I own the 2 tuner tablo. But because dtv now is blocking recording network channels I may need to buy the 4 tuner tablo. Any differences in the 2 models.
Can I just unplug my hard drive and plug it in the 4 tuner model? Would I lose my recordings?
Here is how to move your recordings to your new Tablo.
Another option is to buy a second hard drive with the new Tablo and keep both Tablo’s on your network. The subscription for guide information will work on both units at no additional cost and then you will have 4 or 6 tuners available depending on if you purchase another 2 tuner or the 4 tuner model.
Gave it thought but the cost…ugh. Just bought a 2 tuner 6 months ago and a 100 dollar hardrive. Now as I feared not enough tuners. Another tablo and another hard drive. The other option of 4 tuner and use my already bought hard drive saves alot of cash
Why not buy another 2-tuner, cheaper than buying a 4-tuner?
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99 for a dual plus a new hard drive 100 bucks… 199.
199 for a 4 tuner use old drive from my dual…199
One 6 month old dual tablo works like new… keep or sell?
I would keep the 2-tuner to view “Live TV” and record with the 4-tuner.
That’s probably what I would do. Trying to avoid buying a 4 tuner. See how long it takes for vod of networks to show up with dtvnow. 24-36 hours would be fine with me. But it’s not me it’s the wife that I need to please
You might consider the 2 tuner Tablo Dual 64 that comes with 64GB of onboard storage if you don’t need a lot of storage. Also, I believe the Tablo Dual Lite comes with an offer of Cloud storage (40GB?), that was free for the time being.
I mention these because both have better tuners than the 4 tuner model, at least that’s been my experience. Because the 4 tuner model splits the signal 4 ways, so you better have a strong OTA signal.
I don’t know how much you record, but I have two Tablo Dual Lites with attached 1TB drives on each ($55 on Amazon) and I have a ton of space for recordings between the two.
Just a thought, good luck on whatever you decide.
Thanks for that info. Yes that could be an issue. I am 35 miles from towers and do sometimes have issues. But 64gb never going to cut it. During primetime season record alot
Caution:
“If you have purchased a DUAL LITE, there is unfortunately no process at this time to move recordings to it from a previous Tablo.”
I was close to buying the 2 tuner model but I knew I wouldn’t be happy with it. I’m extremely glad I spent the extra money. When you take into account shows running overtime 2 tuners just isn’t enough. Last night we had nothing on at 9pm but suddenly 3 shows at 10pm.
Buy a 4 tuner and sell the 2 tuner on eBay.
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Or, enjoy a 6 tuner experience.
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Well, if you have some issues now with the Dual, I’m betting you will have a LOT more issues with the 4 tuner. While 64GB isn’t much, you could offload excess recordings to your computer with Tablo Ripper. Then you could use something like Plex to watch those shows. At least until you wanted to pony up for another HDD. A little convoluted, but I’m pretty sure you aren’t gonna be happy with the 4 tuner’s reception.
Something else to consider. It’s not hard to do, but when you have multiple Tablos, you must disconnect from one to connect to the other to view that content. That is to say, the two contents aren’t merged. It’s not hard to do, Tablo makes it pretty easy actually, but it’s another step.
I’ve been in your position of OTA signal strength (with one channel in particular), using boosters and multiple antennas to get a decent signal. You still need a good tuner and the Dual is way better than previous models in that regard, at least for me.
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If the issue is related to signal loss because the signal is being split then an amplifier installed correctly will help that. If it’s a signal to noise ratio problem there should not be a noticeable difference between a 2 tuner and 4 tuner.
RF could of course be coming from local sources in which case better coax may help along with proper grounding, filters, shorter coax feeds, and even small changes in placement.
The antenna itself is likely it’s own issue if it’s a “digital” antenna that’s marketing garbage and often newer “digital” antennas aren’t tuned properly to receive the lower UHF or VHF bands.
Much can be done to improve signals.
Thanks that was the info I was looking for. I had read that the dual tuner was the newer model with improvements that the older 4 tuner model did not have.
If only I was aware of that 3 weeks ago…
Yeah, I suppose it’s hard for manufacturers to cover every single possible use, but you would think transferring shows from another Tablo might be something of interest.
Reminds me of when I bought a 16GB Shield TV and only found out later that Plex stores all metadata internally, no matter if you have other storage connected. Plex/nVidia blamed Google and Google blamed Plex/nVidia, i.e., the consumer gets screwed. Caused me all sorts of problems. They say they have fixed that issue now, but I could never get it to work, so I dumped the Shield.
Yeah, I’m good at finding unusual-use/edge cases. 
I think I’ve seen you mention that elsewhere. (My Disqus username starts with a “K” – perhaps I should have made a second account on there – anyway, please don’t mention it here, but feel free to send me a DM/PM.)
Recently I read that there’s an option in the server settings on the Nvidia Shield now for that. I think the idea was that you could still manually install plugins even though they’re starting to be phased out.
We enjoy the 8 tuner experience. 