Tried 3 antennas still getting a lot of pixelation very dissapointing

Got a tablo 2 tuner dvr.
first tried mohu antenna no luck with a lot of channels not showing up and pixelation
then got a flatwave 5500 still issues with pixelation and stuttering and looping
now got a clearstream 2v and still having pixelation issues with live tv
tried multiple channels multiple recordings
fox 32 had a lot of issues
channel 5 nbc has less issues but still issues
i have 2 rokus a fire stick and my laptop the recordins are all the same on all of them.
also bought the elements drive cause support told me too
all the channels show full green when scanning as well.
i have spoken to tech support multiple times and they have tried all sorts of things but still cannot get this perfected. i mean are we just supposed to accept pixelation tv via this device?
i cancelled comcast but thinking that might have been too soon before testing all this. the hype of the production made me get it but now i am having second thoughts.

Wire the antenna direct to your TV and test signal strength. The Tablo is not specific enough to tell whats going on.

Specifically, you want to know if the signal is “just” weak, or is it pulsing?

Also a lot of it depends on how far away you are from the broadcast tower(s) what frequencies they use (most are UHF but some still use VHF) … and what obstructions are in the way … mountains, tall buildings, etc… getting the right antenna and getting it pointed was probably THE hardest part for me as I live about 40+ miles away from the nearest broadcast towers … I also tried those little compact “flat” antennas with no luck as well … I went thru about 4 different antennas before I found one that worked then I got a slightly better one for the TABLO … also make sure there are no splitters and your wire is good (not ancient) … a preamp helps a lot too if you are very distant.

If I did it over… I would probably hire a professional to select and properly install the antenna for me as its going to pay itself back anyway in a pretty short time.

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I wouldn’t blame the “device” The Tablo has a very good tunner. If your television can pick the signal without issues but the Tablo can’t then you may have a defective unit. If the television has issues than the Tablo may be a bit better but it will not be able to break the laws of physics and pick a signal out of the noise floor.
Have you used any of the online tools that can calculate direction and quality of signal you can expect at your location? They can be very helpful.

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Can you try tvfool.com and post a link to your report for your location? We might be able to help you out a little better with a little more info. Is mounting an antenna in an attic an option?

Thanks everyone for the replies I am in 60025 not far my my towers at all. Currently using a Clearstream 2v which is a pretty big antenna. I use roku to stream to my tvs. I will try hooking the antenna up to the TV directly and see if that helps. I am pretty sure the signal is strong but will keep trying

I spent a few months just “futzing” around with antenna placement … (this is where a pro with the right tools have the advantage) … sometimes if you are close you can have over amplification or “reflection” of the signal off of other things like a large metal warehouse etc… which can cause issues.

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http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3D8e03e35543a78e

would prefer no attic or roof. i put it on a desk pointing through a window right now

Yes, you are very close to the towers and should have very strong signals. The majority of your signals are coming from the southeast. Is that the direction you currently have the antenna facing?

Tablo support just emailed. I love how they blamed reception after using 3 antennas all of which were rated highly and of course no fault of the tablo itself. They even admit I am close but for some reason I am not getting reception. (Maybe its your product!) I think if everyone needs a professional installer to use tablo then this product is flawed!

Hi Kamal,    
My name is David - I'm the Customer Communications Lead here at 

Tablo. Max sent this over, so I thought I’d take a look at your Tablo
myself with the help of our engineering team.
We spent the morning going over your Tablo’s channels, and running
scans using your Tablo’s tuners to check out your reception.
Unfortunately, this comes down to poor reception. It sounds like
you’re fairly close to your local broadcasters, and you should be
getting a strong signal - but for some reason (it’s hard to tell from
our end) you’re not.
We ran scans every 10 minutes on 5.1 using all of your Tablo’s
tuners, and every time I tuned in - there as evidence of pixelation. The
signal is just too low - not enough power. This isn’t a result of the
Tablo being unable to tune to these channels -this is a result of the
reception not being strong enough. There are a few ways you can improve your reception - I’ve posted some tips below. I hope this helps. - Make sure the antenna is as high up as possible.

  • Try to avoid splitting the coaxial connection - there is a significant DB loss to the signal when you split the connection.
  • Reference http://www.tvfool.com/ to ensure that your antenna is pointed in correct direction.
  • Shorten your coaxial cable; the longer the cable, the more lossy the connection will become.
  • Conduct frequent channel scans to test your changes (Settings > Edit channel lineup > Rescan).
    It may also be worth contacting Wineguard or AntennasDirect directly
  • or maybe even a professional antenna installer. They’ll be able to
    provide more insight based on your location and the signals locally to
    you than we will - an installer would be able to optimize this for you
    entirely. Thanks, David

Also for clarification the antenna is hooked directly into the tablo no splitters no nothing. all 3 antennas were never split up cause i used roku’s in the house to get them the tablo streaming to my tv.
Mohu ultimate
Winegard Flatwave
Clearstream 2v

all of which are good anteannas.

Have you tried to hook up your antenna(s) directly to your tv bypassing Tablo altogether? If so, and if the reception is still not acceptible, it is indeed a reception problem and not a Tablo problem.

@jdoe i will try that tonight

I agree with @TabloSupport that it is a reception issue. It sounds like multipath interference which is what @ericgus described. Strong signals can bounce off of large objects causing interference from the same signal, but at different wavelengths.

You can put almost any antenna you want in that window and your results will likely be the same. The only way to overcome this is to try different positions and moving it around a bit. I know you said you don’t want to go into the attic, but it might be your best option.

I wouldn’t be so quick to put the blame on the tablo. It sounds like David is being very helpful as are other members on this forum.

First of all thank you to everyone for your responses.
My frustration is with all the work to get to this point. Multiple antennas multiple hard drives.
The tablo ota premise is easy consumer level use of channels with dvr the box installs easy and shows me as an end user that signal strength is all green for multiple channel which makes me assume the signal is great plus using tvfool and other tools makes me believe I am not far enough to require a major install setup. Now the antenna is outside and the scan still shows the same let’s see what tablo support sees now.

Kamal

As I said before this can be the hardest part of cutting over… the antenna selection and location… this is why I kept my cable till i got everything right and then once that was resolved went into a 3 month “parallel” test … with having our kitchen TV cut from cable and using the TABLO/OTA reception… after a few months that test was successful and we didn’t miss cable in the kitchen THEN I finally got rid of all the cable boxes in the house… this process needs a bit of patience and futzing around as everyone specific location is for lack of a better way of putting it … unique… there is no ready made answer unfortunately … in the end the minor effort to get the antenna and location right will pay for itself in a very short time. I tried wall mounted mohu’s … attic mounted antennas … and finally because of my distance issues the best result was going with an outdoor chimney mounted larger antenna.

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up for sale now

The antenna or the Tablo?

everything
tablo 2 tuner
clearstream 2v
western digital 1tb hard drive
$225