I’ve seen some of you suggest changing the location to fix the Gracenote data on the guide, but didn’t realize I could change the location to get different channels. I’m in MA, and by changing the location, I was able to scan for stations in RI which come in great. I’m surprised that the location leads the Tablo to not scan for certain stations even if they come in well. You may want to change the location to where the towers are located, I’m curious what would change if anything.
I have not seen that unless you have multiple channels in your area broadcasting on the same channel number (not frequency).
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If I’m not mistaken, I’ve read someone else rightly say that the antenna receives what it receives regardless of what ZIP Code is set in the Tablo. It also depends on which direction the antenna is pointed. The ZIP Code is only used to put the Tablo in the particular market for its list of stations.
If you used a Texas ZIP Code, you wouldn’t receive Texas stations.
Just like you’d probably be able to receive both MA and RI stations if you plugged your antenna directly into your television because, with your television, you’re not setting a market using a ZIP Code - it displays “all received” channels.
I grew up in NW PA (70’s) and we could get Canadian (across Lake Erie) and Buffalo stations, including our local channels, because we had a rotor. I’m amazed we’re still using the same tech to get digital broadcasts.
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If Tablo isn’t showing all the stations your antenna can get then shame on Tablo.
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I think it shows the stations relative to what the guide will provide. No sense in showing stations the antenna receives if it is not compatible with the guide it can provide. Otherwise you would see a station in the guide with NO program information.
I am in northern IL just south of WI border. When I put in my local Zip code I get all the channels in my local area plus those in Madison WI which is 70+ miles away. Once in a while depending on cloud cover I can even get Chicago at 70+ miles away again.Granted the signal is not always that strong, so I don’t save the channels. Maybe the zip codes work in a set radius, also dependent on antenna.
Gracenote has guide data for both MA and RI stations.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I believe this is why changing the ZIP Code helps the Tablo with station search/alignment within a market.
For me, changing zip code allowed the Tablo to display the correct program guide information for many channels that had 'Programming not available" displayed. It also helped to assign the correct DMA to some channels that it incorrectly thought were coming from Boston and New York, instead of CT and RI. However, changing zip code did not allow me to recelve any new channels.
I should also note that I could not find a zip code that worked correctly for all of the channels that I can receive (I live in an area where I can receive channels from 3 different markets, and even 4 different DMAs on a good reception day).
Maybe I am misunderstanding the opening post. It sounds like the OP’s antenna can get stations from both MA and RI. But the Tablo will show only MA stations or only RI stations but not both at the same time. If that’s right, that is a Tablo design failure.
Tablo needs a better way to identify which station it is tuned to. Maybe TSID. Then it could pull guide data for that station regardless of zip code.
I can clarify. If I put my actual town in the Location under Settings, I get some channels. If I select a few towns over (not my actual location), it uncovers more stations, some of them in the next state. Nothing else has changed in my setup, my antenna has not moved, but more channels become available to me by lying about my location.
Yes, that makes sense. If you connected your antenna directly to your television, and bypassed the Tablo, I suspect you would get ALL the channels (that the antenna is receiving).
Strangely enough I wasn’t getting channel 12 in RI, and now I am.
There is truth to this topic… I “physically” live equidistant, and north, of two major cities, but in a small total hamlet. Thus, e have no post office of our own. Or mail comes from a town 22 miles west and south of me, placing my zip code near one of those cities. When I use my zip code I only get channels from that one city and not the other. I could not figure out why I was getting only some channels and missing about half the channels I was receiving when I had TiVo… One day I changed my zip code to a town that sat between the two cities and ran a new channel scan and low-and-behold, I was receiving 20+ channels more… So yes, changing your zip code DOES make a difference… Sometimes a “HUGE” difference… Tablo is obviously using our zip code to aggregate our guide data and leaving out the channels they don’t have guide data for… I put a splitter between the Tablo and the smart TV (one goes to Tablo and one to the TV directly), then ran a scan from the TV, and “WOW”, there are a whole lot of channel I revive that Tablo is somehow blocking from the lineup… i.e., about 20 channels via Tablo vs. 70 channels via OTA direct to TV… Tablo should make this part of their new “Guide Options” , listing it as “All OTA channels“, with missing programming data “AND” allow for manual recording… all of which i was able to do with my TiVo. (I know CBS Mornings is on 15.1 from 7am to 9am, but without guide data, i can not record it)… TiVo would let me do that and it would show up in my library as “Manual Recording, 7 to 9am, channel 15.1”… However; my point here is that, i feel like I’m being lied to when I do a channel scan and told i only receive 24 channels, when i know that i actually receive 70…
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Listing the OTA channels in the channel scan or Live TV grid that a tuner can successful lock onto has nothing to do with whether there is or isn’t a guide available.
If the gen 4 really works like that maybe it’s time to flush the product away.
Splitter can weaken the signal. Also Tablo’s tuners is not as robust as TV tuner. Try seeing what Tablo can pick up by eliminating the splitter as a test. Also do you have a booster on the antenna? The Tablo has a booster built in so depending if it is set to on and you have one on antenna they can play havoc with the signal. Test all the options and see what you get.
Well I’ll make up some stuff and then I’ll also share my experience.
There are two separate things people use interchangeably that are distinct and different.
Channel Lineup
Channel Guide
When you do a scan it is in:
Settings>Channel Lineup>Your Channels
It’s using the antenna and tuner to get all available OTA signals it can. It then does whatever to include the FAST channels.
Click save and it is stored into a local database on your Tablo Gen4.
Then the Guide Update starts. It is a two phase process. The first runs very quickly to flag Your Channels (think check/uncheck) in the local database.
The second phase runs much longer as it is updating the information at the Mothership servers for the Guide Service. The servers have “points-of-presence” geographically dispersed nationally. Also 14 days of Guide data is stored locally in your device.
It is possible for channels to appear in Channel Lineup but not in the Channel Guide. The Channel Guide is zip code dependant. They use Gracenote metadata for that information. It also appears to be segregated by device app.
Demographic Market Area (DMA) is what everyone uses to determine who’s watching what.
That is why they are building the Guide Service to capture and harvest your brain. Or just eyes.
During one episode of downtime my Android mobile showed only 1 channel in the Guide while the LGTV app showed 53.
That is a recent “feature” introduced with the new Category Guide versus the Channel Guide views. All categories are at the channel level not at the show/program level.
I often have channels during Tropo/weather events which I can receive from hundreds of miles away. I have rescanned my Tablo Gen4 and those channels appeared both in the Channel Lineup and the Channel Guide. I never changed my zip code.
Since we’ve been having so much downtime lately I can’t do a rescan during a Tropo event. So I couldn’t prove that the new Category Guide is doing what I suspect that it is.
Perhaps one of you guys could. Check to see if there are channels in the Channel Lineup but not in the Channel Guide.
Thanks! Great observation and summary!
Thank you for the tips… i didn’t install the splitter until i realized there was an issue with the channels i was receiving. My antenna does have a signal booster at the antenna, as well as a rotor (it’s a pretty good/powerful antenna (new), since i live in a very rural area, but with great reception). All good tips i should have mentioned, so readers could better understand… Thanks. I do understand why Tablo would leave out some channels that can’t be aggregated into the guide that they can’t get listing data for, otherwise the Tablo guide would be a mess—wrong Chanel ID, missing episode info, etc… The “BIG ISSUE” I’m having is, my Tablo is one of the few that has not recovered since “The incident” back in August… My unit is unusable as a DVR, with constant rebooting (every 5-10 min.) and losing all data. It’s jittery, hangs up, looses network, reinstalls/reconnects to network, and constantly reboots and goes in and out of “Offline Mode”, etc… It’s basically useless, until they resolve the issue. Tablo keeps blaming issues on everything, but the Tablo itself… So, I’ve replaced the antenna, all the cables, not one, but two new modems and two new routers. I’ve reinstalled the apps and even a full factory reset. I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on new equipment, just to get this $150 Tablo (4 tuner, 4th Gen.) to work… Frustrating, to say the least, and Tablo tech support has been useless. Keep asking me to do the same things, like they’re reading from a script, only to tell me they are going to send the ticket up to the next level, but i never hear back from them. Any suggestions from the community would be welcomed…
Please forgive me if you mentioned this already, but what are you using as your streaming device? And are you using wireless or ethernet to connect Tablo? I understand your frustration about upgrading your infrastructure devices. I just upgraded to fiber internet and all my devices are not utilizing the speed the fiber is offering and the wife does not want me to upgrade to all Eero wifi.