Wanted to start a thread on first impressions. If you’ve received your Tablo, want to hear what you think about it. I’m currently configuring mine. Configuration is fast. OTA scanning is fast. Now formatting my drive so that I can record shows.
So far, so good! It took me a few minutes to find the LiveTV guide that I was used to seeing…you know, the “cable/satellite” guide view like DirecTV or Dish.
The streaming to my tablet is great. I had to login to my Roku account in order to add the channel - I couldn’t find it by going straight to the Roku itself.
Roku streaming seems to be working well. I had a SimpleTV for a about 2 hours before I sent it back because of the poor quality streaming to a Roku. It sure looks like Tablo has it beat!
All that’s left for me is to get all of my normal shows recorded, train the kids on how to use it, and call Dish and tell them goodbye. Funny thing…just got my next month’s Dish bill today. Ha!
So far so good!
- Downloaded the app to my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (Android). Hopefully they can fix the search to be via “TabloTV” vs. “Nuvyyo” - but thanks for posting the note to Facebook.
- Setup was great. I really liked the signal strength meter! A few channels had lower signal strength. I moved my antenna and was able to get all green circles. Thanks for providing feedback!!
- Watching live TV on the Galaxy Note gets 4 out of 5 stars. Content looks great, excellent quality audio and video. A slight lag in the app from when something is clicked. Lag isn’t annoying and tolerable.
- Channel for Roku3 was easy to install from the TabloTV website. Hopefully it will become an official channel soon to make searching for it easier. I assume Roku charges $ for this? I’ve been watching TV via Roku3 for an hour and the quality is perfect HD. I’m impressed!
- I’ve gone through the channel guide to setup some shows to record. We’ll see how those go in a few days.
The only suggestion would be getting the channel guide to look more into the future. It’s Friday and I couldn’t locate shows that come onto the air next Wednesday to set to record. I don’t know how far into the future the guide looks? Or maybe I need more time for more of the guide to download.
As @MichaelB said above - Tablo is performing MUCH better than SimpleTV. I also had SimpleTV and it never worked right (and was VERY loud). Tablo = HD quality, easy setup, and no sound at all from the unit.
OK…it’s only been about 2 hours with the device, but so far so good!
- EDIT: Adding that I’m using my TabloTV in Washington, DC with a TERQ antenna (no additional power amp). All over the air TV shows come up great.
First impressions: I’m very impressed
Appearance
The form factor is smaller than I expected. It’s solid. All good here.
Setup
I’m using a wired connection, and a computer, Samsung Smart TV, and Samsung smartphones. I tried using Firefox, but firefox will not connect from the PC. The Tablo recognized my harddrive right away (Toshiba Canvio 1.5TB). It showed me the channel listings, I chose which ones I wanted to add, it downloaded the latest firmware.
And again… the Tablo asked me to format my hard drive, and again I hit format (I’m guessing the firmware update interrupted the format process, no biggie, but would’ve been nice to know). Until the drive is formatted, you can’t use the Tablo. The format probably took about 20 mins.
Tablo Connect, for out of network streaming, needs to be manually enabled via settings.
Tuners
The tuners are sensitive. The two channels which my TV struggles with (poor reception), work very well on the Tablo.
Computer Use
I could only add some TV shows, I’m guessing the channel guide data didn’t fully come in yet…
Other than that, with Chrome, there are no issues.
Samsung Smart TV Usage
I can get onto the my.tablotv.com website, it detects the Tablo, but it hangs when I try to connect to it (says “Connecting” with the spinning circle)… o well, that would’ve been nice.
Smartphone Usage
Worked both in-network and after it was paired.
Though I get a message “You are running a version of Android that supports playing Tablo video in the Android video player. Launch the video player using the button below.” That’s great, but when I launch the video in the designated viewer, I don’t have pause/rewind/etc. functionality.
Roku Usage
Roku works fine. The rewind/fast forward displays on screen as expected. Streams well, etc.
Noteable
I like the guide, it showing you exactly what time it is and how far along you are
I like that I can click on a show and it’ll not only show me the next episode on the “primary” channel, but it’ll search for the show and any episodes available on ANY channel. Impressive.
My only Issue
I paused live TV, through the computer, and there is no “live” or fast forward button. If I use the keyboard, then yes, I can skip forward or back, but it’s not intuitive, and I don’t see how far back I went in the episode on the screen (i.e. with my current cable DVR, if I hit pause, it’ll show me that I’m at 5:43 of the 30:00 episode). On the Roku it works fine, similar to my cable DVR.
So far it’s been good and bad for me. Setup went pretty easy, scanned channels came up fast and the guide info loaded relatively quickly. The quality on the ipad looks real good for a wireless connection and it also looked good on the 61" TV thru air play on the Apple TV. I then went to the roku and I had already loaded the “channel” in anticipation and low and behold there it was. My roku is wired and it streamed live tv well and the quality was good.
Now the bad, the tabloid has yet to recognize my hard drive, a brand new seagate backup plus, 2 tb. It just says " no hard drive connected ". I’ve disconnected the HD, unplugged it, turned on and off, nothing. I then reset the tablo hoping it would recognize, powered down the tablo, and still nothing. Not sure what the problem is.
I then tried to stream a show on the roku and the ipad at the same time. No dice. The roku started to stutter and stop and the ipad said “weak signal” even though I had three wifi bars on the ipad. It might be my network so I will experiment with this a little more.
If anyone has any hard drive solutions that would be great. I’m evaluating tablo as a possible cord cutter device, but I haven’t cancelled the Fios yet.
@jwhitesel - Could be that your drive is reporting the wrong sector size. Regardless of being well within spec and a recommended brand, randomly some drives report 4K sector sizes vs 512. There’s no way we’ve found yet to anticipate this but are working on having Tablo recognize these differently formatted drives.
If you contact support they can check on this for you, but the best option might be to try another drive.
Thanks for the response Tablo. I think I can connect the hard drive to my computer and format the hard drive for different sizes allocation units. I will give that a try, the only thing I see with 512k is a file system of “exfat”. I’ll try it and see what happens.
A lot of good feedback here! I’ve finished with my basic set up. I currently have it on my local network via powerline adapters. Needed to move the Tablo to the second floor for better reception. CBS channel wasn’t coming in as well. I’ll probably stop by Fry’s and get one of the new Mohu Curve antennas. Those seem to have great reviews.
Recordings have been setup for the week. Want to push this little guy thru it’s paces. 
As of now, it’s working well, really well! I’ve found streaming live TV works best via Roku to the TV instead of AirPlay from the iPad. Over Airplay it works for a while, but then the stream cuts out and the Apple TV goes back to the home screen. Not sure if it’s the iPad that is going to sleep or the stream is being interrupted. Playback of a recording works well on the iPad via AirPlay, just live tv streaming can be hit or miss.
Either way, loving the device so far!
Adam - Try making sure your Apple TV is running on the latest firmware and that it’s been recently reset. Most issues we’ve seen with Apple TV can be resolved with those simple things.
In first 24 hours I attempted recording 10 shows. My results:
1 - failed to record anything
3 - Showed a red exclamation - I assume these are faulty recordings but have not seen explanation yet
2 - recorded but video and audio quality were so poor it was unwatchable.
4 - successfully recorded with little or no video problems
I started a Google+ Community for owners to share their experiences as well. It is not affiliated with Nuvyyo. I am sharing details of my experience including screenshots.
Hit the link above to see posts.
So far, I’m very impressed. I was a gen1 SimpleTV owner, and this thing zips along at a much better pace. Setup was smooth for me with one minor exception - For some reason, my roku3 wouldn’t initially see the Tablo through a wired connection. Once I switched to a wireless connection (in the Roku), it was found immediately. When I switched back to the wired connection, it then found the Tablo without a problem. I sent in a support ticket to ask about it, and they were quick to get back to me to help troubleshoot. Big thumbs up on support. We also have a Roku2, which works fine, and an original Roku that doesn’t seem to work with the Tablo app. Our original Roku is a very outdated unit, so I wasn’t expecting much there.
Pro’s - it seems lightning fast. Video quality is great. I love the signal meter which helps me choose which stations to keep or which to ditch. Love being able to schedule recordings through the Roku app. I love that support was quick to get back to me.
Con’s - I’m not seeing a place to delete episodes via the Roku, which is awkward. That may be a big part of passing the “wife test” for the Tablo. There also isn’t a 30 second skip via the roku app, which I understand would be hard but would improve the experience greatly. Another con to me is that I think some of the layout choices (how you navigate in menus and interact with series & episodes) could be improved or simplified. But that’s me being a perfectionist.
So far, I’m very impressed and I believe most of the cons are small and will likely be addressed in future updates. As a new release, the Tablo is impressive and I have no buyers’ remorse. We’ll see how the wife and kids like it as we get used to it over the upcoming weeks.
Wouldn’t recognize a brand new Seagate Backup Plus drive - had to repatriate an older 2TB Seagate GoFlex. No problems after swapping out to the older drive.
Setup was easy and painless. Love the fact that I’ve had 2 firmware upgrades since Tuesday - shows commitment that these guys want to make a go of it in my opinion.
I LOVE the Chrome interface for recording shows. Being able to filter with all the options is genius. I’m finding it a bit buggy though - I have a few recorded shows AND future scheduled recordings that won’t delete from Chrome or the Roku. There’s also some confusion when the same show is broadcast on multiple channels at the same time, I’ve seen some postings on this one. Also, it needs work on the recording conflict notifications (and resolution!) interface but I’m really impressed so far. I hope they keep improving it and fixing the bugs.
I’m torn right now as I’m disappointed with the Roku 3 interface, which is my family’s main streamer. I was hoping for something that’s a cross between USTVNow and Plex Rarfix. USTVNow for the channel grid, and Plex Rarfix everything else. You can’t really channel surf on the Roku, probably a limitation of their hardware or API. I’ve been told that Nuvyyo will be revamping the Tablo Roku interface, but no ETA. Fast forwarding thru commercials is a bitch.
I see the potential with TabloTV. I didn’t want it to give me the ability to watch TV on a tablet, but more for an easy interface to record and view shows via a Roku and Google TV. My cheap-ass Homeworkx 150PVR is far better for channel surfing but comes up way short for recording. I also like the fact that I don’t need to have a computer running anymore to record OTA TV.
I checked out the Android app today. It works well with my Nexus 7, but looks like I’m out of luck for the Google TV as Tablo will only work on Android 4.2 or higher. The weak link right now is the Roku, it really needs a refresh to be able to provide a richer user experience that can do visual fast forwarding. I’m hopeful that the upcoming Mohu Channels will have Tablo support so I can “upgrade” the Roku to something that’s more up to date.
I’d also like to see a short-term roadmap of the features they’re looking at implementing. I’d love to be able to copy programs off the harddrive (without disconnecting from the Tablo, of course) and be able to Comskip out commercials and encode to h.264.
I’m using Tablo, but I’m still recording shows with my computer (NextPVR) until I see that they get the kinks out. Hoping it’s sooner than later.
I received mine Saturday, and I liked it so much I felt comfortable cancelling DirecTv yesterday.
So far I have used a Roku3, iPad2, Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 (10.1), Win8 laptop, Win7 desktop, and a Chromecast to watch shows on the Tablo. I didn’t have success on an iPhone 5s or my Win8 Nokia phone, but I will try the iPhone again today. The Win8 phone’s problem is probably because IE isn’t supported yet, and I can’t use any other browser with it.
My Seagate 2 TB Backup Plus wasn’t recognized, but I was able to use a Seagate 1 TB Backup Plus Slim to work just fine (as well as an older 500 GB WD drive).
The channel guide was populated pretty quickly (within 15 minutes). Selecting series and shows to record was easy, and I successfully recorded 3 shows last night, 2 of them at the same time. I had one playback issue dealing with multiple devices that I have reported already and mentioned in the troubleshooting forum.
The picture quality of a 720p recording is very good, even on my 65" 1080p plasma via a Roku. I didn’t see any stuttering or pixel issues. I haven’t tried to play back a recording remotely, though my Win8 phone was able to see my Tablo using my work’s wifi network. So it looks like my port forwarding worked fine.
The software is still a work in progress, and the ability to record channels by channel, date, and time is an important feature that needs to done before the next wave of Tablos is shipped. Not everyone will want a subscription, but you currently can’t function without one now.
Overall, I am very pleased with my Tablo and have been saying good things about it on other forums. I am glad I waited for this rather than getting a SimpleTv, which seems to have several problems (including a loud fan).
I am really impressed at the quality I’m getting on my Roku 2 and Roku 3 (both using ethernet). I cranked up all of the settings and even on my 120" theater screen I can’t tell the different between plugging directly into the antenna or streaming from the Tablo. Great job guys / gals. While I would love to have a way to more quickly change channels on the roku other than UP, then selecting a new channel, I get it. Roku has never been known for allowing great dev software for app makers to work with. The part that really makes me smile is that I can just turn it on a channel and walk away from the remote; the channel will stay on all day or until I turn it. With Aereo, it would stop after each show. That made watching a single channel a nightmare. Tablo solves this.
I do seem to get fewer channels on my Tablo than I do on my TV though. It’s not a big deal, just 2 channels less and neither of them do I need. Just an observation.
Thanks @Frostcall - we’re pretty proud of what we have and are working hard to make Tablo even better.
When you say you get less channels, is it that the channel scan didn’t find them? Were they marginal (fuzzy) to begin with? Just wondering!
The signal on my TV is low but it picks them up with no jittery images. It’s likely that my TV simply has a better tuner. Channel scan on the Tablo does not see them at all. My TV’s tuner shows me several more channels that are simply unwatchable whereas the Tablo seems to take a ‘smarter’ approach and only show channels that it will be able to show without issue. This is probably wise.
My suspicion was confirmed. As stated previously, the channel I could not pick up was weak on my TV and not showing at all on the Tablo. I spent a little time re-positioning my DB8 antenna in my attic to get the best signal possible and now it comes in clear on the Tablo with a solid signal.
Amazing! We specifically chose really good quality tuners so I was surprised that your TV was getting good quality signals and we weren’t.
But you’re right, we don’t show channels that don’t have a strong enough signal because it’s not going to result in any useable recordings. And who wants that???
Glad you were able to tweak your antenna to get that other channel though. It pays to tweak & rescan!
Hey @TabloTV you think you could speed up the super fast channel scan? I mean, under 30 seconds is just too slow nowadays… 
just kidding!