My 4200 and 4210 rokus work - at least until Roku OS 9. After Roku OS 9 who knows. A year or 2 ago, I also, just for fun, ripped some files onto a USB drive in h.264 format. I plugged the drive into the Roku USB port and used the Roku player.
The gen 2 fire TV stick goes no where without a WAN. All it will do is complain about entering a different SSID. And since I dislike Fire TV and roku works I don’t see need to dork around with the Fire TV stick trying to get it to work.
Hi FlyingDriver! Thanks for being clear in your information. That’s great! At this point, one generation + into re-issues and new after new after new and improved extra specialized devices I and many others are sick and tired of tinkering with one device after another. Clearly companies need to stop issuing half baked and unfinished products. The Tablo definitely hits the sweet spot! But it also falls short of allowing users to be able to use the device as there GO-TO TV solution. All internet interaction needs to take place in the background when syncing over the internet connection is available. This allows customs to fully utilize Tablo, hard drives connections are enough added devices. With sync only, this means, members of your form will tell others about all the different solutions they are coming with for different uses and ways to use the device. They won’t be discussing what are the shortcomings of the Tablo. That’s a marketing no no, when we discuss shortcomings! I will of course look at Tablo again, until then I’ll keep using my less expensive USB/Computer solution. Please provide a real GO-TO solution for my router or to simply carry with me to my friends home or anywhere. Thanks Again, I’ll be watching.
Pattim,
I have not read every post in this thread, but I do believe I understand what you want. I also share your desire to some degree because while I am not a Full-time RV’er, I do own one & spend approximately 2 months a year in it. I am going to list my assumptions of your situation & possible solutions for you. Please correct anything that I get wrong. And anyone else please correct me if any of my solutions are not valid.
First, you have stated you pay a lot of money for data. I am going to assume that this is an unlimited plan with a cell phone company (hopefully it is Verizon or AT&T for they have the best networks) and you own a smartphone.
Next, you have stated you are a Full-time RV’er. So I am assuming your home base is where ever you have parked your RV. And that you seldom have internet access & when you do it is not meant for heavy use as in streaming video.
Lastly, I then conclude that if you have or plan to purchase a Tablo that it will always be with you & connected to your RV antenna.
If all those assumptions are correct then whenever you are in a location that has both OTA signals & cell service you will be able to setup a hotspot on your phone for internet access & watch & record OTA programming using very little data. The data usage will be small because you won’t be using remote access but rather it will the same as for anyone using a Tablo at home. Furthermore, anytime you are at a location that has cell service you will be able to watch any recordings you may have even when there is no OTA signals available.
I apologize for the length of this post & hope that maybe I gave you some info you can use.
We have grandfathered unlimited verizon. Much of the time we have both internet and OTTV signal. When we boondock/dry camp and are beyond internet we still want to use only “ONE” device (Tablo as Go-To) to stream through our router intranet to all our Desktop and mobile devices. When we are Boondocking and don’t have OTTV we really don’t care, at that point we stream internal hard-drive content. When we dry-camp at an Elks Lodge we want to record using 3 tuners, store data for future access when we don’t have a connection. When I am back at home from time to time I might make my Tablo portable and use as my home solution expecting the same straight forward functionality. Lots of creative options when internet is background sync and does not interrupt any Tablo operation. Have a great day rccolts!
As long as you have a verizon signal & your Tablo connected to your RV antenna then you can use your phone as a hotspot (no need for the router) to use the Tablo app. It won’t use much data since you won’t be using remote access.
I’m not sure, you might still need the router to make your Tablo accessible.???
From my understanding - your phone becomes a router when it’s a hotspot. Your devices connect to it, it assigns then an IP and provides a gateway to the internet and routes network traffic to the different devices.
So I don’t think he needs it, but it depends on the configuration of his setup.
My first thought was the router would not be needed, but I do not take my Tablo with me on RV trips. I simply take a Fire TV & use my phone as a hot spot to access my Tablo remotely which does then use a good amount of data. I suppose it comes down to if your end use device will have access to the Tablo over the phone hotspot, thus will Tablo connect to a hotspot making itself available to the end use device.
You mentioned marketing. I think part of the struggle, since HD OTA broadcast started - it’s been, almost, marketed as something new. Well, HD is, but OTA never stopped. I’m not even exactly sure what the true difference between an HD antenna and a TV antenna is. (When I put mine up 20+yrs ago HD probably meant heavy duty antenna) Digital or analog signal is broadcast on XXMhz frequency.
So these devices are marketed more, well, where they will generate the most profit. For the primary demographic, with a hardwired truly high-speed internet and broadcast signals all around, tablotv is an over-the-top device I’d bet.
For the minority, waiting for something so we can retire our computer build dvr, or what have you… well you’ll have to succumb to undisclosed privacy and use proprietary devices or work around it all somehow.