Potential New Tablo user: Tivo Bolt vs Tablo

Also, don’t assume features are there. Find out for sure before buying. I was lucky, couple people built what I really needed to make this tablo work for my intended purpose. Without them, I’d most likely wen back to PCI cards for capturing.

-Rodger

Just an update. After 3 weeks the Tivo / Mini system is flawless at all watching points. I have been reading the comments and hate mail re: 2.2.6. I just don’t get why people will continue to move backwards then backwards more and post how great the system is “… but…” I found that Tivo allows not just subscribing to the NFL, but by-team. So I subscribed to 49res, Raiders, and Cowboys. Cowboy game was not scheduled to be broadcast locally, but when the Raiders game was over the network switched the feed to the last fifteen minutes of the Cowboys game. I did not know until a few hours later, watching recorded video, and on my list of recordings was the Cowboys game. Tivo recognized it was getting a Cowboys game and that I wanted it, then recorded it separately and put it on the Recordings list. Virtually everything everyone is bitching about on 2.2.6 works perfectly on my Bolt plus a very long list of other features not even discussed by Tablo. Surely those considering a purchase will stumble across the User Forum and decide against a Tablo. It is just a matter of time before they either run out of money or get bought by someone else for some IP and all you will be left with is your box and this forum.

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That’s great that it is working out for you. Now you have a setup on Bolt that works for you, and I have a setup on Tablo that works for me. Choice is a great thing.

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I disagree with you. There is a market for a product like the Tablo even if Tivo is superior hardware / software wise.

Tivo is not available in Canada, you need to have a subscription for it to work (150$ per year recurring) and while I have no doubt it it adapts to your liking better as far as football goes and other things, what I ultimately need is a device to record the show I miss OTA, and that allows me to watch it on multi device and that is free and it’s exactly what I get with the Tablo.

We can’t predict the future for Tablo but I sure hope they stick around and get more recognition once they fix their current FW issue / Roku problems, with the new apple TV coming out just now and their flawless track record so far with Apple products, the future does look bright for them from my point of view.

I’m glad you found a solution that works well for you and always respected your input on this forum when you were a fellow tabloid :smile:

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I went ahead & bought the Tablo after weighing in the costs of Tivo & plus I’m an Amazon Prime member I went with the fire tv/stick so we shall see how it all works together. Getting ready to finally cut the cord!

I did not know that…Always assumed it was.

I never assumed Tablo was not good for some. Surely for some it works as-advertised. But read through all the hate mail re: 2.2.6; functionality has gone backwards a second time, and some report that they cannot record or watch anything at all. I was one of them; I had to daily rip to Plex to watch anything, and could watch nothing live. Now I have a great system on exactly the same router, CAT5, switches, and locations. Meanwhile, as one poster said, folks are being asked to tweek their antenna placement and direction, do a factory reset which wipes everything previously recorded. Some are asking how to decline the latest update because it is already reported to be nonfunctional on some systems. I assume those for whom it does not work are the most vocal, so no way to know what % are fine and what % are awful, but a consumer product should have a very low % of DOA. Tablo right now is not a consumer product; the beta testers are actually alpha testers, and all of the rest are beta testers.

I really wish Tablo well, I was a fan of the product definition, and initially it worked fairly well, but as time moved on it got worse and worse until finally unwatchable. When I see positive remarks that all is well and the feature content is a match for Tivo I may well buy back in. Until then, I am watching TV.

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I was on the fence about switching to the Bolt. Tivo has been the leader in home DVR products for a long time, so I’m sure the implementation is top-notch. The $149/yearly fee kinda bugs me considering you don’t get much for your money.

Also the design has me scratching my head…considering nearly every home theater device made in the last 50 years has been black or grey, why in the heck would you go bright white? I could deal with the “functional” wave design if it didn’t standout out so much. Or I would be ok with a white box. Dunno.

Anyway, I do like the idea of a tuner and apps all in one. If there was a SlingTV app for the Bolt, I could have convinced myself to go that route instead of the Roku 4.

Spend the money and upgrade to the Fire TV… The tablo app will work on the stick but the processing speed of the Fire TV box top far outweighs the single fire tv stick especially when maneuvering around the tablo app. I have both.

I can second that observation. The Fire TV stick works, and works well from a playing video point of view, but the UI is quite sluggish compared to the Fire TV box and even Roku 2 series.

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I have both the fire stick & fire tv & you are right there is some lag time with the stick but it works well. Haven’t found much difference other than speed between the stick & fire tv. Just waiting on my tablo & antennae to come in then I’m done with cable!

My understanding is that the “wave” design is actually to provide for cooling of the box by not having the case bottom hug the shelf underneath it. As for white; doesn’t matter, because the interface is RF so my unit is buried behind cabinet doors. Had it three weeks now, liking it more each day. Every body knocks the $!50/year (first year free), but disregards Tablo’s $60. So yeah, $90 a year more, but I just read the comments to the CEO’s posting and wonder why anyone sticks out this painfully slow rollout that seems to be going backwards for many. Remember, anything that works is better than anything that doesn’t work. Since I got the Tivo my wife’s constant bitching has stopped; about the TV anyway!

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Most of these problems revolve around the Roku channel. Other than a few rough edges, my experience on Android TV has been pretty much perfect.

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I don’t think any product is that good :slight_smile:

(Not specifically directed at your wife, just well…you know)

I have been with a tablo for about a month now, I run it on two tvs one with ATFV1 and the other AFTV2. Honestly most of the time it works fine, but the performance when loading any channel is very sluggish. I am considering jumping ship as soon as I read some positive reviews on the AFTV app for tivo. Honestly I also run plex, sling tv, prime and netflix from my AFTV so I really do not one more box. I would just want the bolt to replace the tablo. Can the bolt play live tv over the AFTV app? Anyone know?

I cut the cord years before purchasing Tablo. My reason was to get away from an expensive monthly bill for 300+ channels when I only watched 10 on a regular basis. We tried Hulu for a while but found it to also be a waste of money. Tried Netflix for many months until we found we wouldn’t use It for weeks on end so we canceled it as well. We were now down to absolutely no monthly bills for 42 channels of plenty of TV. And we were completely satisfied. My antenna setup is rock solid so reception is for the most part excellent, weather/atmosphere permitting.

We then purchased a Roku 2 and found the vast majority of free channels were pretty much useless so It started collecting dust.

I then started looking at Tablo in April of this year. I had a 1tb hard drive laying around unused so our only new investment was the $190 for the Tablo and the $49 subscription to the guide. Tablo has worked great for us. We use It for recording and watching recordings. Our TV’s tuners work awesome for live TV so I never really considered using Tablo for it. My 2 roof mounted antennas and pre amp and distribution amp push the signals strong to all 5 TVs from broadcast towers over 50 miles away.

We watch Tablo through one Roku 2, two Roku Sticks and our newly installed Nexus player. The Roku’s have performed fine for us but I wouldn’t say they are shining stars. The new Nexus player ($50) is a shining star when it comes to Tablo. Performance with it is excellent.

I am very tech savvy but for me TV viewing is just not that high on the priority list so I won’t even consider looking at another DVR. And I should mention my non tech savvy wife loves Tablo and has never had any issues using it.

Bottom line we love Tablo. It does everything we need it to do. Money well spent and no reason to spend more.

Just thought I’d share my perspective, for what it’s worth.

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Yes you can stream live TV with the Android app from TiVo. See here:

C’mon old Mike - You’d miss it!

Question. Is the commercial skip automatic? By that I mean do you not have to scan via FF?

From what I’ve read, you hit “a button” and it takes you to the next part of the show. There is still some interaction, but not multiple FFs.