Have you seen the cost of TiVo? Versus the cost of Tablo
It’s called capitalism, you get what you pay for. Tablo is great and it will only get better.
@theuser86
I know the cost of TIVO.
Equipment 50 USD (4 tuner OTA only at best buy brand new) + 14 USD,month (Year Contract) = 218 First yer. Second Year = 168 USD
Now the cost of Tablo:
Equipment 300 USD + 60 (1 TB HDD) + 80 (Roku 3) + 50/ Year (Year Contract) = 490 First Year. Second Year = 50 USD
Two year TIVO = 386
Two year Tablo = 540
Three year TIVO: 554
Three year Tablo: 590
In a three year agreement TIVO is cheaper than Tablo. And three year is a long way in technology these days.
You were saying about capitalism?
@theuser86
I know the cost of TIVO.
Equipment 50 USD (4 tuner OTA only at best buy brand new) + 14 USD,month (Year Contract) = 218 First yer. Second Year = 168 USD
Now the cost of Tablo:
Equipment 300 USD + 60 (1 TB HDD) + 80 (Roku 3) + 50/ Year (Year Contract) = 490 First Year. Second Year = 50 USD
Two year TIVO = 386
Two year Tablo = 540
Three year TIVO: 554
Three year Tablo: 590
In a three year agreement TIVO is cheaper than Tablo. And three year is a long way in technology these days.
You were saying about capitalism?
Tivo supports just one tv unlike Tablo. I have multiple connections to tablo and even when I am not at home. I have seen the tivo connection to stream which is worse than sling.
Yes if you want to watch just on one TV then your calculation is right and Tivo is cheaper. But most of the houses these days has atleast two tv’s if not more(4 in my house). If you caculate for that then tivo price keeps going up and also complicated to connect all the tv’s to one tivo.
@girimurthy
You are right about that.
But my point is that TIVO interface (on TV) is light years ahead compare to Tablo on TV (as today). Then that “cheaper” is not so “cheap” when you balance the functionality that you get (very rudimentary PVR).
Yes, you may stream to multiples TV (and using multiples ROKU) but you get a vary rudimentary user interface.
I trust that Tablo will improve user functionality on is Roku (that account for over 65% of streams) or people will do the same math.
Have you seen /used TIVO interface or any other PVR? Have you seen how TIVO handle FF (30 seconds)/preview, Backward, Live TV, Live TV channel control, Channel grid, recording up to X episodes, Recovery deleted episodes, etc. And i am taking about very basic day to day features and not the crazy ones.
@alex we actually went from TiVo to Tablo. The TiVo UX is top-shelf (mostly). But we watch 90% of our content through Netflix and Amazon Instant Video, and Netflix on my Premiere was a pretty poor experience. And of course Prime Instant Video is non-existent. We also could only watch anything that we recorded on TiVo on the downstairs TV, which was sometimes annoying.
I spent several months trying to figure out a whole-home TV solution that would utilize our existing Rokus. And along came Tablo. TBH, we’ve worked out the whole FFW/REW thing on Tablo pretty well now, so I don’t regret it in the slightest.
@pundit
I do use mostly Netflix, Vudu and other on demand providers trough ROKU 3. Very good product indeed.
For TV i was also looking for a solution to record major broadcasters (CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS). Aereo was a nice product but you already know what happened there.
About TIVO is not only the FF/preview, it is for example being able to extend the start and end per program (for example NBC CSI never starts/ends on time), being able to recover programs (sometimes a family member delete something by mistake). Being able to easily move live across channel for casual TV watching / recording. Being able to see the programing grid on the TV. Also, for example having a correct subtitles (which also Tablo lacks).
I agree, H.264 encoding is top notch (for a non-commercial device) on Tablo but user experience really required a heavy lift.
Your financial comparison is a little biased given to get a similar functionality with the TiVo products you need the TiVo Stream which is another $130 product. And even then it only supports iOS devices (doesn’t mention Apple TV support), so no Android support and you’re still stuck only viewing on 1 TV.
Most users purchasing a Tablo are going to have more than one TV.
Second, TiVo does not support Canadian OTA. I know our whole country is the size of one of your states but there’s something to say about supporting all two very similar countries.
@theuser86
You are right about the extra device needed. I should have added to the calculations:
Two year TIVO = 516
Two year Tablo = 540
Still in two years, Tablo is more expensive than TIVO. And two years is a long time in technology.
To be fair, Tablo is a better and more flexible streamer than TIVO (with the added device), but i said, Roku is 65% Tablo’s market, then those very important TIVO feature that Tablo lacks will really make a difference.
Why do you say that Tivo does not support Canadian OTA? As far as i know, TIVO does support digital OTA in Canada. For channel lineup TIVO uses http://www.zap2it.com that do have CANADIAN OTA schedules and most Canadian channel uses ATSC digital tunner like the one TIVO has.
Straight from the horses mouth, says TiVo is only available to Cogeco cable customers. No mention of their OTA DVR working here.
@theuser86
It does not mean that is not supported. Canada TV tuner uses ATSC and same frequencies as in the US. TV standard are the same in the US and in Canada. That's why TiVo is supported in both places. As I said analog channel are not supported in US or Canada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television_in_Canada
Some people in Canada that uses TiVo for OTA
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=498900&highlight=canada
I also looked at Tivo and only 1 TV killed it for me. I look at it this way. I at least have a whole home DVR solution and the UI is only going to get better for no new investment on my part. I saw nothing to indicate that Tivo is going to support multiple TVs for no new investment on my part. The choice was clear for me based on my priorities.
And Tivo can be expanded only upto 1 TB(see below). Right now Table can accept upto 2 TB and they are working on to expand that. I already have close to 1 TB recorded in my tablo. With Tivo roamie I need to start deleting now to accommodate more programs. Also check Tivo Mini - you need a moca network to connect to the main box. And you need to pay subscription too for it.
And another point is if you want to buy lifetime subscription then the price for Tivo goes even higher but in Tablo it is by the id and not the number of devices you have.
So you are comparing something that can store way less recordings and support just 1 tv to something which can do more. Agree there are some UI problems but Tablo is working hard to fix the same.
500GB hard drive
Offers room to store up to 75 hours of high-definition programming. The digital video recorder is expandable up to 1TB via an eSATA external storage port.
This thread is getting a bit off topic, but c’est la vie.
Yes the OTA signal is the same in Canada requiring the same hardware, and yes the EPG data source has Canadian channels but does the actual TiVo OTA DVR support the Canadian channels and the EPG properly? This I don’t know and I can find any confirmation of such on Google. Plus not to mention I can’t find the TiVo OTA DVR to purchase anywhere in Canada.
So bringing it back on topic. I look forward to the Roku Channel update. It sounds like it will be huge improvement rounding out the living room experience for Tablo. Can’t wait!!!
Agree with you about the recording space or the Life subscription.
I believe that User Interface (UI) is paramount in any product.
Your statement that has Tablo on Roku “some UI problem” is really an understatement. Look at the list i have compile so far:
- Subtitles scrambled and works funny
- No FF 30 seconds or FF/ Preview. no BF/Preview.
- No Grid type schedule
- Go between channels is VERY painful
- Fast reverse works funny, sometimes stops after reverse and sometimes does not.
- No save latest X episodes
- Can not set to record X minutes before and X minutes after (very important because some programs do not start on time)
@girimurthyAgree with you about the recording space or the Life subscription.I believe that User Interface (UI) is paramount in any product.Your statement that has Tablo on Roku "some UI problem" is really an understatement. Look at the list i have compile so far:- Subtitles scrambled and works funny- No FF 30 seconds or FF/ Preview. no BF/Preview.- No Grid type schedule- Go between channels is VERY painful- Fast reverse works funny, sometimes stops after reverse and sometimes does not.- No save latest X episodes- Can not set to record X minutes before and X minutes after (very important because some programs do not start on time)
I agree but I am sure
1) Tablo is working on the subtitle and should be fixed soon(fingers crossed)
2) I understand I did not have this issue as I programmed my remote but I understand it is a bg issue. But if you need just 30 sec you can just use the direction right three times
3) They are def. working on the grid issue which should be fixed soon
4) The latest beta the channels did switch a little faster and I am hoping they will speed up later
and the rest was in their radar to immd fix but hoping that too will come in. I do see lots of improvements in Tablo from the day I brought which was months ago to now. So I am hoping in another 6-8 months atleast the major issues are resolved.
@girimurthy
Nice to hear 
I would say that being able to start recording X minutes before and end X minutes after it’s end is the most important since it can not be done today on any Tablo interface.
Thank you !
It can be done pretty easily on the Tablo today. Just set up a manual recording, and you have all that flexibility to start and end when you want.
@snowcat
Manual recording is an option, yes, but the whole idea of this is to have an schedule that you can use for recording AND a flexible recorder that allow some BASIC features like this one (among several others).
I can set manual recording BUT any change of schedule will kill it, that's the whole plan of having (and paying) for 2 weeks of programing...
Things will get slowly fixed (I can only hope). Till then we must wait patiently.