Hello,
I remember when I first purchased my legacy unit I was told that Tablo would be offering the new software update to all legacy users by the end of 2024… well here we are at the end of the year and nothing is said about the update… is this still planned? Any updates would be great, thanks!
I would not be in a rush to update.
The new gen 4 features are not going over well.
If it ain’t broke…
In January of 2022 Tablo made the following announcement.
Tablo ATSC 3.0 QUAD HDMI OTA DVR is available for pre-order now exclusively at TabloTV.com at an MSRP of $299.99 US with an anticipated ship date of spring 2022.
(April 2022 Status Update: Due to evolving DRM broadcast requirements, the initial production run has been delayed.)
A pre-order deposit of $29.99 US is required to secure your ATSC 3.0 compatible DVR from the first production run, with the remainder due at shipping.
You might have noticed that it is now almost 3 years later and there is still no ATSC 3.0 Tablo. So I don’t pay too much attention to Tablo’s anticipated shipping dates anymore.
@Michael_Savo, this was stated in Aug 2023 when they rolled out the TabloTV Gen4. I distinctly remember the offer but I quickly decided to pass on it. I agree with @Radojevic on this.
Just update the legacies without adding any Gen 4 features.
What would be updated then?
I understand your comment, but it goes a little further than that.the 4th generation is a completely different animal than the Legacy. The 4th generation plays video in the native MPEG-2. The Legacy transcodes video. This may not mean much to the average user, but it matters. The 4th generation with a good setup will load and play video faster. Because of this, your wifi needs to be solid. I’ve noticed a lot of people who are cutting the cord with an antenna try to go inexpensive. They get cheap indoor antennas and go with their ISP router. That can work okay if you are close to the transmission towers or your router is central to your house or close to your TV. 75% or more of the issues people report are due to one of these two things or both. The 4th generation has bugs, but it’s a better device than the Legacy. The Legacy works better with a less than ideal setup.
Well, it is a different animal. Transcoding to put things into the “universal codecs” is not a bad strategy. Makes web browser use possible. Sure, the old Tablo company (gone), didn’t do itself any favors by trying to kill themselves, but the new device being better? I don’t think so. Saying it’s better quality doesn’t matter when it’s unreliable. The fact that an OG Tablo (as the lack of comments will tell you) delivers and delivers remotely as well (something 4th gen does do and likely will never do)… to me, it’s a no brainer. With that said, as the old company tried its best to self-destruct by taking good ideas and getting rid of them, for late comers to the OG game, it’s was way way way way too expensive. I’m going to guess that the original Tablo company business plan was untenable from the start. So, while I can’t “rah rah” for the OG as that company is completely dead to me, there’s a reason why I don’t own the new thing. Has zero value to me.
With that said, as a Plex owner, adding OTA to what you already have gets you a lot more features than either, with the exception of recording rights on FAST, as Plex doesn’t own any broadcast providers. But apart from that you get a ton more features and reliability.
How difficult is it to add OTA to plex?
Plex Pass (I know that used to be required, and IMHO, required if you want “it all”)
Add a supported tuner. I am running a 2 tuner Hauppauge (WinTV-HVR2255), but have tested with dual QuadHDs (that would be 8 total tuners).
You can often times get the cheap 2-tuner used for less $100 USD (used/ebay).
Many recommend HDHomeRun which has a network tuner, and I believe it’s supported as well. Up to you on that.
Thanks for the info. What is the benefit of a Plex setup vs Tablo?
Integrates with Plex media. That is, with existing libraries (if you want). So “movies” will to into “movies”, “TV” goes into “TV”.
You can start recording while watching something live.
Plex allow for remote access, you just need to login to the server (like you’d normally do for remote use).
Tons more FAST channels on Plex, but, can’t record them.
Plex stores the original ATSC (based on tuner choice, but is the general case) and then you get the power of Plex to transcode as needed to end devices. That includes watching live. And when watching something being recorded, you can watch from beginning or watch live and fast forward and rewind work.
You get the option of automatic commercial removal (which isn’t perfect), or (what I use) commercial skip, which marks commercials for easy skipping. Through post recording, thumbnails are generated and scrubbing works just fine, in case you choose not to do either.
Essentially, you get all the features of the OG Tablo, plus the abiliy to have as many tuners as you want, a ton of FAST channels, integration with Plex, all features you expect with a DVR work (uses prioritized recording with regards to conflict management, but does tell you if you’re setting something to record and there is a conflict.
Likely if you mention a feature that isn’t there on 4th gen Tablo, or doesn’t work most of the time, it’s going to be there on Plex DVR, plus a ton of other features.
I own two of the OG 2 tuner Tablos, and they are still online and I still use them. But Plex DVR is a lot better. Plex DVR is “new” compared to OG Tablo and so was not out, even beta when I bought my Tablo units. It does cost more to get “set up”… but it’s not going to frustrate like Tablo.
