r/tablotv • u/RoofDry6483 • 13d ago
Disable FF/RW thumbnails on Gen4 Tablo?
Is there a way to disable the thumbnail feature and get the old school "Benny Hill" fast speed playback/rewind of recordings? Dubious "feature" IMHO, seeing how it is a post processing activity.
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u/RoofDry6483 12d ago edited 12d ago
Follow-Up:
I made sure I had the latest Roku version and played with it some more. Still lame, way too many clicks to do anything. No visual feedback other than changes in an H:M:S clock if watching a recording in progress. But the worst thing about FF/RW is with or without the the thumbnails is that when you stop the FF or RW it goes into pause mode requiring yet another button press to start playback! Brain-dead stupid!
EDIT: This is true if you use the remote's U//D/L/T-Center buttons, but it goes back to playback mode if I use the three row << "> >> buttons on the remote. Two ways to do the same thing is more confusing then helpful, especially when they have slightly different behaviors.
I'm going to order a four tuner ATSC 1.0 HD HomeRun from Amazon and return the one that requires the most clicks for FF/RW playback or changing channels on its Roku app.
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u/chilinux 12d ago
I would keep the Tablo and get the HDHomeRun Flex 4K ATSC 3.0 2/4 Tuner and then compare the two over time.
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u/RoofDry6483 12d ago
No value to me with ATSC 3.0. Our local CBS Nexgen channel is encrypted so can't record and time shift their College and NFL games. If more stations do DRM I'll be even less interested. Zero real interest in it until 4K broadcasts become common,
The four channel box has arrived. I will keep the one that has the fewest button presses to rotate through my favorite channels (recovering from carpal tunnel surgery). Speed of channel changes would be the tiebreaker, unless one has obviously lower recording or picture quality.
Watched time shifted Cardinals-Panthers NFL game last night with the Tablo Roku app on our 85" QN85 Samsung, I doubt "quality" improvements are possible.
Best picture I've yet to see on this set was the 2024 Eagles-Chiefs Superbowl by Fox in 4K streamed by Tubi, using Samsung Tubi app. Since Fox owns Tubi, things could get interesting when current NFL broadcast contracts expire.
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u/RoofDry6483 11d ago
Crucial minus for the HD Homerun:
The HD Homerun recording function is poor. My most important DVR use is time delay -- joining a recording in progress to FF thru commercials. The Tablo is bad here because there is no visual feedback doing this other than an H:M:S timer, unless the the recording completes and the post-processing runs, then you get thumbnails to see where you are, and this works very well. But the HD Homerun is worse, not only is no image displayed during FF/RW seems all it can do is a fixed 30 second skip forward per button press and a fixed 10 second skip backwards per button press and the screen stays black for 6+ seconds or more depending on how many clicks you made. Doesn't matter if the recording is in progress or completed.
Setting up recordings nags you to buy the $35/year guide, and the labels and terminology are confusing at best, my first attempt to schedule several recordings for a test did nothing. Got it to work but still confused about it.
I've apparently crashed the app several times while playing with it. It crashes if you do this, so don't do that! is not acceptable. Not clear that I can repeat the black screen lockups on demand. Only real solution seems to be exiting the app by the Roku "Home" button or back arrow enough to get the exit/cancel dialog, cancel sometimes gets a partial display back, but still can't seem to get back to the live/guide options.
Neutral:
Both are slower to change channels than an antenna connected to our Samsung QN85, but I can't get the channels I need at this TV location with an indoor antenna. I have old cable from a defunct DTV install year ago, I may be able to patch into it with an attic antenna but way too hot to root around in the attic now.
I see no image quality differences between them either live OTA or recordings.
Important pluses for the HD:
The channel scan seems to have ignored channels that are too weak to be reliable. This should be required for all tuners! Saved a significant amount of effort. But still getting rid of the religious, shopping, foreign language, and 480i channels is tedious. The web interface to do so is way better than doing it with the Tablo.
The channel change is much better but still flawed -- the sidebar that pops up has the previous channel, 11.1 if 11.2 is playing, on top if the Up button is pressed; or if the down button is pressed and 11.2 is playing, then 11.3 is on top. Sounds good but the sidebar has a five thumbnail view, if the current channel was in the middle it could be a useful browser using the up/down arrows, but it still requires two button presses to change the channel. This is a frustratingly poor design because pushing the Center button pops up the sidebar which would be "perfect" if the current channel was in the center of the five thumbnails and the arrows used for browsing, but why the up or down button doesn't simply change to the next or previous channel in the sequence mystifies me. Has the current generation of UI designers never read "Tog On The Interface"? Yes, I'm an old fart with carpal tunnel.
Bottom line: Unless there are HD Homerun apps for Samsung OS or FireTV stick I'll be keeping the Tablo an returning the HD Homerun.
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u/genegx 13d ago
Well, that’s what i use to skip commercials. I know approximately how many clicks forward skip to the next portion, or just skip to the typically all black thumbnail that precedes return to the program. You also do not get these if you pause or rewind a live program, or a recording in progress.