Tablo like other OTA tuners advertise the Cut The Cord and receive Over The Air broadcasts free. First, it is not free, you have to pay the subscription fee to have a usable guide and DVR recording.
Next, DON’T cut that cord, you have to have an internet connection for a Tablo to work. See, the Tablo design is flawed because how it works. It sends your OTA program up to their cloud, then back down prior to viewing, God only knows why. But I suspect for data mining, I see no other reason. If, like I have had, poor internet service, my Tablo is DOA, You can’t watch a thing. I also have another DVR unit that does OTA, Free two weeks guide and still works when internet is lost, as it only uses the Internet to maintain the EPG. My opinion from owning a Tablo for a few months, consider this issue first. I would not have bought it if I knew the design flaw.
GaryZ does make a point in that people need to research solutions offered to see if the require Internet. And yes, EPG provided via an Internet provider requires the Internet.
For most people, “cut the cord” is an old reference to “cable TV”. The cutting of the cable TV cord.
Things like the Internet and even antenna usually require some sort of “cord” somewhere. And of course, electricity… (requires power, which also isn’t free).
Yes, on two of my other devices. My Fire Recast, and the other my MediaPortal. MediaPortal downloads FREE 2 week EPG nightly and the recast automatically maintains a free EPG.
Yes but where does MP get the data? Scrapping from zap2it or tvpassport or other sites to XMLTV is typically in violation of the web sites TOS and scrapping itself is not dependable or as easy as a subscription.
Isn’t the Recast is discontinued? If so like WMC you may need to find an alternate EPG source in the future.
Note using NextPVR you can use your TabloTV as a tuner but yes you need a guide source of some kind. These are all network solution, but you don’t need the cable cord.
MediaPortal is a free public domain software using in a Windows computer. The EPG is free to download and supported by MediaPortal and other software such as Windows Media Center from Zap2It Free, or can be downloaded from SchedulesDirect for $25/year to use with WMC.
Recast has been discontinues, but still supported and can be purchased from Ebay for under $100 2 tuner, or under $150 4 tuner as I have. I still use mine trouble free.
I’m still trying yo figure out why you think tablo sends your OTA program up to the cloud.
Of course tablo does tell you what you get with and without the guide subscription. So it’s not like customers aren’t informed. Some don’t buy a subscription and schedule manual recordings. Or maybe they buy a HDMI model and try to avoid the internet. Customers can pick a DVR product that satisfies their needs.
Others prefer to keep using dead products like recast, WMC, DVR+, and simpleTV
The TMS data costs TabloTV and Schedules Direct which why it is not free. For zap2it data read Zap2it Feedback since it is pretty clear.
* You may not page scrape, aggregate, download or collect Materials from this Site to construct any kind of on-line or computer database, XML feed, or API.
* You may not page scrape the Station TV Listings data to construct any kind of on-line or computer database, XML feed, or API.
Comparing scrapers with subscription services is like comparing IPTV to broadcast. Some people don’t care and that is their choice but it is not apples and oranges.
I got my 2 tuner TabloTV from eBay for less than the price of the a Recast, and TabloTV regularly sells refurbs. I find it works great with NextPVR and Schedules Direct data plus it is free from Amazon infracture.
I mostly agree with you and have made similar post… except I was able to find all this information prior to purchasing a tablo in 2018. Yes, all this information has been available for years.
It’s not truly a design flaw, it’s by-design. I think it’s a bit flubbed up, but knew what I was getting into and took a chance. Had the option been available, I may have opted for an HDMI model. It’s advertised and less reliant on internet access, but it is still necessary. I believe even if you don’t have a guide subscription, there’s still all the other reasons…
It is not scrapping. I have an account on Zap2it, Setup the channels I want, then use my login and password ti download the data.
Bottom line, I am not here to debate this topic. I just posted my findings as an expert that has tested various OTA sources. FULL STOP
It appears their selling point was the Commercial skip, which requires the process I explained. Which may have been a good thought and programming to do this. But, now they decided not to give users the commercial skip feature, then it is a flaw in their thinking and system design. Why should I uplink my OTA to them, just to send it back for no reason. This is a big error in their thinking.
Furthermore, I might mention, that they don’t even let you store the EPG in the memory, or HDD, so if you don’t have a good internet connection, may take minutes to fill the EPG up.
Bottom line, I am not here to debate this topic. I just posted my findings as an expert that has tested various OTA sources and recommended to think about your choices before you buy. FULL STOP
Some expert. You don’t even know what you’re talking about. Video is NOT sent to their cloud servers for commercial skip. Only thumbnails. And if you don’t have commercial skip, it doesn’t even send the thumbnails.
Last Comment: It was not a design flaw, if they maintained the commercial slip feature, but when they turned that off, it became it since the only possibly reason to upload your OTA program, then download it back is for data mining as it server no other purpose. Thus, it is a flaw now.
Cloud computing is still a magical black art to some. And uploading the start frame of a GOP and the HLS manifest file and only downloading the updated HLS manifest file is data mining. And since every program and episode has unique identifiers wouldn’t it be easier to data mine by just scrapping those ID’s…
Last post on this. Data mining is gathering information that can be used for other reasons. Tablo knows who you are, where you are, and what you watch. This can be used for marketing purposes. If they do or not, that was not the purpose of review of Tablo. My opinion, I can no longer support nor recommend tablo’s because of their flaws. I will not renew my subscription nor use the Tablo because of the issues it has when used with poor internet connections. BTW, I cannot get Tablo support to work with me on the issues I have had, so I rate their customer support poor.
Bottom line, I am not here to debate this topic. I just posted my findings as an expert that has tested various OTA sources. FULL STOP