Demoing a New Lab Project at CEDIA – Tablo With Cable Card Support

Announcements
41

@splat_matt - It’s still in early stages and we haven’t decided whether to proceed or not yet. We can obtain EPG data for cable stations from our guide data provider but this requires an additional license and we’d need to decide how to proceed on the hardware side as well. 


Stay tuned… We’ll let everyone know what the plan is as soon as we have it sorted out ourselves :) 
42

I’m very interested. I have hdhomerun prime today and would live this combination. Let me know as soon as I can get it.

43

Absolutely, this is useful!!!  Here’s why I like it:

  1. One of the reasons I cut cable is that in addition to the high cost of the channel content I have to pay for the cable boxes at each TV.  Adding HDHomeRun PRIME as an available tuner would eliminate this cost.
  2. Adding ANY network tuners would make Tablo more versatile and a better investment.
  3. I removed my HDHomeRun (which I loved) in favor of the Tablo.  If I could put it back on the network and use it’s tuners, that would give me a total of 6 tuners!
44

One caveat though:  I would want Tablo to access the network tuner in ADDITION to the on-board tuners.  That way I could get satellite/cable for a small set of premium channels to add to my list of HD OTA channels.

45

Don’t you get in a DRM quagmire here? TiVo, for instance, applies DRM to all the recorded stuff. Will you have to do the same if you start pulling off a CableCard and storing on your own HDD?

46

@cedarrapidsboy


I already asked and this was the response:


We haven’t gotten far enough along the road to know exactly what would occur with access-controlled content. That’s in the next-step ‘to-do’ list as well. 
47

This is pretty much the deciding factor for me getting the Tablo. I’ve already got a (very clunky) system using random laptops around the house, but I’d certainly make the switch if there was hdhomerun support.

48

I would like this.  I have an HD homerun prime and it never really worked well, mostly because of problems with Windows.  If this were a standalone device, it would be great.  Right now I have several TIVOs (mostly Roamio models) but those aren’t that great either.  

49

I currently run (until my Tablo 4 tuner arrives) with 3 dual tuner HDHomeRun units (not Prime) with EyeTV software on an iMac, transcoded and imported to iTunes, streamed via AppleTV.  While I’ve cut the cord, I am not adverse to taking advantage of low cost cable offers which get me ESPN or HBO/HBO Go, mainly streaming.  i will never again have cable STBs in my house, but a low-cost CableCard is not out of the question.


Unfortunately, HDHomeRun Prime currently works only with Windows software (and not very well.)  There are no longer any more Windows machines in my house so that solution is not an option for me.

Would love to have Tablo + CableCard solution to allow me to stream and record the few cable channels my kids like.  While they are very good at finding their shows on Netflix or Hulu Plus, there have been a few complaints about not getting some of the latest and greatest shows live.

Double bonus if adding a second CableCard enabled Tablo is covered under the current lifetime subscription.
50

Does that HD HomeRun thing work in Calgary?  So I can just plug one of those into the Tablo antenna and I can get cable on the tabolo?

51

Would be very nice to have a four tuner tablo with CableCard to get basic cable with HBO/CineMax without the costs of cable boxes, DVR fees, cable remote fees etc.,etc!

52

This would be a great option. I can see where in my case where I would switch back and forth depending on the deal I get from cable. If it included liveTV from Roku that would be a plus. 

53

@HowHardCanItBe - This is not something that we support at this time. 

54

I got to this page Googleing “tablo cable card”.  I live in one of those places where there are a few stations that just won’t come through, so we still have to have the $9 cable package to get those channels.


Anyway, if you guys do this, I’ll be buying a Tablo in a heart beat.  It’s been the only thing holding me back!
55

I love the idea of having a single cable card in the house and being able to have a number of “low” cost boxes at each TV - particularly appealing for kids and guest rooms where I don’t want to pay $15 a month for an all singing/dancing HD cable box

56

Would definitely be interested in this as a Tivo replacement.  Does this allow remote streaming, with Chomecast maybe?

57

The Cable Card is actually really cool technology...my Pioneer Elite TV uses it right now.  The card was a one time purchase from the cable company ($16) and allows me to tune all the channels (including HD) without the usage (or rental fee) of a cable box!

 

I would love the idea of the Tablo TV to incorporate a Cable Card...best if the Tablo hardware could have it directly so I have one less device to plug in, connect, and manage.  Right now I'm at the very basic cable package (the $15/mo one) that only gets me the network broadcasts (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS, CW, and ION), and with my Cable Card I can get the HD signal. 

 

I like the concept a lot...

58

It would be unlikely in the forseeable future for Tablo to release new (model) hardware with a cable tuners and a cable card slot when a network tuner like the one used for the demo from SD can be configured and work well with existing hardware.   I’m not opposed to a new model with cable tuners, cable card slot, HDMI output, etc I just don’t think it will happen

59

I would definitely be interested in purchasing a solution with cable tv support, and I’m ok with having it as a separate box.  My biggest reservation would be the limited number of tuners in the HDHomerun.  The Ceton InfiniTV 6 is similar to it but has 6 tuners, so it would be great to have the option to use different network tuners.  Would the network tuners be in addition to the built-in Tablo tuners?

60

@dhenning - We’d likely be reliant on the network tuners but it would really depend on the configuration. We’re still pondering this and chatting w/ Silicon Dust about this concept.