Yeah, the cinematic effect that Tablo has on sports can certainly be annoying, but there's comfort in knowing that if you live close enough for your antenna to pull in a channel for your Tablo you can get it for your TV as well.
However, I have to disagree with you @snowcat on the 60 FPS thing. My $200 Chromebook, Surface 2, Nexus Player, Fire TV (EDIT: Fire TV Stick too) and new version Roku 3 all do 1080p @ 60 FPS. I'm not up on the specs for my Nexus 5 or Nexus 7 but sports from the Tablo look amazing at those sizes.
There is certainly a lot that could/could have been done about picture quality for the Tablo. The TiVo/TiVo Mini doesn't suffer from this issue at all, even when you are connecting your Mini to the TiVo over Ethernet or wireless.
There aren't enough sports on OTA TV to make this an issue for me personally, but if the sports that do air on broadcast TV are critical for you, Tablo may not be your best bet for an OTA DVR.
Of course the Tivo doesn’t have this issue because it is it’s own native player, just like cable/satellite DVRs. The Tablo is about having a huge variety of platforms to watch TV, and the limitation is going to be no 60FPS video. The Tivo is about not being tied down to a cable/satellite provider device, and it is limited by cost and portability.
Of course the Tivo doesn't have this issue because it is it's own native player, just like cable/satellite DVRs. The Tablo is about having a huge variety of platforms to watch TV, and the limitation is going to be no 60FPS video. The Tivo is about not being tied down to a cable/satellite provider device, and it is limited by cost and portability.
My source of information about the Fire TV and Stick comes directly from the product pages for both on Amazon. I’ll stick with how they advertise the product to customers as that’s the one that’s actionable.
Well whatever FPS the Roku 3 plays at, I have Sling TV and I was watching the Masters this past Thursday and Friday on ESPN and it looked amazing. I would go so far as saying that it looked identical to the ESPN feed we used to have coming from DirecTV. There was zero “film” effect. So apparently ESPN, at least, is able to overcome the Roku 3 limitations with their stream. I should note, however, that we also watched the NCAA tournament on Sling TV on TNT and TBS. Those channels I would say more closely resemble the quality we get from the Tablo. It’s probably not an apples-to-apples comparison, but I guess I’m just saying it appears to be possible to remove the “film” effect on the Roku 3 b/c of how good ESPN looks on Sling TV. Here’s hoping the staff over at Tablo can figure it out. Like I said, it’s not just sports that this happens with. I’ve watched other television programs that are “live” shows, like American Idol, and the same “film” effect happens on those as well. I don’t think it’s a show stopper at the moment, but I would have to think having the device with the best picture quality would be huge as this market continues to develop.
I would also like to point out that this isn’t a complaint, although it may sound like it, but rather an enhancement suggestion. So perhaps I’ve put it in the wrong thread. We love the device and the features it provides. What a great idea for a product.
WatchESPN has a very noticeable film effect on both the Roku and FireTv. One reason I did subscribe to SlingTv is that ESPN somehow does look nicer on it (when it doesn’t lock up) compared to the regular WatchESPN app.
I do see where the FireTv supports up to 60 FPS, but not the Roku3.
However, I am positive the format the Tablo stores files can only be played back at 30 FPS on both platforms.
I’ll have to concede the Roku 3 60fps point, I know that I read “somewhere” reputable that the new Roku 3 did 60fps but I can’t find it at this point. I must have misremembered something.
And I don’t argue that Tablo is storing files @ 30fps, my point is that it doesn’t HAVE to be like that. I can’t say that most streaming players support 60fps but the list that does support it is actually pretty impressive. Nexus Player (insert every Android TV Player name here), Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, Chrome/Chrome OS (limited by hardware), Firefox (hardware) and on and on and on.
I don’t know what Roku is waiting for, I have 4 Chromecast dongles in the house that all do 1080p 720p @ 60fps just fine, I’m a little surprised that my super new Roku 3 doesn’t.
It all comes down to compatibility. The Tablo’s recordings right now are compatible among all the platforms. There just isn’t a way to capture and process multiple versions of the same show.
I’ve tried several combinations of output on the Tablo & Roku4 (HD 1080 - 10 Mbps, 720@60fps, HD 1080 - 8 Mbps, HD 720p - 5 Mbps (recommended) on the Tablo) (1080p & 720p on the Roku).
Yet, no matter what I try, when watching live sports like football or hockey OTA (not from recording), I still see ‘trails’/artifacts on the ball/puck during passing plays. It’s pretty distracting, actually. Switching to the TV’s direct feed from the antenna to the tuner for the same program does not have this issue, obviously.
Everything you watch on your Tablo is actually from a recording on the hard drive. The only difference between watching live or recorded shows is that Tablo doesn’t permanently save the live TV show.
There is nothing more you can try, as the 1080p 10Mbps is the best recording quality Tablo will produce.
Good point on the flow via the HDD. Thanks @ChrisFix
Since both devices (Tablo & Roku) do some transcoding / upscaling, I wasn’t sure if there was a magical mix of settings that minimized artifacts. But I guess we’ll just have to wait for better encoding/compression codec quality in the future.
After testing on multiple Rokus (Roku 3 & 4) and multiple TVs, I narrowed it down to a TV and that led me to a particular setting on my TV. I’m posting the fix that worked for me here in case the same works for anyone else:
Check your TV for any type of smooth motion setting and turn it OFF.
After turning off smooth motion on my TV, the picture now looks awesome, even for sports with a fast moving ball/puck. My Tablo setting is on the highest quality (HD 1080 - 10Mbps) and my hard wired Roku 3 & 4 both handle the video marvelously.
