Make Tablo like the new AirTV DVR and Integrate the Guide with others (old thread)

Tablo has NEW competitor with a DVR.
The new AirTV now has a DVR AND it integrates right into the GUIDE and DVR list with Sling.

PROPOSAL

But what about the other guys, like Hulu, DirectvNOw, or Fubol? I know this proposal has been mention before with Playstation. Tablo just needs to partner up with One or All and offer up an API call to their Guide and DVR menu. It is an API call so it would not be too hard to do.

The idea is ONE Unified TV Guide for Cable and OTA and One Unified DVR list all on the same App just like Sling TV does today.

The idea is Tablo would sell tons of Hardware if they integrated the Table Guide and DVR list partnering up with some other provider.
Both would make a lot of money.

  1. The Streamer for Cable (Hulu, Fubol ect) would not have to do all locals (like Sling does not) and make more money as the subscription would stay low.

  2. Tablo would make a ton of money in Hardware sales AND the Subscription for the OTA guide and DRV $5 a month.

Both would win.

This analogy is flawed on several fronts:

  1. Sling does not “integrate” with any entity whatsoever. The Air TV Player didn’t go out and find someone to “partner” with. The Air TV Player is made by Dish / Sling. Subscribers to Sling service can view their (own) OTA channels in the same guide as the Sling channels if they are subscribers. They may also choose to view only OTA, whether they are Sling subscribers or not.
  1. Air TV Player is not a “new competitor” it’s been around for over almost two years. And though it does have a DVR function, it is more like TIVO than Tablo … it is hard-wired to a specific TV, meaning One-Box-One-TV, whereas Tablo connects to an Antenna (any antenna, anywhere) and streams to any TV / all TVs in your home (and elsewhere).

  2. Tablo is a maker of a (Hardware) box, which uses an ingenious approach to viewing OTA signals in places other than the location of the nearest antenna feed. Sling / Dish on the other hand, is a streaming service. They made a box (based on the Android TV platform) and incorporated their own streaming service into it.

  3. Sling / Air TV does not “unify” or have a “unified DVR” or guide. The DVR is limited to use of ONE antenna feed (which must be close to the antenna lead and TV to which it is tethered), and only for OTA channels. It can not be used for, nor record from any other source, unless you are a paying subscriber to their service - and even then, you must pay an additional $5.00 per month on top of your subscription cost.

  4. There is another OTA / DVR product that does “unifiy” an OTA feed with live channels on the internet, (but not to any streaming service) and it’s not the Air TV. It is the Channel Master Stream +. The live channel stream is limited specifically to aggregated, ad-supported content, which (at the moment) is Pluto TV. If you really want to go out and unify, you can add short clips from Haystack news and movie trailers from Google Play.

To summarize: The Air TV player is a One-Tuner DVR, for One TV, fed from One Antenna. If you spring for the new upgrade, you can make that a Two-Tuner DVR (for one TV / one antenna). That new tuner is $29.99, ships fast, arrives quickly.

Air TV is not a partner of Sling / Dish, it was promulgated by them, to further subscription base. It incorporates a rudimentary DVR which strictly limits it’s use to the box owners OTA channels and / or Sling channels if the box owner is willing to subscribe - and pay an extra $5.00 per month, on top of the subscription cost.

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I am just offering up suggestions to add features and for Tablo API calls to make more money .
Right Off I get shot down, I thought this thread is where you offer suggestions.

I would think share holders of the company would want to look at ideas for improvement or ideas to make more profit and read this thread.

I see the confusion on the rest of the posting.
I am talking about the Airtv Box not the very old AirTV Player.
AirTV LLC

It is a Two Tuner DVR. It is a black box.
Record Two things at once while watching up to 3 other streams.
Very similar in design to the Tablo Tech except it is tied to the Sling App OR the AirTV App, but it could work with other apps if they wanted it to.

I have see the AIRTV first hand. The guide is 100% unified and so is the DVR list.
The old AirTV Player is not.

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The same rules apply to the (non-streaming) Air TV box. It is a 2-tuner box, promulgated by Sling / Dish that incorporates Sling’s own channel lineup (for subscribers) with the box owner’s OTA setup.

Like the Air TV player, it can be used by non-subscribers of Sling, showing (and recording) the owner’s OTA feed … or, that and the Sling content if he / she subscribes. I do own one, ordered when the price point hit $119, but consider the Air TV player a better all around solution, as it provides all the benefits of the (black box) Sling DVR with the added benefit of Streaming services.

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It is coming . . .

The FireTV recast has announced integration with Playstation Vue Live TV.
It will be on the main home screen on the FireTV menu.
It will show the OTA channels for what is on now live AND the Playstation Vue Cable channels.
I have seen first hand the Playstation Vue on the FireTV home screen in a row called Whats on now.
The Recast is coming soon and Amazon announce they will integrate on the SAME whats on now row.

All I am saying is is coming and Table needs to think hard about integration with someone.
Air TV has it and . FireTV ReCast is starting.
Were will Tablo be at a year form now. Things are changing fast.

If the FireTV ReCast UI is anything like my Fire TV stick gen 2 UI, I think I’ll pass.

I would rather have my finger nails pulled out by pliers.

I’ve seen the Recast first hand, and do have one pre-ordered (4-Tuner). It’s something of a stretch to compare Tablo with the massive base, finances and resources of a multi-billion dollar company (Amazon). Sony is probably paying them tens of millions (or even much more) in stock, currency and / or through mutual cross-agreements (trade in services agreements, etc.). Sony has 18 billion dollars to bring to the table (Amazon about five times that much).

This is nothing like the little Sling box (either of them), manufactured / promulgated by them for their own content, so that analogy is also flawed.

During development of Recast, Amazon made an exclusive agreement with PS Vue, much like when a major streaming entity negotiates to have a shortcut button on a Roku remote, but with much higher stakes … to the tune of a couple gazillion bucks.

Not sure what you mean by “integration”, but here’s the arrangement: the Channel Guide will show Box owner’s OTA feed. Those wishing to subscribe to PS Vue (and current subscribers of PS Vue) will be able to see their content in same guide. For people who don’t subscribe to PS Vue, they’ll only see their own OTA content.

In other words: PS Vue is not a part of the Recast system, and is in not in the underlying code or interface. When a Recast owner subscribes to PS Vue, he can pull that content into his guide (or continue to view it through the PS Vue app).

Will Recast save PS Vue?

Some say it only has 670K customers and their market share is shrinking. Maybe Jeff Bezos will open his checkbook and write a check to buy Sony and rename it Bezos. That would result in total Amazon integration.

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It’s the other way around. Sony’s writing the (big, fat) check to Amazon, in hopes that this gambit will help pull in a couple tons of subscribers, and you are absolutely right - they’re clinging to a shrinking market share, they’re throwing a lot of eggs into this basket. Some of this expense was recouped in advance by the recent price hikes.

The Amazon Chanel Guide / Recast UI looks like this:

When you click on a program, you’ll see a preview tile in the upper right of the screen, a frozen frame from the current (live feed) show, in this case, Stargate SG-1. The little white tile you see in the lower right, is a picture-in-picture live feed of the program.

When you go out of the Program Guide, you’ll see the same GUI as is on the Fire TV devices, with a couple differences.

In this case, you’re seeing the Row of Live Tiles from the Program Guide. As you highlight each one, you’ll get a moving, live tile with sound in real time. The Image you see in the upper right corner here is not an image, but a small “screen” a Picture-in-Picture. This will continue to change, as you highlight each tile, giving you a live, real-time preview of each applicable program. You can go directly to a desired program by clicking that tile, rather than to go back to the Guide / Grid, and you can scroll (from left to right) all the way through to the last channel.

Here’s the best part: You can set this to boot up on the Channel Guide, every time you turn it on and tune in, thereby foregoing the entire Fire Interface altogether.

Amazon is (finally) looking at re-tooling it’s “start page” and GUI, not a moment too soon. The “improvements” they’ve made over the last few years have gotten enough negative feedback, to where they are (finally) taking a new look at it.

Is PS Vue holding market share?

Ps Vue moved from 400K subscribers to 670K. It trails Sling (2.1M) and Directv (1M). Just ahead of Hulu Live (450K) and YouTube (300k).

Some say the total market is 5M customers. Leaving Ps Vue at less then 14%.

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They’re probably hoping this will get them back to their 100K subscriber base and beyond, using Amazon as the platform. They may be pricing themselves out of the market, with the recent increase, you’re paying $45 for the basic package (of 48 channels), four or five of which, people like us already have (the local affiliates). They go all the way up to 80 bucks a month, which (by that time) you might as well be going CABLE. The whole premise of “cordcutting” is to cut those number along with the cords.

It never made any sense that a Tablo user would want to integrate with an OTT service that includes local OTA channels.

You pay Ps Vue for local channels that you already receive. I would rather go with SlingTV blue without tablo integration. When I get to the point where I can’t push a button or two I’m moving into assisted living.

I really doubt Sony is paying as much as you think to integrate with Amazon. Amazon is releasing a slew of products integrating with Alexa. ReCast is just one of them.

Amazon wants to scrape as much, if not more, user data then Facebook. PS Vue just adds to the data flow.

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Apologies, it is.

There are lots of products to integrate with if the business model makes sense.

But is it PS Vue?

KEY POINT
With the stream services you are lucky to get ABC CBS NBC and FOX, 4 channels.

With AirTV, Fire Recast, and Table you get for me 35 MORE Channels some that I really like all for free like
METV and COMET (Star Trek, Space 1992, ect) . Plus PBS and more all to DVR

All 35 channels are free (big plus) AND you dont use any internet , important for those like me with Data caps with Cox cable.

Well worth the cost of buy a tablo to me, just wished it was all on one nice Guide menu (cable and OTA).
One can only dream and wish.
I tried the Sling TV integration with AirTV, but the Airtv does no allow to pause live TV, even most of the cable channels did not allow rewind. It just did not seem ready yet. Also the Air TV kept crashing.
Table seems very solid and perfected.

Tablo would need to find a service to integrate with that complements it’s product and not compete against it’s product.

Slingtv has airnet products. Maybe something like philo.

The problem with philo is that it’s targeting the super low end cost customer. They probably wouldn’t pay for a DVR and service.

Of course some day an industry standard might be approved and implemented across OTT products that allows simple plug-n-play integration.

There’s another problem; it’s completely legal for a consumer in the U.S. to record off air transmissions for their personal use, but all of the OTT services have a different model, where copies may or may not be legal for the consumer to own, record, and time shift/commercial skip. It’s one thing for a Dish Network with millions of subs to negotiate these rights, and ultimately control what the consumer does with the content, it’s another for a small device manufacturer with an open interface to do so.

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philo already has limited DVR service (called saving shows) and allows you to start shows in progress from the beginning. Philo is cheap because it has no sports or news, which are expensive. Philo started on college campuses as philo.edu and I’m sure the are after younger types getting out of college looking for cheap TV service. Philo investors include HBO, Mark Cuban and Andrew McCollum (Facebook) and I read somewhere that several content providers also have a stake.

Do any of the current OTA DVR products let OTT programing to be recorded on a local disk?

I don’t think even airnet products can record slingtv programing on the local disk.

I thought what people were initially looking for was integrated program guide.