Why don’t you go to the www.tablotv.com site and search for “manual recording”?
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Others can answer your question better but this link helped me make the decision to buy the guide. There is a table that compares paid and free versions of the guide.
https://www.tablotv.com/tv-guide-data-subscriptions/
With a new Tablo, you receive the paid version of the guide for 30 days. After it expires, you can use the free guide until you decide whither the paid guide is worth the price. This lets you try it both ways and gives you time to make the decision because you can start the paid giude at any time. The paid guide makes it a lot easier, especially if you have an Ipad or Android Tablet. The tablet apps are more robust and make scheduling and maintaining your hard drive easier, regardless of whither you will be using the paid or free grid and guide.
I bought 1 year of the guide because I think in 3 years, things will change a lot and I not certain what my choices will be at that time. The first of Feb 2018, I will have recovered my cord cutting costs and I hope that I will have 2 more years before I have to make any decisions about new options.
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I bought 1 year in 2014 cause I wasn’t sure as the product was very new (I bought before the 4 tuner came out). Then I took the plunge and bought the lifetime subscription in 2015. So I’ve had the Tablo for 3.5 years now, I recommend you just pay for the lifetime subscription, you’ll save money after 3 years.
These are features like Tablo Connect (aka remote viewing) that are useful that are not available without a subscription.
I mean if you really want to save money, the Tablo without a subscription is like a VCR. All the features of a VCR will be available to you, but not much more.
I thought the question was “what “a limited manual recording mode” means”. Not the wonders of having a subscription.
https://www.tablotv.com/blog/can-i-use-tablo-without-subscription/
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Good link
Modern isn’t always better though.
Too bad they won’t have both ways.
Count me in on this.
I was fortunate to get a year of service for free,but plan on getting the lifetime service before my year expires. I love the way they have the menu set up and the idea of searching thru a week or so of grid style guide to find shows to record manually seems tedious. Find the shows you like, set them up to record new episodes or whatever you want, and blam, you’ve got them. And it’s easier to find new shows to check out, so what’s not to like? Everyone’s different though, I suppose.
Thanks for all your insight. I looks like we will bite the bullet and buy a year subscription. I was quite upset today to find that Tablo is now selling, the same unit I paid $300 for last week, for $99. I it is reconditioned but give me a break.
Get a refund and buy the refurb
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General consensus… “Since I don’t personally care if the grid scrolls past 24 hours, you shouldn’t care either. Having more flexibility would be dumb because I wouldn’t use it.”
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The 30 day trial is for the guide, not the hardware. You can’t “try” it unless you already own a Tablo, and the program guide is obviously a consideration for people deciding whether to buy one. Like the OP stated, the product is advertised as providing 24 hours of free “TV Guide” plus the option to subscribe to an extended 14 day paid “TV Guide” service.
Most people would assume that getting 24 hours free versus 14 days paid means you’d get the same functionality for a 14 day period that is always free for a 24 hour period… not 13 days of additional program information available only in non-chronological Netflix-style image grids.
The live TV listing is painfully slow on my Roku so I don’t use it, but I completely agree that the guide subscription implies something different than what you actually get and that difference is not specified anywhere in the product descriptions.
Welcome to Burger King. Oh, no, I’m sorry… you can only order 2 hamburgers at a time. It’s quicker than making additional hamburgers for you. What’s that? You don’t mind waiting a little while for us to make more now? Sorry, we don’t operate like that. But you can come back tomorrow and order 2 more!
Where did you buy your Tablo? Back alley 5 finger discount?
All authorized sellers of the Tablo have a 30 day return policy on the HARDWARE, the physical Tablo device itself. If you don’t like the Tablo or the guide, you can return the Tablo and you will have lost $0 (full return on the Tablo hardware and the free 30-day guide).
If your going to return it you might hurry. It appears the original dual model has been discontinued. And the quad is heavily discounted. Probably in preparation for a new quad.
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I’m not sure where I said I want to return my Tablo.
The forest being missed for the trees here is that certain functionality is advertised in a misleading manner, and the typical interpretation of that function (a 14 day chronological guide) was purposely restricted to 1 day (according to the official response) for a reason that wouldn’t affect anyone who chooses not to utilize that functionality and therefore has no bearing on the user experience of those customers - i.e. the responsiveness of the chronological guide.
I really don’t think it was advertised in a misleading manner on purpose. I know that doesn’t help and I agree with your point but I really don’t think it was intentional…
Tablo is VERY responsive when it comes to new feature requests, they send out surveys on a regular basis and implement based on the most requested enhancements.
I suggest on the next survey, include this one as your top request and if enough others agree, then it will be changed. As indicated it may be an enhancement that requires a user to opt in or out of since it might slow things down for those who don’t need it, but if enough are ok with that, then it would happen.
Personally I was surprised but never really disappointed as the thumbnail view better fit what I had come to expect as a cord cutter. As such it would never rank high enough for me to put it on the survey. If enough people want it though and it outranks my asks, then I’m good with that.
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At the risk of beating this “dead horse”. I wish I had an option to have a a real grid for the 14 days guide option. The reason is simple. I would easily see programs which I wish to record that might conflict with others and I could make my choice while seeing the impact on the rest of the programming on the grid. I do like the “Netflix style” guide and really do use it but it does not show that you are putting yourself in a conflict because you are just clicking pictures.
While speaking of the grid, I would like the entire program segment in the grid “colored” when it is scheduled for recording rather than just a tiny flag in the upper right corner. My recording plan would show up easier to see and I could see all the scheduled activity.
While on the grid and showing the whole program being recorded it would be super if I could “grab” an end of the recording segment and stretch it to the right or left to change the start time or end time of that program. I would get the start of many programs that start minutes before the top-of-the-hour. NCIS being one in my area that starts early.
OK, maybe this is not the place for these comments/requests but someone with better knowledge than me can copy and paste them where they might belong.
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+1 to this
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You say it better than I did when I asked for 14-day grid.
I was told this was on the cards. 
Sorry, I can’t find the @TabloTV response for that.
We’ve got a lot of things in the works including swapping the ‘flags’ with underlines which should make it easier to spot conflicts.