What tweaks can I employ to make Tablo work better (i.e., faster)

I’ve already read enough posts in the Tablo community to know that that Tablo device is unbelievably slow in many of it’s operations (e.g., I’m typing this after waiting 10 minutes for my iPad to sync before I could do anything with it).

What can I as a user do to make it work better. I live in the Los Angeles area and, therefore, have over 100 channels. (BTW, when folks on this forum refer to how many channels they have, are they counting 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, and 4.5 as 1 channel or 5 channels? My 100+ would count it as 5 channels, but I don’t know if that’s the norm.) Should I eliminate some of them from the list of channels to view which I set up on day one? And if so, how can I do that?

FWIW, we’re running everything over WiFi, and the ability to do that is the primary reason we bought a Tablo, so going cabled is out of the question. (We bought it primarily to be able to put the HD antenna someplace in the house where it can get better reception, which running cables throughout the house, and secondarily to get live tv out to the secondary TV.) We have an Apple airport extreme base station, and on Airport express extending the network. We use a Roku 3 on the main TV, and have a FireTV Stick and Chromecast on the secondary TV, which is in the vicinity of the Airport Express.

Every app, on every device we use operates abominably slowly. Fortunately, our main live TV usage doesn’t involve a lot of channel surfing, which is impossible on the Tablo, so that isn’t entirely a deal killer, but I would like to understand what we could do to alleviate the problems somewhat.

Thanks, --sw

Hard wire your Tablo to your router using Powerline ethernet adapters. It uses your electrical wiring - no need to run new cables. Make sure to get an “AV2” standard one for good speed.

Also yes definitely cut down those channels, many of those .x channels aren’t even in HD. No need for 480i/p content.

Some of the best “old” shows are on those 480p channels. IMHO. Just saying. Now, I do agree you don’t need repeats of the same channels, and there are foreign language channels and shopping channels that I generally don’t like… YMMV.

For your iPad, was that the very first sync or does that happen for every time you use the iPad? If every time, I would put in a support ticket, sounds weird.

Not sure what your router is capable of but I would see if you can set up a 5 GHZ connection. I noticed a big difference between the 2.4 GHZ compared to my 5 GHZ network. I believe the Roku 3 is the only device that is comptble with 5 GHZ though, the firetv and chromecast may not benefit from this.

Tip1: Use the Roku preview app on the Roku 3. I have 2015 Roku 2 (same specs as Roku 3) and tested the Preview and Regular App. The Tablo Preview is lightning fast compared to the regular channel.

Channel surfing is tough on the Tablo, its still a little slow, but I really like the guide. It takes 10 seconds or less to load a Live channel on my setup. I don’t mind that.

Tip2: Edit channels, you can go into setting and “edit channel lineup”. I removed the foreign language channels.

I second wiring the Tablo directly to the router. I have them right next to each other using a 1 ft Ethernet cable. This plus the 5 GHZ connection equals quick performance at my house, YMMV depending on your setup.

@dubl59zy There are some really great tips in here. I’d also recommend a hardwired connection. If you continue to have some performance/speed issues, give us a shout!