My solution has been to have only the two tuner Tablo and not overtax it. I never trusted the 4 tuner version because I didn’t believe the box can support 4 tuners in reality. We never record more than one show at a time. We never view shows being recorded. If we need to record a second show in parallel we have a Homeworx DVR. If we need to watch a show live while recording, we watch it directly through the TV’s tuner.
I simply don’t trust DVRs period. We had problems with Tivos and DirecTV DVRs years ago and had all sorts of monthly insurance policies for them. The philosophy since then has been, “Use a DVR as sparingly as possible.” Thus far it has worked.
Also I have created another DVR using a spare Kodi box using LibreELEC and TVheadend. That works well in addition to the Homeworx to supplement the Tablo. Whenever we have a “must record” show, we use two different DVRs so that if one fails, the other usually succeeds (two different makes of DVR).
All this so I don’t have to depend solely on the Tablo and use it just a few hours a day. Not ideal but I learned my lesson of relying on one box and using one too much.
BTW, Jeopardy was the ONLY scheduled recording on my 2 and 4 tuner Tablos, yet both of them STILL missed it. Some bug in the way EPG works, not a problem previously but now occuring quite often. Seems to hit certain shows often but never hits other shows. Unscheduling is taking place AFTER correct schedule is initially shown but before program is actually recorded.
I’ve also considered the CM one for the future. In my case having a lifetime guide subscription is an incentive to stay with Tablo should our existing one die. However the CM comes with a free guide so that would mitigate having bought the lifetime subscription.
I’ve tried almost every HD-DVR that has existed since 2001, except TIVO.
Tablo is BY FAR the current best HD-DVR in my vast HD-DVR experience and for my use-case… MOXI was the previous winner. I’ve used channelmaster HD-DVRs successfully too - they were sweet/sweet-spot in the past - their new model looks interesting too.
TIVO products do not currently match my use-cases but they got Very Close close with their Roamio. They missed the mark however. Tablo hit the mark, the sweet-spot use-case: put the DVR as close as possible to the antenna, and get the rendered images onto the viewer’s hardwired or wifi ethernet. Tablo eliminates long-cable-run signal-degradation and the need for RF amplifiers. Woo hoo!
Sorry to hear your situation has been so frustrating. Wish we could narrow down what the situation is because the varying experiences are kinda puzzling.
I’ve had a few bumps through the years with my Tablo but since upgrading to a better antenna and using a laptop cooler under my 4 tuner Tablo it seems things are pretty solid and in the middle of TV seasons we have a few nights during the week where all 4 tuners are in use at the same time and we’ve had zero issues.
I have had the four tuner Tablo for more than two years. Except for bitching about the Tablo Remote functionality (which breaks constantly), my setup has been relatively bullet proof.
Not sure this adds much to the conversation, other than to note that there are users who are having relatively few issues.
I will comment that I do, however, resist the urge to install new firmware the day it becomes available. I usually wait, sometimes as much as six months, to install new firmware. In my book, new firmware equals new issues, so I might as well know what the issues are before I attempt the upgrade.
I always bypass upgrading until the bitter end. That’s easy since there hasn’t been any changes I planned on using since 2.2.8.
But, after a product is 4 years old, should that be the norm. I have multiple units and after the May 16th 2.2.20 release announcement I thought why not upgrade to 2.2.18 for a few days.
The phantom recording started immediately on all tablo units. I have at least 13 and counting.
Makes you kind of wondering what users with a Dual unit and use the internal storage having been doing for the last 4 1/2 months.
I have the 4 tuner Tablo as well, and while not perfect, I’m not experiencing anywhere near the problems y’all are having. Since the early days of Tablo, I upgraded my antenna and router, and it’s been pretty solid ever since. There are a couple of issues, though, that I’ve learned to live with… the first is the dreaded crash, and there are a couple of ways that can happen. With a very weak signal, or total loss as when a transmitter goes offline, Tablo will crash. Also, Tablo can be susceptible to ESD, so I’ve learned to avoid touching the underside front edge, where I used to check the “warmth” of the unit. Tho it gets very warm to the touch, I have it standing on edge, and haven’t had any issues, other than those noted, in 3 years of heavy use.
The other issue I have is occasionally being kicked back to the guide while watching live TV. When no recordings are going on, like during the day, I haven’t noticed the problem. It’s mainly at night where a couple of shows are being recorded, and maybe I’m watching one. So, what I do is wait until the recording starts, and then immediately start watching the recording, and I don’t see the problem then.
Other than that, the Tablo has been very solid for me, never missing recordings, and I record a LOT of programs, more than I can possibly watch and it never misses. So, I suspect either an issue with the guide data, or maybe an issue where the Tablo is set to record only new episodes and the show is either a rerun or mistakenly not tagged as new in the guide.
That’s the one thing I would complain about as well. Surely there is a way to isolate that scenario to where it only affects the tuner being used to tune that channel so that it doesn’t affect other recordings. Unless it’s a physical/design limitation for whatever reason I guess.
Neither of my two other DVRs ever crash on a weak signal. Several nights ago there were severe thunderstorms in our area, and the Homeworx functioned through several hours of thunderstorms causing terrible fluctuations in signal strength (the signal jumped up and down like a yoyo). In fact neither DVR (Headend or Homeworx) ever segments recordings due to signal droppage. One simply sees a dark screen inside the recording for a few moments.
Now neither of them does any transcoding (pure mpg2) so I suspect the weak signal somehow kills the Tablo’s transcoding effort.
Is your Tablo up and running, and accessible from other apps? Feel free to post more details on your setup, or to get in touch with our support team directly.