Newbie: Proposed system & compare to TiVo

I’m going to try answer all the questions. I appreciate all your responses. Obviously I am new on this forum, but so far I have not figured out how to do multiple responses in one post.
(Boy, my TiVo Q really sparked a lot of “dialog!”)

I have XFinity boxes on all my remote TV’s.

OUTSTANDING REPLY! You really nailed it.

AND ANOTHER OUTSTANDING REPLY!
With even more useful info.
I got the feeling from several things I’d read that TiVo subscriptions might be an issue. Your observations nail that down.
I had already realized the TiVo Mini’s were expensive compared to everybody else’s remote box.

BOY, CHRIS, YOU GUYS HAVE REALLY NAILED THIS DOWN FOR ME.
Talk about on-point experience with EXACTLY the options I’d been contemplating.

Great. “Wired” seems like it must be better in many situations. But I thought that the Stick+ was their latest and greatest. I checked ROKU and Amazon to review.

Honda Fit is their latest and greatest subcompact car. That doesn’t make it useful for taking a family of 5 plus their boat to the campground.

The Stick is wireless. Video really wants and deserve wired, no matter how “latest and greatest” the Stick is.

You know, apart from my lab (Roku 3), all my Roku (one Ultra and 3 x 3’s) are WiFi and work perfectly (one is even upstairs). Obviously YMMV with regards to WiFi, but my LAN WiFi is old 2.4Ghz “g” and works great. (note: low frequency 2.4Ghz “g” will tend to travel farther, but speed isn’t it’s thing, but you don’t need that much for video. Some experience some “overload” at 2.4Ghz, but you know now that everyone is “hot” for the higher frequency, I find it to be pretty open in my neighborhood).

I have the sockets in the locations for “wired”, but nothing is actually plugged into a switch anywhere at the moment, and since (for me), all is good, not sure if I’ll ever do it.

Is “wired” best? Well duh, yes. I’m just saying you “can” go all WiFi. In fact one of my Tablo’s uses WiFi as well.

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THANKS - that’s interesting.
I’m not sure that I can even distinguish the small improvement in “ultimate video.” And I like saving money and the hassle of running Ethernet.
Then I noticed that the ROKU Ultra has a phone jack in the remote (and JBL ear buds). So that just makes it harder to pick. If I can just slow down, I think all my decisions will become easier after I’ve had a week to settle down…

I always prefer Ethernet over Wifi. The couple of homes I’ve owned I’ve spent the time to run Cat5 and RG6. It can turn into a big project but it pays dividends in terms of flexibility and performance. I will admit WiFi has come along way in the past couple of years, but it still can’t match the reliability of a wired connection.

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That is the challenge. When I built my house 20 years ago I had the electrician put a wiring cabinet in the garage and run all RG6 and Cat 5e in a star network to the central location. So I have Ethernet in most rooms and switches everywhere!

I run mainly Apple TV 4 and 4K plus one Roku Ultra. Only the Ultra is on Wifi and runs great so with a decent router the OP should be OK. I suggest you test Wifi and if you have issues then go ahead and decide if wiring up the house is a project you can do.

Has anyone tried TP Link Power Line Ethernet adapters? If so, how did that work out? Seems if they work as the reviews state you can save effort from running Ethernet.

I use the TP-Link AC1200 adapters. (Started with the AV-500 series, but they couldn’t cover the house well.) I have a mix of the units with built-in wifi and the pure wired three-port units.

My incoming internet is usually about 100 mbs up/down. My Tablo is located close to the TP-AC7 router, which plugs into the primary TP extender. The TP-Link extenders at the remote rooms consistently produce 25-40 mbs signals up/down, whether connected wirelessly or wired to the devices in those rooms. Tablo works great, even when 3 or more programs are streaming.

Most of my devices are Roku Express or older Roku 2 units (2nd gen). Buffering is virtually non-existent. I live in a 30 year old house, in a common suburban neighborhood, with virtually all of my neighbors running multiple routers to cover their homes. WiFi is very congested.

The AC-1200 extenders require an active ground connection at each wall outlet. The slower devices did not. The extra “wire in the wall” allows a higher bandwidth. The house also has a generator, and the extra circuits for an automatic transfer switch. The extenders do not seem to have a problem “spanning” to the extra panel, and my measured speed does not drop during the infrequent running of the generator.

The family is very happy with the reliability of the TP-Link extenders, and I’ve postponed the project to hard-wire each living area. Of course, YMMV, usually because of differences of internal electrical wiring or (in my case) some phantom grounds when the house was built.

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@hobkirk

I’ve used routers, repeaters, extenders, powerline Ethernet adapters, MOCA adapters, DECA adapters - all ways to avoid having to run Ethernet cable between rooms. This dates back to running DD-WRT on a WRT54G as a repeater or wireless access point. In today’s day and age, if you still choose not to run Ethernet then my recommendation is go with a mesh network. They are simple to setup and work flawlessly to cover a large area. Yes they are expensive but well worth the investment. These includes the Netgear Orbi, Google WiFi, TP-Link Deco units, etc. to just name a few.

Some may say this is overkill but just a search of the forums of many people with buffering issues. Use the money you save with cord cutting to get a nice fancy WiFi network that will have all the nerds drooling.

Tablo does disagree with me though, see blog post:

https://www.tablotv.com/blog/mesh-wifi-networks-cordcutters/

Recently we heard from a customer who was experiencing frequent buffering when trying to view content from his Tablo OTA DVR on his Roku. When our support gurus used a network analyzer tool to diagnose the issue, we found that because his mesh WiFi satellites had identical network names that his Roku was repeatedly bouncing back and forth between access points, causing the stream to pause as the Roku and Tablo waited to re-establish a connection after each hop.

I would declare this statement suspiciously self-serving, frankly.

Anyway: Google Wifi lets any of the pucks serve its signal through wired connections in addition to wirelessly. It’s a dang handy way to eliminate the streaming device’s wireless from the mix and let the mesh do its thing and spread that out via a wire.

That was my setup back in the day as well…kind of miss that old WRT54G!

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I think I still have a WRT54G running DD-WRT. Last time I used it was to create a wireless bridge for a hardwired remote network. Very versatile.

@hobkirk
Wired is always preferred over WiFi for the simple elimination of any possible WiFi coverage/interference/performance issues that many folks have due to house construction, WiFi Router placement, WiFi Router performance, etc.
That being said, a modern WiFi Router can provide exceptional service and I wouldn’t rule it out for your Tablo application if getting Wired connections is unreasonable for you.

I think I’d err on the side of buying Rokus that have both wired and wireless options - and then you’ll be able to determine if WiFi alone works, or if in some or all locations, you need Wired ethernet.
But I can also tell you that the Roku Stick+ works very well, and has a very good WiFi antenna design, and that may be all you need.
I occasionally use the Tablo app (as well as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc) on my Roku Stick+, and on a WiFi only FireTV Stick , and they work perfectly in my house on my WiFi network which is one simple TP-Link Archer C9 Router, fairly centrally located in my house.
Hope this helps a little.

I checked Amazon - only $100. Then I noticed that was “without MU- MIMO,” so I clicked on the same model “with MU- MIMO” and it was $90. So I check the reviews under “with” and every single review I saw specified they had the “w/o” model.
Any idea why?

Do you know if a fancier router would be better? I put the following on my Wish List, planning on investigating routers at a later time.

  • NETGEAR Nighthawk X4S AC2600 4x4 Dual Band Smart WiFi Router, Compatible with Amazon Echo/Alexa (R7800)] - 4.3 out of 5 stars, $230
  • Netgear (R7000P-100NAS) Nighthawk AC2300 Dual Band Smart WiFi Router, Gigabit Ethernet, MU-MIMO, 4.1 stars, $178

Thanks
Do you think a better router would have eliminated the need for the extender? (I’ve identified two routers in a prior response - Netgear $180 & $230)
But I am noting your TP extender as a possible solution if signal strength is an issue.

With the TP-Link Powerline Adapter AV2000 Mbps - Gigabit Port, Ethernet Over Power, Plug&Play, Power Saving, MU-MIMO, Noise Filtering(TL-PA9020P KIT) you can extend your wired network over Ethernet for only $88.00

TP-Link Powerline Adapter AV2000

If you want to add wireless to the Ethernet component then this: TP-Link AV1300 / AC1350 3-Ports Gigabit HomePlug Powerline Wi-Fi Extender Adapter 2-Kit (TL-WPA8630 KIT V2) for $120.

TP-Link AV1300 / AC1350 3-Ports Gigabit HomePlug Powerline Wi-Fi Extender Adapter 2-Kit

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The MU-MIMO model you’re referring to is brand new and is labeled Archer A9…so no reviews yet. I see the same model is on pre-order at B&H

I was in no way recommending the TP-Link Archer C9 for you - just stating what I’m using, although I’ve been totally happy with it and in general with TP-Link networking gear.
Personally, not a fan of Netgear routers (just my personal bias based on previous ownership - I thought their firmware was buggy and unsupported).
I’d hit a few tech review sites for Best Router 2019 and see if there is any consensus on what’s best today. I know that I’d look hard at one of the mesh systems if I were in the market for something new.