Are people using an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) with their Tablo & USB drive? Would that reduce the risk of OS file corruption as it does on a PC?
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Yes, and yes.
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Super. My Tablo arrives today, so I’ll pick up a UPS on the way home. Is the power consumption on the Tablo 14w? If so, would a 350VA UPS be adequate or would you recommend larger? I normally just put a 550VA on a PC since my power is pretty reliable.
Of course, but not the same as compared to an NTFS volume on a Windows system. It uses a journaling filesystem - ext4. But any drive will be impacted by a power failure
The power consumption sounds about right.
Only way to know for sure is to use a watt meter like a Kill A Watt electric monitor, or something similar.
As for sizing the UPS, a 350VA UPS should power the Tablo for short power outages.
Although the VA (volt-amp), and W (watt) numbers may look impressive, don’t expect the UPS to power the Tablo for hours, even if you get a 1500VA model.
I know rhe point of a UPS is to allow you to “gracefully” power the device down, or avoid crashing during very brief outages. I’ll read the Tablo manual to see how to shut it down properly. Long outages when I’m not home would still cause trouble, but those are very rare for me. A 5min runtime would keep me up through 90% of outages, and a 15min would keep it running all but once a year or so.
I have my Tablo and its hard drive, an 8 port switch, a Meteobridge and my NAS all protected by a single UPS. I just woke up the NAS and started playing a video on the Tablo and checked the status. It will keep all those things running for approximately 167 minutes. If Tablo’s hard drive and NAS were asleep it would keep power for about 221 minutes. On the opposite end of the house I have the modem, router, 4 port switch and Vonage on a smaller UPS. Not sure how long that one would last as it does not have the nice display my other one has. Power outages here are very rare. But If they do happen I’m in good shape.
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Nice! Overkill perhaps, but a sweet setup!
Yeah the bigger UPS was a backup for a desktop computer that was on 24/7 for my weather station as well as the other components. That desktop is no longer on 24/7 so now yes the UPS is overkill for what it backs up.
Now this seems more seasonable than - those over-the-air, particular sub-network show are just way too important to miss no matter what! I’m building terabytes of archives and it’s inevitable I complete them.
Ok, just a bit of fun. But yes I find my self archiving entire series - terabytes, weeks if not months to watch. Some/most I’ve seen, several times in the past. Some I’ve yet to get around to watching.
Now I’m wondering “what’s the point?” Is video hoarding a thing now? I have them, they’re mine! I don’t want to let them go! (a few series I do watch and delete, but have stored them for months…)
I could probably find a lot of these on a streaming service, even if for a small to moderate fee if/when I decide I’m actually going to watch them.
“video hoarding” is definitely a thing. But it can also end badly. I had thousands of hours archived from Dish Network over a decade… And lost it all when I cancelled my service. (Files were encrypted an tied to the account- even if I sign up again, a new DVR couldn’t read the external HDD files encrypted under the old account…) I think I read that Tablo files become unreadable if you reset or replace your DVR, and even great hardware sometimes fails.
Not sure where you read that. Obviously, the DB (guide data and settings, etc) stored on the device will be gone if you reset or replace it, as for your external drive…
If you replace your DVR, they have a process to move your drive/recordings to the new device -
If your tablo dies… and not your drive, well you can still access your files. Maybe use that method if you get a new tablo. Or try to “export them”… just that the information as to what show is what is lost on the tablo - so it could be a nightmare sorting through them if you have 100’s or even 1000’s
don’t believe everything you read on Fbook!!
Good to know! That’s why I joined the Tablo community, to learn! Thanks!
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Of course! I’m just sharing things I’ve learned myself 
Everyone comes with varying backgrounds but in the end… we just want a happy tablo experience (I think).
I wasn’t entirely happy with how tablo functioned, discovered #tablo-apps:third-party-apps-plex 3rd party app kind of fill the void for some advanced tablo users and provides some insight. Now, I have things working closer to the way I want them too.
Tablo works great, it’s designed to be a one-size-fits-all. With minimal tech skills, it does what it’s suppose to with minor issues, like with most tech. It fit the general audience well I image, their sales continue to grow.
I’ll check out the Plex app. Thanks! My wife will be the primary user so ease of use was a major factor in choosing Tablo rather than something like a media server PC solution. If I have time to watch something I pull out a Blu-ray and use my home theater.