Tablo Quad Over-The-Air [OTA] Digital Video Recorder [DVR] - with WiFi, Live TV Streaming, Black

I was not looking to "cut the cable" but was forced to when the cable company said they were getting out of the cable TV business. Weeks stretched into months as I searched for and researched various OTA solutions. The Tablo 4 tuner OTA whole house DVR looked promising, met most of my requirements, and was at the right price point. I picked up a 2TB drive to go along with my order. The end result far exceeds my original expectations!Installing the hard drive in the Tablo is a snap (I prefer internal drives over USB). The instructions for connecting the Tablo to your local network either wirelessly or via a hard-wired connection are clear and understandable. I went with the hard-wired connection to my wireless router for optimal performance and available bandwidth.Tablo is compatible with a variety of streaming platforms. I had already established ROKU as my default player. The Tablo app for ROKU was a piece of cake to install on both my smartphone and the ROKU player. The Tablo app on ROKU uses familiar ROKU navigation. Once in, the menu structure and other user interface options from the Tablo side are displayed in an easy to use manner.I set up my Tablo account online and within minutes was exploring. It only took an hour or so for me to realize that the premium guide service is definitely worth the annual fee. The user interface of the guide is very similar to the cable guide I had used for nearly 25 years.I connected the antenna to the Tablo and initiated the scan function. I already had a good idea of the available channels in my area. The Tablo found many more, but several were marginal quality; confirmed by the Tablo signal strength indicator. I had the Tablo build a guide for the 19 channels I selected. First go through took about an hour - updates go much faster. The wealth of information presented in the guide for all the channels is astounding and stretches two weeks into the future. The Commercial Skip Premium feature is totally worth it. I was skeptical about the whole idea but was blown away so much by how well it worked, I signed up even before the free trial expired. It isn't perfect, but is solidly in the 95% range for overall "it really, really works." NEVER GOT THAT ON A CABLE DVR.The Tablo user interface makes it quick and simple to point and click on a program to schedule a recording. Setting up a series recording is just as easy with a good array of options, preferences, and selectivity.So far, so good. After a few days, I was still finding new things to be excited about. The picture quality is truly HD. I can neither confirm or deny, but suspect there is some excellent signal processing going on in the Tablo. I had always heard that OTA HDTV was better than you could ever get over cable since they compress the signal so much. Close inspection shows the same signal processing is happening with the Live TV feature - at least to the naked eye. Exceptional picture quality whether live or recorded.The Tablo 4-tuner model I have allows me to simultaneously record up to 4 TV channels at once which beats my cable DVR by two.I'm having a great time using the Tablo. They have a variety of models at a variety of price points. This started out as long shot, but wound up an out of the ballpark game winning walk-off grand slam home run! IT REALLY, REALLY WORKS!!

Warning: Tablo Guide does not work in all areas of the U.S.I recently moved from Denver to southern Colorado.Antenna stations are out of Colorado Springs and Albuquerque.Tablo does not provide Guide information for the ABC affiliate in Albuquerque.The explanation is a bit wonky (and unsatisfying). I was told by customer support that the third party business supplying Guide data does not provide schedules for low power TV stations and repeaters. This is an FCC classification and has nothing to do with signal strength where the Tablo is located. I was told the LPTV/Repeater classification does not legally prevent Tablo from adding Albuquerque programming to their Guide. And that even if I lived in the middle the city, Tablo would not provide programming info for this station.My Tablo still gets "confused" from time to time. One or several equipment restarts will usually solve the problem. Other issues (listed below) have abated due to iPad, Roku and router upgrades.** ** **Initial Rating: A reluctant 4 stars (February 27, 2020)Tablo Quad purchase date: September 11, 2019Version: 2.2.26HTML App: 1.8.7 build 966 [202001301235]Internal hard drive (separate purchase): 1TB – Western Digital ATA WD10SPZX-11Z 01.0Setup:Ethernet/Wired network connectionIndoor antenna with 6-ft. CoaxRecord quality set to 1080p, 8 MbpsLive TV quality set to 1080p, 10 MbpsLocation: Denver. Enclosed porch, ~35 - 60 degrees F.Client viability:iPad (1st generation – 16GB): Unusable. Takes 15 – 30 min. to sync. Then many pauses.iPad (7th generation – 128GB): Works well.HP Z230 workstation with Intel Core i3-4160 3.60 gHz, 16GB RAM, wired connection – Works wellOlder HP Laptop (WiFi) – Unusable, with slow sync and many video pausesRoku 2: WorksRoku stick: Live viewing has many pauses, when recording or when someone else is connected to the Tablo Quad. Works OK when viewing pre-recorded titles.Roku Premier: Works well.Suggested improvements:1) Fast Forward while program is still in progress. Our Magnavox DVR gives actual view of program content in FF or reverse mode. So, it’s much easier to skip through commercials or find desired content while program is still airing. Tablo only shows progress bar until recording is complete.2) Better buffering. All clients have exhibited problems when viewing programs before recording has finished. Problems can occur when two clients are connected to Tablo Quad at the same time. Pauses are rare, minor to severe depending clients in use. (See Client viability)3) The 14-day guide works reliably for the upcoming 48 hours. Rarely for more than that.My heart goes out to those posting 1- and 2-star ratings. I believe equipment setup, environment, the clients used to connect to Tablo -and some amount of luck- are directly tied to customer satisfaction. For example, Tablo Quad needs an internal hard drive and a wired connection to your home network. Unfortunately, some variables may be beyond customer control.Tablo checked several important boxes for us. No cable or satellite bill. The ability to view/record Sunday Night Football without interfering with my wife’s recording of 60 Minutes. (We already own a Magnavox DVR which works incredibly well but only for one channel at a time.)The ability to record several OTR events at the same time is great. Our Roku 2 lives in our basement and uses a WiFi connection. I can flip between events on a second TV without interrupting my wife’s viewing in the living room. We live in an older home. Not having to fish additional coax down the walls was a blessing.The Quad tuner seems somewhat more sensitive than the ones on our TV and Magnavox DVR. It pulled in more channels .. but that could be related to the location of our second indoor antenna.The Tablo guide is nice if you don’t have cable. Program schedules are available on the Internet but that solution is more cumbersome. The guide is the primary reason we bought a subscription. We debated, then bought the lifetime version. I hope not to regret this.(We were fooled into thinking lifetime commercial skip came with lifetime guide.)We have not experienced unscheduled reboots or lock-ups.We do not use the remote viewing feature.And so, my rating is a reluctant 4-stars. The 14-day guide seldom works but it was beta. The guide gives two days reliably. We are able to record and view OTR programs in at least two locations in our home.