Bought a Tablo 3 years ago and couldn’t get it to work due to requiring a Winegard booster with my antenna and Tablo didn’t play nice with it. Since they supposedly fixed that and price drop, I decided to try again. Got it and tried setting it up last weekend and I was ready to return it after all the failures to get through the setup. Joined the forum to see if there was help and found Tablo was having issues so sat until Monday. Still couldn’t get through the last 2% of the set up so called the help desk. Very nice and had me try a few things I had already tried but marched on anyway. Didn’t help. She took my unit number and promised to get back to me. I received an email 2-3 hours later saying it was fixed. I tried it after resetting the Tablo and I am now a happy user! This thing works like a dream. Been using it for 2 days now and no issues other than a few blank channel program displaying. I have T-Mobile Internet running at over 600 Mb. I have it set on wireless. I have my Winegard antenna booster and Tablo’s booster both turned on. I have it on 2 TVs in 2 separate rooms. I am using Roku Streaming Stick 4K on Samsung TVs. This thing works perfectly and I couldn’t be happier! I realize I’m only 2 days in but recording works, picture quality is great, and very easy to find what you want using the Roku remote.
BTW, I’m 75 years old, 60+ miles southwest of Chicago, not really a tech guy, but I’m not a quitter either. I keep searching and hacking until I get things right or I finally give up. I wish you all good luck and keep the faith. I think they will get everything right soon. The only thing I worry about is I don’t see a money stream for them. I am expecting some type of advertising or monthly fees down the road after they get it straight.
awesome to hear! Congrats!
You will find a lot of problems and complaints on here… because this is the place for problems and complaints. I have had Tablo for just about a year now, and while I will not pretend that it is perfect, it has been relatively trouble-free for me. I really love my Tablo, and having canceled my DirecTV, my current savings (even taking into account my expenses for the Tablo, good antenna, network sorting, etc.) is about $1500.
One thing I would suggest, if you do a lot of recording like I do, an external hard-drive is a good idea. Oh, and make sure your Tablo is places somewhere it won’t over heat.
Thank you KimchiGUN and KGBnut for your comments. Love your names but maybe a little scared too…lol I did see someone asking about an additional hard drive on the forum so I’ll see what experts(?) recommend… We don’t record very much and we usually delete after awhile so may not need one but I’m open to it… Thanks again!!!
I hear that a lot. It just happens to be my initials.
I agree with KimchiGUN on that hard drive recommendation. I use, and use to recommend, using an SSD, but as I have learned more about them I now believe that a standard HHD is the better choice for a device that is constantly recording and erasing, like the Tablo does.
Even if you don’t record a lot, you might be surprised how quickly the internal memory fills up. The advertised ‘up to 50 hours’ is really only if you are recording low resolution shows. HiDef takes up a lot more memory. Try it as is for a while. There is a little “fuel gauge” on the bottom left of the Library page. It will tell you how much you are using. You can always add an external drive later.
One of the problems with a smaller drive is if you like to save programs, like every episode of Chicago PD, it fills up. The problem is, you can’t expand beyond the 2tb without losing everything. I ran into that and bought another tablo and 8tb drive… both work together nicely.
Thanks for the comments. I think I’ll do this HDD above. Is it as simple as plug in the USB and play or will it take me through a setup? Just wondering before plugging it in…Thanks…
It’s plug and pray. Once the Tablo detects the drive it will format it and make it ready to use. Then all recordings will record there. If you did have recordings on the built in HD, they will still be available as well. My understanding at least.
Kendall, looking at your choice again, I noticed it does not have it’s own power supply. As far as I know, that’s asking for problems. Should be a plug in external drive.
It does have one…
- This USB drive provides plug and play simplicity with the included 18 inch USB 3.0 cable
I love the plug and pray comment!!! lol I know that one well!
Just “test” recordings so far. New shows don’t start for another month or two…
No disrespect intended but RUFUS says it does not have a power supply – I tried a external drive without a power supply and worked very poorly. Getting power from the USB will overwhelm the tablo’s power supply.
Does it need an external power source?
The Seagate Portable 2TB External Hard Drive is powered via the USB port and does not require an external power supply.
Maybe a good point jeoware. I’ll look for one with external power also…
jeoware, researching and not finding one with external power source. Research says there is such a thing but not finding it on Amazon yet…
@jeoware is not wrong but I’ve been using a 2TB drive with my Tablo and no external power supply since I got it at the end of 2023. Haven’t had any problems yet.
Might look closer at SSD versus HDD since it uses less power
SSDs consume significantly less power than HDDs during both active and idle states . On average, SSDs consume around 2-3 watts during active use, while HDDs can consume up to 6-7 watts or more.
Adding this photo since HDD and SSD don’t relate in my brain. I’m guessing HDD or SSD will work fine. Any comments? Although the SSD is double the price…
I bought Sandisk SSDs at Costco.
Can return for any reason at any time.
compact no noise low power, and i prefer no moving parts. for me, worth the expense.
@tabjoe… I’m learning how to connect to another person… Thanks tabjoe! I think I’ll go that direction. We are getting a new Costco in Yorkville, IL they say opening in November but can’t wait that long…lol Actually looks like a better product.
Check out this Tablo article.
How to Expand Recording Storage on the 4th Generation Tablo DVR – Tablo