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WATCH, PAUSE, RECORD, & REPLAY LIVE TV: Enjoy live TV from major networks, including ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC(1), as well as a curated selection of free live streaming TV (FAST) channels
WHOLE-HOME ACCESS: 1 DVR pairs with any TV antenna to let you watch TV on multiple compatible devices at once, including smartphones, tablets, as well as smart TVs & streaming players from Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Chromecast w/ Google TV, Apple TV, Samsung TV, LG TV. For a full list of all compatible devices, view the product carousel image or download the User Guide (PDF) from Product guides and documents section.
NO SUBSCRIPTIONS OR HIDDEN FEES: Pay once for the Tablo device and watch and record your favorite live, local TV shows, along with free streaming TV channels without contracts or ongoing fees(3)
RECORD MULTIPLE SHOWS: 2 tuners within this device allow you to record one live TV channel while watching another for viewing flexibility
Tablo does not come with a remote control of its own, you can use the familiar remote control that came with your smart TV or streaming device to download the Tablo app and then control your DVR wirelessly.
RECORD 50+ HOURS: Never miss a moment with 128GB of onboard recording storage; add up to 8TB of external USB storage to record even more. USB flash drives and Memory cards are not supported.
GET MORE TV CHANNELS: Access more than 100 additional free streaming channels you can’t get with your TV antenna alone, enhancing your endless free-TV experience(3). Recording of some free streaming channels may be disabled due to licensing restrictions.
TIME-SHIFT VIEWING: Start watching in-progress recordings—perfect for catching the action from the beginning or skipping to the good parts
EASY SETUP: Connect the Tablo DVR to ANY TV antenna; connect it to your home network via Wi-Fi or using the included Ethernet cable; download the Tablo app on your smartphone or tablet and follow the setup instructions(3)
WI-FI CONNECTIVITY: The only OTA DVRs with Wi-Fi, Tablo devices let you position your TV antenna wherever it can get the best signal reception, then wirelessly streams live and recorded free TV content throughout your home to compatible devices.
Embedded EE –
So happy I bought this
TLDR: I needed a new OTA DVR solution and this worked out better than I hoped. There were a couple of issues the first day of setting up, but the product has been working great for over a couple of weeks since.More detail:Of course the family needs a new DVR during the transitions between ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0. At the time of writing this, there are no really good ATSC 3.0 DVR options out there. I say that with the perspective that no one should have to pay a subscription/service fee for the privilege of using a OTA DVR. Ever.There are quite a few negative reviews out there, which made me hesitant to consider picking one of these up; however, at the price point that Tablo is selling this two tuner ATSC 1.0 DVR, I just had to try it out.Pros:1.) Installation options for this are fantastic. I use an amplified indoor antenna (separate product that I should review at some point) and the combination of that plus this being a “headless” WIFI enabled device made picking an optimum location in my home a breeze. No need for getting on my roof to install an antenna, and no issues of figuring out how to get this device into my entertainment stand or audio rack. All my HDMI ports are full on my main TV, so not having to worry about adding an addition HDMI switch there was great too.2.) The dual tuner works well, and the pictures I receive are crystal clear. I can watch one station while recording another and neither suffer degradation.3.) Being able to watch OTA channels and recordings anywhere in the house without having to run coax, splitters and the potential of additional amplifiers is fantastic. The flexibility of seamlessly moving from one screen to another in the house is great too. I use this setup with Roku, Google TV, and iOS devices.4.) The UI of the app is clean and consistent, no matter which platform version of the app you are using. Finding content is easy, and scheduling recordings follow pretty much the same workflows I’ve seen using other DVR solutions in the past.5.) I have not run into the dreaded “buffering” problem that other reviewers have experienced. Periodically my GoogleTV app will report that it is having problems connecting to my Tablo when I start the app. I just select “Disconnect” from the bottom of the screen, and it automatically reconnects and runs just fine from there.6.) No service fees. Just buy the device and it functions as it should.Cons:1.) You’re going to need reasonable WIFI in order to enjoy this product to the fullest. If your network topology is not setup correctly, you will run into issues. The classic “buffering” problem being one of them.2.) As stated before, periodically the app will have difficulty connecting to the Tablo, I’ve only seen this behavior with the GoogleTV version of the app, but the workaround is simple in this case: just select the “Disconnect” option from the bottom of the screen and it reconnects just fine.3.) I installed the product late morning and it worked great for hours with my iPhone and GoogleTV. I periodically tested it out through the day (tuning into shows and setting recordings) and it worked fine. Later that night, scheduling a recording off the guide on my GoogleTV stopped working. Even worse: I could not even select a show to watch off the guide on my iPhone. The only way I could tune a station from the guide on my iPhone was to select the station name on the far left side of the guide. I tried reseting the app multiple times, and various other trouble shooting steps without success.As I was going to bed, I tried my Roku in my bedroom. It worked fine.I woke up the next morning to find all my devices (Roku, GoogleTV, and iPhone) were working just fine. It’s been well over a couple of weeks, and I have never seen this issue again. I’ve never reset or power cycled the Tablo box, so I’m at a loss as to the root of the problem. I can only surmise that there was a corruption of the guide data for whatever reason, but it sorted itself out as it continued to update guide data.Summary:This product design is fantastic. There is always a gamble when your main interface is WIFI only; however, it works very well even on my heavily loaded home network. The only downside is that it does not have an ATSC 3.0 tuner. My hope is that over the next couple of years Tablo will update this product with a compatible tuner and not change anything else. If they do, I will purchase a upgrade and fully recommend one for friends and family who could use one as well.
Slim Fishguttz –
Hardware is Ok. Software is horrible. Just one weird interface design choice after another.
Riddled with bugs and has the most user hostile interface that I’ve encounter in quite awhile. Just bizarre interface choices as to where the menu choices lead one to and the non-stickey nature of the Live grid.E.g., one can tell the Live grid to display only Favorite channels, but it isn’t sticky in that when one comes back from watching a channel the grid defaults back to all channels. E.g., when in the program grid, if a show is chosen to watch, then when the grid is returned to one is placed at the beginning rather than where one was before picking the show. Makes channel surfing in an already clumsy interface even more involved. E.g., if there is a scheduling conflict for recording shows that conflict is tagged on only one of the shows. Since, on the Library screen, scheduled recordings are grouped by shows rather than by time slots finding a conflict can be difficult in a longer list of schedules. Although not tagged as a conflict on the channel grid, conflicting shows can be found if one goes to the appropriate day.I could go on.Also, under Roku one needs to reboot the device as something Tablo is doing really messes with Roku’s head in that either Roku or Tablo consistently lock up.Table is obviously a hardware company (the device’s tuner is better than the one in my Sony TV), but the software acts like it has never been tested or that any thought was given as to how someone might use it.My solution is to split my antenna input between Tablo and my Sony and use the Sony tuner most of the time and Tablo only to record/watch a recorded show. Of course, I lose the free channels, but that’s a choice I make to keep my sanity on a day to day basis.Football season is coming.The above comments refer to Tablo on Roku. Tablo on FIre TV has different, but equally annoying flaws. Perversely, the software interfaces across the Roku, Fire TV and my iPad are maddeningly different in subtle ways.Additional edit: So many software bugs and weird design choices continue to manifest the longer I use the device, but two bugs have occurred that I can’t live with.The device does not record reliably. Often an episode, in this case a scheduled football/soccer match is split into two sections. Sometimes the entire match can be found thru both sections and sometimes not, but even then they often won’t play and there is no scrub bar to move thru the recording.Out of the blue, Roku and also Fire TV couldn’t find the Tablo. I rebooted the Tablo, Roku and Fire TV. I deleted and reinstalled the software. I assigned a reserved address to the Tablo in my router. All to no avail. My iPad can still find Tablo, so I know it isn’t a problem with my network.Device runs hot enough to fry an egg, which is probably at the root of some of the issues.I wrote mainframe and Windows software and managed software engineeers for many years. If this software were written and/or beta tested by anyone on my team they would be terminated with prejudice. It acts as though it was writen by a summer intern.Unit sent back for refund.Edit #2: It occurs to me that a great deal of the interface problems can be resolved by running Plex on top of the Tablo hardware, but since I sent the unit back I can’t test this out. I bought an HDHomerun tuner instead and Plex works in addressing the ugliness of HDHomerun interface. Next stop is to run the Plex server on an Nvidia Shield and remove the need to have my PC on all the time. FWIW.