Can the Tablo Tuner work in Bypass mode? Or simply be bypassed?
I bought it to get the antenna signal to our basement as well as distribute it to various sets in the house. But I want to use the tuners on the TV, so it would be nice if Tablo could bypass it’s tuner mode and just sent all the channels to the TV. That was the reason I got the one with four boxes, I thought the boxes would allow all channels to just pass through their system?
I’d hate to have to send this back but is there a way to bypass the tuner and sent all the channels so I can use the tuner on the TV? I guess I can just get another antenna with a amp but I wanted to save the chore of running cable to each set.
I also don’t need their guide data since I think it comes in OTA? Doesn’t it?
TV tuners work via RF signals from the antenna input - coax connector. Inputting an RF antenna is the only way TV tuners can… tune an OTA channel.
Whatever you perceive “bypass mode” to be? Just passing the antenna over a network?
You can use one antenna for multiple TV & tablo devices throughout your house. 3 TV now just 1 tablo over 50’ cable run - it’s a mistake to believe long cable runs degrade a good signal.
Tablo doesn’t work like that.
Download the Tablo app to each TV (or connected streaming device like a Roku or Fire stick) and watch through the app.
There’s nothing wrong with running coax to each TV, but with the Tablo you avoid that extra work (assuming your WiFi is good), get a whole house DVR, and a useful guide (the one delivered OTA is typically only for 24 hrs and often lacks details).
That said, it is still a good idea to use a splitter on the antenna coax to run it directly to a least 1 TV as a backup (or have another antenna at a TV). The Tablo Gen4 still doesn’t work well if you lose Internet. Also handy if you’re recording multiple programs and want to watch another (yes, I’m a 2-tuner owner so it happens occasionally).
Not sure what you mean? This is the principal function of Tablo, to receive OTA TV signal, decode them, and deliver them over a LAN to various devices (TV monitors, tablets, smart phones). With Tablo you don’t need an over the air tuner in your TV but if you like you can still run a signal to it and watch TV that way and just use Tablo as a DVR. Tablo brings a nice guide experience to live TV that we welcomed which you might not get with your TV monitor however.
Hello @Soapm, if you want to bypass the Tablo, then just install a 4-8 port amp/splitter like this one. Pass one line to each television and one to the Tablo. Then you have a bypass and can still use the Tablo whenever you’d like. This model has +4db outputs meaning it slightly boosts your signal.
I’m sorry, but there’s no other way to use the TV tuner without running coax to it.
That’s what I was afraid of, I bought 2 of the wrong thing thinking it would save me the chore and tension with the wife by running cable to each TV. I thought this would/could send the entire signal from the antenna to each TV. I didn’t realize that wasn’t a bypass mode on it’s tuner.
What about the TV’s that use the app, do they get the full signal or does the app tell the main box which channel to send?
This was a novel idea, I was going to install them at our church as well which is why I bought two sets instead of one. I’m just not looking for the DVR and all that, just a way to get the antenna signal to all the various TV’s.
When using Tablo, the TV’s get their ‘signal’ over the network - either wifi or Ethernet - directly to a TV Tablo app or to a streaming device Tablo app. They do not receive the broadcast signal from the antenna directly. They DO save you the chore of running coax to every TV because they become network-connected.
You could also install one antenna on each TV - this may also be an option.
Otherwise, as others have said in this thread, the Tablo is a great whole-home network DVR device but does take the place of your TV tuner(s). Why do you prefer to use your TV tuner(s)?
I see now, I mistook what this was. I thought it did just that and passed the antenna signal over my network, and the box at the other end and converted it back to amplified, coax, antenna. I don’t know how much that would cost to develop but they might consider it for people who just want one antenna without the sightly cables in their house/office space/building? I have no interest in the DVR part, especially not at hour church.
Our cable provider (XFinity) just cut off QAM so the cable cards no longer work, I was just trying to get the TV’s some channels but the cables are in place though I’d like to remove them. I just bought the wrong thing.
Funny thing is at the house we have a node right by the front window which faces west toward the TV towers. At the church, the window in the audio/video room faces that same direction. It was the perfect thought.
Before I send my two tablo’s back, I want to see if the LG TV’s at the church have the app. How many TV’s can run from a single tuner box? Does it matter which box you buy (the 2 tuner box vs the 4 tuner box)?
@Soapm - going by the article @Nilex provided, you can do two tuner functions simultaneously with the 2-tuner model, and four function with the 4-tuner model. You can install the app on all the TV’s or streaming devices at the same time, but you can only watch 2 or 4 simultaneously.
Also keep in mind that all the streaming devices and/or TVs have to be on the same network - a combination of wifi and Ethernet can be used.
It’s best to connect everything via Ethernet but, short of that, the Tablo itself should be connected via Ethernet and the TVs and streaming devices can be wifi. It would be good to use Wifi6 or better (Wifi6e or 7) if possible.
NOTE: there may be a caveat that if all TVs are streaming the same channel that only 1 tuner is used, making the number of TVs that can watch the same channel limited only by your network. You’d want to confirm on this.
Cool, so it may still work at the church. I am the pastor and my secretary and I are the only ones there during the week. The most we do is a superbowl party, so all the sets will be on the same channel.
Glad to be able to help. Here’s another article for consideration - I believe you have the round, white Gen4 device. If so, you’ll want the dark blue app as shown in this article.
I just ran a test. I had 5 TVs (each with a Roku device plugged in), two iPhones, and an iPad (8 devices at once) all simultaneously watching the same live channel on a single Tablo box (quad tuner). All seemed to work fine without stalling or tiling. Interestingly they were all slightly delayed from each other, as much as 1-2 seconds. I thought they would tie into a common multi-cast stream but perhaps not.
Anyway I ran out of devices to see where Tablo runs out of gas feeding discrete devices. Three of the devices were on ethernet, the rest were on WiFi.
If you are no longer getting cable, why not use the coax for the OTA?
The coax is already installed and hooked to each TV, right?
If so, just hook your antenna to the coax where it enters the building.
If you have several splitters you might need an amplifier, but other than that, it should be doable.
Just be aware that people split coax sometimes like nobody’s business. I’ve seen some with like tons of splitters. Some might also have filtering, which, depending, could be bad as well. You’ll just have to see.
This is an important point. The new 4 channel Tablo Gen 4 already has a built in 1:4 splitter and LTE filter on the front end which is knocking the signal down -7dB by the time it gets to one of the four tuners. The built in amp can offset most of that insertion loss but adds noise to the signal. Now if you have a bunch of splitters before Tablo you just knock it down -3.5dB with each 1:2 split cascade.
I would recommend, at the top of your splitter tree, using a 1:2 splitter and feed one leg to Tablo. Then, on the other leg, split to your hearts content to feed in home coax runs to TVs. I would recommend only feeding runs with a TV on the other end. Don’t feed signal lines with nothing on the other end. In other words use the least amount of splits needed to feed real TV sets, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, … Never put in a large splitter, say 1:8 or 1:16, to only use one or two outputs.
I made the move to put Rokus on all my TVs and my exterior antenna only feeds Tablo, no splits. Three of the five TVs have ethernet to Roku, the other two are WiFi.