I’ve read half a dozen threads now where someone reports that their Tablo acted up this way or that way. And immediately two or three community members (you know who you are) immediately blame the user for having failed to stack some dry ice on top of the Tablo. Seriously, the rubber feet on the Tablo are on the bottom of the housing, but the community members say that “everybody” knows the Tablo is supposed to be resting on its side. I kid you not. In one recent thread the hapless user was challenged to snap a photograph of his or her Tablo to prove that he or she had rotated the Tablo so that it is now on its side.
Seems to me that if this were really true that the Tablo should be on its side, the rubber feet would be on the side panel of the Tablo, not on the bottom of the housing.
But anyway, clearly if the Tablo is so vulnerable to slight temperature elevations, then there is a need for a feature. The feature, of course, is to report the relevant temperature in the “settings” page. And perhaps if the temperature is “too high” then a warning banner would appear in one of the main menus of the user interface.
Every modern-day microprocessor or DSP chip has a way that software can interrogate the chip and ask it what its temperature is. It’s just a matter of a line or two of code. Clearly what needs to happen is that the firmware needs to check this value every now and then (perhaps every sixty seconds) and make the results available to the Tablo app.
My Tablo rests on its bottom, not on its side and I have never had a problem. I think the problem in the post you refer to is that the user had placed the hard drive on top of the Tablo, which potentially led to heating issues - which then led to the recommendation that the Tablo stand on its side. But it is by no means required that the Tablo stand on its side. Mine has never stood on its side and has always been fine - even when I had it on a wooden shelf in the warm Family Room (I have recently moved it to the basement to be out of the way and it is sitting on a wire Closetmaid shelf that allows ventilation on all sides, which I consider ideal, but definitely not required).
Same with me, one year and no problems that are tied to overheating. It does get a little toasty when you place your hand on the top of the Tablo unit, but, not so hot that it causes problems.
I have had all of the problems that were caused with the Roku debacle a few months back, I got so ticked off that I even went out and purchased Nexus Players just so the Tablo was usable again (only to have the Roku player issue fixed a day later). But a couple of days ago, I looked at my wife and said “The Tablo has become like an appliance, it just works and we don’t even think about it”. I guess this is a complement to Tablo for maturing as a company . . .
I have my 4-tuner sitting as it was designed - on its feet on a hard surface.
Mine doesn’t even really get hot, it’s warm but I wouldn’t even call it toasty or hot. When I was reading all these threads about how hot it would get I was thinking like hot enough to burn you - I don’t even think it gets hot enough to burn a newborn. Compared to my AV receiver - where I can’t even keep my had on it for more than a few seconds before I feel like “gee this might burn me”…the tablo is nowhere near being “hot”. It’s no warmer than my cell phones wall plug when charging.
I suppose it depends on a lot of things, one being the temperature where the Tablo is located. Mine is in my second floor up high and as we all know heat rises
So my thermostat downstairs says 76 it is really closer to 80 upstairs and I assume the extra 8+ feet higher is closer to 85 so I am sure it was not designed to be at that temperature with not a lot of air flow.
Plus I assume from production run to production run possibly some things change, such as heat sinks, easy change to fix heat issues.
This is why I set mine on the side and it is still very hot to the touch.
I added extra large rubber stick on feet to mine to give it a bit more boost. but likewise its on a hard surface (top of a bookshelf in my home office) … which is a balmy 66F at the moment…
My Tablo sits normally (on its feet). However, I live in an air conditioned environment. Folks placing their Tablos in a “hot space” … well… I could envision problems.
