Troubleshooting Reception Issues

The most critical piece of troubleshooting video issues is first understanding how to classify the nature of the issue.

If you’re experiencing poor video quality, there could be a few reasons depending on the appearance:

• If the video is clean but stops and starts (stutters) the cause is most likely a poor Wi-Fi signal either from your router to your device (tablet, smartphone, Roku, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV etc.) or from the Tablo to your router if you are using Wi-Fi for the connection. Try moving to a different Wi-Fi channel, upgrade to a router that supports the 5Ghz bandwidth, try an Ethernet connection or move the router closer to the Tablo or to where you are using your device. 

• 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 HDTV reception.

There are a few changes you can make to improve your Tablo's reception:

1. Make sure the antenna is as high up as possible.
2. Try to avoid splitting the coaxial connection - there is a significant DB loss to the signal when you split the connection. 
3. Reference http://www.tvfool.com/ to ensure that your antenna is pointed in correct direction.
4. Here's a link on optimal antenna placement: https://www.tablotv.com/blog/position-matters-hdtv-antenna-placement/
5. Shorten your coaxial cable; the longer the cable, the more lossy the connection will become.
6. Conduct frequent channel scans to test your changes (Settings > Edit channel lineup > Rescan)

Receiving one or two channels on your TV, but not your Tablo:

The main difference between the Tablo and a traditional TV is that the Tablo has multiple tuners - so that you can watch and record multiple shows at once.

The drawback here is a small loss in DB when the signal is split. We use amplified splitting technology to mitigate for this loss, so it’s nearly negligible. In some rare cases, you could have one channel on your TV that doesn’t appear on the Tablo.

Since digital signals don’t ‘degrade’ like analog ones do, it’s typically either “on” or “off” and the difference between the two can be quite small. This can be referred to as the 'cliff' function, as seen in the image below. Using the tips and tweaks above can often get your reception on the right side of the cliff.