I totally agree with you. We do have Netflix (free from son) and Amazon Prime, but seldom use either any more. Just really enjoy watching ota programs in 40mins/hr without commercials. Live ON TABLO.
While Iâm not ready for this yet, I have a friend who is REALLY cutting the cordâincluding the cable internet. He is single and has an antenna for OTA, and an unlimited cell plan. Tired of paying the $79/month for Comcast internet, he is going to rely entirely on his antenna and phone. This wouldnât work in my household because of numerous OTT devices (Roku, FireTV, Alexa, etc.) but it does bring up the question: Will my Tablo Dual work WITHOUT and internet connection? I know itâs necessary for the guide, but if I use it for recording with timer settings, and stream just to local devices in my house (LG Smart TV, Roku, etc.) can I do this without connecting to the internet and be a true âcord cutterâ???
Iâm not sure, maybe someone else can answer this.
But with no internet connection a Channel Master DVR+ is probably a better option. It is a one TV dedicated DVR with 2 tuners and will use the guide info provided with the OTA signals. This provides 24-48 hours of guide info.
An even cheaper option is a Mediasonic Homeworx PVR. It only has one tuner & is very unsophisticated, but it only costs about $30.
The closest I can get to answering this is sort-of and maybe.
You obviously wonât get guide data, which means ârecord all new episodes of âŚâ wonât work. You will have to manually schedule all recordings (but you can manually schedule repeating recordings based on time & day of week.
Even without a subscription, the Tablo still downloads some guide information (but no pictures) for use in the live TV listings. I didnât actually test disconnection long enough for what was cached on my Tablo (old 2-tuner) to expire.
The Tablo device runs some maintenance in the middle of the night which includes some sort of phone home activity (I havenât analyzed what itâs actually doing). I suspect this includes update checks and possibly health reporting. Iâm not sure what long-term failure to complete these nightly tasks will result in.
You wonât be able to use the Web interface to manage your Tablo. Iâm not sure if you can set-up a new Tablo without this but I am able to manage my existing one without using the web interface.
If you are not Internet connected, I would encourage you to get the Windows Tablo client for your laptop/desktop. It has some features I donât see on the iPad or Roku interfaces which make it easier to fine-tune scheduling and delete old/failed recordings manually.
Tablo is not designed to work without a fairly consistent connection to the external internet.
First of all, Tablo gets its time from the internet. If the time isnât set correctly a host of problems can occur and itâs not likely that any recordings will occur.
If you donât connect daily to download guide data, youâll have no guide data without a subscription, and with a subscription youâll begin to run out of guide data slowly until thereâs none left, and you also wonât get any updates/changes if there are some in your schedule.
During this we check to see if you have an active subscription and then allow your Tablo to download the next day of guide data as well as any scheduling changes. We also do database maintenance which helps keep your Tablo healthy. Without doing this regularly your Tablo can become bogged down leading to a poor experience.
UPDATE - This question has become a blog post: https://www.tablotv.com/blog/tablo-faqs-do-i-need-internet-use-tablo-ota-dvr/
This is great information. So, as I understand it Tablo Dual mostly requires an internet connection, but not for streaming. Higher data usage and speed will be through a local router. More people are thinking about TRUE cordcutting (cable, satellite and internet) and rely on their mobile devices for internet. It will therefore be possible to use the Tablo by connecting to my Smart TV through a mobile hotspot and have full functionality without excessive data usage. I will try this next season in my RV.
Wow, the way I interpret that is that if you donât connect your Tablo to the Internet , then eventually itâll stop working.
Unfortunately it sounds like we werenât clear enough. What youâre suggesting is not an intended use case for Tablo and not something we can recommend.
Not sure how well if at all this will work. But I do use my phone as a mobile hotspot to access my Tablo while on the road in my RV. The data usage is a bit heavy for a phone mobile hotspot though, so itâs not something you want to do a lot of.
For Roku all you need is a router that serves as a DHCP server to assign IP addresses.
Some routers wonât configure without an internet up link - or what the router thinks is an up link. Some routers needing this requirement, defeat the requirement by plugging the up link port into a local port.
Of course the NTP/SNTP issue could be resolved if users new exactly how often time is set and under what conditions(power on, reboot, etc.). They could then cause the time to be set by using a temporary hot spot.
Iâve actually been able to play recordings on a Roku and tablo unit connected to the same switch without a router when the connection to the router was down. Of course IP addresses had already been assigned. You get the popup message internet down/ proceed. For tablo you just select proceed.
Of course Roku doesnât support the manual recording feature.
Iâve used Tablo with my phone and tablet with the hotspot in the RV, but the Tablo was at my homeâand, yes it used up a ton of data. I have a simple PVR that I was planning to use, but since I have a LAN in the RV powered by either my hotspot or campground internet (usually bad), I figured why not just bring the Tablo along. It would still be connected to a LAN and to the internet, but rather than streaming with a remote connection, I would just stream locally to the TVâs in the RV. That may not be Tabloâs intended application, but I donât see why it is functionally different from having it at my homeâexcept that I would be re-scanning the channel lineup in different service areas and operating in different time zones (which might mess up my programming.) Weâll see because it couldnât hurt to try it.
That should work. You will simply need to reset your location and re-scan & edit channels, thus you will need to use an app that has full access to settings.
I use a Mediasonic Homeworx PVR in my RV. I find it to be adequate for that environment since the wife & I donât tend to watch as much TV when traveling.