I have no idea what I am doing

General Discussion
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I recently moved into a building that only offers time warner, I bought an hd antenna and actually receive about 50 channels (YEA!). I am not very tech savy and trying to find the best DVR option for OTA. I have 2 smart tv’s and would like to watch recorded shows on both. With my current tv’s I do not need a Roku or other device as the apps (netflix, hulu, amazon, etc) were already loaded.

Will I be able to just hook it to my antenna and tv? Do I need a separate device for the 2nd tv or service for ipad?

Do I have to hook up an external hard drive?

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There are options:

  1. Get Tablo, which is a whole house dvr for Ota. If you do, you’ll need FireTv, Roku, or Shield to watch Tablo. One per TV.
  2. Get convertor box with dvr. One per TV. What you record on one only watch on one (or might be able to move drive to other). No streaming box needed this way.
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KISS Method:
I would run a seperate coax feed from your antenna to each TV for live TV viewing. Then run a 3rd run to a Tablo unit for DVR services. Then either get a Roku, FireTV or such to view content on the Tablo. You can use the Tablo app to view content on iDevices or Android devices.

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Depending on length and signal level an amplifier might also be needed.

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How is that keeping it simple?? The Tablo already does live TV without running coax all over the place.

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But Tablo is bad for channel surfing. I only watch live TV via Tablo when not home. Each TV has its own antenna. Tablo is awesome at recording and playing.

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That is true but for those that don’t want to wait for it to catch up and like to switch channels around and such much better to have the TVs connected to the Antenna. Besides @dayontravis said wasn’t that technical so having a direct wire that just works seems simpliar to me.

Also don’t have to worry about updates or anything from Roku or Amazon affecting your ability to watch at least live TV.

+1 to @beastman.

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@dayontravis does your Smart TV havePlex?

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I have no problems with live tv with my WIndows 10 Chrome Browser, ChromeBook, or Cromebit they all play live tv flawlessly. Sure it takes 10 seconds to switch channels but that is what the guide is for. Heck I only watch live tv on my tablo and rarely use it to dvr. I do pause here and there and rewind to catch something I missed but I do not schedule shows to record.

Now back to my point. Running coax and splitters all around the house on top of roku boxes is NOT keeping it simple. Simple would be to plug in the Tablo connect the antenna and connect to the wifi and call it a day.

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Some people’s Simple is another persons complex.

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I dont think so. I dont know what that is. I have an LG smart tv that is about a year old.

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Our app for LG Smart TVs is getting close to being ready. When it’s live, you won’t need any secondary HDMI device to play Tablo content.

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Is there an app for Samsung TVs in the works?

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There is, but there’s a gating issue on the Samsung side for which we’re waiting on a resolution.

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I am not quite sure what that means? I wont need the Tablo unit?

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But how long will that be? Apple TV was demoed at CES and still waiting for beta.

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You won’t need Roku or other streaming box. Tablo will talk direct to LG Smart TV if your TV is updated by LG.

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If you want to watch recorded content, you have to have a DVR of sorts. There are other OTA DVR options, which might work better for you if you aren’t all that tech savvy. Tablo has some very interesting features, but to me, it seems to cater more to the technical user. I wouldn’t feel comfortable recommending Tablo to my parents. Personally, I’m very happy with Tablo, but it isn’t for everyone.

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What that means is that you could get a Tablo DVR plus a USB hard drive, hook that up to your antenna, and then install the new (not yet released) Tablo App (free software) for your LG televisions. This would allow you to record and watch DVR content on either of your LG televisions with no additional hardware.

This is assuming that your LG Televisions are connected to your local network, which they would need to be to watch Netflix or Amazon video.

This is an elegantly simple arrangement…

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