Tired of TABLO failure-What alternatives

Numerous failures of a 2 Tuner TABLO with a WD 1 TB USB drive where usually the channel lineup grid will not populate or it will not connect from a laptop, my NVIDIA Shield, or my Samsung TV. In the last year this would not run for more than a month without a factory reset and clicking my heals 3 times and saying there is no place like home.

Tried both wired and WiFi. Would submit requests to TABLO and usually got a response so late on a Friday that I’d have to wait until Monday to respond.

Now, after doing a full factory reset which I followed the procedure to wipe out all the info on the USB drive, I cannot get it to scan for channels. It goes into the channel scan routine then in under 5 seconds returns “No Channels found”.

As the failures were so frequent, I asked the people at TABLO if I could send the unit in for repair. No was the answer.

Anyone else given up? Alternatives?

Tablos working fine here… But if I had to go back,

I’d choose Youtube TV.

Did an overall comparison once for a family member and this seemed the best choice.

Chas

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Very true cthompgh! I used YouTube TV for Formula 1, NASCAR, and Indy Car as I could get everything else I wanted over the air on TABLO when it worked and other free streaming services. At the end of racing season, I could just cancel YouTube TV and pick it up the following year.

With all sports on hold the $50/month is a bit high IF and only IF my TABLO would work. With it not working you are right, YouTube TV is a good fall back position.

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I would try eliminating the USB drive from the equation. Do a factory reset with the usb drive disconnected and see if the Tablo can scan channels.

You might try doing diagnostics on the usb drive using a pc.

Also, is the usb drive powered by the USB port? If so a weak power supply could be causing problems, if unable to service both the usb drive and the TABLO at the same time.

Even if the usb drive has its own PS the Tablo PS could be weak and it would be good to try a replacement. Such PS are relatively cheap.

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Good thoughts Wolfpack. I did do a reset without the drive but still no channels from a scan. Again it aborted in less than 5 seconds.

The power supply is something I can easily check and if no joy, just send this unit to the recycling bin.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Cheers and stay healthy.

That power supply might have been one or the entire issue.

Right now, after a rescan of channels, my guide is still empty but every channel is repeated. ONLY the 2nd listing of each channel plays. The first gives an error.

Right now I have the WD USB drive disconnected.

For example:
2.1-NBC
2.1 NBC

Since Tablo blocks that without their monthly extortion fee and can not use my Shield, TV, laptop, etc. with it anymore. It is useless hunk of junk now,

I’ll offer $25 for a “useless hunk of junk” providing it’s not physically damaged.

I’ll offer $20 CAD

From the recent posts I’m sure there must be someone who has a DVR+ they would trade.

I’m holding on to mine!

20 CAD to USD = 15.7524 US Dollars.Feb 9, 2021

I’ll go $22.50 CAD :wink:

What does and does not work without the “extortion fee” is pretty clear if you read the documentation. It’s no different then the “extortion fee” you pay to Plex or Tivo.

I’ll give you $26 USD!

You can’t steam from an HDMI tablo -over your local network- with out paying for subscription fee.

Then there are limited devices it will work with, streaming.

If they haven’t damaged it yet - I’ll go :heavy_dollar_sign:27.50 USD :exclamation: