher frame rate than the commercials are. Either that, or the individual frames in the commercials are already compressed, while the NFL game is live, therefore not having time for compression.

More funny is, I got so sick of the constant buffering, that I switched to my 6 year old Slingbox Pro HD after halftime. It never once stopped to buffer, and gave a similar resolution quality to the Tablo. I do think that the frame rate was lower however. No matter what, I would prefer a solution that is more elegant in dynamically manipulating the frame rate so that I can actually watch something without incessant buffering. This is a point I really think Tablo needs to work on, if a 6 year old competitor does it better.

The key issue here is your upload speed where the Tablo is located is 1 Mbps, which is never truly 1 Mbpd due to overhead. The Tablo video stream at 1 Mbps is buffering because the upload speed is just too slow.

I record at 720p 3 Mbps video quality and I have an upload speed of 10 Mbps where my Tablo is. This allows me to watch things remotely at Full Quality for the remote streaming quality with no issues. If I select the 720p 5 Mbps recording quality and try to watch at Full Quality I get buffering issues. It is just networking - nothing fancy.

Yes, I agree that the upload bandwidth is the bottleneck. According to speedtest.net, the upload bandwidth is consistently 1.3 Mbps. Anyway, my parents are paying about $40 for internet, and I don’t want to have them pay $60 just for an adequate upload rate. That would be $240 extra per year, just so the Tablo can work for my needs, and in that case I could get an NFL GamePass subscription. I guess I can only cross my fingers that TWC actually increases the upload speeds across their plans, like their agent on the phone recently said they soon would.