If you’re having trouble watching TV with your Tablo DVR, there are two main problem sources:
- Slowdowns on your home WiFi network/router, causing buffering
OR
- Low signal strength/quality coming from your Over-the-Air TV antenna, causing pixelization
Here’s how to spot the difference…
If you’re experiencing:
- Occasional or frequent pixelization, glitching, breakup, or patterning of the video during playback
- Brief buzzing or brief loss of sound
… then the issue is related to the signal strength or quality coming from your Over-the-Air antenna to your Tablo DVR.
To resolve this, try improving your Over-the-Air antenna setup and then run a fresh channel scan on your Tablo DVR.
If you’re experiencing ‘clean’ video during playback (no pixelization) but:
- Occasional or frequent stops and starts, stutters, or freezing
- A ‘spinning circle’ or ‘loading… please wait’ message
… then the problem source is most likely a poor WiFi signal on your home network, either from your router to your viewing device (Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, tablet etc.) or from the Tablo to your router if the DVR is connected via WiFi.
Because Tablo relies on your internal home network (LAN) this can happen even if the external internet speeds (WAN) you get from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) are fast. This is one of the reasons why you may not experience buffering when streaming video from online sources like Netflix.
To resolve this, try reducing the Live TV or recording quality settings on your Tablo, switching to a different WiFi channel, upgrade to a newer router, try connecting the viewing device and/or Tablo via Ethernet, or move the router closer to the Tablo DVR and/or your viewing device.
If you’ve followed the troubleshooting steps and are still experiencing problems, don’t hesitate to contact Tablo Support for further assistance.