I own a “Tablo Dual HDMI” device (TDNS-HDMI-2B-01-CN). I used it with a WD MyPassport 4GB drive until a few years ago when I moved to a different state to live near my daughter. I didn’t have an antenna, so I’ve been getting local channels via YouTubeTV (as a user on her account). But I still kept my Tablo subscription (it’s still “alive” & set to renew again in March).
Now she’s dropping her YouTubeTV account, so I’ve installed an outdoor antenna and am planning to resume getting local channels via Tablo. [Streaming everything else will stay the same.] But my questions are:
In what ways is the currently available “4th Gen” 2-tuner Tablo device different from my existing Tablo Dual HDMI unit (w/the 4GB drive attached to it)? (Technical, performance, app, schedules, etc.?)
I’m asking because it appears that the newer “4th Gen” unit doesn’t require that annually recurring $69 subscription fee I’ll soon have to pay again. So that makes me wonder whether I should buy one of the 4th Gen units and cancel the upcoming renewal of my subscription? It seems like the savings would cover the purchase expense in less than 2 years, wouldn’t it?
You are going to get a lot of opinions (and passionate ones at that), but, here are some of the basic differences. The 4th Gen will store OTA recordings at a higher resolution than the Legacy models, so you may see an improvement in the picture. Gen 4 requires no fees after initial purchase. It includes about 70 Free Ad Supported Television (FAST) channels; it is a bunch of movie channel, retro sitcoms, etc, a lot of the stuff you can get elsewhere for free. Gen 4 does NOT have remote viewing, so you can only watch it on a device connected to your home network. The commercial-skip option is not available, but you can manually skip ahead through commercials.
Opinions are mixed on the interface. I am pretty happy with mine, but you will find a lot of folks on here complaining that they haven’t worked out all the bugs. They are not wrong, it could be better, but, they do seem to push out updates pretty regularly.
You can get the Gen 4 for a little over $100.00 depending on which model you get. Setting up your antenna and home network is half the battle, but if you had a Legacy version, you clearly have that under control. All things considered, I would recommend you give it a try. If you are not happy, you can always return it.
More accurately, the 4th gen stores in the format as broadcast mpeg2 (usually), where OG units could store at the same resolution, but transcoded (some loss) into universal web streamable h264. The OG units actually allowed you to control the maximum resolution used to store allowing you to create really low bitrate capable videos for “crummy” networks.
HD 1080 - 10 Mbps, 720p @ 60Hz
HD 1080 - 8 Mbps
HD 720 - 5 Mbps (recommended)
HD 720 - 3 Mbps
SD 480 - 2 Mbps
You had to be there, and we’re not talking too terribly long ago where a cell phone might only have a 3G style of bandwidth and at the time, you could have been on Sprint… so, you’d need some really really low bitrate to view. However, on a phone screen, even at really low bitrate, it was ok, because of the tiny screen size. Another reason to limit the recording fidelity on the OG, is that at the highest quality, it would lock up two tuners (think CPU or processing units) to make a recording. Another reason was to save space as the lower resolution files would be considerably smaller on disk. Regardless of choice on the OG, transcoding to H264 is done though, so the quality would always be a bit less than pure OTA (with the benefit though of being playable via just about everything).
Only original early buyers of the OG got the options of lifetime EPG, and the very earliest where allowed to use a single lifetime EPG to cover all of their owned OG Tablo devices. I’m in that category, which is why the new 4th gen has little value (actually provides “less value”) to me. 4th gen provides free EPG (for all users of the device) and FAST channels that can also be viewed and recorded. And while it has that untouched quality of original broadcast codec, it’s a bigger stream format (larger requirements) and end devices might not want to pay for the licensing or the cpu/network power to handle it. Which is why client support is much much much more limited. And why “remote” Live TV/DVR (which isn’t supported on 4th gen) would be more problematic.
The OP noted he has an HDMI, like me. The HDMI stores video as-is, with no downconversion to MPEG4. There is no HDMI version of the Gen4 yet, so you MUST use a (very) buggy app that is intimately tied to talking to Tablo servers for everything you do.
About the only advantage the Gen4 has is support for stations broadcasting in MPEG4, but that isn’t too common yet, but growing. One station here has virtually all of the subchannels in MPEG4 now.
@Pdalton - another benefit to the newer Gen4 TabloTV is that you wouldn’t have to purchase the annual guide subscription. HOWEVER, this annual cost may be offset by issues and frustration you may encounter using the Gen4 device keeping your network and broadcast signal in tip-top shape with few troubleshooting options. Personally, I’ve continued to use the OG 2-tuner Tablo while my wife seems to be happy with the Gen4 4-tuner device. We just watched SB LIX remotely while on vacation with the OG device. You’re able to use both and, yes, make sure you can return it.
As noted my @andyross they have currently used an HDMI connected tablo. The new inferior devices will use a streaming device. Presumably not a big issues since they’ve used YoutubeTV, they likely have already something in place.
Still worth noting depending how much it may not matter.
I have no experience with the 4th, but if they’re already streaming, it’s unlikely they will gain much from the added channels. That’s not necessarily a negative, just the channels aren’t a plus.
I have 4th Generation. I got last year. For the most part I’m happy with it. Yes there has been some issues. ToonTV for one was not showing the live guide in Chicagoland area for my zipcode. I used my old zipcode when I lived in Chicago and then it showed up. So you might have to play around with your zipcode when setting it up to get the most out of the channel guide. Also you need a more powerful streaming box. I got a Roku Express and not enough memory and wouldn’t work. The Roku Ultra from 2022 works good. I also got a Fire 4K stick that works. If you have an older Smart TV from LG or Samsung it most likely will not work. It has to be in the last 3-4 years old. The onboard ARM processor does not have the specs to runTabloTV app. So my take is the unit does what I need it to do but you need the better Spec Roku, Fire-Sticks. I plan to get a new Roku Ultra when they have a sale again.
I also installed LPPlayer on my laptop. It is an Android Emulator. I was then able to open the Google Play store and download and run the TabloApp on my laptop. Works good but I will admit it does use up battery life on the laptop.
Also you need to have good Wifi router in your setup. I have a Linksys 6E mesh router and it works well. YMMV
I agree that the streaming device and network need to be solid - I use Wifi6 with the Fire TV 4K Max and the latest Roku Ultra that both work on the 5GHz ax band and the Gen4 and OG Tablo’s are hard-wired, so you’d think my network would be fast enough. But I think there’s some type of latency in my fiber network or router that’s sometimes slowing down the Gen4 Tablo connection. It spins a lot to get to where it’s going, but once a show starts it’s fine with minimal buffering.
Your wish has been granted! Amazon currently has the 2024 Roku Ultra on sale for $79.00. As far as I know, that is the cheapest it has been since it was introduced last year.
Welcome to the Community. It would be helpful to know if you got an indoor or outdoor antenna, if it’s placed indoors or outdoors, and how far you are away from your broadcast towers. You can use RabbitEars.info to input your address and/or ZIP Code to properly place your antenna.
In general, the tuner is your TV is less picky about signal quality than the Tablo. If a station is iffy, your TV may receive it okay, but the Tablo may not.
The Tablo is only as good as the signal it receives. A rooftop antenna is almost always best. Those indoor flat-panels are nearly useless unless you live REALLY close to the broadcast towers.
@Ed_InstrEd - make sure you get the Roku Ultra with the backlit, rechargeable remote that’s Wifi6 capable. Amazon has a way of putting older items next to the newer ones.
Thanks for the info. When the Roku Express cheap one didn’t work with the Tablo last year I got a Firestick with wifi 6. I want to add the new Roku Ultra to that TV too.
As far as antenna’s go I brought an Antenna Direct model,
ClearStream 2MAX UHF VHF Indoor Outdoor HD TV Antenna in 2019. The old style antenna on the roof got destroyed in a windstorm. I put it up in 2004 when we moved into the house on the roof. It served us well. I decided to try the ClearStream and on the roof mount it has been fine. The Antenna is line of sight a little less then 30 miles out of Chicago. I pick up over 110 channels reliably. All the major channels, ABC, CBS, NBC, WGN, PBS, WFLD, Etc… come through ~99% of the time. I lost NBC and CBS when we had a huge ice storm last year for a day or two. Highly recommend Antenna Direct ClearStream models and No I don’t have anything to do with the company LOL.
I don’t understand why in my area more people don’t do OTA with the broadcast tower being on top of Sears Tower (Willis Tower). I shall always think of it as Sears Tower
A relative lives in Chicago and is paying for YouTube TV. Their house is less then 12 miles line of sight to the Broadcast Tower. They cancelled cable but then went and signed up for YT-TV.
