Tablo Connect to Apple TV?

I really like Tablo service. It's a great device that allows me to watch over the air antenna content on my devices on my network. I also have Fire TV Recast set up at my mother's house, as well as Air TV (using the Air TV Anywhere device). Of the three options I have for watching TV via an antenna, I like Tablo the best.

I do like the way Air TV integrates the local channels into the Sling TV interface, but I like the Tablo interface better. Fire TV Recast also integrates the antenna content into the interface, but I'm not a fan of the Amazon interface. And I've mentioned the things I don't like about Fire TV before.

Tablo is my go-to way to watch TV from an antenna. And, since I put up the antenna at my mother's, and I live a couple of miles away, Tablo Connect -- the feature that lets you watch Tablo from a different network -- is the way I'm continuing to use Tablo.

Since Tablo Connect is supported by Fire TV, Chromecast, and Apple TV, but not Roku, I've used other devices. Chromecast would be my preferred alternative, but the Chromecast has other issues I've previously mentioned. And, as I said, Fire TV has its own issues. So what next? Why Apple TV, of course.

I've had an Apple TV longer than I have had Roku. About a week longer. Apple ships faster than Roku. Of course, the old Apple TV devices were far inferior to Roku, but for the last few years, they've been a lot better, and are really good. I just hated the remote that came with the last couple of models, but the new remote is pretty good. And that brings Apple TV up a notch.

I'll be trying it out again. I've looked at Apple TV recently, and was happy with the remote. I already was comfortable and happy with the interface. At the time, I wasn't looking into Tablo Connect. But now I am. And Apple TV gets its turn this week.

The Doctor is in

I mentioned last week that I was adding Doctor Who episodes -- classic Doctor Who, from 1963-1986 -- to my Plex server. I have all of the episodes, including the Loose Cannon reconstructions of the missing episodes, and I began importing them into Plex.

As I mentioned before, I had imported the first ten seasons into my old Plex server, and moving them onto the new server was relatively easy. Everything was already organized, as I found out, and it went smoothly.

As I mentioned last week, I took up the task of moving the other seasons onto Plex. That actually went rather smoothly. It turns out I had already prepped several seasons to bring in, but for some reason, I never finished the task. Until now.

The next few seasons went well. I had all of the Tom Baker, and many of the Peter Davison episodes ready to go. I had a few Colin Baker episodes, as well as some Sylvester McCoy episodes. All of the ones I didn't have purchased from iTunes, I had ripped the DVDs already, and they were essentially ready. I had even ripped some of the iTunes episodes, so even more were ready. I ripped the remaining few and began the import.

It was quire painless. Well, the actual import was. Ripping TV shows isn't always painless. The iTunes naming convention and the Plex naming convention aren't the same, so I had to figure out how to make that easier. I ended up using a couple of batch file tricks and a spreadsheet.

I used a DIR command to output the content to a text file by using the /B attribute and redirecting the output to a text file. If you use Command Line much -- I still call it DOS command line -- you know what I'm talking about. If not, it's a way to get the names of the files into a text file.

I copied the text file into a spreadsheet, arranged them in air date order (the directory listing was alphabetical), and used an Excel CONCATENATE command to write a rename batch script. If you don't understand what I'm talking about, it's a way to take content from one cell in a spreadsheet and manipulate it in a way that I got a different bit of content.

For example, one of the filenames was 01 The Caves of Androzani (1).mp4

With commands such as CONCATENATE and MID, along with some math, I got a line of script that renamed it: Doctor Who (1963) - s21e17 - The Caves of Androzani (1).mp4

Yeah, that took a little bit of work, but it was a lot easier than renaming all those files by hand. I don't do a lot of coding, but it's nice to know I can do some tricks like this, and have it work.

Now, I have all of the Doctor Who classic episodes in Plex, and can watch them any time I want. Next, I need to bring in the special episodes. The Three Doctors imported into the 20th season as I had hoped, because I used DVD order setting in Plex. I have Scream of the Shalka, an aborted 9th Doctor continuation. The six episodes were completed, but the 9th Doctor didn't take. I also have the original An Unearthly Child that was rejected, the 2019 recreation of Mission to the Unknown, and An Adventure in Space and Time. I could even include the three movies, the two with Peter Cushing and the one with Paul McGann, in the specials section, since the library source Plex uses has them.

As I wrap all this up, I'm happy to have Doctor Who, in classic form, on my Plex server, and back in my Streaming Life.

What I hate about Fire TV

You know those people that always seem to find something wrong with everything? People that aren't happy no matter what? That seem to thrive on being difficult? That seems like me when it comes to Amazon's Fire TV.

Don't get me wrong. I like some things about Fire TV, but there are some things it does that really irritate me.

By default, videos start playing if I stop on them for a few seconds. I don't want to see or hear a video playing unless I tell it to play. Sure, I can go to the settings and turn that off, and I do. But it only applies to standard videos. When there's a sponsored video, it plays if you stay on it for more than one second. I timed it. It was easy to time. One Mississippi, t--- dammit!

Maybe I shouldn't get so worked up about stuff playing when I don't want it to. But I don't want it to.

Remember those Websites that you would go to and they'd start playing some sound? Yeah, they still exist. News sites are notorious for playing a video when you just want to read the story. I hate those. And Fire TV does that same thing.

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K -- I haven't tried the new "Max" version yet -- works great. It's responsive, and is easy to you. But Amazon insists on playing videos when I don't want them to. I will not put up with that. And that's why Fire TV will never be my streaming device of choice.

I still use the Fire TV device for Tablo Connect, but for nothing else. I tried. The autoplaying of videos -- and the inability to stop it for sponsored videos -- keeps the Fire TV device relegated to a special purpose only status in my Streaming Life.

Tablo Connect update

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about Tablo Connect. Briefly, it's a feature with Tablo that lets you watch your Tablo content from a different network.

Tablo, is of course, an over the air (OTA) antenna DVR that also makes your antenna and DVR be viewed anywhere on your network with a compatible device. And the compatible devices are Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Google/Android TV devices, so that means most streaming setups.

Tablo Connect works on three of those four platforms. Roku doesn't support Tablo Connect, or Tablo Connect doesn't support Roku. Either way, you can use Tablo with Roku, but only on the same network.

Tablo Connect lets me use my Fire TV, Apple TV, or Chromecast/Google TV devices on other networks. That means the antenna I put up at one house, I can watch it at another house with Fire TV, Apple TV, or Chromecast/Google TV.

I was using my Chromecast for it, but I've not been happy with the device lately. The Chromecast has had occasional issues with watching TV via Tablo Connect as well. Well, I pulled out my Fire TV Stick 4K and made sure it was set up for Tablo Connect. I watched the World Series from Fox local channel from my house, using the antenna that is at my mother's house (where I put up the antenna some months back).

The reception and experience has been good. The picture is great, and there is only occasional buffering. I think it's the network, not the stick. It's not stuttering, just maybe once every 20-30 minutes taking a few seconds, 1-3 seconds at most, then pick up with the stream.

I will likely box up the Chromecast/Google TV and have the Fire TV Stick 4K as my secondary device. Or primary if I'm watching TV antenna.

I'm a little disappointed with my Chromecast, but very happy with my Fire TV Stick 4K. And I'm very very happy with Tablo Connect. I still wish the Out Of Home Streaming feature of Tablo was  was available on Roku, but I have Fire TV to have that feature as a part of my Streaming Life.

Waiting to retire the old Plex server

I recently mentioned that I was upgrading my Plex server with a newer, faster computer and a larger hard drive. And, I've mentioned some of the issues I've encountered along the way. None of the issues were directly related to Plex itself. That's been easy. It's the delay in delivery of components, issues with copying files, and of course, issues with the bloatware that companies (Dell, in this instance) put on computers.

Problems? Yes, but there were also solutions, so things progressed along. I got all of my movie files moved over and loaded into Plex. I got my short film files moved over and loaded into Plex. And I have my TV show files moved over and some of them loaded into Plex, but there are sill some more of those to go. And my music files need to move over. Oh, and music videos.

Movies are done. Well, mostly done. I have the movies, but not the collections. You see, I have a lot of my films in collections, such as Best Picture Oscar films all in one collection, AFI Top 100, Hitchcock films, Disney films, James Bond films, and so on. Having the old Plex for finishing that off is helpful.

I also have several playlists set up. For example, I have all of the original uncut versions of the movies that were riffed by Mystery Science Theater 3000, except for two. I don't know why I've done this, other than it seemed like something I would try to do. I have 13 playlists: one for the KTMA season, ten for the Comedy Channel/Comedy Central/Sci-Fi Channel seasons, and two for the Netflix seasons. The movies are in riffed order, and I've never watched them from the playlist. But, I'll probably still set those up, just to say I have them.

I have the TV shows that I had on the old Plex, but as I mentioned some days ago, I never finished setting up Doctor Who, although I have all of the video files of the shows. I don't really need the old Plex server running for that, as I'm actually ahead of it on this task.

Music is an area where I'm not really sure. I thought that downloading again from iTunes then converting to MP3 would be easy enough, but I'm not seeing all of my purchases and iTunes Match content. I need to look into that more. And this may be the overriding reason for keeping the old Plex server around. Some of the music I have are songs purchased through iTunes. I don't always have the CD. For those I have on CD, it's not an issue. But for those where it's an iTunes match, I'd rather not break out the CD if I don't have to. But, I'll do what I have to do. The easiest way would be to pull from the old server.

Since I already had to set up the old server again in order to pull the files across the network, I'll just leave it there until I have everything finished on the new Plex server.

No, my Streaming Life shouldn't be this complicated, but these are complications I created, so I'll just deal with them. When I'm done, my Streaming Life will be better. Or that's what I keep telling myself.

SiriusXM changes

I got my first XM radio in a car I bought in 2006. In 2008, XM merged with Sirius to form SiriusXM radio.

What's this got to do with streaming? Well, many SiriusXM packages include streaming capabilities, not just from a phone, but from streaming devices including the big four -- Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast/Google TV, and Fire TV -- as well as certain other smart TV systems -- LG & Samsung. And, yes, I have it on my Roku device and will listen from time to time. SiriusXM is a streaming option for listening to music.

What brought this up is that I heard one of the station I listen to mention they were moving to another channel. I was listening to 60s on 6, and the said they were moving to channel 73 and changing the name to 60s Gold. The name change makes sense, since they were no longer on channel 6. But there was something else that was a concern to me. I will often listen to channel 74, 40s Junction. Where was it going? Or was it going away? I had questions. I wanted answers.

A look at the SiriusXM Website didn't mention anything. Searching the Internet only turned up one article on Radio & Television Business Report:

... (The) biggest move will see the 50s tunes rebranded as "50s Gold," taking Channel 72. The 60s, with veteran hosts "Shotgun" Tom Kelly and Pat St. John alongside Dave Hoeffel as air personalities, will be branded as "60s Gold," taking Channel 73.

The "70s on 7" remains on Channel 7; corresponding decade-specific channels remain on Channels 8-11.

That told me pretty much what I already knew. But the same article did have the answer I was after.

Meanwhile, a flurry of channel shifts are set to occur, as follows:

• The Pulse: Ch. 5 (formerly 15)
• The Coffee House: Ch. 6 (formerly 14)
• Siriusly Sinatra: Ch. 70 (formerly 71)
• 40s Junction: Ch. 71 (formerly 73)
• On Broadway: Ch. 77 (formerly 72)
• Kidz Bop: Ch. 79 (formerly 77)

That was good news for me, as I will get to keep the channel I was worried about.

Channel 70 was open, as The Billy Joel Channel and SiriusXM Live, both of which have recently occupied the channel, are going to online only. Channel 79 was also open. Everything else was a shifting around of channels. I couldn't find out what's going in to 14 and 15, which come open with the moves.

SiriusXM says your radios will automatically follow the channels, and if so, great. If not, well I'll be able to find what I'm looking for. If it becomes too much of a hassle, my subscription is up in November, and I'll remove the channel from my Streaming Life. And my car.

The problem with Chromecast

While Roku is my primary streaming device, I have a fondness for the Chromecast with Google TV (I'll call it "Chromecast" from now on, even though the device actually called "Chromecast" is a lesser device).

Recently, I added the Tablo Connect feature to my home by syncing my Chromecast to the TV antenna I put up at my mother's house. In cast you don't recall, that's the feature that allows me to watch TV from that antenna on another network. I'm watching TV at my house from an antenna at a different house.

Anyway, I've been using the Chromecast a bit more as a result. If you remember, Roku doesn't support Tablo Connect, or Tablo Connect doesn't support Roku. Either way, I can't use it on Roku. Tablo works with Roku, just not the Tablo Connect feature.

Oh, and, since I've been using Chromecast more, I've used Roku less. And, the other day, I wanted to look at the updated Popcornflix app. On Roku, it was a quick and easy setup. But, with Chromecast, there was an issue. It wouldn't load on my Chromecast device.

Oh, yes, Popcornflix is compatible with Chromecast, but I had too many apps on my device. It indicated I needed to remove an app to add Popcornflix. I removed a couple than added Popcornflix. But I really didn't like having to do that.

I've been spoiled by Roku. Roku doesn't have a lot of on-board storage, but it doesn't really matter. If you run out of space on a Roku, it will remove the oldest app, in terms of how long ago you last used it, and load the new one. It will actually start with the oldest apps and remove as many as necessary until there is enough space for the new app. The old app(s) still shows on the device, and all devices, and if you go to launch it, it will load, removing what is now the oldest, if necessary. It's all behind the scenes. You can only tell it's doing it if you launch and app and you see the download counter.

But that's now how Chromecast works. It works like your Android phone does. You have to remove apps yourself if you need space. And that makes sense, since Chromecast is running Google/Android operating system.

This was an irritant. If it will be a long term bother, I don't know. After all, there are several apps I don't regularly use, so removing them isn't a big deal. But then again, I don't really use Popcornflix. I wanted to give it a try and see what I thought. But, while trying to load it, I had to switch gears and do some cleanup on the device. I didn't have to do that with Roku.

I'm not about to chunk the Chromecast by any means. But I am looking around trying to remember where I put the Fire TV Stick 4K device. It may be a better option for having Tablo Connect in my Streaming Life.