Tablo let’s you watch on smart phones too and away from home. Do others let you watch any place there is internet?
TiVo Stream which is another box for $130 lets you watch on smartphones and tablets, and away from home.
$300 is a way better deal, but even at $399 it is competitive. A 4 tuner Tablo is $299US plus lifetime subscription $150US, That pretty close in price still.
And for those of use who only watch TV on a TV then the missing device streaming is a non-issue.
Thanks for the thoughts, everyone. I completely understand and appreciate the appeal for TiVo’s guide and general DVR experience. The responsiveness, slickness factor, and general user experience of their interface is, certainly, very appealing. Personally, I would want to compare the TiVo against the Tablo just for that alone.
The new deal at $399 for TiVo Roamio OTA + Lifetime service is more competitive, like @luker says, but because you need a separate TiVo Mini ($150 per device) for each television where you’d like to see your TiVo, plus a separate TiVo Stream to watch your TV on smartphones and other devices (another $150 per device), you’re looking at replacing a typical 3 TV setup as follows:
Tablo x 3 Setup, plus Streaming
- Tablo 4 Tuner ($300)
- Tablo Hard Drive ($100)
- Lifetime Service ($150)
- 3 Rokus ($300)
- Total: $850
TiVo OTA x 3 Setup plus Streaming:
- TiVo Roamio OTA plus Lifetime ($400)
- TiVo Hard Drive Upgrade to 2TB equiv. ($100)
- 3 TiVo Minis ($450)
- TiVo Stream ($150)
- Total: $1,100
It’s close, but still significantly more expensive than the Tablo equivalent. The TiVo user experience is, certainly, compelling and superior in many ways. But, there are some things that just make the Tablo empirically better:
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Support for multiple third-party devices (Roku, Chromecast, Web App, etc.), rather than a walled garden approach (TiVo Mini)
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Built-in streaming to pretty much any device, anywhere in the world.
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Rapid setup with instant access to the guide data (TiVo’s guide data notoriously sometimes takes days to stream entirely and get indexed by its software).
That said, the TiVo Roamio OTA Lifetime price-point of $300 was an absolute threat, given their no-hassle setup for one-TV households that are likely to use and benefit from an attached DVR. At $400, it’s still competitive, and should be viewed by Tablo as a threat for TiVo deciding to enter the market and compete head-to-head. TiVo would have the advantage. (Most DVR consumers, for example, don’t use their DVRs “headless” like we do with our Tablos, which are built to be headless from the ground up. TiVo enthusiasts go to great lengths to adapt the OTA to make it headless, and this gets very pricy with $150 per TiVo Mini investments.
Finally, I’ll just close by saying I love Tablo’s responsiveness to user feedback. To get the same level of responsiveness, you ultimately have to rely upon the TiVo Enthusiast community (which, for sure, is great) first and foremost. Here, it really sounds like our Tablo Enthusiasts and Tablo Developers have open dialogue and exchange, and being able to see your feedback translated into the evolving new Channel Software is fantastic.
@Kaelon You’re missing the cost of the hard drive with the tablo.
Great reminder; thanks for that @mb190e. I’ve updated both sides – 2TB to 2TB is the only fair way to do an apple-to-apples comparison.
@Kaleon you only need two Tivo Minis for a three TV setup. And I’m not convinced Streaming is a necessary “evil”, I only personally of a small subset of DVR owners that want this. Most want to remove content from the DVR and copy onto that device if they want remote viewing on tiny screens. Also internal hardrive is considerably cheaper than external USB connected drives.
But the math is coming together.
I’m now seriously looking into this. Now that the deals are back at $399. I currently have the two tuner Tablo. I was looking to upgrade to the 4 tuner. I’m still on the one year free pre-ordered subscription. So just to get my Tablo to 4 tuner with the lifetime subscription I’m at $450 TiVo roamio OTA with 1 mini is $550. Started to watch the videos of the UI
@luker I think you are greatly underestimating the appeal of streaming. All data is trending towards less and less people relying on just a TV to watch content. There is also a growing younger generation of viewers who don’t use a TV at all to watch content. All you have to do is look at all the streaming options launching this year. This is not being driven by Cord Cutters as much as it is being driven by “Cord Nevers” and Cord Nevers tend to watch on PC’s and tablets. Even old farts like me enjoy sitting on my patio in the garden watching content on my tablet.
So after watching quite a few videos, i’m really starting to like the Tivo. I really didn’t think I missed some of the cable box features as I stated in some other threads. But now I’m thinking I do miss some standard cable box features. The TiVo interface seems to be really smooth and fast. The one thing that I really really miss is fast forward and rewind preview. You can delete entire seasons.
One other thing to add to the consideration is the per device vs. per user lifetime subscriptions. If Tablo releases a new box I don’t need to buy the subscription again. With Tivo you do.
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That is interesting to know as I was just thinking advances on the Tablo user experience are very slow going. I couldn’t handle it being even slower still! 
Here’s my math from earlier updated for new prices sans taxes:
TiVo Roamio OTA DVR 4 tuner + TiVo Mini (for 2nd HDTV) + TiVo Stream (to stream away from home on smartphones and tablets) = $680 (400+150+130)
Tablo Quad tuner + 500 GB USB HDD + Lifetime Subscription + 2 Roku 3s = $700 (300+50+150+200)
That is for a home with a 2 HDTV setup and support for mobile devices with both the TiVo and Tablo.
Who thinks it is only a coincidence the prices come out almost exactly the same? lol
Tivo stream FAQ’s - “Transcoding capability is built into TiVo Roamio Plus and Pro, therefore the purchase of the TiVo Stream accessory is not necessary.”
- The Roamio Plus and Pro are NOT OTA TV, they are for cable TV sources. We are and have always been talking about the “Roamio OTA” - you are comparing apples and oranges.
- Roamio Plus with a lifetime service is $900, and the Roamio Pro with a lifetime service is $1100. No where near the Tablo Quad tuner with lifetime service of $450 if you want to continue comparing apples and oranges for fun.
- The Roamio OTA does in fact require the TiVo Stream. If you don’t believe, please see the chart below directly from TiVo:
https://www.tivo.com/shop/roamio#/roamio#panelTabs
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Do the TiVo mini’s need a subscription as well or does the $150 cover everything for life for that device?
$150 includes lifetime service of device, see link:
https://www.tivo.com/shop/mini
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$150 includes lifetime service for now. I have heard rumor that is a temporary price as well.
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Just a PSA for anyone who may be interested…
TiVo is having a sale on Lifetime service currently (supposedly ahead of releasing a new product soon).
A Roamio OTA can be had for $300 again (with Lifetime) and a base Roamio Refurb can also be had for $300 (with Lifetime).
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The ‘base Roamio’ is for Cable TV correct, not OTA?