Welcome aboard
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Well, I guess Iām late to announce my arrival to the Tablo party. Weāve been using the OG Tablo 2-tuner since Autumn 2015 in the D/FW market and purchased the new 4th Gen in Aug 2024.
I started out with OTA back in 2007 or so using an old Hauppauge WinTV card in my computer and a CRT TV - before the DTV mandate. My main inspiration was to record Austin City Limits, which Iāve done off and on ever since.
Weāve been quite happy with the OG Tablo and itās our primary source of entertainment during prime-time. I canāt even estimate how much weāve saved in cable costs over this time, but I think itās at least $200/month since we began using the Tablo. Itās probably close to $20k.
That being said, the Gen4 has been less than stellar for us so far. Weāre hoping to get the kludge worked out before too long to enjoy many more years of OTA viewing.
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Relatively new user from Colorado Springs here. Cancelled DirecTV in early December 2024 and picked up a couple of streaming services. Also bought a Tablo 4th generation at the same time.
Iāve been relatively happy with the Tablo. Only have 2 complaints. First, you canāt watch recorded programs when the internet is down (thatās rare, but it happened last week when the weather was bad and we stayed inside). Second, we set a 5 program limit on Bonanza on MeTV which we watch once or twice a week. If a new Bonanza is being recorded, the Tablo will delete the oldest program while your watching it (weāve gotten in the habit of watching the next to last recording to avoid that).
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Welcome to the community.
The first complaint we canāt do anything about - TabloTV is working on a solution to resolve this issue.
For the second complaint, if you donāt have an external hard drive connected, then you probably have the Auto-Delete Recordings set to On in the TabloTV Settings. If you turn this off, your recordings may begin to fail once the internal memory fills up. The solution is to connect a 1TB or larger Western Digital or Seagate USB hard drive to the TabloTV device.
See the section Hard Drive Recommendations at the bottom of this link for some suggestions.
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Welcome to the community @MattCS!
This article should help in fine-tuning your recording options.
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Just purchased the 4 tuner with Antenna. Live in the Charleston SC area, specifically James Island. Love the UI of the Tablo! Having trouble getting consistent signals with the Tablo Antenna, just ordered another one from Amazon, should get it at the end of the week. After the current increase to YTTV, I couldnāt do it anymore. Its crazy itās almost $100 bucks a month now for YTTV. Iām the typically 57 year old sports watching male that loves the channel surf.
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In general, those flat-panel antennas are not much good unless you live really close to the broadcast towers. The Tablo is only as good as the signals it can receive, so donāt skimp on your antenna. An outdoor antenna, mounted high up on the roof is generally best, but I know that is not an option for everyone.
What antenna did you order?
I ordered this one from Amazon: Dual Bay Bowtie Antenna UHF - HDTV. The main issue I have, is that I live on the top of a 3rd floor apartment, and Iām surrounded by trees. So getting a solid signal for all 4 networks channels is the challenge.
I live in Summerville and am using a Mohu indoor flat antenna with good success. It is in my second floor main area on the wall facing the direction of the towers in Charleston. I donāt have the trees though. Do you know how far you are from the towers and is there any possibility of getting above the trees?
Welcome to the TabloTV Community. Iāve used one of these bowtie antennas in the past, before we moved into a house that already had an Archer-style antenna in the attic. The existing antenna worked fine so I sold my bowtie antenna. They do work well and I think youāll be satisfied with it if you can mount it outside. Iām thinking about getting a new bowtie for outside because the 4-tuner Tablo needs a stronger signal.
It appears youāre about 20 miles from your main broadcast antenna farm. Iād be interested in an update once you get it installed and run a new channel scan.
Good luck.
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Iām planning on putting on my deck somehow. With my signal meter and the flat Tablo antenna, I found a spot that I was getting 70 - 90. Iāll keep you posted. The UI on the Tablo is sweet and I get the Surfer channel.
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Make sure youāre pointed in the right direction for the channels you want using the search map on this page.
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You work for the NSA? I never give up any information on a random website, and no one should, ever.
I was able to install the Bowtie Antenna and it works great. Iām able to get between 80 and 90 consistently, even with a ton of trees. Having a signal finder was the key in knowing where to place it.
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hi im new just got my 4th gen 2 tuner and love it im pretty tech savvy so was a breeze setting up plan to be around
I canāt say enough good about rabbitears.info. It should be the very first stop for anyone considering an antenna. There are many articles out there pointing users to TVFool.com, but that site should be avoided. Its database hasnāt been updated for years and itās totally worthless.
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check it out looks like good info
What brand/model is your ATSC tuner with the signal meter?
I bought a Mediasonic HomeWorx (HW250STB). It would be awesome if the Tablo had a signal meter, but Iām not sure how much firmware that would take or how much space would be needed in the Tabloās casing. The key to Tablo working good are 2 things, Signal Strength and Connectivity to a modem/router. Now that I have those 2 things in the āsweet spotā, the functionality is outstanding. Functionality along with itās intuitive UI, the Tablo canāt be beat for the price. Iāve been using it now for a month with Google Chromecast and I love it.
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Thanks for the feedback. Iām considering purchasing a cheap STB with a meter to confirm my signal is good and antenna placement is working.
I totally agree that the meter is needed to have a more objective reading on signal strength. I also went through my streaming devices and upgraded them to match my network and wifi bands. So far, weāve seen an improvement.
On a side note - if the OG Tablo and Gen4 TabloTV show signal strength, you would think it would already have such hardware included. How else could it show even this rudimentary signal strength?