Other media on tablo hard drive?

I am considering a tablo and have a few questions. Can you put other media on the hard drive connected to the tablo and access that media from a roku? I am talking about media that the roku can use such as Mp4’s. If so could it be transferred across the network from a computer? if not maybe directly loaded to the drive via usb? My goal would be to get rid of another media server computer.

The short answer is no, unfortunately.

Same answer today

You can do this with a network drive… I have a 2TB NAS drive on my lan for backups, file sharing, etc. One of the folders on my drive contains video files, and I have the ability to stream them to my big screen TV.

Yeah that is what I am doing now. I just thought maybe I could kill two birds.

@oldgrump: Please expand on your experience. I too am considering transferring some media files TO my Tablo HDD so that I can keep/watch them all from a single app rather than switch to the Roku media player app. I do not know how to do this, nor what specific format/bitrate I would have to convert to. Is there a tool that does this automatically? How did you actually make the transfer - over wifi or USB? Thank you so much!

if looking to consolidate content under a single interface, another option would be to investigate Plex. Plex is what I use for all my purchased media distribution; and it does have a 3rd party tablo plugin. If your media is already in a format that the Roku plays natively, you can go without the overhead needed to transcode (allowing you to run Plex on a low power NAS, which could also be your file repository, among other things)

(note that I have not had success getting the 3rd party plugin to play LIVE, but it has thus far been fine for RECORDED. I wasn’t really concerned about live under Plex and thus didn’t investigate the issue further)

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@mtrodrig84
I just have an old computer serving media files to smart Tv’s and media players through out the house. I do not have a tablo. I am considering the purchase of one. I just thought if it was possible to put other media on the tablo drive maybe I could get rid of the old computer. I have pretty much gone to roku friendly mp4 across the board.

I have considered plex but don’t know if the old computer can handle the transcoded.

from the Plex site:
What kind of CPU do I need for my Server computer?
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201774043-What-kind-of-CPU-do-I-need-for-my-Server-computer-

put bluntly, if you are playing files that were encoded in a “Roku- Friendly” format, the system requirements are rather minimal.

Example: Plex will run on a QNap TS-231 NAS with no transcoding.


(The link will show prices with your choice of HDD added… I personally prefer the WD Reds)

The big gain of a NAS setup is low power usage, high availability of files, with what could be a significant quantity of storage. And most NAS setups are very “appliance” in regard to the very low maintenance. I have been running a NAS for over a decade and never looked back (in 10 years I only ever had 1 NAS failure. HW was covered under warranty, and my manual monthly backup regimen meant effectively no data lost on what was at the time 4 TB of video/ pictures/ misc stuff.)

Interesting. I will look into that. Thanksl