If your video is constantly freezing or buffering, it's an issue with your home network, not an issue with over-the-air reception from your TV antenna. Go to this article for buffering troubleshooting.
A strong signal from your TV antenna is critical to enjoying over-the-air (OTA) TV with Tablo. To ensure the best possible OTA reception, it's important to choose the right TV antenna for your needs and install it in an optimal location.
Finding the ‘sweet spot’ for antenna TV reception in your home may take a bit of trial and error, but with the guidance below, you’ll be able to enjoy your favorite shows for free and with a crystal-clear picture.
Ways TV Antenna Reception Problems Can Manifest
Issues with antenna TV reception generally manifest in the following ways:
-
Pixelated Video
Poor reception can cause a video to pixelate, glitch, break up or become blocky. This can happen on both live and recorded video.
-
Failure to Play Live TV
Poor reception can increase errors in the live video stream delivered from your antenna, through your Tablo, to your viewing device. When Tablo's player software encounters too many errors, a 'playback failed' error message will be shown. If the issue is temporary, selecting 'retry' may get you back to your show. If not, you may have to cancel and attempt some of the troubleshooting steps below.
-
Partial or Failed Recordings
If your Tablo is unable to get a signal lock when a recording is set to start, the recording will be marked as 'failed' in your library. If you find many of your OTA recordings are missing segments of video or are shorter than anticipated, this can also be a symptom of a reception issue.
-
Antenna TV Channels Missing In a Channel Scan
A channel with no or very poor reception during a channel scan will not be displayed in the scan results. If you are missing a local channel you expect to receive after a channel scan, look for clues to the source of the issue, make adjustments and scan again.
-
Buzzes/Breakups In Audio
Antenna TV reception issues may also cause sound problems with live TV and recordings. Even though your video is fine, the audio may become buzzy, fuzzy or absent.
Clues to Reception Issues
When and where reception issues manifest can offer clues to the source of your problem, so make note of the affected channel(s) and the timing of the issues.
-
Reception Problems Are Intermittent
If your TV reception problems are sporadic or tend to happen around the same time each day, look for potential sources of OTA signal interference like tree branches on windy days, unshielded LED lights, airplanes and microwave ovens.
-
Reception Problems Are Limited to a Single or Group of Channels
If you only have reception problems on a single channel or group of channels (i.e. channels that all have the same major number like 14.1, 14.2, 14.3), this usually indicates the signal from the broadcast tower is too weak for your antenna to pick up. In rare cases, those channels may be broadcast on a frequency (VHF) your antenna is not designed to receive.
-
Sudden Onset of Reception Problems
If you suddenly have no reception on any OTA channels, check your antenna’s positioning and connections. In rarer cases, usually after major weather events, the problem may be a result of technical difficulties with the broadcaster’s tower.
-
Reception Is Fine on My TV, but Not Tablo
If reception is fine for a handful of channels on your TV but not your Tablo, the digital cliff could be at play. Click here to learn more.
How To Resolve Reception Issues by Improving Your TV Antenna Setup
The following troubleshooting tips should help you resolve most reception issues:
-
Adjust Your TV Antenna’s Location
The best location for your TV antenna is as high up as possible, facing your local broadcast towers. (Not sure where yours are located? Click here.) For indoor TV antennas, a top-story window is ideal. For outdoor antennas, try your roof or balcony. Avoid obstructions like trees or brick walls.
-
Evaluate Your Choice of TV Antenna
What TV antenna style will work best depends on your distance from local broadcast towers, local topography and whether some local channels are broadcast on VHF frequencies. Some basic research may reveal that upgrading to a more powerful or specialized antenna is required.
-
Disable Tablo’s In-Line Amplifier
Your Tablo can actually get too strong of a signal from your TV antenna. If you live very close to the local broadcast towers or are already using an amplified TV antenna, turning off the 4th Generation Tablo's in-line amplifier can help.
-
Avoid Splitting Your Coaxial Cable
Unless you use a distribution amplifier, splitting your TV antenna signal between multiple devices reduces the overall signal strength going to each one. Instead of splitting your antenna’s feed between multiple TV sets and your Tablo, rely instead on Tablo to stream antenna TV to your televisions wirelessly.
-
Keep Your Coaxial Cable Short
Long cable runs between your TV antenna and your Tablo can result in signal loss. If you must, use a high-quality RG6 coaxial cable.
-
Scan After Any Change
If you change anything with your antenna setup, conduct a new channel scan. As the signal strength indicators on your Tablo are not dynamic, a rescan will reveal whether your tweaks were successful or not.
-
Plan to Scan Quarterly
Run and save a new channel scan at least once every three months, even if your antenna reception is solid. This will allow your Tablo to discover new channels available in your area as well as any other changes that may have occurred.
The Digital Cliff: The Science of Over-the-Air TV Reception
Unlike analog TV, there’s no middle ground with today’s digital OTA TV signals, where the picture is ‘fuzzy’ or ‘snowy’. As digital signals are either ON or OFF, there is very little margin between a good signal and no signal at all.
If a signal is too weak and falls off the 'digital cliff', your Tablo simply won’t receive it.
In rare cases, a channel’s signal can be strong enough to receive when the antenna is connected directly to your TV but not the Tablo because of the digital cliff effect.
Unlike your single tuner television, your Tablo has multiple tuners (either two or four) so that you can watch and record multiple shows at the same time.
The downside is that the antenna’s signal strength is split between the tuners in the Tablo, leading to a small drop in strength. Tablo uses amplified splitting technology to mitigate this loss, but if the signal is on the edge of the digital cliff, it could be enough to push it over.
Employing some of the troublshooting tips above can help.