I thought I would update this thread.
I did get another Tablo 4 and it is working fine with the HW180STB.
But, something weird … the image quality of this new Tablo is ‘much’ better than the last one was.
My experience with image quality goes like this.
Originally on my 90" LED/LCD TV OTA is best … and my old DTV satellite was a close second that required earnest A/B comparisons to see any difference, then came Roku streaming with an easily noticeable quality drop, and then an equally as easy to see drop came my second Tablo 4 … in a ‘definite’ last place (BTW: the first one was DOA).
But now this third Tablo 4 is ‘maybe’ just slightly less than my than my DTV was, and although pretty darn good, still discernibly not as good as my OTA from the HW180STB.
My 60" did see a difference between 2’nd Tablo 4, but it also required earnest comparison to see that difference.
On my smaller TVs there was really no difference.
Now with this new 3’rd Tablo 4, the 60" and other TVs are (for all purposes and intents) pretty much OTA like.
My Tablo is hard wired E-net, as is the Roku for my the 90", with the other TV’s Rokus on WiFi.
Anyway … I’m ‘very’ happy with this latest Tablo 4 (which as I posted in the other thread, did the update with no issues) and find myself using it alone for most of my viewing on the 90" because the difference in it and the HW180 are so close that I prefer to use the easy guide on the Tablo instead of the funky HW180’s guide and functions.
That said, for anything where I want the best picture attainable on the 90" (like specials, sports, or Victoria’s Secrets show ) … I use the HW180.
Once again, Thanks to you guys that encouraged me to try again and to go to a dual system.
This is working out even better than I thought/hoped it would,