I thought I’d reflect on some things I’ve learned in the year since I got my tablo that will hopefully help someone as I did a lot of searching on these issues since encountering them.
Sports
- The 1080i, 720p 60fps setting looks great on 720p channels. Sports look just as good as straight from the antenna. The 1080i channels look good on everything but sports to my eyes. Sports don’t look bad, but don’t look as good as they do with just an antenna attached to a TV. This is across the devices I use (computer, roku, chromecast, Android app). I’m not sure the reasoning here but I will say, outside of Roku, the degradation on 1080i is very minimal.
Roku
- Roku looks great on 720p channels at 60fps for sports. 1080i channels at any of the 1080i settings get choppy which is noticeable on any TV shows (not just sports). From what I understand, this has to do with deinterlacing limitations of the roku and is a roku issue. Not a tablo issue. At 720p settings, those 1080i channels look fine which i assume is because tablo has converted to a format which roku works well worth. All of this is with the roku hardwired.
Overall, I’ve come to realize that primarily the issues I’ve encountered relate to the roku. When I eventually upgrade the roku, I’ll try to get something that works better in this regard. Outside of this issue, the roku has been great but this can definitely be frustrating. Been a great year with tablo though!