Customer Ratings & Reviews

A big bite cost wise for people wanting to go OTA. A good external hard drive is needed if one wants to record their daily shows. Along with a subscription to Tablo. At $300 for the Tablo, $150 lifetime subscription to Tablo, $100 for a external hard drive and $50 for the Roku (unless you have a smart TV), we've invested 600 clams to give the cable and dish companies the finger. However, Dish just jacked up our monthly dues to $97 a month. Sooo, simple math. Six months and we'll be saving money. Tablo is relatively easy to set up out of the box. An Ipad or smart device is needed for the setup. A warning for USA purchasers! Make sure your bank credit card company does business with Canada. Tablo is located in Ottawa, Canada. To subscribe to Tablo Guide Data Subscription my bank declined any charges outside the US. I ended up having to using a high interest credit card to make this transaction. Come on Tablo! Paypal please!

Good features, relatively easy setup, wifi setup was iffy Set up was very easy, though minimal instructions are included. More are less plug and play. Ethernet is easy, wifi takes a few tries. With coax cable from antenna, all of the channels look good. The channel guide is good but requires a monthly fee. The Tablo requires a mobile device to control, but connection and software are fairly easy and quick. Initialization takes several minutes. The device will be more useful once they have an app for AppleTV. I love the AppleTV and once the two devices work well together, we will finally be able to end our cable subscription. We have the four tuner version, so we can record all of our shows. Easy to record shows, selection and playback are easy on the TV or mobile devices. An external hard drive is required to record shows, plug in a USB drive and you are good to go. The price is a little steep especially with adding a hard drive, but there are few alternatives since I like the AppleTV over Roku or other devices.

Great product that records live TV just like we expected, unfortunately, I hate having to spend $300 for a product + another $60-100 on an external HD and still be required to pay monthly for it. This is the reason behind the 4 stars otherwise I love it. For anyone who isn't aware, if you want to record live TV (which is probably why you want this) and you watch multiple shows at once, you have to pay monthly for tablo's subscription service in order to set it to record a series ONCE and be done. Otherwise if you are not paying you have to set it to record each show EACH time it airs and once it records you have to go back and schedule another recording. For someone like me who watches 6+ shows at once I like the ability to set it once and forget about it.

This device differs from other devices in that it does not connect directly to the TV, but instead relies on a home network to distribute signals to Rokus, Amazon Fire TV's, etc. You also need a over the air antenna and an external hard drive. You can also view your recorded programs while away from home on a computer, tablet, smart phone and certain streaming devices such as Amazon Fire (but not Roku). I understand that Apple TV and certain new LG smart TV's will also have apps allowing you to view recorded shows. They've done a lot of improvement on the apps the past few months, so the experience today is better than early adopters may have experienced. It does NOT work with cable (analog, QAM, or encrypted) and it will not record from A/V input. It only work with over-the-air digital signals in the US and Canada. Due to the novel distribution method, you may need to adjust some settings on your router. We have experienced a few glitches, but their customer support is the best I've seen.

Recently I was the target of yet another price increase from my cable company (Cox). In years gone by this was my cue to call them & haggle, but I'm fed up doing this & it only postpones the pain. Instead I decided to expend my energy looking at cutting the cable TV cord. We are taking this transition very slowly, but I believe I am in a position to review the Tablo now. Analyzing our TV watching showed that we watched mostly OTA TV, with only a few shows from regular cable (TNT, etc) & then several shows from premium cable (HBO, SHO). We opted for the 4 tuner as for an extra $70 it seemed worthwhile never having to choose between recordings. antennaweb.org showed that all the locals we watched *should* be available at our location, but of course we couldn't be certain until we actually tried it. Fortunately - despite questionable terrain - using a ClearStream 4V in the attic the tablo got all the channels we wanted. And then some! All told between tablo, antenna, USB drive (5TB) & lifetime guide subscription our tablo rig cost quite a bundle. It seemed VERY expensive until we do the math - even paying for some streaming services, I reckon we'll save around $100 a month. (We had a LOT of channels with the cable company, but IMO they deliberately slice things to encourage that.) Anyway, the tablo is different from the cable company DVR. There are some minor annoyances (e.g. slow startup on streaming, so I tend not to flick-thru-channels on Tablo), but nothing that can't be avoided/worked around. The guide is awesome. Much better than the cable company DVR guide that I'm used to. I really like the fact that I could add my own drive as we were forever running out of recording space on our (admittedly ancient) cable DVR,. When we first got the Tablo there were some playback issues in Chrome, so I really liked being able to use a different mechanism to prove that it was Chrome misbehaving (used a VLC plugin). The Roku 4 is probably going to end up on my shopping list as the preferred playback mechanism ... as I mentioned we're taking the transition very slowly. Oh, and the product seems to be improving all the time. I've applied a couple of updates at this stage. One of them removed the 2TB limit on disks, so it was after that that I purchased a new 5TB drive, previously having just used a smaller one I had at hand. All told, a very satisfied user so far.

So I was running WMC and I was looking for a replacement. Tablo works well. The PC running in my basement and 3 network tuners are now powered off. The Roku channel/app is a little out-dated, but they have a completely new Roku channel nearly complete. Even being out-dated, I am impressed with how well Tablo works. The guide is $5 per month and is a must IMO since you need the guide to record the series. Other reviews said the Tablo does get warm, so I picked up a $20 laptop cooling pad (two 140mm fans). It's large enough for the Tablo and my external USB HDD. I wish the USB on the Tablo was 3.0, but it's only 2.0. Still I have seen no issues with recordings. I did run into a couple of small issues. Sometimes when I launch the Tablo channel on the Roku it starts and exits to the Roku main screen again. Launch a second time and it works fine. Then with live TV, sometimes after you pick a channel, it starts showing the live TV, then jumps back 3-5 seconds. This only happens after initially selecting the channel. I wish they would add the ability to input a DNS address for the iPad app. As it is now, you must connect to the Tablo on WIFI at least once before trying to use the iPad app away form the house. I totally recommend this unit to anyone trying to cut the cord.

I got tired of paying Comcast (prior to that it was DirecTV) gobs of money for a bunch of channels we didn't watch. By the time I added HD programming and DVR, my monthly bill for TV alone was $85+. $85/month just to watch TV??? I'd always dreamed of ditching cable in favor of over the air programming. The biggest limiting factor was a solid DVR solution as we rarely watching live TV. I'd messed with home theater PCs and they never passed the easy to operate test. There was always some quirk (outside of just dealing with Microsoft quirkiness) that kept me from using it as a home DVR. And then along came Tablo... Before I tell you about how great Tablo is, I did also look at Channel Master DVR+. I believe this is the only other option worth discussing - please take a look at that as well to see if it will meet your needs. To be clear, there's no physical connection between the Tablo and your TV. Tablo will stream recordings or live TV "to" your AppleTV, ChromeCast or Roku. This was a concern of mine as it's much different from conventional thinking. What this offers is one less input used on your TV or receiver. This is also great if you use one of those streaming devices for playing music or videos on your TV as there's no need to switch inputs. This is really becoming a disjointed review - please understand my excitement/ADHD... What sold me on Tablo is the whole-home capabilities it offers. There's no need to run splitters or buy a separate DVR for another room, but it does require another ChromeCast or AppleTV. Recently, the fine folks at just released phone apps (previously was limited to tablets) that allow using your phone to control your Tablo. For me, this was the best thing that's happened to Tablo as I didn't want to buy an iPad just for controlling TV. As I write this, I've been watching TV via the Tablo app to my main TV for about 2 hours and my iPhone battery life has gone down to 98%. That's much better than I expected. Other things that make Tablo so great: Bring your own hard drive. No need to limit your recordings - buy a drive that meets your needs. Access your recordings and live TV while away from home. The Tablo can be installed out of site as there's no direct connection to your TV. Tablo is made in Canada. Great community support @ http://community.tablotv.com/ My total investment (4-channel Tablo, Mohu Sky 60 and WG hard drive) is about $500. At $85 a month, I should start saving money in 6 months. Yes, there are shows I miss because the channels aren't available OTA (ESPN, HGTV, TNT, TBS), but it's a small price to pay.

The Tablo is a great DVR solution because it provides great picture quality even wirelessly to all the tvs, phones and tablets in your house. You'll need a connected box like an Apple TV 4, Firetv / Firetv Stick or Roku to use Tablo on a TV. The do support a few native apps on Google TV and LG tvs, but you'll enjoy better performance using a Roku or AppleTV. The app performance on the FireTV Stick and Chromecast is very slow, but functional. I did not buy my Tablo from Best Buy. Best Buy didn't carry it in my local store . I am an Elite Plus member and I wanted to use this product for an extended period of time and offer an honest review. This product is not as user friendly as a Tivo, but they are making strides to get there. I was a huge fan of Tivo. I used to have the first HD box with integrated Directv. It was awesome. Directv and Tivo have both lost their way in my opinion. Tivo's whole home solution is flawed because it really requires very expensive hardware in each addition room and to date, requires a hardwired connection. The extra boxes take up space and are over $100 each with a separate remote. The main Tivo boxes are large and have limited fixed storage. I purchased the OTA Tivo and an extra box and wasn't able to get the additional box to work with a power line ethernet adaptor, so I promptly returned them to BB. With Tablo, I started with an external 1TB drive, and have migrated for the 3rd time up to a 4TB drive. This is officially unsupported, but totally possible. To me, I'd rather spend $35-$50 on a Roku Stick or a FireTV stick and use Tablo wirelessly in additional rooms with the free Tablo app (plus use of the additional apps). Going the Tivo route, you'd need to hardwire each room, pay over $100 for hardware, use a Tivo remote and have a box showing. So, if you have a tv that has a connected stick, you can use it in the living room to watch extra games during football season or parties. Its a no brainer. The Tablo monthly service is $5.99 compared to the insane prices Tivo charges over $10 a month. I could justify paying over $10 a month to Tivo just for OTA guide data. They also offer a lifetime subscription as well. A lot of us Tablo users communicate / troubleshoot issues at the Tablo Community. Its a great place to ask questions and receive help when support is offline or closed. https://community.tablotv.com I have been using Tablo for about 2 years now. It is far from perfect, but I believe it is a revolutionary product. They are still a relatively small company, but have built up a knowledgeable and friendly support staff and are growing quickly. They will normally try to help you do things that are unofficially unsupported like migrating your recordings to a larger drive. There are 3rd party apps that are awesome to use on other platforms and give you a lot of options with your recordings. I hope this review helps people trying to decide. Its probably time for Best Buy to start pushing this product. I think its finally ready for primetime.

Recently got tired of paying an arm and a leg for a DVR from my cable company, when the majority of the shows I watched were from public stations such as NBC, CBS, etc. Looked at different options, saw different video reviews online to try and determine which DVR would be the best for what I wanted to use it for. My main issue with my old cable DVR was that I could only watch the recording from the one DVR, if I wanted the ability to view in more TV's I would have to pay more, it was also limited to a certain hard drive size, so was not able to record many shows before it was already full. I decided to try the Tablo after one review from YouTube, setup was a little tricky at first, even for a person that is pretty computer savvy, the easiest way, was to do it via my mobile device, once that was setup doing it via the computer was easier. Connected my hard drive, which I had to purchase separately, would have been nice to include with the DVR especially for the price of the 4 tuner device. Because the Tablo works via WiFi you need a device that is compatible to view the recordings or live TV, setting up and linking to the Tablo was super easy, but the app is a little slow when loading the Live TV information at first, once loaded, you can navigate easily, but when selecting a program to watch it buffer for some time, I experienced this mainly only on live TV, when viewing from a recording it was incredibly smooth, and loved the ability to forward through commercials. The best experience has been on my iPad and computer, meaning minimal loading screens, and great responsiveness. Also dont forget that you will have to pay for the ability to display the TV guide, Tablo gives you several options of payments, and also has a lifetime one. I did have some issues when moving the HDD while cleaning my house and the Tablo would say no HDD connected although it was still plugged in with the light blinking, had to unplug and plug back and most of the time it would work the first time, but some times I had to do this multiple times. Yet still, I would recommend this DVR to anyone that wants to cut the cord and yet still be able to record a lot of shows. It provides the ability to view on multiple TV's as long as you have a compatible device (such as a FireTV, Roku, Smart TV, etc).

We're contemplating trying to cut the cord from our current DISH use, and this looks like it's going to work really well. Having 4 tuners is a must for us, I really like the interface so far (we're using it with ROKU media devices and the apps for iPhones/iPads). The interface for the local channels, using their TV listing subscription service is pleasing and quite usable, though maybe a touch less easy to use/less functional than something like DISH's. But this is SOOOO much cheaper than staying with Dish. We only currently have two small complaints - first, there is a small lag time as you choose any channel, rewind for a few minutes, forward, etc. but it's not as bad as I've read, and I think Tablo is constantly upgrading their software to make things better. Second, if you're watching live TV and pause it - which works really well, and just like DISH - you can't see where you are in the program as you jump forward to skip part of the program or if you want to skip commercials. If you've recorded a full program and are watching off the DVR, then it provides small screen snapshots so you can advance to where you want to be and restart watching. But that's not available when you're on live TV or if you're watching a program that's being recorded but not finished yet. (according to Tablo this is beause when a recording is finished, THEN the software goes back over the recording and sets up the screen snapshots so you can tell where you are in the recording as you advance thru it.) A minor annoyance, but we're working around it, and everything else about the DVR setup works pretty well.

I have the tablo 4 tuner and 2 gig of hard drive and got the lifetime subscription cancel my $140 a month cable bill, pay for itself in 3 months and will never going back. The first thing you do before investing all that money is get a great Omni-directional Amplified antenna and see what network station you can get. The key is the higher the antenna the better mine is on my attic and I have a two story house, get all the major station and more

Wanted to get rid of satellite TV, but didn't want to give up DVR capabilities. This delivers on that aspect. Is also nice that I only need one antennae and can broadcast throughout home with this device. Just wish it would stay connected to my internet, but I think that is a Spectrum issue and not the fault of this device.

For those looking to drop cable. I chose this product as I live in an older home in which bedrooms aren’t wired for antenna/cable. The Tablo is hooked up to an indoor slim antenna to receive local channels over the air. I have a 1 TB external hard drive attached to the Tablo to record tv programs over the air. The advantage is that the Tablo connects to your WiFi and you can watch tv or recordings on any tv or device in the house cabpable of WiFi to connect to the Tablo app (free app). This allows me to watch tv in my bedroom without needing an antenna in my bedroom. I connect my tv’s with either Amazon Fire Stick or Roku streaming sticks. You can also watch tv on Apple devices, smartphones, tables, computers just by connecting to the Tablo.

This is great over the air dvr which streams to many devices on a local wifi network. It cannot attach directly to a tv but must go through some other streaming device such as roku, etc.

Tablo is good but as the headline says could be better. Had issues with my box they sent me another and had issues again so I returned it. Tablo is nice in the fact that you can set up and stream to multiple devices around the house but the software and the guide need help. I returned for a tivo bolt ota and love the tivo the software is better but until they get the apps out there it can be expensive to use on multiple rooms vs the tablo. Tablo is good for inexpensive but the tivo is better if you want to spend a little more.

This is a great product to have if you are trying to replace traditional cable and satellite. Enables you to record over the air broadcasts. The only downside is theta you have to buy an external hard drive.

Works great with my existing ROKU boxes. Optional guide is great, but cost a little per month. I have not figured out how to record whole series of shows yet. Thats why the 4 stars.

Easy set-up via CAT-5/6 LAN cable or WiFi using the app on your phone. A subscription to the guide service (~$50/yr) is needed to make best use of all the features. A 1TB drive is more than adequate for almost any application. I purchased one from Western Digital for very little additional cost.

Easy to set up out of the box. worked great for two weeks. Then shut down, but I was able to get it up and going again. Went on vacation for two weeks and it was dead upon our return. Got some instructions from their 1-800 tech, but it didn't help. Got a second tech and he connected to it remotely but couldn't get it to work. After several attempts we were disconnected ( or he got frustrated and hung up on me), Got a third tech and he connected to it remotely and tried what he knew and then said he would get with the second tech and an engineer and would email me a ticket and their solution. I got an email saying the problem was resolved. I waited about 90 minutes and replied to the email asking if it was resonved or if I should just take the unit back to the store. No response so I took it back to the store. I would try another one but Best Buy no longer carries it. Can't get it on Amazon either. I suspect they had a bad batch and need to regroup.

Bought this to not have to pay for a DVR. While I am not able to record cable channels I rarely watch them anyway. For what I want to watch I just go to the history app on my roku. I like the FF feature on this beter then a DVR as it will show you what is coming up so you dont move past the end of the commercial. Biggest complainant is it restarts to often. I think this is mostly caused because I have a roku 1,