If you’re experiencing poor video quality on your Tablo, there could be a few reasons:
Poor TV Antenna Reception
If the video has an occasional breakup, a few pixels at a time, or some brief buzzes in the audio, the problem is most likely TV antenna reception.
Run a new channel scan to see what the current signal strength is and try to reorient your antenna for better reception.
If the problem persists, troubleshoot accordingly.
Poor Wi-Fi Network Connection
If the video is clean but stops and starts (stutters or buffers) the cause is most likely a poor Wi-Fi signal either from your router to your device (tablet, smartphone, Roku, Google TV Streamer, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV etc.) or from the Tablo to your router if you are using Wi-Fi for the connection.
Try troubleshooting/verifying your Wi-Fi setup.
Incompatible/Failing Hard Drive
If the video is clean but has large patches of breakup every few seconds, the problem is often the hard drive. Either the drive is too slow to record the video, it is disconnecting frequently and reconnecting or is operating as a USB 1 drive. The easiest way to troubleshoot drive problems is to remove the drive and try playing back live TV, or swap your original drive with a different drive and test your results to see if you can reproduce the same issue.
Of course, it's also a good idea to verify that your hard drive is compatible.