I complain about the Tablo a lot, with good reason. However, this weekend I spent a lot of time watching college and NFL football, and the Tablo has performed exactly as advertised. Very nice.
6 Likes
The Tablo 4th gen is better than it was a year ago due to the many fixes that were released. Simply watching live TV is not going to bring up the issues that are still out there.
I continually encounter issues and errors when watching recordings. For example pausing a recording and then the Tablo shows an error msg. Then to get the recording working again you have to back out of the error msg.
I still have situations where watching a recording Tablo will suddenly stop and exit the app. I go back in and resume the recording and it plays fine. There are other issues out there too.
So there are still a number fixes that are needed.
I have the FireTV stick 4K max.
I won’t pretend that Tablo doesn’t have its problems, but my experience has been very positive.
I had found that I was paying about $150.00 a month for DirecTV yet 90% of my viewing was the major networks. I put the time into getting a good quality antenna and mounting it and aiming it correctly. (By the way, the mounts for satellite dish are are great for mounting an antenna after you throw the dish in the trash. Also DirecTV uses a REALLY good quality cable that can be repurposed for the antenna.) I also got my home network dialed in and connected via Ethernet where I could. I find that most of the complaints I see are due to poor antenna or poor networking. I also found that a good external drive was a worthwhile investment. All in, the switch to Tablo paid for itself in two months.
Yup, there are some little things that bug me: too many clicks for simple actions; some clumsiness in the user-interface… and a few features that I want; viewing (or at least programming) when away from home; a binge-watch function… But overall, I have gotten to the place were I just watch TV and don’t worry about it. My wife uses it without trouble and is comfortable with it.
I have to say, for its functionality and the price-point, it is a great little box and I do recommend it to those friends who are tech-savvy enough to set it up properly.
I was frustrated by the lack of communication about the Roku OS14 bug, but they have gotten better about that and there is a light at the end of that tunnel. I have six TVs in my house (yes, kind of pathetic), all on various levels and ages of Roku except for one ONN box. Two of the older ones still can’t watch OTA programming, but they don’t get used too much.
I, too, see progress and am excited for what Tablo will be as they continue to improve it.
3 Likes