Thanks. That’s super-helpful.
This has to be one of the most ridiculous complaints about Tablo ever posted.
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Right, for emergencies I have a C. Crane CC Pocket AM FM and NOAA Weather Radio with Clock and Sleep Timer here: C. Crane CC Pocket AM FM
- AM/FM and NOAA Weather Band Pocket Sized Radio
- Excellent selectivity and sensitivity for its size, 5 one touch memory presets
- Built in speaker or can be used with included earbuds
- Backlight, Sleep timer, Clock and Alarm, Removable belt clip
- Runs on (2) AA Batteries
Nice radio, Lysander. My ‘go to’ emergency radio is a Sangean that has AM/FM/NOAA weather and can be charged via micro-USB/built-in solar panel/hand crank. It’s worked well for me for the last few years.
Thank You for all of your comments. Some of you did not notice that I mentioned the generators I maintain others suggested radios. Yes, I have hand cranked multi-spectrum radios.
While radios are a good source of information they cannot show you what roads are open, which bridges are intact or where recovery resources are available. Knowing where the rivers and bays are flooding is important. Knowing where ice and medical care is located is equality important. Those are best visually represented.
Some of you have not been through a hurricane. Power will be off for weeks, flooding can take days to manifest. A visual representation of the ground situation in very important when deciding if evacuation is necessary.
One of the effects of a hurricane is the removal of all of the landmarks you use on a daily basis. Everything green is gone, ripped off the trees and plants by the winds. In hurricane Andrew the only branches left on many trees were branches pointing west. Many street signs were missing. People spray painted their address directly on the houses so that family members and insurance companies could locate them.
Perhaps a hurricane is worse on children who don’t understand. They cant play on the computer or watch cartoons. This is where the Tablo should shine! Instead a decision was made to make the Tablo valuable only under the best conditions (internet availability). After a hurricane it can easily be months before internet service is restored and the Tablo can be returned to service.
A better choice might have been to reduce the Tablo’s overwhelming dependence on the Internet. Perhaps after one minute of no response from the internet allow the Tablo to access prerecorded movies and tune in channels already in the guide. It would also be nice to be able to record without the internet so that news could be recorded for playback when the neighbors are gathered around. No time stamp needed.
Here is another place where the Tablo fails. I took it to our cabin in the mountains expecting to be able to watch a prerecorded movie or two. At the cabin there is no internet, phones, cable service or even cell signal. The Tablo is unable to function in any capacity at the cabin.
I have about $300.00 invested in my Tablo including hardware and the TV Guide. A suggestion that the back up to my Tablo is a splitter, a $6.00 investment. I will need a digital to analog TV converter a $25.00 expense to run the small analog TV’s we stock for storm usage and portability. So we are talking about a $31.00 investment versus a $300.00 investment a difference of $269.00.
Having done this analysis, thought about how great the Tablo could have been. I just cannot justify the expense of having a device that only works when times are good and the internet is fast.
The Tablo as implemented is a tragedy to me. Management made a conscious decision to make the Tablo completely internet dependent. Why is the big question in my mind is why, to stop piracy? They made a decision to be a luxury item not a necessity.
I have cable TV and internet. It is an understatement to say that these services are fragile. I purchased the Tablo as a backup to cable. I have spent a significant amount of time trying to get the Tablo to accept a time signal from my internal network without any luck. I have examined my IP routing and IP blocking tables to find a work around with no luck. I even installed an external time standard on my network. I cannot find a way around the Tablo’s complete and total dependence on the Internet.
I feel as if I have gone to a gas station pump and paid for gas without having a car or gas can.
With that in mind I have decided to sell my Tablo and purchase a couple of digital to analog convertors, saving myself the cost of a splitter, and have a reliable source of information the next time a natural disaster occurs. I will continue to purchase DVDs for the kids to watch after a storm.
Bon Voyage and best wishes Tablo.
CraigM
It’s not for Roku users.
Respectully submitting an analogy, you went to the gas station pump, and paid for gas for your car, but the streets are flooded, and you really need a boat.
Your car may float for a while, but it’s not a boat.
Just trying to use the wrong tool for the job.
I seem to remember when I ran dd-wrt router software on my linksys router. You could set the ISP router to bridge mode and use the DHCP/NAT server on the linksys with no problems when the internet down.
You could set the time on the tablo by using a cell phone and performing a channel scan with update.
Roku worked fine. All of that has been deimplemented?
If just the internet is down, all clients work with the Tablo except for PCs, smart Tvs, and Xbox.
The problem is that if the power goes out as well, which is usually why the internet goes out in the first place. If the power comes back on, but the internet is still down, then connections cannot be established to the Tablo for some weird reason.
It is an issue I hope that can be addressed at some point
Help me understand…
- Internet drops.
- Disconnect coax from Tablo
- Connect coax to ANT connection on TV.
What’s the issue?
Some people may not have their Tablo and antenna near a TV.
If your DHCP server and NAT live on the ISP server it use to be very common for the DHCP server to stop if the internet link was down.
If the power didn’t go down but the DHCP server did tablo had functionality until the tablo IP lease renewal. Thus many offloaded the DHCP server onto a different router.
There is usually a difference between the ISP router uplink being down and an ISP node more removed being down. On some ISP routers you use to be able to plug the ISP router up link into a free input link and make the router think the link was good but a remote ISP node was down.
For people who live in areas with higher risk of tornados/hurricanes, placement of the Tablo and/or a coax run to a TV should be a consideration.
Although it may work for a period of time where do you find it’s not “internet dependent” ??
https://www.tablotv.com/blog/tablo-faqs-do-i-need-internet-use-tablo-ota-dvr/
https://www.tablotv.com/products/tablo-dual-lite-ota-dvr/#what-you-need
I grew up in the land of tornadoes before cable TV. Everyone had TV antennas. It was always fun to go outside after the storm and count how many antennas were bent in half.
I prefer a barometer and a storm cellar. When the barometric pressure hit 950 MB I ran for the storm cellar. The antop antenna can join Dorothy in the Land of OZ.
Really! You should have a better contingency plan than “I’ll just watch my tablo” …if investing in generators, another ~$100 for a 24" TV - because you didn’t run your coax to your primary TV, next to your tablo, for emergencies shouldn’t be an over reach.
If that’s part of your big picture plan - if only a handful have power from generators… is TV going to be the primary source for life saving information?
Time is relative, and it works long enough for me. 
That’s not the same as stating internet isn’t required for Roku users…
I agree, but that’s not what I stated.
Good luck, hope you find something that works for you.
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Bye.