YES! The lack of cable card support is the only reason I have not purchased yet. I am in an area where cable card makes complete sense. I have three teenagers and want access to DVR. I currently pay for DVR for each room in the house. The DVR rental fees alone are $35 per month. I would buy this option immediately when available especially since our favorite shows are not broadcast over the air. Basic cable into the house using a cable card and Tablo is perfect for me. I will monitor this site more often now and hope this device is made available soon!
This is VERY intriguing.
I’ve had the Tablo for one month to get acclimated and build up a “back catalog” of shows before ditching the satellite (which I JUST cancelled hours ago). One of the biggest selling points of the Tablo for me was the ability to share it among so many devices on the home network: no separate DVRs at each TV or converter boxes with monthly rental fees.
Now my cable company has given me a bundle with internet (which is all I REALLY wanted) plus a “Digital Economy” TV package for less than price of internet alone, so I couldn’t refuse. But I DO refuse to pay anything extra for DVRs, so currently have no way to record my nearly-free cable service. The HD HomeRun with cable card support would be a great way to have DVR functionality again on non-OTA channels.
HI
Any plans on doing the same with a HDhomerun Plus (HDTC-2US). I kept it when I decommissioned mythtv. So far I use it for watching live TV on the android so I can keep TabloTV tuners free, and an occasional recording via a cron job. But adding two more tuners to a 2-tuner Tablo would be nice.
I also have a pair of original hdhomeruns but they stream unencoded mpeg2 so way too much diskspace needed, by Tablo standards.
@andersonas25 - Sorry, not sure yet. Once we get the logistics nailed down we’ll be able to understand which of the Silicon Dust boxes we’d be able to play with.
OH YES!!!
Just created an account so I could add to this thread. (How did i not hear about this?) Cable card support would make me so happy I would shout my joy from someplace very high!
Seriously though, I live in an area where OTA is not possible. I have a hdhr prime in use now in conjunction with WMC to record shows that I can later watch on my roku. It requires conversion and lacks live tv. So not optimal.
If this was rolled out I would buy today. I would even help you beta test if you need it (email me, I’d jump at the chance).
From all those who live out of range of the TV towers, thank you for considering this feature!
So excited! 
Another absolutely YES! Just found out about this and registered just to add my support.
Was waiting for SiliconDust to do something similar themselves, but a modular approach with Tablo DVR + USB harddrive + SiliconDust is a great idea as the components can be used (and replaced) individially as well for various OTA and CableCard scenarios.
Needed features:
* Access to ALL cable channels, including encrypted, Copy Once etc premium channels. I understand this needs end-to-end encryption between cablecard and display device. In addition to the existing Tablo supported devices, it would be great if this would work with standards such as DTCP-IP to stream to any device which supports such standard to work, which includes PS3, Android apps etc.
* Surround sound such as 5.1 ac3 Dolby Digital for all channels that have it.
Would be nice to be able to use this without subscription or with alternate guide data sources as well. If not, hopefully the guide data (14 day) would stay below the $5/month. I will not buy something like Tivo for their outrageous monthly subscription fee.
Thanks for considering this!
This is a very interesting idea. Premium Channel capabilities and the ability to choose your own EPG service (Schedules Direct, pushing an xmltv file, …) would make me an instant customer.
Sounds great, i wish that the sling functionality can be replicated were some of the channels requires the box and card for decryption making the composite/hdmi the only viable way to get the signal
Definitely interested. I switched my Comcast to internet plus basic cable because it’s cheaper than internet only and I can get HBO-GO on Roku. They sent me a free SD box which will sit in the attic until I can get something other than Comcast for internet (Baltimore awaits you, Google Fiber).
I used to run a Windows Media Center PC with a Ceton Tuner in it but hated supporting it. Way too involved and finicky. When MS basically eliminated the concept of MC Extenders I gave it up and went back to the evil of cable/satellite DVRs. I’d definitely consider adding a Silicon Dust tuner back in to get Food Network, FX, etc. over paying $20+/mo for the forthcoming slingtv.
Want, Want, Want. The only reason I haven’t bought a Tablo is that I need ClearQAM (or CableCard) support as it’s not possible to receive broadcast due to obstructions. I have various SiliconDust units and would buy a Tablo and lifetime today if I could somehow integrate the two.
I’d love to see it happen but unless Tablo is able to somehow gain approval as a secure device, cable company DRM will render it undesirable for a large percentage of users. I wouldn’t hold your breath
PLEASE !!!
Offer this as an unofficial feature or beta test program.
WHATEVER it takes to get SOMETHING out of the labs and into our hands.
So let us know - is Tablo with cable card support something you would buy?
YES. You can have my $500 right now, even if it’s protype or beta.
I live on the wrong side of a granite mountain in San Diego so after two Rokus and Amazon and Netflix et al I still need basic cable for local TV but would LOVE to dump the ten bucks a month to rent a dvr. In fact I have been actively searching for a dvr I could purchase for months and cannot believe there is no such product currently available. DO IT !!!
I live on the wrong side of a granite mountain in San Diego so after two Rokus and Amazon and Netflix et al I still need basic cable for local TV but would LOVE to dump the ten bucks a month to rent a dvr. In fact I have been actively searching for a dvr I could purchase for months and cannot believe there is no such product currently available. DO IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EXACTLY. I’m on the wrong side of a big hill and Los Angeles and none of the 1/2 million people here can get ATSC even though we’re WELL within distance of the towers. You can actually see the towers from the top of the hill.
There is a HUGE percent of Americans that are simply not able to get all or ANY ATSC signal.
I live on the wrong side of a granite mountain in San Diego so after two Rokus and Amazon and Netflix et al I still need basic cable for local TV but would LOVE to dump the ten bucks a month to rent a dvr. In fact I have been actively searching for a dvr I could purchase for months and cannot believe there is no such product currently available. DO IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have you heard of Tivo Roamio? The base level Roamio supports either OTA or cablecard.
We hear you guys!
This hasn’t fallen off the radar, just pushed back a bit as the engineer who needs to work on this integration is the same one that is working on our O/S kernel update. When that’s done (hoping it will be soon) he’ll be able to get back to looking at how we can do this.
We hear you guys!
This hasn't fallen off the radar, just pushed back a bit as the engineer who needs to work on this integration is the same one that is working on our O/S kernel update. When that's done (hoping it will be soon) he'll be able to get back to looking at how we can do this.
VERY soon hopefully. I’m actually toying with replacing my Roku with a Tivo Roamio to get QAM tv, Netflix, Hulu, and Vudu all in one place.
I’d MUCH prefer to do it with a 4-tuner Tablo.
I came across this discussion today, and for me it’s very timely. Earlier this week my wife said she wanted us to get a DVR. A day later, we learned the reason our Cox cable bill has been going up the past few months is that our 2-year contract expired and we have to renew. So we have until the end of the month to put things in place.
So I ran the numbers, and with a cable card, a HomeRun Prime, a Tablo TV 2-tuner, and WD 1 TB drive, we break even in 17 months over getting a whole-house DVR from Cox. But I have a few comments.
1. We live about 40 miles from the nearest big city, and when I’ve looked up antenna reception in my area, it’s just not worth the effort to try OTA.
2. There are also some things on cable that, for now at least, we’re not ready to give up and cut the cord completely.
3. Frankly, I’m surprised nobody seems to be making a cable-card capable DVR with external storage.
4. I’m not sure what the technical issue is in connecting the Tablo to the HomeRun. As I understand it, the HomeRun looks like a DLNA server on the network. Silicon Dust’s FAQ says the HomeRun works with Simple.TV. It can’t be that hard to make it work with Tablo too.
5. I’m not thrilled that the current versions of Tablo only come with USB 2.0. While 3.0 may be overkill for HD, what about UHD?
6. Tablo recommends WD Elements drives. But currently the largest drive of this sort I’ve been able to find is 1 TB. Cox’s whole-house DVR has 2 TB. It would be nice to be able to daisy-chain drives attached to the Tablo, to use larger drives, or to be confident that non-WD Elements drives of larger size would work OK. It would also be nice to be able to use network storage, for example a NAS drive.
7. I use Plex, and the Plex Tablo app is a big attraction. Plex runs on my NAS drive. It would be nice if someday the Tablo app also could DVR to the NAS drive.
8. Since we’ve never even had a DVR and this technology is new, it would be really nice to be able to bundle the HomeRun & Tablo and to try them out together for say a month. Ditto for the annual vs the lifetime subscription. If this combination works the way I hope it will, then I’m all in. But first I want to get my toe wet.
9. The big question. I have to make some decisions by the end of February. What do people suggest I do?
10. Oh, and assuming all this will work, where do I sign up to beta test?