I just got Tablo Dual HDMI and have an external 2TB HDD connected. I have done some recordings and want to put them on my computer. I have a Mac. This is a huge PITA. I figured I could just get an NTFS reader and hook the HDD to my machine but nope. How am I supposed to do this? TIA.
To be clear, if this isn’t possible I’d like to know because I will 100% send it back if I can’t get recordings off of the HDD.
The Tablo drives are formatted with EXT4. The recordings aren’t in single files, they’re broken into many small files.
There are some user written tools (search the forum).
I personally like TabloTools, but not sure if it supports Apple. Update: looks like Tablo Tools does support Mac.
Thanks for the response. TabloTools does not support the Tablo Dual HDMI. So I guess I bought the wrong kind? I don’t get the difference between the Dual Lite and the Dual HDMI. What I have read is that Dual HDMI has a better picture. Dual Lite connects wirelessly through another device like FireStick or Roku?
The Tablo HDMI units attach directly to your TV with an HDMI cable (the stream is not “encoded”, it is MPEG-2 format - just as broadcast). The Tablo networked devices (non-HDMI) can only send video to your TV through a client (like Roku, or FireTV, etc.) - these units “transcode” the signal into H.264 for playback (hence the difference in quality).
Thank you. I guess then I am trading image quality for features then. Disappointing.
I don’t think the quality difference due to transcoding is very noticeable with the streaming version. When I hear complaints it seems like it’s usually sports fans. Some claim to see more blur during fast action. The upside is the streaming version creates smaller files sizes.
Thank you. I am contemplating trying the Lite now because 1) web and iOS access
2) TabloTools access
It seems so strange to me that HDMI wouldn’t have these when both HDMI and Lite can connect to Roku and FireStick and the HDMI version is more expensive.
I’m guessing that if I have the Lite wired to my router that at least the recording should be good quality even if there are sometimes issues with streaming. 
Did you actually conect the HDMI version to a Roku or Firestick? That is not supposed to be possible unless there was some update I am not aware of.
OR maybe it is… It’s becoming difficult to keep track of all the differences.
Yup, it was over wifi though, and a bit choppy. I think if you want this to work well both the FireTV (Was the box, not the Firestick) should be on a wired connection, not wifi.
It didn’t find it the first time, but after a retry or two, suddenly it connected. Looked just like the Tablo display, but I was controlling it with the FireTV remote. 
You might be able to run Tablo Ripper on your Mac. There might even be other 3rd party tools you could use.
https://www.howtogeek.com/187359/5-ways-to-run-windows-software-on-a-mac/
5ghz WiFi is faster then 2.4 if you want to use WiFi although I’m surprised WiFi was an issue at all.
Yes, you click Discover. (I dont have access to my PC - at work). But there is an optoon in settings somewher you can enter an IP… something about testing .
If you can get there via similar ports you may be able to use ffmpeg directly on a playlist, maybe.
I had a 2-tuner Tablo and it worked well until the broadcasters started ending/starting shows 1 min late/early. This caused conflicts. Ultimately went with a 4-tuner (network Quad).
I have been using a network Tablo for many years now, quality seems very good to me (am using the 8mb recording quality).
@djk44883 I selected the test option and entered the ip. The light went green, but my recordings didn’t show up. I restarted the app, and it crashed with this stack trace, and no recordings shown:
RangeError: Invalid time value
at a (file:///private/var/folders/rv/116j20gs0zd6m81s8ss1tgjw0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/FBEE7B50-E233-478E-8C09-AE59698C1F8B/d/TabloTools.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/renderer/renderer.js:39:107316)
at span
at y (file:///private/var/folders/rv/116j20gs0zd6m81s8ss1tgjw0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/FBEE7B50-E233-478E-8C09-AE59698C1F8B/d/TabloTools.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/renderer/renderer.js:39:20950)
at div
at file:///private/var/folders/rv/116j20gs0zd6m81s8ss1tgjw0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/FBEE7B50-E233-478E-8C09-AE59698C1F8B/d/TabloTools.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/renderer/renderer.js:2:1772016
at div
at file:///private/var/folders/rv/116j20gs0zd6m81s8ss1tgjw0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/FBEE7B50-E233-478E-8C09-AE59698C1F8B/d/TabloTools.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/renderer/renderer.js:2:1816906
at div
at file:///private/var/folders/rv/116j20gs0zd6m81s8ss1tgjw0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/FBEE7B50-E233-478E-8C09-AE59698C1F8B/d/TabloTools.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/renderer/renderer.js:2:1772738
at g (file:///private/var/folders/rv/116j20gs0zd6m81s8ss1tgjw0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/FBEE7B50-E233-478E-8C09-AE59698C1F8B/d/TabloTools.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/renderer/renderer.js:39:18729)
at div
at file:///private/var/folders/rv/116j20gs0zd6m81s8ss1tgjw0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/FBEE7B50-E233-478E-8C09-AE59698C1F8B/d/TabloTools.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/renderer/renderer.js:2:1772016
at div
Yea, that’s a mess. If you really want to find out, post in the Tablo Tools topic. There’s not been a lot of hands on for development. Tablo Tool may “dig” into the device more or differently than Tablo Ripper. It is a bit more elaborate, in some respects.
In the end, they both and the others stream via ffmpeg to create an mp4 - this can also be done on the command line (with networked tablo’s) via a playlist or POST to get a stream. So from this perspective they “work the same” yet use different methodologies to get there.
I’m using a TABLO quad HDMI TV-connected DVR box. I too am looking for a way to be able to put recordings on my computer. So far, I have been using a Cloner Alliance Box Pro to capture video files thru a HDMI connection. I just put the Cloner Box between the TABLO and the TV through HDMI cables and it can record the video files right onto a thumb drive. It also works with a streaming device like ROKU. The files are large, but it can capture video at 1080p@60fps. The captured files are MP4, but in a codec that QuickTime doesn’t like. But after running it thru Handbrake the file size is much reduced and it’s better on QuickTime.
Dump Quicktime! Get VLC because it will play almost anything. Available on Mac, IOS, PC, Android, and Linux.
This may not be an error specific to your HDMI device, maybe.
and seems a fix may be on the way.
Although when I’ve seen this error it pops up after you click on a recording… still.
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