Does Tablo stream local content over the internet when only watching over your local network?
Do you need to streaming your media from your Tablo box through your network to the device to watch locally or do you have to stream your equipment from the tablo, to the internet, then internet back down to your chromecast on your local network?
I only ask, if I were to pull the plug for example on my internet… could I still stream my content from the tablo to connected devices in my network?
When the Tablo and the device you’re using to watch are connected to the same network, there’s no need for an internet connection.
The Tablo needs internet to download the guide data, as well firmware updates, etc. This is a very small amount of data, in the MB amounts, not GB.
I would say it is not designed to work without a live internet connection. Can it be done? Yes likely, but you will have a better experience with internet.
Streaming locally does not use your internet’s bandwidth / data usage / download limit.
We go through this song and dance answer every 6 months. Even without the tablo app some media players require the WAN. Some ISP DHCP servers also require the WAN.
If you search the forum you might find these answers:
If it is a Roku, then yes you can. For FireTV to work, you would have
to disable automatically logging into the internet at starT
and
In another thread I just located Tablo Support said:
"The phone and tablet apps have since been updated to work on the LAN without Internet connectivity. The only Tablo app that requires an Internet connection is now http://my.tablotv.com/
and
You’ll be able to watch Tablo recordings, and Live TV without internet.
However, without internet, my Rokus don’t display guide data, like what show is on, for Live TV.
I can still select the channel to watch Live TV, but won’t know what’s on until it tunes in that channel.
You’d think they’d cache the guide data, but yeah, no.
Join the club.
I’ve been saying this for many months now, but (whisper on) No one believes me. (whisper off)
I enjoyed this discussion as I was just asking myself this question since our cable provider (COX) just established caps for our internet downloads effective on the 7th of July. It was nice to know that the only reason for the internet connection to the TABLO is to provide the guide data and product updates. Great that none of the shows we watch from our OTA will upload and download from the internet connection and use any of our monthly allocation of data. However, I am still a little confused as for the considerable delays we encounter when starting to look at a channel or changing channels. Is this delay being caused by the TABLO?? Thanks much.
The delay is caused by the Tablo converting the TV signal stream from MPEG-2 video to H.264 that player devices can use.
The initial tuning delay on a hardwired Roku is now around 10 seconds.
Here’s my example…
Hardwired Tablo Quad on same network switch as a Roku 4.
Tablo hasn’t been used for a while, so its hard drive is sleeping.
Tuning to the 1st channel takes 15 seconds.
The extra 5 seconds is due to the hard drive waking up time.
Tuning to the 2nd thru 4th channels takes 10 seconds each.
Tuning back to one of the other 3 already tuned channels takes 1 second.
Tuning to any channel not already tuned takes 10 seconds.
They have to fix that delay.
HDHomerun and everything else I tried are way faster.
They all have their positives and negatives.
WMC was pretty good. NextPvr but could be prettier.
HDHomerun has a clunky interface.
There just isn’t anything to fix. Other DVRs don’t transcode on the fly like the Tablo, so you gain superior compatibility at the expense of speed.
Well I can watch on all my devices with homerun at home.
I guess if you need to watch away from home, but I don’t have to.
That delay is required for flexibility to utilize a myriad of player devices.
You want to view content on your Roku, Fire TV, PC, Mac, Chromecast, …, across a network, where your antenna is nowhere near your playing devices, nor your TVs?
You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.
Unless you’re Marie Antoinette, but then, the peasants, those pesky peasants.
If I can’t eat the cake why have it? 
I never did understand that saying.
Still think there’s a way to improve the delay.
If the lady at the checkout gets inpatient with me asking “Do I push the green, red or yellow key for credit?” then she’s not going to wait fifteen seconds to change channels.
I agree.
A more powerful, more expensive transcoder would do it.
It’s always a trade off.
I have time, but not money, so…
What about an option to turn trans coding on/off?
Without transcoding the TV signal from MPEG-2 to H.264, your player devices wouldn’t be able to play the content.
I’m gkad to see that tablo will play back recordings without a live internet connection. Better yet, it appears (reading between the lines) that the tablo network footprint is small compared to tivo, the latter I believe constantly phones home to tivo edge servers. No matter how they disguise the facts with disruptive pricing this is a bad design for cord cutters to depend so heavily upon a network infrastructure and to replace one cord with another. It appears I am more allergic to the tivo technical and business approach than to the rough edges around tablo. Lol