What newer device with more power are you suggesting? I pretty much have confirmed that I will not have issues with Samsung Smart TVs, Roku TVs, or FireTV sticks, but I really prefer not to replace tvs just to gain local broadcast channels.
The theoretical budget I am using is based on $130/month DirectTV. My cash outlay for this testing direction is a $36 antenna, a $99 Tablo and a $139 Tablo. The two $50 Roku sticks were needed to replace significantly older sticks, so I can’t really count them. So the current expenditures is 2 months of DirecTV (plus a lot more time than I would have anticipated).
Buying a 4-tuner Tablo is a method of testing whether the failures, are, or are not the Tablo’s fault. And, yes, I probably should have started with the 4-tuner, but I was not sure that the whole OTA thing was viable. The hard drive is one of several extra I have for my normal PC backup rotation. What I (and probably most of the rest of the dvr world) really want would be to have the recordings be portable and semi-permanent (think VHS tape). The existing copyright law/structure ties the recording to the single device recording it. If my Tablo fails, I think that everything recorded is lost, even if it is an external drive.
The daughter and g-kids are totally uninterested in the current DirecTV or the Tablo direction – they are subscription streaming-oriented. Daughter has adapted to Samsung smart tv interface - g-kids are still Roku.
My wife is the driver of this exercise and is the only serious user of DirecTV. She requires Roku interface, the current CBS morning show in pretty much live (rewindable) and occasional local broadcast channels for weather and news events. These needs could be replaced by Tablo/Roku.
The remaining requirement seems impossible, but she is willing to give it up to save $130/month. That is CNN. It seems to only be available in streaming service packages - the cheapest I could find is $50/month. A few years ago, CNN tried a CNN+ $5/month class of subscription, but quickly dropped it. We do subscribe to Max, and it has a CNN-MAX channel (similar, but not identical to the normal CNN-USA that everyone else has). This would substitute for the CNN background droning (think airports), but for her to watch Fareed Zacharia, she would have to get up early Sunday mornings. CNN has a decent website which can be accessed on a PC which would have all the FZ broadcasts, but it relies on verifying our “TV provider” which has to be one of the $50+ packages. Oddly, the Max CNN channel does not qualify. Long story short(er) is that Tablo/Roku providing local network channels would be “good enough” for her to grudgingly drop DirecTV.
My wife uses 3 tvs, all of which have Roku sticks. Two of them have smart tv guts, but getting her to navigate there would be harder than this Tablo/Roku exercise. If there is any reason to believe that a Roku with “a little more power” would make the difference, I could sensibly replace the Roku sticks with only a small budget impact.
Note we have been using DirecTV for 25+ years over multiple moves - current configuration of whole-house dvr network could be scaled down to less than $100/month, but not much below that because of their hardware/fee structure. And, yes, I’m sure they would discount some for a year to keep us.
None of this is important in the big scheme of things, but it is an interesting exercise.
H