What Are Some Alternatives To Tablo?

As posted above, I am wondering what some of the better alternatives are to Tablo? All I want is the ability to connect an over the air (ATSC) tuner to my television antenna at home and them watch and/or listen via a desktop computer.

I actually do have a SlingBox PRO HD at home it works great with Android and personally owned computers. The problem is I want to be able to watch on computers that I can’t add software to.
SlingBox requires a plug-in. I am not able to add a plug in since the computers are not mine and I don’t have administrator rights.

Would Hauppauge Broadway, Simple TV, or Sling AirTV be a better choice for me?

My concern about Simple TV is that I have read that the company is shaky and may not be around to support this product in the future. Also, it does have a subscription fee, but there is a reasonably priced subscription from an Ebay retailer. Hopefully it is reputable.

The Hauppauge Broadway claims to be able to do what I want, but perhaps it, too, will require “pairing” like the Tablo does.

Sling AirTV isn’t even here yet. I have read that it will be available in the coming weeks. It is a little clear in my mind if you have to be a SlingTV subscriber to use SlingAirTV or if it can also be used independent of the Sling TV service.

I do currently have Sony Play Station Vue. I love the service, but I can’t watch it via a personal computer. Maybe they will add the feature soon. If they also had a device similar to the Sling Air TV, I would find that to be a very compelling choice for me!

You might want to be careful what you post here… sounds like you want to do something that skirts some company policy on computers and that is a terminal offense with many companies these days. Just a thought for you.

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That sounds like something Tablo can do just fine.

You gave lots of problems with other devices, but why won’t the Tablo work for you?

He wants to use it on a remote computer that will never be on his home network. That is why it won’t work for him.

I don’t know of any product out there that can do this.

Ah. He didn’t say that specifically and I didn’t pick up on it, sorry. :flushed:

If Tablo someday goes to username/password login he’ll be set!

EDIT: and now I see the other thread. :wink:

Hauppauge Broadway can do this (I had one). However it uses a Hauppauge corporate server as intermediary (through user ID and password logins) to link home device (Broadway) to external (outside the home) client. Three elements involved:

  1. Client (browser outside home),
  2. Hauppage server (corporate computer),
  3. Broadway PVR (at home).

The internal\external links (DNS, router ports, etc.) are done at registration time. Works also with mobile devices such as tablets. Totally browser based - no addons required.

You could build your own. :slight_smile:

Box with tuners, access to a program guide, way to capture from the tuner, way to (possibly convert) and stream the captured data (possibly as it is happening … aka live). It’s not “hard” if you have some experience and know how to write some code.

Just an FYI on the Simple.TV - I am pretty sure this product has been discontinued and is no longer supported. It was at one time being distributed by Silicon Dust (makers of HD HomeRun) and last I heard, they were working on their own DVR (that was over a year ago and I still haven’t heard about any product coming from them that is ready for prime time [literally and figuratively]).

You CAN use your PS Vue credtionals to stream lots of the sights such as CNn and FOX. They don’t have Windows app.

@Jim1348 I have a solution setup that I use to watch live OTA channels outside of my house using a HDHomeRun Connect and Plex Server with the HDHR Viewer plugin (within Plex). There is no plugin or “pairing” required on the client browser.

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Have you tried out the new DVR software from HDHomeRun? I’m curious how that project is going.

Until I discovered Tablo, I preferred MythTv. MythTv can use multiple tuner cards, write data to NAS or local drive. You can connect to, manipulate, etc. the video files locally or from remote locations. These days, however, Tablo/Roku4 is just fine. It has a smaller footprint and I don’t have to research tuner compatibility for various LINUX spins every time I build a new box!

As I type this, I am sitting in a hotel in Canada watching a TV show that’s on my Tablo in the USA. I could do the same thing with MythTv, but Tablo/Roku4 works fine with less effort.

I DO miss the automatic skipping of commercials in MythTv though :wink:

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Stay away from Simple.TV. Horrible products, very unstable.

So for Tablo on a computer that will never be on your home network, the easiest workaround (in my opinion) is to set up a proxy server on your network and remotely connect using it at least once. Then the tablo credentials can be cached, and you can stop using it in the future.

The easiest way to set up a proxy to me is with OpenSSH. Set up an SSH server, do port forwarding to the port you open on your router and then connect to it using Putty. Putty doesn’t require installation, you run the EXE from a USB disk if you want.

When you connect with Putty turn on the dynamic SOCKS proxy. Set that proxy in your browser. Confirm it’s working using whatismyip.com. Once you know it’s working, hit teh tablo site and login. You’ll get credentials cached and then never need to use the proxy setup again.

Actually it is possible to view Tablo remote on a computer using Hamachi VPN (they offer a free 5 node VPN) to connect multiple computers into a WAN that can access resources like local (providing you have sufficient bandwidth).

You can use other VPN options, but Hamachi is the simplest and least cost (Free) if you don’t need to connect more than 5 computers.

https://www.vpn.net/