I have a Tablo (4 tuner 4th gen). I haven't used an OTA Tivo in 15 years, but I used cable versions up until about 2 years ago.
Using the Tablo is very straight forward. Its interfaces are reasonably polished (compared to the SD HDHR), but not nearly as clean or reliable as the Tivo. There are no monthly fees with the 4th gen (I think the earlier models had a modest fee for recording, but I am not that familiar).
The Tablo has a small amount of built in storage, but I would recommend adding a drive straight out of the gate. I believe the built in storage is re-encoded and the external drive is not. If that isn't the case, then it was something similar. I started testing just using the built in storage and had no problems, so I then added the drive for longer term use.

I went with the Tablo for the following reasons:
1. It has 0 fees. I record very little anymore, so paying more than $5 or maybe $10 a month made no sense.
2. Can use most streaming devices and TVs with it. No expensive custom hardware needed like the Tivo. Phones can be used as well. It is just an app on the devices. One drawback is no streaming outside the home. You would need something like a VPN to put your phone on your home network to use it remotely.

Before getting the Tablo, I had transitioned to using Channels DVR on my PC and either paired it with a cable subscription for TV everywhere recording or with a SD HDHR device. This setup was great and I preferred the Channels DVR interface, but it is more complicated and had some fees. As an attempt to simplify my life, I adopted a new rule. If my wife couldn't manage it if something happened to me, it had to go. The Tablo and Tivo are similar in that respect. The Tablo won due to just being an app on my streaming device (no extra hardware at each TV) and lower cost. SD HDHR also offers an option to plug in a drive like the Tablo. It had modest fees, but seemed less polished than the Tablo. The SD HDHR device is overall more flexible and integrates with more things if you are into setting this up yourself.

As for your question about going to the Roku/firestick home screen, from my perspective, that is misguided. The Tablo viewer is just an app. It should be that way. Your entertainment system shouldn't be controlled by your cable/antenna provider/tuner. There have been attempts over the years by Tivo and others to integrate App content into their systems. None has gone well. Too many players and the app companies like Netflix don't really want to play nice. It is best to just get a streaming device (possibly TV), that has each of the apps you want and work from there. Of course, this is just my opinion. This has worked out well for me. I have a cheap $20 Onn GoogleTV dongle at each of my TVs (could be Roku, firestick, etc.). That and the never used Blu-ray players are the only two devices. It is so much simpler and we have the same interface everywhere.

Specifically to the Tablo, I miss occasional recordings due to corruption from planes killing the TV signal. I don't agree at all with some of the control choices (they don't follow the standards laid out by google and used by most app developers, but I have gotten used to them). Those controls are better on something like a Roku, since the Roku has dedicated play/pause, ff, and rw buttons. The ability to record content from the integrated FAST channels is interesting, but I have never used it. It fastforwards more like a streaming service rather than a Tivo. On the Tivo, you could watch as you fast forwarded. This it has thumbnails and skips instead. If you have used Tivos for years, you will miss the polish. However, if you want just a cheap basic functional DVR for antenna, it works.

I miss my Tivo, but the world has moved on and the content I watch isn't availble there anymore. Cable is dying. Antenna will out live it for basic needs probably. I hope some day that the local channels stream on the internet for free like they do OTA. Basically, I hope they become FAST channels rather than just OTA. Maybe something like the Tablo would allow you to time shift them, just like the do with the existing FAST channels.

Hopefully, you find something useful in my ramblings.

Josh

 

One drawback is no streaming outside the home.

I have heard older Tablos do allow watching recordings over the internet

 

Thank you for your advice. I've had tivo (Series3 HD since 2008) that I've used as both OTA and cable and a tivo bolt vox since 2021, all with lifetime.

I will probably stick with Tivo as it does exactly what I want. I think my Tivo paired with Roku will do just fine.

 

Thank you for your advice. I've had tivo (Series3 HD since 2008) that I've used as both OTA and cable and a tivo bolt vox since 2021, all with lifetime.

I will probably stick with Tivo as it does exactly what I want. I think my Tivo paired with Roku will do just fine.

I wish I had that option. Tablo is a feeble replacement for TiVo, but at least it works (I now live in a town without cable TV, so my Roamio has become useless).

 

I had a Tablo for a couple years. It was the 2-tuner version. Eventually, I replaced it with Channels DVR using a cheap mini-PC coupled with a HD HomeRun. Trickplay is much faster and less problematic for currently-recording shows than I experienced with Tablo. Commercial detection works great. There is a bit more of a technical learning curve when setting it up, but if you are a nerd like me, that makes it more interesting.

 

Another question about tablo. How is the fast forwarding experience compared to Tivo. I'm sure it doesnt have skip. But can you see the screen? That question stems from an experience when i had spectrum using the app on my roku. when i fast forwarded commercials, the screen was black. I had to guess. So frustrating.

Also can you set season passes? If yes can you choose all episodes, new only, etc.


I guess my reason for asking is a whole house experience. I have a roof antenna with one connection to my main tv. I have a few indoor antennas in the other rooms that work ok but not great.

I'm also unable to transfer recordings between my S3 and Bolt.

 

Another question about tablo. How is the fast forwarding experience compared to Tivo. I'm sure it doesnt have skip. But can you see the screen? That question stems from an experience when i had spectrum using the app on my roku. when i fast forwarded commercials, the screen was black. I had to guess. So frustrating.

It's kinda weird. You get a series of screen shots across the bottom of the screen that cover 10-second increments. If you hit "FF" again, it will jump ahead two screen shots. So you can jump in 20-second intervals, but see what happens at 10-second intervals. No motion, though. Just static screen shots.
Yes, and yes.

 

Oct 18, 2024:
Update: No longer strongly recommending Tablo 4th Gen, a tad immature yet. (Web search "tablo 4th gen buggy" for more.) Will likely look to HDHomeRun or equivalent for my new DVR.
What swayed me:

• My 10-month-old Tablo spontaneously bricked while viewing a short recorded program. Warranty replacement nicely shipped out brand new box but while waiting, hey, it's cheap, so I bought a second unit while waiting for RMA. New one worked well despite some gotchas - pixilations, other shows not recording, or recording just a few minutes - which resolved with tiny tweaks to antenna position, fraction of an inch mattered, very sensitive. Once RMA replacement arrived, swapped in, even more stable for some reason.
• Immature software development. Tablo's new Roku app rolled out in October, got slammed in user forums for a couple design choices and general instability and failure to work once Roku (one client type) received Roku's new planned firmware push. Tablo issued updates within weeks, plus a December new firmware that fixed some bugs including an issue with one of my own local stations.

Re: my bricked Tablo. 10-month-old Tablo, cleanly powered, bricked without warning, could not be force rebooted nor factory reset. External power supply tested fine. I had been using as Tablo recommends my own supplied external SATA drive for recordings, so I updated the new Tablo to matching Tablo firmware and followed external drive move tips published for a prior gen Tablo, the only doc available for external drive reconnects. Unlike prior gen Tablos, the 4th Gen Tablos cannot read external drives written by a different unit of the identical 4th Gen Tablo model. Opened two tickets with Tech Support, searched Tablo Support databases, Tablo Community, unofficial hacks. Tech Support replied "no supported way to move recordings from one 4th Generation Tablo to another 4th Generation Tablo but we hope to add this feature in the future." My replacement Tablo recognized the half TB of recordings as used storage but wouldn't read the data. (Might try reading the volume with Linux as a curiosity later on.)

Very grateful to you, TiVo Community and generous members, for your years of eager, expert TiVo support, your amazing scripts to replace TiVo disk volumes with all recordings intact, your mentoring in troubleshooting and replacing components, much more.


My original post:

Sep 22, 2024:
Great thread! As a 2011 cord cutter, I watch streaming and antenna TV. My antenna DVRs are:
• 2014 Roamio (4-tuner, antenna only)
• new Tablo 4th Gen, 4 Tuner DVR (since early January).

Tablo selection and setup
I wanted a turnkey solution as a planned failover to the 2014 Roamio which is still a workhorse and easy to upgrade over the years (new disk, fan, power supply) but it's outdated and on borrowed time. Tablo setup was a breeze, plug and play other than creating a customer account, downloading Android phone app, using a wizard to initiate. Augmented the storage with an external 4TB external HD (separately powered Seagate STBV4000100).

TV Antennas - I antenna source each box separately since each box splits the signal already:
• Roamio: attic mounted RCA Yagi HDTV model ANT751E
• Tablo: indoor antenna, Antennas Direct DB2 (probably discontinued, had on hand)

Signal integrity
• Roamio always had intermittent, anomalous signal degradations, a common issue I understand, though generally very watchable.
• Tablo, supplied with a lowly indoor antenna in my trial setup. Despite the lowly antenna its signal integrity generally outperforms the Roamio. I still record and compare same broadcast, same station, between the two boxes sometimes. Keeping Tablo on the indoor antenna for now since Roamio's 2014 internal circuitry is too weak to reliably use the indoor antenna here.

Daily use
Roamio excels for near rock solid stability, mature intuitive interface, predictive suggested recordings. But I mostly watch 4K sources now, and Roamio's 1080p quality suffers by comparison - including comparison to the Tablo. Tablo requires a set-top box or phone app to watch; I use a 4K Roku Ultra as my set-top box. Tablo visually/audibly outperforms Roamio's 1080p for sheer beauty of its upconverted content on my 4K TV and with Roku Ultra's crisp, immersive audio. I still let Roamio run its automated recordings but increasingly I prefer to go hunt down a streamed version of Roamio recorded shows, or else a version I've redundantly recorded onto Tablo, for higher visual/audio quality.

Interface
Tablo 4th gen is still early with limited features. Has received a few pushed updates these past months which it needed for stability. One bug still truncates recordings and then resumes them in progress when it detects certain signal errors. Once I get around to maturing my setup, I'll feed it a stronger antenna signal which may help (but darn it, Roamio still needs my stronger attic antenna yet). For Tablo you can start viewing while a recording is in progress but then you won't get the thumbnail views on the progress bar, so I typically wait till a recording has completed before watching on Tablo. Early growing pains, expecting more maturity as Tablo develops updates.

Till Tablo matures more, glad to have redundant DVRs for now. Once old Roamio fails for good I'll miss it, but I won't shed a tear for it has served well. Then: Tablo and Roku Ultra streaming will still be a good pair.

 

I've had my 4th gen 4 tuner Tablo for almost a year and it's still doing good. It seems to get more stable after every update. The first year seems to be a beta program. A good outdoor antenna is crucial because if the signal is weak the program will not be recorded.

 

Thanks, lman. Concise and correct, I think. My post (prior to yours) focused completely on early 10 month bricked unit and frustration the external drive recordings were not supported by Tablo for migration to swapped in RMA replacement. Yet, 4th Gen Tablo's still a tremendous value. Low price level currently $139 (cheaper than many home theater accessories), incredible ease of setup and use, gorgeous output even with standard OTA recordings - I've happily resumed viewing the RMA replacement Tablo as a better quality viewing experience than my longstanding TiVo Roamio. Though the interface is less sophisticated, no suggested recordings, fewer options, yet view quality is more enjoyable than my older gen Roamio. I'm braced for a potential abrupt fail of either DVR one day again (Tablo because it's still young/immature, Roamio because it's dusty old now) but that's OK. Enjoying each for their strengths.

Yes, input signal quality is everything. I'm 10 miles from my metro TV towers for primary stations so my now carefully tweaked temporary indoor antenna is working well with the Tablo. But your advice is best: good outdoor antenna, always smart.

 

fwiw I thought this was interesting and may I say hopeful for future development, I just saw my first-ever Tablo commercial, so this seems like a major push to get wider awareness. We're hanging on to our Bolt until the cable cards are ripped away because hubby would find a transition very difficult and because our antenna reception here is compromised by trees and geography.

I wonder if it was targeted just to Comcast; fwiw we're on Comcast cable TV in the greater Seattle area (separate Comcast internet account); the ad was on CNN at 10am Pacific time.

 

CNN commercials are affordable due to low ratings especially at the time you mentioned so I’m sure tablo got a really good price.

Maybe things with tablo will change in the future however you would think they would have already fixed the known issues because they have been around awhile now.

If you lose your cablecard and tablo is still the same you would be much better off with one of the major satellite provider dvrs. Directv (Genie 2 DVR) or dish networks (Hopper DVR). They both work great & have no learning curve.

You could also go the streaming option with Directv stream with Gemini that comes with a real remote or you can use something like a Roku or Apple TV. If you want a real remote go with Gemini. This service is very similar to satellite/tivo dvrs.

Tablos are not reliable. Recommend you stay away until they fix all their issues.

Hopefully you have cable card support for many years so you don’t lose your TiVo.

Best of luck.