I’m very close to purchasing a Tablo to deal with a situation that I have, but I wanted the experts at @tablotv and see what I’m hoping to do is possible and, if so, if I need any additional equipment.
Here’s my situation. My parents live in an area where basically getting over the air broadcast signals through an antenna is impossible (their house is behind a hill), though they do have decent internet speeds. My house, which is located in another city, has good reception and I can receive dozens of over-the-air channels through a standard antenna. From what I have researched about the Tablo it seems like I should be able hook up a Tablo to at my home and then call up the channels their place on their televisions.
My question is this: Once I install the Tablo at my location, do I need any additional equipment at my parents’ location in order display the channels on their televisions? They have an iPad and an iPhone, but I’m not sure if I need to purchase any sort of set-top box like an Apple TV or Roku in order mirror the signal onto their televisions.
Also, I read elsewhere that in order for an iPad to broadcast from a Tablo unit it must somehow first “sync” with the Tablo unit itself locally before you can view the broadcast signal remotely. Is that accurate? If so, does that mean I that I have to somehow get my parents’ iPad, sync it with the Tablo unit at my home, and then bring it back to them at their home in order for this to work?
Any information that you can provide would be appreciated. Thank you for your help.
1. You can watch the Tablo remotely, it is called Tablo Connect. It currently works on the iPhone, iPad, Android tablets and Android web app (for Android smartphones). You must pair the device first with the Tablo, which means it must connect to the Tablo on the local network at your place first.
2. To watch TV on a HDTV, you will need a device that is connected to the TV such as a Roku, Apple TV or Chromecast. My recommendation is the Roku. However, the Roku currently does not work with Tablo Connect. You can only watch Roku on your local network, not remotely. Casting to a Chromecast works with Android tablets right now - it does not work with the Android web app nor iPad app.
3. What is your parents’ internet download speed? You will need at least 10 Mbps to get 720p streaming without buffering.
4. What is your internet upload speed? Again, you will need at least 10 Mbps to get 720p streaming without buffering issues. Lastly, what is your bandwidth limit per month? If your parents watch a lot of TV, they will kill your bandwidth usage because you will be uploading a lot of data. At the 720p setting, an hour show is about 1.0-1.3 GB.
For any other questions, please consult this link first, it is very good and detailed:
I really would not recommend this setup. Tablo Connect is nice for occasional use, but I think it would be extremely frustrating to use on a daily basis. I also think that firmware updates require a re-pairing of the remote devices (but am not 100% sure).
@stormdaemon - Snowcat is right (as usual). Tablo isn’t really intended for this use case. It could be a great solution if you live near enough to run over to mom & dad’s quickly but if for some reason you do lose the pairing it would be very frustrating being further away.
We’ve had requests from a few users to add a web-based login vs. a pairing mechanism for Tablo Connect and this is something we’ll look at closer in 2015.
@stormdaemon - Snowcat is right (as usual). Tablo isn't really intended for this use case. It could be a great solution if you live near enough to run over to mom & dad's quickly but if for some reason you do lose the pairing it would be very frustrating being further away.
We've had requests from a few users to add a web-based login vs. a pairing mechanism for Tablo Connect and this is something we'll look at closer in 2015.
I’m anxiously waiting for this feature, as pairing does not cut it for me either, hopefully this is something we’ll see soon, I wanted to tell the OP that with a Roku 3 his parents Android devices could be screencasted onto the Roku 3 as well as a work around to see the Tablo on their TVs, but as others have said, the remote thing is not a good idea at this moment as pairing can easily be lost.