As many here are already aware, Tablo experienced a server outage Sunday, which prevented customers from accessing TV programming via their Tablo device. While the issue was resolved in a few hours, we recognize the huge inconvenience this caused and apologize to our customers.
We are taking immediate steps to ensure this does not happen again, including:
Making software changes so that our 4th Generation Tablo can still access over-the-air TV when there are internet outages or technical server issues with Tablo.
Updating our communication policies in order to inform our customers immediately when any kind of outage takes place.
About f@#$ing time! Maybe most of our problems will go away when the puck doesn’t need to phone home for instructions for every little thing it’s owners do! It might even become functional!!!
This also explains why when it says “Cannot connect to Tablo”, it doesn’t mean the Tablo device but maybe the Tablo server.
There should be a better message that tells us what the connection issue is so we don’t wonder if the issue is our network, which is what it says is the issue when it gets this error.
You might want to try to ping other public servers (outside of Tablo) to see if there is a response. If there is, then it isn’t the clients network. And you can give a better message.
I totally agree with this. If you scan over the myriad threads that were merged, tons of people interpreted this to mean they had to reset their device. I have run into a similar error when I had a power flicker, and needed to power cycle the Tablo so it came up after my router.
I also think Tablo lost sight of their primary purpose. They are selling an OTA DVR, and people are using this to commercial skip and time shift TV. If their shift to FAST content breaks that, it is breaking the business model that worked for a decade. I own a 1st gen from 2015, and paid for lifetime listings.
I wonder how many more of these “surprises” are lurking out there. Even more of a reason not to update the firmware of our existing Tablo units to be able to use the Gen 4 Tablo app.
#1 most important improvement Tablo could make to this product IMHO (and apparently a lot of other loyal users’ HO).
I would like to add that the developers need to implement this change thoughtfully. My strong preference would be for it to be as transparent to the user as possible. If we have to interrupt our usage to go through a bunch of clicks or other BS to use the Tablo “offline”, or have limits as to how long we’re allowed to do so, or whatever it could be ugly. Just please make it work either way (online or offline) without much more than say a quick popup notice.
Edit:
Upon further thought, it seems the right way to do this is to develop an “offline” mode for the Tablo. Obviously, multiple features would not be available in this mode (guide updates, FAST channels, “eye candy”, etc.). But, why not make the thing do channel scans, rebroadcast OTA channels, and play recordings in some reduced functionality UI? Then just flip back and forth when the Tablo servers are down, or even if the internet connection is down.
We’ve had the Legacy device since 2015 and have had very few problems since 2016/2017 or so. We like the UI/UX of the Legacy model and disliked the UI/UX of the new Gen4 model. Recently, though, our guide data has been crapping out and nothing is displaying in our channel guide grid. When we go to check on the guide update, it says that the data is 8 days old. It also says “14-Day Live TV Grid (beta)”. Beta? Is anyone else with a Legacy system having issues with the guide data being very old or showing (beta)?
If it still doesn’t update, powercycle the Tablo, and manual guide update again.
If it still doesn’t update, change the zipcode to one near your actual zipcode, and manual guide update again.
Years ago, my Tablo’s guide updates occurred with no issues.
One week, the guide didn’t update for several days in a row.
Changing the zipcode to one close to mine worked around the problem.
Left it like that for a week or so, switched back to my actual zipcode, and the problem was gone.
14-Day Live TV Grid (beta) only affects the viewing from streaming device (Roku, …) that you see it set on.
For example, via web browsers, Live TV only displays 1 days work of guide info.
My Google Chromecast with Google TV has the 14 day live tv guide enabled, which I wish I could disable, but it only affects Live TV (guide).
The issue is NOT resolved. My Tablo still does not work and your help desk can’t troubleshoot why. Then I was informed that actually there are quite a few people that are still affected by this outage - but can’t tell me how many people, what they have in common (how they access it, where they live, etc) or when it will be fixed. For the last 48 hours, I’ve just heard “wait a few more hours and when it connects that means it’s fixed”. That’s unacceptable.
Thanks for the feedback. I was going to do these things next, but first I pared down my selected channels from 120 to about 30 to see if it would update any faster. It does not appear to be updating any faster. Once it’s done with this download attempt I may power cycle my unit or change the ZIP Code.