Living in California recently divorced raising my 17 almost 18 year old by my self she will go off to college next year and I will be leaving California and going home back home to Buffalo NY where I own a house there. Left Buffalo in 93 and Joined the USMC, loved it out here so I stayed now its time to go home !
Due to a work injury I have had 2 spinal surgeries and it seems this is as good as I will get so career change !!! Heading back to school at my age is SCARRY !! but i have the opportunity to do what I have always had a passion for, and by reading all of your posts on this subject it seems I’m in good company !!! Heading back to school to get my degree in computer science, already have a math tutor lined up LOL, like I said its been a while since I was last in school !!
Currently I have DTV and I think it is way to expensive especially for what I watch, so as Im getting my house ready I’m also finding solutions to save money and cut back. The DVR is key for me as I hate commercials unless its the Super Bowl, came across this and a few others and I liked the way it is set up to stream anywhere like my Slingbox.
I run a Mac Mini as a PLEX server and have a 65" 4k TV, Blue Ray player, Pioneer SC-75 9.2 channel with 4k pass thru, with airplay compatibility which I love by the way I can control music from anywhere as long as I’m on the network ! I run 2 460 watt self powered 12 " subs and 2 rti12 speakers and a center channel speaker sounds killer ! A total of 10 tb NAS one is 8 and the other is 2. I use the NAS to store all my media the PLEX server pulls it all from there. Cant forget the turntable LOL love the Vinyl !!! hahah
Before my injury I worked at a Nuclear Facility and during that time I also went to school and graduated from Le Cordon Bleu, so yeah I’m also a Chef. Other then that I won’t bore you with any more details !! Just glad to have found what I was looking for and can’t wait to implement all of your recommendations and watch it go !!!
My name is John Richeson. I am a licensed antenna installer, and market my patented outdoor UHF/VHF/FM antenna in San Diego, California (http://cordcutters.vbatech.com). Cost savings, getting Spanish-language broadcasts from Mexico, and frustration with indoor antennas, are the primary drivers for sales (along with free installation assistance), but a few of my customers have expressed an interest in DVR capability.
Without having previously done much research into OTA DVR devices, my advice to customers has been to take a look at the Channel Master DVR+. As a born techie and software developer, however, I was intrigued by the wireless streaming and remote access capability offered by the Tablo, and started testing a 2-tuner model. I have been impressed with the recording and playback experience on my Roku, but The fact that I use a Windows Phone and Tablet has made the over-all experience less than satisfactory. I will continue to monitor progress in the development of Tablo and provided feedback from the Windows user perspective.
Hey all, my name is Scott. My Tablo arrives tomorrow sometime before 8pm. I’m finally taking the “cutting the cord” plunge, so all of this will be new to me. For now, I’m considering this more of an experiment than anything else. I will work with the Tablo over the next few weeks and see if I can handle the change (no satellite, yikes!). Wish me luck.
Hi I’m Ron,
By profession I’m a network engineer with a long time interest in home theater, networking and streaming media. I designed and built one of the very first local broadcast back haul networks for a major satellite carrier. My interest in high definition streaming media came from a demonstration display I observed at Interop all the way back in 1996 from a company called FORE Systems that later became my employer.
As you can imagine my cord cutting solution is only in part a cost cutting measure, really it’s more of a hobby for me that happens to save money. Although I fully admit skyrocketing satellite bills motivated me to cut the cord permanently back in 2010.
My current system is as follows: Antenna craft HDX1000 into a distribution amplifier that breaks out to seven televisions and a Tablo. Coax and Ethernet are home run throughout the house. A Roku STB at every television. I run a Cisco RV325 router that is dual homed to two ISPs. Hey we can’t have an entertainment outage! It’s attached to a Cisco gigabit switch and most STBs are hard wired. I use an Apple Airport Extreme as an AP for the few STBs that are not hard wired. I subscribe to most of the major pay streaming services and I’m still saving money. There is also home security, IP phones, a NAS, and an HTPC in the mix. But honestly I can’t recall the last time I put a movie on the NAS and the HTPC only gets fired up when I want to watch something that resides only on a website which is rare these days.
I think cord cutting is going to drag the entertainment industry into the 21st century. In the mean time I have more to watch on television than I can possibly consume. 51 OTA channels and counting!
I have been somewhat active in this forum since December (not very long) and actually heavily active in the Roku forums for maybe a year. I run http://cutcordinfo.com and my last entry was about finding and installing Plex channels and plugins. My next entry (sunday) is using TabloRipper to collect your recordings and put them into a folder for plex to import. If you have any things to suggest I look at please leave a comment or send an email to the admin, it would be appreciated. I run this blog to with the intention of putting all this information (TabloRipper…) into one location that it can be easily accessed.
My setup currently is a 4 tuner Tablo, A Roku3, a Amazon fire stick (Waste), Amazon Prime, A Plex server and a PlayOn Server.
Over time I am learning. aka I just learned about TabloRipper and it is awesome, also adding channels to Plex, I am hoping that I will over time learn more tips and tricks to make cord cutting a more enjoyable experience and I hope that my blog will be a source for those that are learning and want to possibly pick up some info.
Hi, I’m John,
I’ve only been a Tablo user for a few weeks, so I haven’t been very active yet. I’m still running the Tablo in parallel with my FIOS TV subscription, and will probably be cutting the cord within the next month or two. I’m about 25 miles south of the Philadelphia broadcast antennas, and have been struggling to get my signals strong enough on all channels to make the cut-over. (A topic for another discussion.)
I’m an Electronic and Software engineer, who does a lot of embedded programming and embedded electronic design.
My setup is a 4-tuner Tablo running into an Ethernet wired network. Eventually I will have 3 televisions served by the Tablo, although for the moment I only have one guinea-pig TV. I’ve been using a first-generation Fire-TV on Ethernet for a while, but I just switched over to a Roku 2 (4210R) to see what kind of streaming devices I should use for my other TVs.
Many years ago I set up a media PC on my main television, and I’ve had all of my recorded media on a Network Attached Storage device, just using the file-system for sharing. I haven’t looked into Plex server yet, although I might get around to that eventually.
I’s good to have more experienced users here, and so far the Tablo is looking good. Looking forward to talking about some of the more esoteric issues that can come up…
Hello from Ft Meade, MD – right in the middle of Washington DC and Baltimore. Using an Amazon non-preamp’d panel, we get 58 channels – 35+ distinct options – it’s cord-cutter’s heaven. We just returned to the US after 11 years of overseas postings as a diplomat. During those years, we used VPNs to get our Netflix and Amazon, Plex and Droid TV. All have worked great. We also sometimes had access to Armed Forces Network which gave us some sports, albeit at a lower (think slow VHS speed) quality.
Now, my wife and I are getting ready to retire and wanted to get a “whole house DVR”. Our 4-tuner Tablo finishes out our system. We have Rokus on the TVs and the app on the computers and cell phones. I can watch the news live while on the MARC train going into my office in DC. My wife can record her daytime programs. Together, we are discovering all the great (sometimes old) programs, many of which we missed during our years overseas!
Thanks Tablo and TheUser86 who both helped me get the unit configured to allow remote access. We haven’t decided where we will retire to, but I can promise you, we will not be getting cable tv!
Glendale AZ, 2 miles from Cardinals Stadium…Retired 70% Disabled E-8 U.S. Airforce.21 yrs
Only dropped cox cable since Oct16, 4 tuner Tablo, and educating myself about all the things I wanted to learn about now that I am homebound and have the time to research.
All this below is a duplicate setup in my home.
One of those was OTA and DVR possibilities. From word-of-mouth from my neighbor and helping him install his unit and outdoor antenna. We both went with DB4 Two bay bowtie UHF VHF combined outdoor antenna and cm3414 4 port distribution amp feeding 4 separate coax tv’s…rooms in home all wired from router to Apple tv4. We are 17-20 miles from the 5 green dots stations.
After educating and learning everyday reading this forumn and being helped from various shoutouts to @MarkKindle@theuser86,@lbarouf, (Tablo support…so engaging and readily available on this forum) …others im forgetting probably due to medication, rather have short term mem loss than devastating chronic pain…medical marijuana saved my life. I wasn’t about to take the 10 pills a day they wanted me to take the VA that is
Of course the first place we went was TV fool.com and and receive the report we needed to do the compass app and installed on eve and going to precise reading of 132° south east or the TV towers. Scan revealed 62 channels but some were in yellow and red and he only kept the 720/480P 5 greendot stations which turned out to be 22. We both have ASUS RTAC dual band routers and only Cox cable Internet hundred meg service. Both have my passport 1 tb portable USB 3.0 harddrive
Really loving the Tablo, can’t wait for full integration functionality for aptv4, just like the ios ver would be awesome https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4k5J5q9TlGjLTRrakFJdzBZVmc
I’m in Austin, TX and have been using Tablo 2 years. Any questions, just ask. I recently added DirecTV Now on $35 promo price. Prepaid 3 months and got free AppleTV. I use Anfroid phone, tablet, Roku, AppleTV, Mi Box, Nexus player. When travel, FireTV stick.
Thank You for your service to America! And I truly hope care from the VA in Phx gets better in the near future. I am in Tempe, 8 miles from the antennas on South Mountain. I’m able to get 79 stations - all with 5 green dots. I only use 29 on Tablo. I have a 40 yr old Radio Shack antenna up in the attic and have been very happy with my Tablo over the last 2.5 yrs. Looks like you have a sweet set up and all is well. Cheers, Jim
Starting tomorrow I will have officially cut the cord to cable TV. My wife and I figured out that we really only watch shows on our local broadcast stations. We live just south of the Philadelphia International airport.
By cutting the cord it is going to save us 2052.00 a year. I already have my tablo hooked up and so far, other than a problem with ABC (which is now working). it’s great. Already recorded 2 shows. I can’t wait for the boxes to return the 4 set top boxes (including the dvr box) back to verizon.
I’m using an amazon fire stick, a smart tv and have ordered an amazon fire tv box.
So far I’m loving the tablo and the money I’m saving
When I cut off Directv at 130.00 a month, being between Beaumont and Houston I have plenty of free channels. With Amazon Prime more than enough movies. I also have a Fire tv box.
With ABC, the picture kept freezing. From what I have read here, the problem is that they broadcast in VHF at a low frequency. Most antennas are not tuned for this. I have a Bam flat antenna with a 60 mile range on a window. Apparently I am only about 10 miles from the broadcasting towers. Really I’m only interested in getting 3,6,10,29 and 17. anything else is a bonus. In fact I’m having someone come this week to install an antenna. I don’t mind spending the money up front to make this work since I’m going to save 3000,00 a year from not paying for what I had with cable. They are going to install a Yagi antenna. don’t know which one, I just want it to work. I will let you know what the result is.
