I use "gtar" on the command-line in that case; it either fails because gnu-tar is missing, or it works as expected.
"-H pax" is also an important item to specify on the side creating the tar file, as pax support is much older than pax as a default, and the pre-pax default (gnu or USTAR?) has a short enough maximum path length as to have caused me problems in the past.
There is wild variation in tar implementations beyond what is required by POSIX.