Lifetime subscription option going away for new buyers on Aug 30

Your math:

$179/3 years = $59.67 per month
$179/4 years = $44.75 per month

Should be:

$179/3 years = $4.97 per month ($59.67 per year)
$179/4 years = $3.73 per month ($44.75 per year)

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ROTFLOL!!! Yes… I meant year!

Really? I had not heard of an ATSC 1.0 HDMI version. I’ll have to look that up. Who would even buy that?

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One of it’s highlight - less religent on internet - still necessary, but supposedly not as necessarily.

I may have been had it been an option. Not everyone has “high speed” internet. Many have used an antenna for decades because it was an only option. Satellite may be available, but not cost effective since the house comes with an antenna.

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Should I be motivated and have the time one day I plan to see if I can add a little server that keeps the time in check for the streaming Tablo and allows it to reboot. There is no good reason it shouldn’t be able to work during short internet outages accept the lack of an RTC. That’s definitely been one of my bigger complaints. It’s not been a huge deal because my Plex server is set up to work without internet and it has a tuner.

I do see why some people want an HDMI version. We got lots of sports fans around here(the Tablo forums) that I’m sure love the superior picture on the HDMI version. Sports fans are the ones I usually see complain about the compression most often. I just don’t see why they wouldn’t prefer the ATSC 3.0 version.

(Tablo DUAL HDMI OTA DVR | Over The Air (OTA) DVR | Tablo)

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Thank, I actually looked that up. First I had heard of it.

Isn’t the lifetime subscription is only for networked Tablos? The new ATSC 3.0 Tablo is not networked to my knowledge. If that is the case can you even transfer the lifetime subscription to a non-networked Tablo? Will there even be a networked ATSC 3.0 Tablo? That is what makes me hesitant to go lifetime unless there will be a networked ATSC 3.0 Tablo.

This is a quote from Tablo’s FAQ’s:

I already have a Lifetime TV Guide Service subscription. Will this affect me?
No. This change to the TV Guide Data Service subscription plan offerings only affects customers wishing to purchase Lifetime plans for network-connected Tablo DVR models after August 29th, 2022. Customers who already have a Lifetime TV Guide Service subscription can continue to use it on their existing device and/or transfer it to a different Tablo DVR model at any time using the account portal at account.tablotv.com.

Before I ordered my ATSC 3.0 HDMI Tablo, I specifically asked Tablo Support if my existing Lifetime subscription would apply to this new unit and they guaranteed me that it would.

Tablo said you can’t buy lifetime for the HDMI version but can transfer lifetime from the streamimg model to the HDMI model.

@TabloTV Is that correct?

Nice to know and also see the reply from Tablo from Sep 2021. I didn’t see that when I searched the forum. Their wording on the blog about Sunsetting of Lifetime Subscriptions certainly doesn’t specifically say you can transfer it to a non-networked device. Everything I read states Lifetime Subscriptions are only available on networked Tablo DVR’s. I guess I am just leery of being the victim of the gotcha’s and wordplay that seem to permeate end user agreements. One thing that puzzles me, if you can only buy a lifetime subscription on a networked Tablo but then you can later switch the lifetime over to a TV connected Tablo, why not offer it on all of them to begin with? I am sure they had their reasons.

My assumption is that Tablo determined that the lifetime subscription wasn’t cost effective anymore, so when they introduced the HDMI models they had the opportunity to see if the lack of the lifetime subscription would hurt sales. Apparently, they determined that the HDMI models still sold well, so that is why they are sunsetting the lifetime subscription on their network models.

Yep.

Profits… We have companies asking users to pay subscriptions for heated seats in their cars. Software is increasingly changing to a subscription model. For Tablo to continue innovating they have to get people to upgrade to new equipment, get new customers, or charge reoccurring subscription fees. My guess is they don’t have enough new equipment sales to drive revenue. Many companies are getting rid of lifetime services.

Tablo is a standup company for honoring their lifetime subscriptions unlike some other companies. I’ve had bigger companies like Yahoo decide they didn’t charge enough and cancel my “lifetime” subscription.

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It had been clarified, when the HDMI version was released: Nov 17, 2020:

It’s possible for an HDMI Tablo to handle a lifetime subscription? They just won’t sell new ones.

Bingo.

You could always use an already purchased Lifetime subscription on an HDMI device.

Suspect most users only spend money on one Tablo, and storage. Of course many Community members have multiple devices… but we aren’t representative of typical users.

When they came out with their new Quad a couple years back they couldn’t keep them in stock long enough. Yea, if you allow firmware upgrade to legacy devices to have the same features as new ones… there’s little reason to ever buy a new one.

As for the “subscription”. I believe the data actually comes from a 3rd party - Gracenote, so there’s likely minimal profit for Nuvyyo. It does allow them some structure for a DB for the shows/series, networks and all that info for organization.

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