For me, the optimal Talbo setup would be a four (or more) tuner Tablo with CableCard and a fully functional TV v4 Tablo application.
While I like the idea of cutting the cord, at this point with ESPN not going the route of HBO Now or Showtime, I still need to pay Verizon for a CableCard to put in my old Moxi DVR. (I don’t believe everything on ESPN is available on the ESPN app on the TV, but I may be wrong about that. In any case the ESPN app requires authentication thru Verizon.)
Anyhow, I much rather put the CableCard in a Tablo so I could record my FiOS TV channels as well as the OTA.
My current setup uses three inputs–antenna for OTA live, Tablo via Plex (when it works) and TV for DVR, and the Moxi for the half dozen or so cable channels I do watch. (I know the Moxi is a DVR, but it is no longer supported and I am on the third hard drive, so it’s days as a daily DVR device are over.) With the setup described above I can drive everything through the TV–makng things easier on the wife and kids as well.
Yeah, but this house revolves around Apple products.
I need a TV-based solution since that’s the hardware I have. Maybe when Sling TV has a native TV app.
While the Tablo AirPlay to TV is workable, it’s too much for the wife and kids, especially at the moment since the last firmware update broke the Plex TabloTV Beta 2 channel.
The ESPN app will give you everything that you have in the cable package of the email account you are using to authenticate. So if someone doesn’t subscribe to ESPNU, it won’t be available on the app either.
If you authenticate using SlingTV (which is an option), you will have the same 1 concurrent user limitation as SlingTV does.