I bought through Amazon and return period ended. When this device works - it seem to work great. But when it is bad, it seems to take control of the Fire TV and nothing works. What gives? One would THINK that the programmers of TABLO would have their act together by now…This reminds me of my workplace developing their own software and not having a handle on making it work right. WHERE should I start to begin understanding what I need to know about this thing? For example, do I need an upgraded Fire stick? Is my antenna the problem?
Tablo really does need a good OTA-antenna to start with. I have the Antenna Direct
ClearStream 2MAX UHF VHF mounted outside on my roof. I’m ~25 miles from tower in Chicagoland area. Next you need a above average home network system. My split level house is not really easy to wire ethernet cable so I brought WIFI 6E mesh router.
Next up I needed to upgrade my Roku to Ultra and glad I did. Much better performance. We recently got a new Fire-TV for the bedroom and I don’t have no problem with Tablo streaming. I checked my Roku Ultra WIFI signal and got fantastic results. Wish Tablo had this feature to check WIFI speed it is receiving too.
Anyway Tablo needs all to be up to par otherwise I whole hardheartedly agree the Tablo experience is frustrating.
Now you need to post your specs and approx. location for us folks to offer some advice 
I will say that being a cord-cutter before it was a thing, we have had an antenna for over 25 years now. I will take the hiccups of the Tablo because it has saved me $$$$.
I looked at Homerun HD but they also have issues too. Go look on their forum if you want to. So I preach here that you have to pick your poison and live with the issues to save the dough.
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Well-written, @Ed_InstrEd.
Thanks for your quick response…it gives me hope. Came from a fire recast system hooked to table top set of rabbit ears so I guess I have been spoiled. Recast was a good one.
All the broadcast towers are in the same location about 12 miles away. But it is hilly here in east TN and I happen to be in a little bit of a low spot. Definitely not line of sight. But Recast worked well most of the time without needing to adjust the antenna. I sense that an outdoor antenna would help. But what I dont understand is when Tablo receives a channel fine and then doesnt receive the same channel a few hours later.
What do you mean I need an “above average home network”? I can, with some effort, hook the Tablo with an E cable. Is that an above average network?
I operate all 5+ TV on fire sticks. I’m sure they are all on different versions.
“Tablo needs to be up to par.” Doesnt having the latest update do this? What else can I do?
Have you run into situations where Tablo crashes and just “takes over” the fire TV such that you cant make the TV do anything. Have power down everything and reboot everything.
Willing to learn.
Yes, use an Ethernet cable between the router and Tablo. Make sure it says Cat-5e or 6 (not Cat-5 or blank). Then make sure your streaming devices can connect via wifi to your router with a strong wifi signal. The streaming device you use should have a wifi speed test; check it and make sure you get a good, consistent speed reading once connected.
Hopefully, if you have a good antenna signal, you won’t have any problems. My neighbor, who is a total tech novice, set hers up and uses the flat antenna provided by Tablo and we’re 15-16 miles from the towers. She said hers is working fine. Of course, it’s flat here in Texas but there’s a lot of trees and buildings between here and those broadcast towers.
There are instructions on the Tablo Support site for changing the Tablo wifi to Ethernet and adding an external hard drive (probably recommended). You’ll be able to record much, much more with an external drive.
Let us know how you fare with some possible upgrades.
EDIT: BTW, those rabbit ears should still work - make sure you turn on the amp in the Tablo Settings.
try to put the rabbit ears up high if possible. Here in suburbs of Chicago the same antenna I put on the roof I tried indoors just to see what I could receive. I know there were a couple stations that were flaky for me. Tablo needs a good signal for their tuners. One of my recommendations to them last year when they have a new model they really should pick a higher quality tuner.
What rabbit ear antenna do you have?
I’ve heard good things about this one https://store.televes.com/innova.html for an indoor unit.
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