Newbie neeeds info

Thank you so much for all the reference info and suggestions. One thing I am doing immediately is to buy a ROKU streaming stick to familiarize me with streaming. I will decide on what to do about the recording video recorder at a later time.

One thing to consider now then is a Netflix subscription. $8/month will get you SD resolution for 1 stream while $11/month will get you 2 streams of HD. They have a vast selection of shows & movies for viewing at any time you choose. Amazon Prime & Hulu are similar services at similar prices. Just remember that these services do not provide you with any live TV channels but rather on demand content.

Roku lately (and now we are way beyond the purpose of Tablo forums) has at least one channel of itā€™s own content as well as a few others that are ad-supported. Outside of that, you should view Roku as the gateway through which you get to watch other streaming services.

Depending on the make/model of your TV, you may well have some ā€œchannelsā€ or ā€œappsā€ that allow connection to similar services, meaning that depending on your budget, you may not need to buy a Roku.

Iā€™m an OAP too, mate, and I use the Roku with the Tablo4 and it works quite well. The only fly in the ointment is that Roku puts out bodged up releases every now and then that can make it painful until they fix it.

2 Likes

John, thanks for the input. What is not clear to me at this time is where is the Roku connected? Is it hooked up to the TV?

Norman

T

Permit me to reply. I doubt that that configuration is of use to you.

Roku connects to the TV via HDMI. The Roku stick has the HDMI plug on it

Then the Roku (or Roku Stick) also has to connect to the Internet (more on this later). Then you can install streaming apps on the Roku to obtain content over the Internet to stream to your TV.

(aside: Some new, so-called ā€œSmartā€ TVs also can connect to the Internet and then they have similar apps natively on them that can provide the same content)

Now this is where, in hindsight, the Tablo solution for you will break down. You most likely share the Retirement Ccommunity Internet and does not have an Internet connection of your own. So your Tablo, your Roku, and optionally your TV will all connect to the shared Internet. That already presents problems since Tablo does not perform optimally if it is not connected via Ethernet to the router.

There are solutions to this, but I honestly donā€™t think it will fly and in the end it may cost a bundle.

Iā€™m going to reiterate that you are probably better off if you need over-the-air DVR capability, to get a Tivo Roamio or the other solution (Channelmaster?) that were mentioned in this thread.

About that think I promised to talk about later. If your cable provider does not want you to connect a DVR to the shared cable/Internet, they may also balk about you connecting a Tablo and/or Roku. Also, both of those significantly loads the Internet connection, which may be detrimental to those you share with.

Thanks so much for your input. I am afraid I have a difficult chore ahead of me. Your info helps a lot.

Itā€™s not that hard. I honestly think you are best served by either investigating YoutubeTV (or a similar streaming service) or an antenna with a Tivo Roamio,

All the other things are just noise, and less likely solutions.

Tablo unfortunately is not the solution for you - even the Tablo guys will tell you that. Tablo is meant to receive OTA signal and store it (DVR) for later streaming to multiple clients for viewing. If can of course stream live TV, but IMHO, thatā€™s a special case of DVR, since it allows you to pause Live TV which isā€¦DVR. :slight_smile:

That is why I asked the question. I was afraid I didnā€™t understand the problem

I concur with this thought.

Any streaming solution is going to be a heavy load on the shared community internet. Tablo, while not a heavy load on the internet, will impose a heavy load on the local wifi network which in your case is also shared. Thus if you already have an antenna then going with an OTA DVR that connects directly to your TV is probably the prudent option.

Even though I had a tivo roamio ota that lasted only 13 months, I have pretty well decided to go back that way.

I donā€™t know why it failed, but by a good surge suppressor and run the antenna and the electrical connections through that. If you can justify it in your own mind, buy it with an extended warranty or with a credit card that offers an automatic extended warranty.

I never buy extended warrantys on electronic equipment which I consider throw-away. but on this device I decided that it was too compliicated in such a small space. The warranty company did refund the original cost EXCEPT they didnā€™t pay for the sales tax nor the shipping costs. I feel good about the warranty company.

You scored! Wise move. :smiley:

Hey @tabloTV tell your bot to get stuffed. :slight_smile:

Iā€™m talking to this man and not to anyone else (in this thread).

1 Like

try otadtv.com

Thanks.