Thoughts on Tablo

TNGuy84

SatelliteGuys Guru
Original poster
May 27, 2018
136
117
Tennessee
I've been running a Philips 3575H DVR/DVD Recorder since 2007. It's been a good unit and still functions fine, but I'd like to upgrade to something that records in HD and can be streamed to any device. I've used those $30 DVR boxes, and they seem to glitch up during a recording. Is there anyone here who uses a Tablo unit? What's your experience with it? I live between two markets. My understanding is that it requires a ZIP code for the guide data. If one of the channels you receive isn't from your main market, will the guide data recognize that channel or will it be blank instead?
 
Been using a 2 tuner Tablo unit for 2 or 3 years now. I use it to stream via wi-fi all around the house to Roku Ultra units. It works great and I love it. Picks up all local channels via the internet. I have it hooked up to a remote hard drive to record, and no problems whatsoever. It will cost you 5 bucks a month for a interactive guide which is invaluable.
 
I’ve got the four tuner model. The only issue I have is that it has issues with marginal signal quality channels. If it has a channel that has signal issues it will cause recordings on high quality channels to be interrupted by the bad channels. Just need to add channels that have a green quality, yellow will cause problems. Love the commercial skip function with my Apple TV’s.


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I have 2 tablo players. guide was free till early march this year. Anyone that had a tablo player before that date is grandfathered for life. After that date they started charging a guide fee, I think $5.00 per month. Not sure but think you only pay one monthly charge for all receivers. You connect your player to your antenna and eithernet to your modem.Your wifi sends signal to all tvs. You need a roku or amazon stick at each tv. You need to get an external hard drive for each tablo player. The latest model is a quad 4 and you can use an internal hard drive or external hard drive with it. If you have more than one tablo player you just name each tablo player. I call one erie and the other one pittsburg. Each zip code determines what channels are in your guide. The erie stations are about 60 miles north of me and I found a zip code that gives me the schedule for them on antenna pointed to erie for the erie tablo player. The Pittsburgh tablo player ihas Pittsburgh stations that are 85 or more miles south of me so I use a different zip code for schedule.I also get channels in ohio like akron and Cleveland. The tablo company does a lot of updates on the software. When you do a channel scan you can edit out the weak channels if you want to. I got mine in march this year and think it is preety reliable ant the tuners are as good as the ones in the tv. Any channels that aren't in the schedule will still play. I have 2 terabyte hard drives on my players. Tablo also has a forum with lots of help if you need it. I give it a 5 star recommendation!
 
You may not need an external device to use the Tablo, a number of smart TV's have a Tablo app on them you can install. But some external devices will allow for the use of their automatic commercial skip feature which you get if you pay for the guide data.
 
I have a Panasonic smart tv that has a remote that is worn out. I couldn,t find a genuine remote so bought one from either amazon that was supposed to work. It didn,t work as well as the after market sanyo remote I have to use so I sent it back. I keep the original Panasonic remote to do a channel scan. So for me I would rather have a device.
 
"Each zip code determines what channels are in your guide." For my ZIP code I'm considered part of the Huntsville, AL viewing area. So, I'm guessing that if I'm trying to view Nashville, then I'm out of luck with device unless I wish to input a ZIP within the Nashville viewing area, right? I get mostly Huntsville channels along with a few high powered Nashville stations with my current setup. I'd like to have something that would allow me to have all of those without having to buy multiple tuners/receivers to view each market.
 
I do not know how far apart Huntsville and Nashville are apart from each other. The reason I have 2 tablos. I for the channels north of me and 1 for the channels south of me. My roko stick won,t let me change the zip code but the fire stick will let you change the zip code. If you receive the signal the channel will still go in your guide and play. You just will not get the program info.
 
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I decided to purchase the Tablo Dual from Best Buy. It's a neat device with lots of features. However, it does have some issues that need to be worked out. I had a number of times in which it gave me connection problems (it's wired to the network). I had a few incidences of audio having a loud chirping noise. It lacks support for different hard drives and flash drives. I tried every storage device I had available, and none of them worked. After spending over $100 for this device, I don't feel like shelling out an additional $45-$50 for a specific hard drive that's recommended by the company. Lastly, they require you to buy a subscription to even use the remote access capability. You don't even get the option unless you have a subscription.

So, needless to say, it's going back to the store. I'll just hold out for ATSC 3.0 devices and hope they drop in price quickly.
 
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