I dont have netflix or other fee based subscriptions. While I realize there are several that do there are also several that dont. We wanted to get rid of fees and now they are adding them back in.
There’s the fee of internet access to watch your free OTA recordings via your tablo DVR - with or with out a guide subscription - as a tablo is reliant up the internet for basic function.
No…will not be using it. The price is fair, but still no for a few reasons:
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The required upload bandwidth. In testing, it was just too much bandwidth on my limited upload speed, even when using QoS.
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It’s already too easy to just pick up the remote and FF.
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When using FF, sometimes there’s a commercial I want to see. Perhaps a local concert or event spot, or a promo for an upcoming show, or the M&M’s commercials are just funny sometimes
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djk44883 - e features in terms of Schedule and manage recording by episode or by series;
That works fine for shows currently in progress which may have been looked up in the included basic guide. The paid subscription guide which lets a user look forward as much as 14 days I think certainly lends itself to spotting and setting up recording to shows not currently live. No problem there. My wife and I have the paid guide, like it for it’s (currently) reasonable price, and we use it every day. Sure it could be even more cool I say from my armchair, but pressing for improvements would mean higher implementation cost.
For all that TABLO is or can be, I imagine if I dig deep enough, there will be something in an agreement of service that says in so many words that anything they do is subject to change. And then my point about the dropping of Automatic Commercial Skip (ACS) unless we now pay for it becomes pointless. On the other hand if I or somebody else did not wave this flag, then for sure nothing ventured, nothing gained. I am sure it will become a point of contention in future reviews of the TABLO product. I personally contend that ACS was provided and wording on the box supports this. More than any other statements on the attractive blue and white buy me box. And it looked that way to me too re the original wording online. Wording which has been amended with what you will see now.
All in all I am happy with the product. Except in my opinion the remote control is too small and slippery. Way to easy to hit a button when picking it up. But we have to keep in mind the price point and what we four our dollars is overall pretty darn good. I just have trouble letting go of losing ACS unless I now pay for it.
OTA channels as they are via TABLO with a few pros and cons, works great. Watching pre-recorded OTA episodes typically in the 20-sh minute “half hour” or 40-ish minute “hour” time frame with ACS in play makes “television” watching a relaxing undertaking and more time efficient. Or take our lumps with Ads when the show is live or leave ACS turned off if you like watching Advertisements (?). I’m just miffed that the feature of blanking out commercials on recorded playbacks is going to cost extra now when it seemed to me that it was included. And it seemed like the change was slid under the carpet in how it was handled.
That single tiny line of white text and Asterisk on blue background on the TABLO Quad box could have been put to good use with a better statement of what they meant by Skip Commercials and other info noted elsewhere early on about ACS.
In the year 2025, as Tablo 4K’s domination continues in the marketspace. Subscriber’s to Nuvyyo’s Premium Virtual Cloud Aggregate Green Service have noticed that commercial skip won’t skip over Nuvyyo’s own commercials.
I have pointed this out in the past…
I have long pointed out the box clearly states the internet is needed to download guide data and out of home streaming. If I opt out of guide data and view in house… then presumably I shouldn’t need internet for basic function.
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Unfortunately between it not working a high enough % of the time, and us not watching enough network TV, I just don’t think it is worth it at this time.
Seems like a penalty to the Lifetime Subscribers. I’ve already prepaid for an equivalent of 3 years. Yet we pay the same as annuals. Right now I can’t even use my subscription because of some bug in the system. ( My subscription shows on the TabloTV Account page, yet not on my device. Thus cancelling my scheduled recordings.) The CS is working ~75%, by my experience. I’ve had to rewind to view parts of the show erroneously marked as commercials and also not marking real commercials. I really hate companies moving the goal posts in the middle of the game. Bad show!
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Maybe they could keep commercial skip free if they made it ad supported?
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4 recordings I watched last night, commercial skip failed for various reasons.
Now that would be an interesting twist…we will remove the network provided ads, in exchange for OUR ads…but, to deliver our ads you will need to have an active internet connection…
And then we can pay an extra fee to remove those ads… 
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We’re on the fence. Many times we smile and praise Tablo while enjoying hands free C-skip and $20/yr sounds reasonable.
Unfortunately, it’s not flawless or without frequent failures. And I do know how blood pressure climbs when paying good money for “kinda works”.
There’s also the “creep” factor in which some entity/company has direct access to and unfettered use of my viewing data. I’ve not let that bother me since I was getting something in return.
However, levying a monetary “charge” will likely change how I feel about “freely” sharing this personal private information.
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@Dasher
Mine too…Chicago pd, Fire, Med…
Also, I no longer have commercial skip as a option under fast live tv start up in settings…and all my commercial skip previous recording’s with check marks are all gone…I have no selection to turn it on or off …suddenly
I’m a lifelong subscriber…why Did I suddenly lose all commercial skip check marks next to all recordings
I thought the new subscription wasn’t going to be implemented until first week in February
Edit.
I just paid the $20 and now all my check marks are back and commercial skip
Is now back functional…all my last night and previous recordings are all
back to normal …phew
I know it has not been flawless but I just subscribed and I am willing to support the service. At $20/year it is a no brainer.
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No I don’t need it. I heard Tablo Ripper does not like recordings that went through Commercial Skip. If true, that’s a deal breaker. We have enjoyed nearly five years of pretty much trouble free Tablo viewing and I think a part of that good fortune is having it setup with basic/default settings, and yes we’re absolutely satisfied with those settings. My wife loves Tablo and has no trouble skipping through commercials.
For some reason now that they announced the new pricing it is not working at all. It was far from perfect but I’m assuming they will make better. It is worth $20 a year.
I use Tablo Ripper daily and then manually edit out commercials from programs I want to keep. Mainly older programs that I then transfer to Plex for future viewing.
I turn commercial skip off and on daily so that only prime time shows are processed for commercial skip, but some of the older shows I want to keep are broadcast during prime time and I’ve never had a problem with Tablo Ripper ripping a show that has been processed for commercial skip.
The only thing I have noticed is that the resulting Tablo Ripper file size of shows that have been processed for commercial skip can be 25 to 50% larger than shows that weren’t processed. Once I edit out the commercials and produce my edited version, the file size is back to the same size as shows that weren’t processed for commercial skip.
I probably won’t subscribe either, mainly because commercial skip is far from perfect and for a service that I am paying for, I expect at least 95% perfect or near perfect results. Currently commercial skip is only working maybe 75% of the time and of those programs that are processed, only 10% are processed close to being correct. Hopefully @TabloTV will take note and improve the process so that one day I might try it again.
No, I will not be subscribing to it. My thumbs still work. I paid for the lifetime subscription thinking that upgrades would be included, I was wrong. I just read that within 5 years a new TV tuner standard will be enacted (ATSC 3.0) this could make the Tablo a doorstop as a tuner box will need to be added to use the device or will Tablo offer an upgrade for $ even though you have a lifetime subscription? Time will tell. Tablo don’t go down the road of the cable companies. We know what is happening there.
No, you weren’t wrong. Firmware upgrades (which happen several times a year) continue to be free, and they add functionality and improve the device.
Anyone who has been on these forums for a while has known that a fee for commercial skip was likely. The Tablo folks didn’t hide that fact. Since it uses extra servers separate from the rest, that just makes sense, just like they charge extra for Cloud DVR.
As for ATSC 3.0, that will eventually make current Tablos obsolete, but that happens to all technology. If I get 10 years out of my Tablo, that means it was an awesome product that saved me a ton of money. I do expect an ATSC 3.0 Tablo in the next five years, which is perfectly fine.
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