I live in a rural area and have several TV’s located in various outbuildings. I currently use StarLink internet, using an Eeros network to distribute wireless throughout. I currently experience solid streaming throughout, having Roku TV’s at each location. Since I am rural, I only have one OTA antenna, mast-mounted on the house and receive good reception on the one TV I have connected to it. I am interested in this device primarily to distribute OTA broadcast to my remote TV’s via WiFi. OTA recording would be a nice addition but not my primary need. The price of the unit seems reasonable and I just want to make sure I’m
not going to be disappointed for the primary purpose of purchasing it. Thanks!
If you hard wire the Tablo to one of the Eeros, you should be ok given that other services work in your outer buildings. The Tablo puts out a “fat” signal, so hard wiring it will save you LAN bandwidth. The Tablo is viewed via an app, similar in nature to Netflix. I believe the limit is six devices can view the Tablo content at one time.
I think right now, your biggest concern would be using the Roku ecosystem. There’s a few bugs that need to be worked out and it’s unclear which TVs or STBs are working 100% or why.
@ResisidentG has a great recommendation of hardwiring if it’s possible. If not, the fewer routers or extenders you need to go through will keep a stronger signal. I have found in testing that 2.4ghz is adequate most of the time for the Tablo, but one OTA channel seems to buffer a lot when watching live TV (pausing for 30+s seems to eliminate this). I don’t have this issue on the 5ghz network so keep this in mind.
You should receive the same stations you do with your current setup but you might have to play around with the antenna amplification setting of the Tablo for best results. It’s the network bandwidth that seems to be most crucial to Tablo’s setup, due to the raw data versus compression that Netflix et al uses.
Overall, it’s worth the price, but I hate for you to have to buy a Firestick or GoogleTV device to make it work – although having a secondary (or backup) option is always a good idea (and for $20, the Walmart onn. 4k streaming box works just fine.)
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Thank you! The hard-wire option would work as my antenna coax comes in right by my gateway Eero router, and this would be the same place I would install the Tablo, should I decide to go that route. I am a bit concerned now regarding the caution about using the Roku TV’s ( see second reply below) and if anyone has experience or specifics about what issues I might expect using this device with Roku. Right now, I have two Roku TVs and one Roku Express box - all are working great with my existing streaming services. The most distant TV, in my pole barn office, is currently working fine on the 5 Ghz WiFi side. It is on the end of a 5 Eeros mesh. I will be adding two more Roku streaming boxes, at locations along that line, once I get my other two TV’s (non-Roku) set up. I can’t see where I would be watching OTA at more than 2 locations at once, typically only one at any given time.
Appreciate the advice!
Thank you! The hard-wire option would work as my antenna coax comes in right by my gateway Eero router, and this would be the same place I would install the Tablo, should I decide to go that route. I am a bit concerned now regarding the caution about using the Roku TV’s and if anyone has experience or specifics about what issues I might expect using this device with Roku, I would appreciate hearing your comments. Right now, I have two Roku TVs and one Roku Express box - all are working great with my existing streaming services. The most distant TV, in my pole barn office, is currently working fine on the 5 Ghz WiFi side. It is on the end of a 5 Eeros mesh. I will be adding two more Roku streaming boxes, at locations along that line, once I get my other two TV’s (non-Roku TVs, so will probably require a streaming interface) set up. I can’t see where I would be watching OTA at more than 2 locations at once, typically only one at any given time.
Appreciate the advice!
I’d like to think there’s some pattern to how the Rokus behave, but I can’t find one. The same models of Roku updated a week apart, and while one had an issue with the Tablo app before the 12.5.5 update, the other worked fine without it.
I don’t watch live TV very often, but I do occasionally test my two Rokus to see how they perform using the Tablo. My Roku Express+ (3910RW) has issues my 4k Roku Express+ (3941RW) does not, and vice versa.
The Express+ does not handle different DPIs very well and if a station isn’t 1080, it places the video in the top left portion of the screen, at a percentage of what the total DPI would normally be (1080 full screen, 720 a smaller portion, 480 even smaller). It has occasional buffering issues due to its 2.4ghz limitation and Tablo’s raw video recording. The biggest issue is that I have to pause live TV in order for it to play nonstop consistently. (It’s odd that they don’t set a larger buffer for live TV, considering it has to be cached to a drive before being played).
The 4k Express+ has done very well since the 12.5.5 update, but I had to uninstall, reboot the Roku, and reinstall it before it worked properly. The video plays full screen without any bordering issues (the other has a green line to the right of the Tablo app) and I’ve played live TV for 3-4 hours without a crash, no 30 second pause needed. This device is now a year old, but the newer of the two, which are the only Roku devices I can attest to. I prefer the Android/FireOS version due to how limited the Roku app’s features are, and tend to use my Roku only as backup. I hope they find a way to fix the current live TV issue as well as adding these features only available elsewhere.
All in all, things have mostly gotten better since purchasing my first Tablo. Features are certainly getting more reliable and the apps more stable. The other 4k Roku Express+ is not mine and that Tablo is not used for live TV, but I have heard it’s working perfectly for recorded playback.
Another user has recently mentioned that there might be an update coming soon, and I hope for the sake of all Roku users that this is true. I hate to see people give up on a great device because an OS and app aren’t working well together. It might be encouraging that I see far less users having an issue with their RokuTVs, but it’s not helpful for the devices you need to add. It’s likely that your older Roku device will be too underpowered for what the Tablo needs to operate properly.
I wish you the best in whichever decision you make. It’ll likely take a week or so to get your Tablo. Perhaps by the time you’ve received your device, many of these issues will be resolved.
Thanks again - all great and detailed info! My current streaming packages serve most of my needs, but although I’m not a huge sports fan, found them falling short for the NFL playoffs. My OTA handled all of those except for one exception (Peacock? Brilliant!) I’ll probably hang tight for a few months to see if things improve on the Tablo-Roku front. I’ll keep checking here to see if any forthcoming updates seem to be addressing the issues. Seems like the engineers at Tablo are working to improve things for a wider range of applications. Best wishes!
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Would probably be better off getting a refurbished prior model than the gen4.
The problem is… this isn’t the good ole Tablo days. Sure, you might get an OG, but you’d be tied to a monthly sub for EPG without any option for lifetime sub.
Could get very pricey if you stick with Tablo in that case.
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He stated recording wasn’t a priority for him, so if he went with free one day guide, the harder setting up recordings (but still being able to record VCR style) would not bother him. And could get full guide for free when available to Legacys.
Very true. Manual recordings… another plus for the OG.
Still, though… wouldn’t it cost more money for an older product? And just in case it might not work with Roku…
It’s an option, but I can’t imagine for how long. Planned obsolescence or not, a company can’t support a product forever! I never had an OG device, so I can’t say if the benefits outweigh the length it will last looking forward. I just hope they bring some of those great features forward. I’m sure it’ll take some time, though.
(and from the confusing tech support email I recently received, there’s supposedly some + button I can click to manually record on a station without guide data? whadya think: confused rep or future feature?)
They most certainly work with Roku.
I was referring to the 4th gen possibly not wishing with his Roku, which was his worry to begin with.
If anyone is worried about them stopping support for products they very recently sold and are still selling today (refurbished) anytime soon (several years at least) would also worry about gen4 support going away too.
I don’t expect it to be soon, but eventually a company puts its weight behind one product over another (Lisa vs. Macintosh?) and can only do so much to keep a product going.
The 4th gen seems to be a complete overhaul of an older system. I can’t see them going back to the legacy models if it’s successful.
I just know that when I buy something refurbished or outdated, I don’t expect it to last as long as something brand new. I’m sure the expected product life for any of these is max 3-5 years anyway. My thinking is that without a way to migrate recordings later, it just makes more sense to upgrade the other parts of your system to match a newer product. And yes, I do recognize that if my Tablo dies tomorrow, the hard drive cannot be used in another 4th gen either.
A legacy may be right for him. I’m glad he’s asking a ton of questions.
Love the dialog, and the information I’m gaining, although I can’t say I know Legacy from OG. I was looking at the round, white unit they’ve been advertising. I understand it has two internal tuners, so more than one channel can be viewed at a time on two different TVs. For the money spent, if I could be sure I can stream the OTA channels I now receive over my network, I would be happy. But, they have to work with my Roku TVs and streaming boxes - can’t see starting over with that to get something to stream OTA to my remote locations - just not that big of a priority. I’m hearing Tablo works fine with Roku, and then that there’s issues with Tablo working with Roku. Since I’m primarily looking for viewing OTA over my network, and willing to accept less-than-perfect performance with the DVD or the program guide, I would like to know I have a better-than-average chance that Tablo would work for my purpose. My main streaming needs are taken care of. Can I assume the round, white unit is the 4G unit spoken of? If so, are any Roku system users experiencing any issues with streaming?
What speeds do you get when you run speedtest.net on a laptop in the pole barn office? It looks like you will need at least 10 Mbps per live OTA channel.
Here are a couple of recent threads about problems with Roku and the white Tablo.
Legacy and OG (original gangster) the same Tablo DUAL LITE Over-The-Air DVR | Tablo – Tablo TV it and this X-MEDIA 3.5-Inch USB 2.0 SATA Aluminum Hard Drive HDD External Enclosure Case | eBay or similar (and drive of course) yes round is gen4. The 4 is pretty much beta read some of the posts here.
Here is info on guide. What Do I Get With my TV Guide Data Service Subscription? – Tablo (tablotv.com)