Try this. Install a 2 way signal splitter between Tablo and your TV tuner input. Search the guide on your pad and switch live channels instantly with your TV remote. Accessing “info” from guide is fast and allows you to set recordings quickly.
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Good idea but my Tablo is on 2nd floor where antenna gets best reception, and main TV is on first floor where antenna reception is awful.
That’s a pretty good idea! Think I may have to try that since my Tablo sits right behind my main TV.
This is what I do, it works great for surfing.
Since you’ve cut the cord, do you have coaxial cable running through your walls that is not in use? You could split the cable from where the antenna is and send the signal through existing cable to your TV.
Sorry for my confusion to “Install a 2 way signal splitter between Tablo and your TV tuner input”. Tablo doesn’t connect to a TV directly. You need some kind of streaming device to access Tablo like a roku, amazon fire, chromecast, android or pc. Please elaborate on your setup. thanks.
@Scott_Gaboury - Some customers like to split the coaxial cable coming from their antenna between a TV and their Tablo unit using a coaxial splitter. That way 1 coax can go to the TV (for channel surfing) and one into the Tablo (for recording).
I think you will like not waiting 20 seconds every time you switch channels. It’s a two fisted wild west operation. One hand on your phone/tablet the other on your TV remote :).
Maybe Tablo can sponsor a fastest cruiser competition. High noon…hands by the side, lift pad, lift remote…go!
I kinda do this now … but instead of a splitter I am using our smaller “test” antenna in our attic/crawlspace I purchased when we were evaluating cord cutting and while its not as nice as the outdoor roof mounted Antennas Direct db8e thats directly connected to the tablo … its enough to let us channel surf the more frequently watched major network channels… if we have the yen to channel surf we just switch to ANT … though most of the time we are watching pre-recorded content off the tablo.
OK. But why not a splitter to your good antenna? Then no switching needed and you will get all available channels
The main reason being they are on opposite sides of the house and there is no coax that runs between. The cable co actually had two different line drops for each side of the house. It’s a fully finished split entry home with no cellar and the walls have fire breakers so you can’t even drop a line in the wall if you wanted without having to tear down the plaster board.
Luv it!
I originally had split my antenna signal between Tablo and my TVs so that I could bypass Tablo when I wanted to watch live TV, but some channels are on the edge of reception. So as to avoid additional degradation of the signal, I removed the splitter and am running my antenna to the Tablo only. Surprisingly, one of the CBS subchannels could not be detected by Tablo, though I was able to get the main channel and one other subchannel.
I went through a slew of so called high performance indoor antennas. NONE of them were capable of pulling in all the channels I wanted reliably. Finally installed a basic outdoor antenna. Bingo - getting all available channels at 98% signal strength with splitter. Costwise the outdoor antenna was less than some of the high end indoors.
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What is the make and model of said antenna? I may be interested in upgrading.
I’ll look it up and get back…
Yeah, it’s a mystery why some of these indoor antennas cost up to $100. They have less material and structure than the larger outdoor ones. There is nothing mysterious in the “sauce” of the indoor antennas - most of which can be duplicated for less than $20 with copper tape on plexiglass. None of them use exotic, expensive metals such as titanium. I’ve opened up most of them to inspect their designs and they’re quite ordinary. One doesn’t get around the simple fact that one throws up metal in different shapes or configurations to resonate at frequencies through RF signal reception. That’s the basis for any antenna… The more metal, the better LOL. Some people close enough to broadcast towers just use a small wire as antenna (or paper clip).
This is the one I used for a test and it actually works remarkably well for a $30 or so antenna… its currently living in my attic crawlspace just sitting on the wood rafters and it picks up most of the same stations my much more expensive outdoor DB8e does. Its also very compact and surprisingly small.
http://www.rcaantennas.net/outdoor/?sku=ANT751R
RCA model ANT751R. Look it up on Amazon. Good luck.
The problem with this solution is that if you keep getting interrupted (kids need something, phone rings, doorbell, bathroom break), you can’t pause what you are watching. If you miss something (you drifted off for a moment, you couldn’t hear what someone said, there is a close play in a sports event) and you want to rewind to watch it again, you can’t go back.
I realize that most surfers are changing channels rapidly and don’t care if they miss something, so this isn’t an issue for many, but when I was using a TV with a direct antenna connection to see what we could pick up, this drove me crazy. I can’t deal with live TV without pause and rewind and fast forward. It is also why I do not like the SlingTV experience.