Tablo Tuner Can't Detect Channel 9

Support & Troubleshooting
1

My new 4th Gen Tablo is perfect but for one thing. (It’s always something, right?)

The Tablo tuner cannot detect channel 9 (or subchannels 9-3, 9-4, etc). (RF channel 25).

The channel is not weak. I can pick it up fine with 3 other tuners using the same antenna, same location.
I can pick up every other channel in the same market, same distance, same signal strength.

I contacted Tablo support and tried all the things they suggested, including: disabling antenna amplification; changing zip code; rescanning multiple times. I even tried disabling my 5G filter.

I do not think the channel is broadcasting in some unusual format like mp4 or ATSC 3.0, since I can pick it up fine on other tuners that only support ATSC 1.0.

I’m in the New York City area, less than 15 miles from the tower.

Is there anybody else in the NYC area who is able to pick up channel 9?
Can anyone explain why this one channel is not being detected by Tablo?
Has anybody else seen anything like this?

Thanks!

2

I am in southern Connecticut. I get channel 9 (WOR) just fine. I get 9.1, 9.3, and 9.4. I am about 35 miles from the tower.

3

Do you get virtual channels 48.x? Rabbitears says those are also subchannels of rf 25.

4

I’m in Randolph NJ 30 miles west of the Towers and I get it just fine. So it is either something you are doing with your setup or a faulty tuner.

Before you run a channel scan make sure you reset you device first since you are having issues. Or you can just unplug it and count to 30 and plug it back in.

5

OK, after 5 phone calls to tech support, and multiple emails, I was ready to give up.

Then I got another email from someone in Tablo tech support asking me to put the Tablo into “remote access mode.” I put it into remote access mode and the tech did something and then ask me to try scanning again.

I tried scanning from within the Tablo Roku app and still no channel 9.
Next I tried scanning from within the Tablo iPad app and FINALLY 9 CHANNELS!
I saved the channels but when I went back to Roku, I still wasn’t seeing 9.
I then scanned AGAIN on the Roku and 9 came back and I saved.
So now I’ve finally got all channels on both Tablo Roku and Tablo iPad!*

*Footnote: However, I did do one thing differently just before I did the scan on the iPad that brought back 9. I had channel 7.4 (which is the last channel that comes in the list before 9 would appear, between 7 and 11) unchecked (because it’s the home shopping network, so I had it unchecked so it wouldn’t appear in my channel list). I suspected that maybe having that channel unchecked before a scan was somehow blocking 9 (the channel that comes next in the list) from appearing, so I CHECKED 7.4 just before I did the scan. Lo and behold 9 appears and 7.4 (which I had checked before doing the scan became unchecked again after the scan). I don’t know if this checking/unchecking had anything to do with anything. But if so,I suspect this could be a bug in the iPad app code. Or maybe it was just something that the tech did remotely.

1 Like
6

That is really strange, but I’m glad to hear that you got it solved.

7

So now you tell us you were working with Apple apps and Roku which are from what I have seen full of issues playing nicely with Tablo. Oh well.

8

Is your audio in synch for the channel? My 9 channel set has audio lag

9

I live in central NJ and my issue is channel 7 WABC. I pickup 9 pretty well and watch H&I 9-4 frequently. I used 10001 as my zip because my real zip picks Philly market channels.