I read the forums and if there is an answer I didn’t understand it. This is a really simple question. If I buy a dual tuner model and I have 10 tv’s that all want to watch the same live tv show, at the same time, can they? I don’t have 10 tv’s, but everyone keeps talking about different tuners for different shows, and I understand that. What I don’t understand is if a different tuner is required for each live stream, even if they are streaming the same channel. Thanks.
I was just able to concurrently play a completed recording, on my internal network, on the following devices:
5 tabs - Mozilla Firefox
4 tabs - MS Edge (Chromium)
1 Roku
…
10 total concurrent playbacks
I don’t believe I reached a limit, I just got bored. 
A few years ago there use to a strange phenomena for live TV.
Say you had a 2-tuner, 2 or more users could watch the same channel say 8-1. It appeared they were using 1 tuner for the various streams. But if the user switched to a different channel or sub-channel a different tuner was selected and all users above the 2 limit were dropped.
They same may be true for watching the same recorded show.
So instead of trying to explain all these various combos they define things as a lower limit. And that is what a user should assume.
Not to forget maximum minium users/streams
Wonder how those count in the “device” math. I know that chart says 6 devices simultaneously but I wonder how multiple tabs in the same browser count.
While the 2 browsers shared the same IP address, each browser tab played the recording at a different time spot in the recording.
I have a tool I use to export recordings…I once had 26 concurrent exports happening on my Tablo. That is I was exporting 26 different episodes of the same series.
I wasn’t particularly concerned regarding speed, and I can tell you it was running slower than when I had 2-3 exports running simultaneously…
Export isn’t the same as ‘watching’, but the net effect is the same…I’m putting a load on my Tablo to provide the stream, and I’m putting a load on my network to transfer the data.
So…the limit, when you are talking about already recorded content is different than something needing a tuner…I won’t/can’t get into what requires a tuner…but we’ll just say your mileage may vary
OK. Thanks to everyone for your help. Lets see if I understand. Both the dual lite and quad can officially stream recordings to six devices simultaneously. Apparently they can also stream live TV to six devices also as long as all six are watching the same stream. Now, assume the Tablo and all devices ( TV, Roku, laptop, etc ) are connected by gigabyte ethernet cable so the router bandwidth and throughput are not factors. The Tablo app works by contacting the Tablo through the routers local IP address, allowing you to select what you want, say stream this show. The receiving device, lets say a Roku, connects through the routers local IP to the Tablo IP stream. Six devices will connect to that same IP address. However, the limitation of six has nothing to do with the software, but the limit of the Tablo’s processing power, ie chipset, CPU, GPU, whatever. It is a hardware capability limitation. Now, if the dual and quad both have the same chipset, CPU, etc ( hardware and speed ) except for the two extra enabled tuners, their performance should be the same for two or less streams. If the dual can be purchased on sale for half the price of the quad, wouldn’t it be better to buy two duals than one quad. Yes you would have to buy two hard drives, but instead of a 1 TB, you could buy two 500 GB. Performance would be double one quad. Opinions?
I have 3 2-tuners. It’s for redundancy. Nothing to do with performance.
Each 2-tuner requires it’s own subscription.
Since there isn’t a unified view of multiple units some users have a hard time wrapping their minds around managing two or more separate units.
i suspect its software limiting the hardware
one quad would be nicer i could use one app to access all 4 tuners for scheduling and find shows
Doesn’t tablo have a reduced tuner availability when using the highest recording quality on a 4 tuner model.
And if so, why would one suspect that software is the limiting factor?
Doesn’t this depend on the resolution on the channels being recorded as well? Wouldn’t it be software programing deciding how to precede?
First is says it’s disabled, then it says fail safe is to lower quality on 4th recording… I’m not sure how both work
In order to preserve image quality across streams, Tablo’s fourth tuner will be temporarily disabled if any 720p stations are being recorded at 60 fps. This is true ONLY for 4-tuner, Tablo QUAD, and Tablo QUAD 1TB DVRs using the HD1080 – 10Mbps, 720@60fps recording quality.
If a tuner cannot be reserved, (i.e, if four recordings are occurring at once), Tablo will automatically record the last scheduled airing at 30fps instead of 60fps.
This failsafe is only put into action on the 4th active recording, which is why this is NOT seen on 2-tuner Tablo DVRs.
It is concluded that it’s simple to fix
simply change your Tablo DVR’s recording quality to 1080 @ 8Mbps
I understood this to be recording/watching - the question started
I was following this, streaming recordings vs live TV. It’s likely software limits the number of active streams, before the hardware does.
Taking into account the disclaimer - How many people can watch Tablo Recordings or Live TV at once?
If the Tablo uses Wi-Fi to connect to your home router, the number of simultaneous views could be cut in half.