I have an ATSC 3.0 tuner, and while it does stream to most of my devices, there are issues with audio (specifically Roku and older Samsung TV sets) where the programs don’t have any audio output. FireTV, XBox One and Windows works most of the time (there are still glitches in the streaming of any ATSC 3.0 channel).
That is but one problem. The DRM encoding hasn’t been started by most of the TV broadcasters, so there is no way to really test it. Add to the problem that ATSC 3.0, while it does have standards, there have been several changes that have happened over the last year that creates problems.
The device I have has always released products first - and their followers deal with the issues, as they realize they have purchased a product that is going to have bugs in it.
The Tablo community is not as forgiving, and often demands “perfection” in the units (judging from many of the posts here), and for Tablo to release a DVR that has issues, would be a nightmare. Especially if it were in “mass production”. And that doesn’t include streaming.
My guess is that ATSC 3.0 won’t be “mainstream” (in more than 60% of the households and more than 75% of the current stations broadcast in ASTC 3.0) for at least 3-5 years. I live in the Austin TX market, and while they were one of the “first markets to go live”, it goes down often, the local FOX station broadcasts a signal, but is never mirroring the ATSC 1.0 signal, unless they are doing specific tests, then it goes back offline.
I get 51 channels reliably at my home. 43 are ATSC 1.0, and 8 are ATSC 3.0. Of the 8, only 5 of the 8 are broadcasting most of the time. All are in the same resolution (video) as the ATSC 1.0 signal. None of the subchannels are even being tested as of right now. I am assuming it is due to having to pay for the broadcasting rights of the channel, and operating another “channel” would result in increasing the costs.
Who knows. The broadcasters are mum about it, and rumors are floating around out there. I think Tablo is doing things right (I have always promoted their product as a “solid” device that works on all popular streaming devices) in going slow. Lord knows the broadcasters are going slow…