vandpipp angelos valley
Boyan Atanaschev
I was a huge fan of the Tablo broadcast TV DVRs for a long time. But then, in 2022, they eliminated their lifetime channel guide subscription option and required a monthly fee. To me, that defeated the whole point of free broadcast TV!
So, I was super excited when I heard about the brand new generation 4 Tablo with NO subscription fee! Tablo has completely re-branded with a completely new logo and website, and white color instead of black. I rushed out and ordered it immediately!
It has two tuners, so you can watch one show while recording another, or record two shows at the same time. A four-tuner version is available for for $139.99. That will let you record up to four shows at the same time.
I chose to have the app guide me through the antenna setup process, and it has a nice feature where it tells you which direction to point your antenna, and has an included compass to help you do that properly. I used my trusty Mohu Leaf as my antenna.
The 14-day channel guide is simple and well-designed. I like how it shows both the station logo and channel number on the left (unlike the Air TV app, Sling TV, which only shows the station logo). Click any show to watch it or to record that episode or all episodes of that show. Simple!
You can pause live TV, which in effect, starts recording the show from that point on. However, when I tried this using internal memory, the length of the recording was limited to a few minutes and just cut off. It seems that pausing was only designed to be done for relatively short periods of time (at least on internal memory).
Note, however, if you play a show while it is being recorded, you cannot watch it from the beginning; something that I used to do on other DVRs in order to skip past commercials on live TV. You can only watch it from the point at which the live show is playing.
While recording by clicking a show is super convenient, some users actually like the ability to manually set a recording time and date. This might be because the channel guide is inaccurate in their area, i.e., if they live between two TV markets and are receiving different channels than what the guide says.
As the Tablo Gen 4 has had more time in the marketplace, there have been many folks complaining online about bugs in the Roku app such as having it crash or reset unexpectedly. The solution for many has been to purchase a $20 ONN Android streaming box from Walmart.
The Tablo Gen 4 has 128GB of onboard flash memory storage, which comes out to about 50 hours of video recording time. This is great because you can start using it right away without needing a USB hard drive.
As a Hail Mary, I tried plugging in my Gen 3 Tablo hard drive into my Gen 4 Tablo. It recognized the drive, but not the recordings. It would have been super cool if I could view recordings made on my old Tablo on my new one, but I figured that was a long shot.
The Tablo app includes some free Internet-streamed channels including Bloomberg TV+, World Poker Tour, ion Plus, Court TV, Grit, HSN, and QVC. Several DVR brands do this now. What sets Tablo apart, though, is the ability to record shows from these channels, just like you would record broadcast TV shows. Very cool!!!
Unfortunately, during my testing, I did find the recording of FAST channels to be buggy. Often the recording would stop before the show was over. I never had this happen when recording broadcast TV channels, only the streaming ones. Hopefully, this will be fixed in a future software update.
A less important bug was that when I recorded a FAST show, recording would also be enabled for the next episode instead of just the one I selected. This is easily remedied by selecting a future recording and disabling that.
When I first heard about this limitation I did this experiment: I tuned to a live TV channel, then unplugged my Internet gateway. At first, the picture remained and I could still watch, but when I exited out of the app and tried to watch a different channel, it just hung.
This is a minor bummer because one of the great things about broadcast TV is the ability to watch TV even when your Internet is down. Also, with the old Tablo, you could still watch TV and your recordings with no Internet. Because of this, the need for Internet seems like an artificial requirement, perhaps to gather data on our viewing habits, or due to contractual obligations with the streaming service providers.
I'm an electrical engineer (BSEE Caltech) with twenty years of experience designing industrial and consumer products, and now a web developer who loves to share ways to save money on TV content, Internet access, and cell phone plans! Read more about me here.
If you liked this article, please sign up for email updates. I'll send you a note when I publish a new article, no more than once a month. Unsubscribe any time. You can also watch my videos on YouTube. - Brian
I have four Roku devices. On TWO of these devices, playing back recordings is dreadful if the hard drive is connected (I added the hard drive after a suggestion was made that it might solve my playback problems. In fact, it worsened them.)
Happy to report that everything appears to be working now. Apparently it was a bandwidth issue. I received and installed a new Roku device. This one connects to my Internet via CAT5 cable or wifi. After installing a cable run and swapping the Roku it seems to be working well.
You can watch live TV and recordings from your Tablo from multiple TVs, as long as they have a compatible streaming device attached, such as a Roku, Fire TV, or Android TV box. You watch through the Tablo app on those devices.
Sorry! I left out a step (which may or may not be necessary)
After unplugging the Tablo power source
and deleting the app from your phone
You may need to unplug the unwanted router repeater
Then reboot and reinstall the app.
No I am not using Roku. All straight from my antenna. Your product is not ready to be sold to the public. My Aluratek single tuner DVR works just fine. Crystal clear, no freezing, no buffering and no error messages. So it obviously a Tablo issue.
40 miles is very challenging to get TV signals, especially with an indoor antenna. A rooftop antenna would be best. Enter your zip code into the Station Finder though to check before buying any antenna though:
-finder/
Well Brian i have got the Tablo working but the outcome is terrible. Have to return. This device is not ready for prime time. Tablo cannot maintain its reception. I was looking at a program on Tablo and after an hour it started buffering and then the reception error timeout data continuing to pop up. Totally disappointed but glad I can get my refund. This is trash, and I hope a new company that is serious about there product brings out a new ota
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Long before streaming was a thing, falling asleep with the TV on meant that you might wake up in the early morning hours, only to find static on the set because the channel went offline for the night. The modern version of this is just as common: you fall asleep with Netflix playing, only to wake up and discover that the TV turned itself off at some point during the night. Why?
According to the Netflix Help Center, the company added the "Are You Still Watching?" prompt to its platform for two reasons: so that you won't needlessly use up internet data by streaming to an empty room, and so that you won't lose your place in a series if you fall asleep while it is playing. The company attempts to strike a reasonable balance between getting verification and not interrupting your shows too frequently. As such, you can expect to see the pop-up after watching three episodes of the same TV show in a row or 1.5 hours of uninterrupted watching. When this feature was initially launched, many users were divided about it.
On the one hand, it can help save you from a startling bill if you're on a metered internet connection, such as a limited data mobile plan, because streaming video tends to use up considerable amounts of data. However, many users who enjoy binge-watching TV shows or streaming content for background noise find the pop-up annoying, as it forces their attention back on their TV after a relatively short period of time. To address those complaints, Netflix added the option to turn on autoplay.
Among the several ways to turn off Netflix's "Are You Still Watching?" pop-up, enabling autoplay is the easiest and most straightforward option. By enabling autoplay, all of the episodes for a particular show will play without any interruptions from Netflix. Here's how to enable autoplay in your Netflix account settings:
With this feature enabled, Netflix will automatically play the next episode in a series, meaning you won't have to deal with the prompt appearing every three episodes. You can disable the feature at any time by following the same steps and unchecking the box.
You can turn off Netflix's "Are You Still Watching?" prompt using your iPhone, iPad, Android phone, or tablet, which will enable you to watch content on the go without the prompt appearing. To disable autoplay in the Netflix mobile app, follow these instructions:
After changing your Netflix settings, you may need to refresh your viewing devices for this feature to be activated. Thankfully, there are two ways to do that: switch to another profile temporarily or sign out and sign back in. Afterward, you can expect Netflix to provide uninterrupted streaming for your favorite shows.
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