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.
I understand what you are saying. My intention was not to say transcoding was bad. Obviously, you know its importance. With Plex Pass, it’s one of the nice things included with the pass. My point was for watching live TV there is a delay before programming starts. There’s a couple of not issues, but other items than occur with transcoding. People who like to channel surf, it’s not helpful because of the longer delays. The big difference between the Legacy and 4th generation Tablo is transcoding helps with weak internet by allowing video content to be delivered in a format that is optimized for slower connection speeds, meaning it can be streamed smoothly with less buffering, even when a user has a poor internet connection. When someone changes from Legacy to 4th generation without improvement to their network, it then turns into, the Tablo 4th generation is a piece of crap. The Legacy worked fine and there is nothing but issues with the 4th generation. I’m obviously not trying to explain this to you, this may be helpful for someone who doesn’t know.
I use both the HDHomeRun with Plex and the Tablo. I’m almost certain that Tablo went to streaming in the native MPEG-2 because of their biggest competitor, SiliconeDust. That’s my feeling. HDHomeRun also doesn’t transcode their stream. This was one of the big complaints with Tablo years ago. I think Tablo’s mistake was allowing wifi connection to the router. HDHomeRun is only ethernet connection. If you have a great network, you’ll have fewer issues. My belief is your network (internet, antenna) is the backbone of your success.
I agree 100% Plex is so much better in many ways. I will say without question, Plex is not as user friendly. My wife doesn’t care for it because there are so many menus to go through to accomplish watching something. That’s one of the nice things about the Tablo. It’s very simple with a nice user interface. I prefer the Tablo guide over the Plex with HDHomerun, the DVR’s are similar, but the Tablo DVR is probably more user friendly. The Tablo definitely has bugs, HDHomeRun I feel is more refined and polished. Tech support hands down goes to SiliconeDust. You get rapid response and the information they give you doesn’t seem scripted. They have been by far the best. Guide data with HDHomerun is also much better and if you submit a ticket, the data is typically fixed within 24 hours. I will say, in my case, the 4th generation is better than the Legacy. It’s probably related to my setup. My wife is the example I like to use. On the Legacy, if she was going between more than 2 channels, she would get extremely frustrated because of the transcoding. Now, she’s happy. 1-2 seconds between shows when changing the channel. Not that it was a deal breaker, but the Legacy interface was a little outdated even in its time. For our household, the Tablo is the closest experience to cable TV.
Watching outside the house was never an issue for us. Actually the HDHomeRun with Plex is far superior, even compared to the Legacy. We were just in Japan and watched our local market there. The 4th generation is not perfect, but we have few issues outside of the occasional bugs.
My main point was to point our the choice of preserving OTA captured format doesn’t lend itself well to all platforms. Not merely the fact that not all places have ultra high speed Internet (but it is certainly true as well). Regardless, today’s 4th gen doesn’t have remote capability, so the assumption of LAN speed is an implied requirement today.
Plex DVR offers both worlds. Records (by default) in original OTA captured format, and due to the fact that it’s still the Plex Media Server engine, can transcode appropriately to whatever is supported by the end platform (e.g. even a web browser). Remote playback can be made from anywhere to just about any type of end platform/client. All you need is a login (unlike OG Tablo which requires every end device be paired LAN wise prior to use).
I own 2 OG Tablos, because of “when” both have full lifetime EPG. So there’s no “buy a 4th gen to get free EPG” motive. But understand by late buyers of OG, would do so. But why did I buy OG Tablo then? Plex DVR didn’t exist or was in such an alpha state as to be “not ready” at the time.
I completely agree with you. I’m fortunate to have very good, actually great internet speed. I did consider that because in reality, you don’t need high speed. When stated network, I was implying the home network. When my mesh network failed within the past year, I used the router my ISP gave us until I picked up my replacement. I have 1 gig speed. From my router location to my back bedroom, I was only getting less than 200 mbps. Plenty to stream and survive on. That was what I was trying to say if I only had 50-100 mbps, I would have had some issues. Most people either have the lower quality routers from their ISP or they buy inexpensive routers from Walmart or Amazon. To be honest, I won’t bad mount that equipment as long as it used and placed properly. The majority of people don’t keep their internet equipment central in their homes. Typically it’s tucked in the corner of a room where the ISP brings it into the house. Those are cases for a better quality router with more coverage or a mesh network.
I agree about the remote capability. For us it wasn’t a big deal because of Plex. Honestly, we didn’t even need the Tablo DVR capability because of our extensive Plex library. We bought the HDHomeRun when our Legacy tuners began to fail. As I mentioned in the other post we went with Tablo primarily for my wife.
You and several other members here are more knowledgeable than I. I have just been learning over the years with my background as an electrician and installing outdoor antennas. My feelings don’t get hurt if I’m told something I don’t know. It’s all about learning and helping each other out.
I wouldn’t be in a hurry to update if it has all the features I want and it’s working well, and that’s the case with my Legacy 4-Tuner Tablo. If they’re adding new features, Id have to evaluate whether it’s worth the risk of updating and if that’s a feature I need.
