As well, the streaming to other devices such as Roku and Fire TV devices is the video re-encoded to h264 for streaming? Or are you expecting a WiFi network to keep up with the significantly larger MPEG2 video?
Never mind, found the answer to my question:
“ TV-connected Tablo DVRs deliver and record Over-the-Air TV in its original, uncompressed MPEG2 format.This creates bandwidth-heavy streams of up to 18 Mbps.
To deliver this video without buffering over WiFi, a strong home network is required.
For the best experience, connect your Tablo and/or your streaming devices/Smart TVs to your network via Ethernet where possible.”
But it’s 2020. If we were going to do something totally weird, this is the year to do it!
But seriously, we think there’s a good market for this type of solution and we’re pretty excited to offer cord cutters a wider choice when it comes to OTA DVRs.
Question…if someone has a guide subscription already, can that be used for this new Tablo? (Especially those grandfathered in)
I admit I never expected this to be a product, but I think it will appeal to a lot of users. Though it may bring some confusion to them as well, figuring out the different choices.
Yep! You can still transfer your subscription to any Tablo at any time if you want to make the switch.
Those that are grandfathered and want to add a Tablo DUAL HDMI to their account will still need to touch base with support to get that done since that’s not available via the self-serve portal.
The device requires internet connectivity for setup, to download TV Guide Data, to perform overnight maintenance, and for periodic firmware updates. However, Tablo DUAL HDMI can still play back live TV and recordings during internet outages or in locations where internet access is limited.
It seems that a lot of the high quality mid-range priced TV’s only come with 2 HDMI ports and one of those is the ARC port. It doesn’t take much to use 2 HDMI ports.
When shopping for a new TV you have to really pay attention to which ones have 3 HDMI ports.
Well this begs the question can this new Tablo DVR also be run headless? That is after the initial setup of course. Some people might want it just for the native quality MPEG2 video and be happy watching it their Roku, etc.
OK, thanks, so not really an offline device since all functionality is still dependent on internet access. For people with little or no net access this would not be a good solution.
Exactly. If you have a TV Guide Data Service subscription and don’t mind missing the occasional show because of a schedule change, you can go two weeks without connecting the DUAL HDMI to the internet.
Of course you’ll miss out on Automatic Commercial Skip and the in-home streaming to secondary screens but it’s definitely a better choice for folks who have spotty internet or are RVing etc.
@TabloTV important question - will these be “compatible” with 3rd Party apps for exporting recordings?
This is incredibly amazing! Certainty a market in areas that have only had antenna setups to start with! Limited internet access, so streaming isn’t always practical - it may be a minority or niche market, but all across rural America (and probably the vastness of Canada) there’s a multitude.
Then there’s the less tech-savy and/or a generation in a small scaled down home. Just one possibly two TVs and don’t want to mess with the devices. Or anyone else who just thinks it’s awesome!
I would really, really like this… if it’s streaming wasn’t so extremely limited . I suppose there’s some technical gobbledygook excuse about network discovery.
I know SurLaTablo makes some assumption with regards to format. So, I know changes would be required. Going to guess that others would have to make changes as well.
(btw, as a FOSS tool provider, I can’t use the official Tablo API docs, so I would need to “own” the new device… so, zero promises…)
-i input -o output and stuff in between… The “official”-unofficial 3rd-party apps, I believe, get the playlist from port 80 with the long random string for input, basically the same. So it depends if you can still access this newer “less networked” model similarly as the current models.
This may fit my needs yet… although I was considering a Quad to consolidate my 2 Duels, but they cost about the same
TBD. We haven’t tested them since they’re all 3rd party tools. I’m sure the devs and our engineering team will be touching base on this in the coming weeks.
if it’s streaming wasn’t so extremely limited 
. I suppose there’s some technical gobbledygook excuse about network discovery.