Thanks. Very cool. FF with Tab!o and NP works very smoothly. For the cost differential I’ll stick with that.
Well there’s the problem. 
Go Texans
Call TiVo if you have been a subscriber and ask for a lifetime subscription for $100. They offered it to me when I called to terminate the service on one of my boxes. They said it was for “longtime” customers (I barely had it for a year). Now I have a TiVo lifetime guide subscription for $100 vs the $150 for Tablo. I am keeping my Tablo for the 82 movies I have on it and also to check out the Apple TV app when it is offered. I prefer the snappier TiVo box, it has cool ways to search for programming.
Jane said that your Tivo remuneration should be in the mail any day now. The Tivo PR department sent out a memo stating that they are just getting caught up sending out the checks to the agents in the field… The merger held some things up.
I am using an older TiVo Premiere with a TV antenna while I wait to see if Tablo ever adds the “keep X episodes” to their recording set up. I had bought a 4 tuner Tablo ($299) and a lifetime guide subscription ($150) but got tired of deleting dozens of old episodes every week. TiVo just offerred me a lifetime subscription for only $100 so I went for it. I also have a TiVo Stream which lets you watch everything on tablets and smartphones like the Tablo does.
I like the TiVo user interface better than Tablo but if you can’t get a cheap TiVo subscription like I did, then Tablo may be better for you. If you go with TiVo, I would get a Roamio OTA ($84) on Amazon or spend more for a TiVo Bolt. Another thing to consider is if the product you choose will have enough storage. If not, you will want to be sure that a media hard drive can be added to the product you choose. If you want to watch on phones/tablets, you’ll want to see if the product has that feature or if you need to add hardware (like the TiVo Stream).
So here are your options. You’ll have to fill in the costs to help you decide:
TiVo Roamio OTA (or TiVo Bolt) + TV Antenna + TiVo monthly or lifetime subscription + TiVo Stream (optional) + media drive (optional)
Tablo TV, 2 or 4 tuner + TV Antenna + External Drive + Tablo monthly or lifetime subscription + you need a Roku, Amazon Fire, Chromecast, etc. to watch it on your TV if being able to watch only on your phone/tablet will not work for you.
I favor TiVo because it has faster TV channel switching than Tablo and you have your Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. all on one device. TiVo has features that Tablo is only promising to ad. IMHO, finding shows, setting up and managing recordings are all easier on a TiVo. TiVo is snappy where Tablo makes you wait while it loads images of your shows. Tablo has RW/FF screenshot preview which is nice but TiVo has 30 second skip ahead and 10 second skip back which makes it just as easy to skip commercials.
I know this is a Tablo forum, but my advice is: if the cost is within your budget, I’d go with TiVo.
Like any company you never know what the future of Tivo is. The CEO left 5 months ago and the company is currently being headed by an interim CEO. Their are rumors of Tivo being acquired by Rovi. And that Rovi may be more interested in the Tivo patents then it’s current products.
BEST KEPT SECRET… I discovered this quite by accident!
I tried Tablo for about 6 months then recently dropped it and reactivated my TiVo equipment. I have two TiVo Premieres with 1 TB media drives added (oldies but goodies) and a TiVo Stream. Before I had gone to Tablo to cut the cord, I had Time Warner Cable with this TiVo equipment for about a year (paying monthly TiVo subscription fees for each box). After transferring all my recordings over to one of the TiVo boxes, I called to drop the subscription on it. They surprised me by offering me lifetime subscriptions for only $100 (per box) !!! They said it was because I was a longtime customer (1 year? LOL). I jumped on it and paid $200 and now have TiVo for life on both boxes!!! (This is normally like $599 per box?)
After you’ve had the TiVo subscription for the year that you prepaid, call them and bluff them by saying you want to drop your subscription. Hope this works for you!
Mmmmm, thanks zippy. I just read a couple of articles (Fortune, Bloomberg) and it looks like an acquisition may be in the near future. Now I see why they gave me their “All-in” (lifetime) subscription for only $100. Could the company that buys them possibly stop honoring all of the existing lifetime subscriptions? This seems very unlikely but you never know as the entire business model could be revamped.
Apparently, TiVo began losing customers when cable & satellite providers began renting DVRs as good as TiVo’s (I loved Dish Network’s Hoppers/Joeys). People didn’t see the point of buying TiVo’s DVR, paying for TiVo service, AND renting cable cards from the cable/sat company. Personally, my TiVo equipment paid for itself after a year of savings from not renting Time Warner Cable’s equipment. The down side is that I was limited to only using my TiVo boxes with TWC in my area. Fortunately, I discovered cord cutting and resurrected my 2 TiVo Premieres (500MB) with 1TB media drives, TiVo Stream and Slide Remote, paid $200 for lifetime subscription for both boxes. So now I have a total of 4 tuners with 3TB of storage, 20 good TV channels, and NO monthly charges! I’ll be as happy as a clam as long as a TiVo acquisition doesn’t screw with my subscription.
Maybe TiVo could turn things around by marketing specifically to cord cutters?They could feature an OTA DVR (Roamio OTA is now on Amazon for $85) combined with an antenna and monthly/lifetime subscription all for a reasonable price. What really turned me off about TiVo was their $599 lifetime subscription (per box!). I laughed at them every time they tried to sell me that when I called customer service. “Yes, I’ll pay $1200 now so I can break even in 3 years, then I’ll kick myself in the ass when something better and cheaper comes along next year!”
Why would an acquiring company continue to honor money losing deals…?? There is a reason Tivo can’t make it on their own…
I’d say it is likely… just an opinion…
If Rovi is really interest in Tivo and the reason is Tivo’s patents why would they keep Tivo’s current hardware product strategy. They would freeze new development, reduce R&D, and basically convert Tivo DVR’s into a legacy product, i.e. cash cow.
Many good products slowly disappear. Maybe PhreeTV should logon to amazon and purchase a new Boxee Box. That use to be the " best of the best" product 5 years ago.
Zippy,
Boxee Box is only a streaming service device, not an OTA DVR. I originally bought Tablo because I didn’t want to pay TiVo’s $30 monthly fees or $1200 for two lifetime subscriptions. My plan was to recoup some of the $637 I had spent on TiVo equipment by selling it to offset the $475 spent on Tablo. When I realized how much I wanted the “keep only X episodes” feature, I decided to temporarily pay monthly for TiVo until Tablo got that feature. Then TiVo offered me a lifetime subscription for $100 (x2=$200) so I decided to pay $200 and go totally back to TiVo. Now I am selling my Tablo as I am perfectly happy with TiVo. I am only worried about TiVo being taken over by a company that may take away my lifetime subscription, but that is a remote possibility and may not happen for a while if it ever does.
We’ll have to wait and see. Who knows maybe TiVo will figure out a way to turn things around. I still say they should target cord cutters. Tablo is doing it and is getting a great response.
One thing that never changes with tech and tech companies: nothing stays the same.
I am no Techie and an oldster at 77. I cut the cord 4-5 months ago and I am perfectly happy with OTA 52 channels I get in my area ( Central Florida ).
Along with fast internet, TV antenna, Amazon Fire and Tablo I have virtually reduced my monthly outlay to $ 50 a good 1/3 of my AT&T Uverse or Directv satellite, or Brighthouse cable I have tried in the past 10 years, each increasing their prices along the way.
As business and technology are in a state of flux and all things change with astonishing speed, I am happy with my Tablo for my needs and a year"s subscription rather than a lifetime. Next year we’ll see.
Another interesting development I am currently exploring is an open program called Kodi. Looks very interesting.
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Totally agree. You get 5 “me toos”!strong text
And hopefully one day there is a Tablo add-on for Kodi in the near future.
Addons apparently can be programmed in by one of the techies involved with depositories. It is an open system. I wish I knew enough to do it!
Sorry for the misspell. I meant " speed " in the previous missive.
Sweet! I see is says the Kodi plugin will have the same features at the Roku app? Does that mean it will not support Tablo Connect? I would love to use the Kodi plugin remotely to access my Tablo.
That’s correct.
Aw soo sad 
Thanks for the hard work tho!