Little more food for thought, perhaps there is a reason why Tablo is pushing the [REFURBISHED] Tablo QUAD Over-The-Air DVR which is the old model # TQNS4B-01-CN. I bet the fix the heating issue in the refurbished units.
Sometimes retailers, making large enough orders, want something just different enough to so the model numbers do not match - no price match guarantee.
Major appliances are notorious for this. Selling the same model to different retailers with XR1000 XR1001 XR1010, and there may be some insignificant difference… but it’s a different model.
Which model number do you have? And let’s see some photos of the interior.
I don’t know that this is true for every situation. As a example, Mohu had Air and Sky antennas with different models. Both sold under the Mohu brand, but the Sky was the name used for the model sold in Best Buy.
If you look at the last certification you might find 9 model numbers:
TQNS4b-01-CN, TQNS4b-02-CN, TQNS4b-03-CN
TQSS4B-01-CN, TQSS4B-02-CN, TQSS4B-03-CN
TQHD4B-01-CN, TQSS4B-02-CN, TQSS4B-03-CN
This could as big a conspiracy as the JFK assassination.
Lee Harvey Oswald, LBJ, CIA, Mafia, Fidel Castro, and the KGB all had snipers shooting from the grassy knoll.
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Yes that is were the re-brand comes into play, but Tablo isn’t re-branding.
I don’t know what all the model numbers mean. I’ll pull out my Ouija board and see if the spirits can provide an answer.
I am looking to purchasing the Tablo quad. The heat issue is very concerning from a purchasing aspect. If people remember Tablo and Best Buy both sold out of the Tablo Quad foe about a month and a half and Amazon suspended Tablo sales. Then Tablo got their resupply from China and the new units that Tablo and Best Buy sell are the 02-CN, but now that Amazon has unsupended the Tablo sales they are selling the old stock that ends in 01-CN. So I am trying to find out why the model # change. I am thinking they did address the heat issue, but need to sell the older units still in Amazon warehouses.
Since these nine model numbers were known and certified in August of 2019…
I’ve had mine for 5 years and they haven’t melted. But they are really good at baking cookies or heating coffee water.
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Guys don’t forget, according to Tablo there is no heat issue, and other than our flaming internal drives - and the value added ability to reheat our pizza while watching great quality television, we have no reason to doubt them 
. Would be good to see the inside of the unit with the new serial though.
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You could always buy both an 01 and 02, pop the cases, and take pictures.
Or you could just view the pictures that already exist.
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I have the 01 model which I have some pictures of above. This of course is with the original heat sinks removed and a cooling fan put in place. The device draws roughly 11-13 watts while running. So that’s 11-13 watts of heat inside the case. This in itself doesn’t appear to cause any issues with the device functionality as they have a large heat sink on the top of the case which pulls heat via a thermal pad away from the Pixelworks chip toward the top of the case where it helps radiate up and out.
The problem with the Quad is that the internal hard drive sits right next to another heat sink on the bottom of the unit which is pulling heat from the board and what looks like a flash memory chip downward effectively increasing the temperature of the hard drive instead of reducing it. It’s like sitting the drive right next to a hotplate.
I’ve removed both heat sinks, applied a different type to the Pixelworks chip, added a heat sink to the flash memory chip and used forced air to cool the bottom of the board, tuners and move some air away from the hard drive. I also blocked some bottom vents to not allow air to just circle right back around and not move through the unit.
I’d be curious to see if they changed the cooling solution in the -02 models, somehow I doubt it. The device cools just fine Except for that hotplate baking the internal drive.
Id put more money on retailer specific model exclusivity. It does not need rebranding. Take for example TCL’s SUPERB ^ series budget tv. it was out 18-24 months and I never saw it drop below 550$ USD until about a month before the new 2019 refresh became available to order.
R613 = Costco
R615 = BestBuy
R617 = Target
Same TV, different model #'s, no price match/price war
Ok well I did notice 1 difference, Costco came with better version of the roku remote, but the TV’s themselves are identical as best as I can tell.
NOt saying this is fact for Tablo, just pointing out real world example where it is the case.
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I have my recording set to highest quality. My Tablo Quad hasn’t run hot at all since day 1. Internal hard drive. I don’t have any kind of fans blowing on it or anything.
That being said, my Tablo is down in the basement with the rest of the network gear. So ambient temp of less than 70F (20C) all year round and relative humidity maintained around 30-40 percent.
Just sayin… maybe look where you have your unit located.
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I have mine in 70-72F climate controlled temps year round. It doesn’t matter, it still bakes the hard drive. Well…it use to before my mods. Wonder how long it would last in the garage during a Phoenix summer.
This is the TQNS4B-02-CN:
As far as I can tell there are no performance differences compared to the TQNS4B-01-CN.
And the heat issue unfortunately remains. After keeping it powered on for less than 30 minutes the rear cable connector was too hot to touch, while the internal HD was positively scorching. Absolutely identical to the older model number.
Again, my concern is not fire hazard but longevity of the unit and most especially the HD.
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Use an external USB HDD then.
Simple solution: buy a $10 laptop cooler and place Tablo on top. Mine has been running cool like that for over 5 and 1/2 years. Along with a 2TB seagate portable drive.
I agree that would solve the problem, but it shouldn’t be happening in a unit designed and touted as being able to house a slip-in internal hard drive.
Without an internal drive, the extensive heatsink design gets the job done - but when you put a hard drive in it soaks up all the heat from behind, as Codebest pointed out. Not good.
Yep, I’m using a cooler, vacuuming the unit every now and then, which sucks (bad pun).