Customer Ratings & Reviews

The new tablo is a good start to the new generation. I'm simple it works. It's not without it's quirks. Reception is good but a tiny bit weaker than my old Tivo Romano. Interestingly this unit has a built in amplifier that is on by default. Be careful that you don't have interference already, that might make it works. If you have issues just turn it off and retry. The new apps: Menu is perfectly serviceable and basic. No ads or any bull like Tivo is shoving down people's throat. It tends to loose connection on my Google tv. App currently will go to sleep when androidtv powers down. When you relaunch it next time it always can't connect. You have to close and reopen it. I'm sure they will figure it out. This app is completely new compared to what they had. 128gb internal memory stores in mp4 not the og signal. External drives enable mpeg2. Ive had issues with a USB only powered drive. It disconnects sometime after plugging it in. If you want an external drive, make sure it has its own power source. Picture quality is actually really solid. A little better than my Tivo, even after the encoding it's really solid. Pretty happy here. Overall I'm pretty happy with the result. I know it will get continued firmware updates that will further refine the product but even as it is right now, it's absolutely worth the 100 dollars with zero subscription fees.

Purchased the Tablo along with a Google TV Streamer to take over for an older LG TV that was no longer getting app support. Initially, the Tablo was a bit of a let down. It was nice to be able to install an antenna, upstairs with better line-of-sight to the broadcast antennas but, we could not access the guide, remotely, to schedule recordings (VPN fixed this). Also, this device initially REQUIRED internet access to function so, when our internet provider died, we were left with NO TV unless we moved the antenna down to where we were watching TV. Tablo has recently added "offline" support where you could watch TV when the internet is down.

I have great over the air reception with an antennae, but broadcast TV just isn't very useful to me without a device like the Tablo. Instead of connecting the antennae to the TV it is connected to the Tablo, then a Tablo app on my smart TV connects over wireless to the Tablo. The Tablo automatically scanned all the channels and downloads scheduling data for all channels for the next 14 days. I can search for upcoming shows or movies and set them to be recorded. I can record all episodes of a series. It is quite flexible. I can fast forward through commercials. I can watch a show while it is being recorded. I can even watch on my phone through the Tablo app. It makes broadcast TV way more usable to me. That is all the good news. The bad news is that sometimes I can't connect and have to reboot the Tablo or my TV or both. There are also some quirky behaviors with recording. I set it to record a football game (the primary reason I got it) and it was all set to record, but then it wasn't recording because it said there was a conflict, but there was no way to determine what the conflict was! I disabled all scheduled recordings and then it started to record the game, but I missed the first half. If it wasn't for these quirky things I would have given it 5 stars.

First off, I assumed this would work with AppleTV since it has the logo on the box (see picture), but AppleTV is not yet supported. “Coming soon with no estimated release date” was what I got from tech support. It does work on iPhones and iPads, but there is no corresponding app for the AppleTV. I was able to get it to work on my iPad, but the video was choppy on multiple local channels. These channels are very clear high definition via my powered outdoor antenna when just plugged into my TV over the antenna. So there are some issues either in the hardware or software. It also let me mirror my iPad to the TV over the AppleTV, but it is only like 3/4" the size of my TV screen. On the positive side, setup was very easy including adding a hard drive for local channel DVR. As for the DVR though the choppiness in the video caused a recording to start stop quite a few times. I recorded a single 2 hour show and it ended up being 7 different recordings. Your results may vary I guess depending on your hardware that you connect it to. Check out the official list of supported devices on the website before you try it in your situation.

The setup for the Tablo was pretty easy. The 4th generation products are a self contained units; connect it to power, your network, and your antenna and you are most of the way there. I connected it to hard-wired Ethernet so I can't comment of setting it up for WiFi. The Tablo app for your phone walks you thru the setup process. This generally went well with the exception of loading the program guide. That seems to take forever. This is a replacement for a Tivo Bolt that just died and the company doesn't seem interested in the OTA market anymore; time to move on. On balance the Tivo was a bit better, but not enough to justify the monthly fees anymore. The are no fees for 4th generation Tablo devices. The main feature I miss from the Tivo was how smart it was recording something independently of what channel it broadcast on. There have been a couple to times where the Tablo App on the TV couldn't find the Tablo. Changing to a different app on the TV briefly playing a bit of something and then restarting the Tablo app worked for me. I have read that explicitly exiting the Tablo app via its menus helps avoid this problem. All-in-all $99 well spent. I would definitely do it all over again

The Tablo Over-the-Air DVR and Streaming Player is an excellent way to have one central antenna that can be viewed all over the house and on the go! There was a time before SlingTV where you could use a Sling Box to stream your broadcast or cable TV through the web, but in the decade since that disappeared, there really have been few options to view your local stations on the web without a subscription service. This Tablo Player fills that void very nicely and it has an onboard DVR, too! The setup was incredibly easy, just follow the quick start guide, download the app, and connect and antenna! You can either use the onboard wifi or an ethernet cable to connect to the internet, ethernet is recommended for reduced lag and less interference. After you're all connected, the device and app will scan for local stations, just like a TV will do, and tell you what's all available! Using the app is easy, straightforward, but there are some limitations to it. Most seem to be down to licensing rights for streaming TVs but their website does state that support for Apple TV, Samsung, LG, and other smart TVs or boxes will be coming soon! The availability of free streaming channels, DVR functionality, and comprehensive TV guide are all amazing features! I'd recommend this to those looking for an option to stream broadcast channels to devices around their home and on the go without having to pay for a monthly TV subscription!

Works good, but I wish it would connect directly to a tv and the app

The device was easy to set-up. I really like being able to record over the air broadcasts. I wish that I had bought this sooner.

Over the last 20 years I've had 3 other OTA DVR's and this Tablo is by far the best yet. As technology has advanced my last Channel Master DVR left a lot to be desired. Now having 4 tuners and the ability to start a show on delay while recording, is a feature I really missed. The entire interface is clean and simple. I control mine through my Roku and absolutely love it!

This is my first experience with a Tablo device. When a show we watched daily ended its long-time syndication run on one of the local channels carried by YouTubeTV, I found that it would continue on the local MyTV channel, but that channel is not carried by any streaming service. So off to the OTA channel world we go! Just at that time, the Gen 4 Tablo device was announced. I got one delivered from Best Buy and set it up same day. Setup was mostly straightforward, but documentation of steps could have been more detailed. Anyway, I got the device set up with the Android app loaded on both my cell phone and tablet, plus the Firestick app on a Firestick 4K Max and a Fire cube. All seemed to go well. Next morning I wanted to do a review of my experience and wanted to include a citation of the number of channels I found in my last channel scan. When I tried to log in to the Tablo on my cell phone, the Android app could not find the Tablo device; None of my 4 apps could find the Tablo device. Long story short, the Tablo apparently was frozen into a state that did not allow wifi connectivity, no Ethernet connectivity, would not reset, nor would it Factory reset to new condition. Tablo sent me a new device overnight and a shipping label to return the defective device. The replacement Tablo Gen 4 device installed just fine, except that I initially connected it to a 2.4 gHz wifi network and the current Gen 4 devices apparently do not include capability to shift to another network (unless maybe with a full Factory reset, which I did NOT want to do.) I reconfigured the location of some devices and was able to connect the Tablo via Ethernet to one of my wifi mesh access point nodes. Since completing that install, picture quality has been mostly good. I have noticed some brief pause glitches on the Android app playback. They have been reported to Tablo and their engineers acknowledge they are working on and solution. I also had some pixelation and decode failure of recordings when played back on a Firestick Cube app, allegedly associated with signal quality. I did another rescan and saved those resultsl so far the daily recording has played back perfectly. So, overall, I think this is a really good device and value for the money to achieve its advertised purpose. There are some capabilities that apparently were available to the "legacy" Tablo devices that are NOT available in the Gen 4 firmware and its associated apps. (And NOTE: the legacy apps of legacy Tablo devices do NOT work with the Gen 4 device. Also, there is not yet a web browser version for the Gen 4, so PCs and Macs are not yet supported.) That is my honest, straight up review of my personal experience. I do recommend the Tablo Gen 4 device, but be aware there can be some glitches to overcome. It is early in the deployment cycle and is not yet , in my opinion, fully 100% plug-and-play. Cheers.

I really had high hopes for this! The picture quality was just as good as cable or streaming. I loved being able to record live local tv and being able to pause. It was easy to set up and use. It decided not to work after 2 weeks. I hit the reset button several times and did “forget” wifi using the app on my phone 3 times. It would not reconnect and load. I’m hoping the next generation will work better.

Wanted to be able to watch OTA without antenna cable going to several TVs. After scanning for locals, Tablo also includes some apps in the guide. Dove, Circletv and several more. Easy set up and no need to run antenna cables to each TVs. You can place the Tablo any place in the house as no need to connect to tv. You will have to set up Tablo on your phone then download the app for your streaming device. Then you’re all set. Great purchase.

Works fine just remember if you have a mesh system set it to bridge mode so you can watch your tv Product streams local channels to all tvs well worth the price just to not have to pay for big tv or big streaming just to watch local channels

Easy to use and set up than previous airtv2 with sling. The onboard dvr Recording is convenient. The tv guide could use a refresh but is easy to navigate. The dual screens works heat something the air tv claimed but never worked

Seems to work as advertised. Iv'e had it a couple months and had to reset it once. The reception is dependant on your antenna, but the tuner works well for two different tvs. Records as scheduled. Love not being tied to a cable.

nice OTA tuner. We can record one channel and watch another. The live tv guide gets glitchy and I have to cycle power. That happens about every 60 days

Bought the Tablo 2 Tuner Gen 4 in November when we cancelled YouTubeTV (we primarily watch local stations in Chicagoland). Here’s how we’re setup: - Ethernet connected to an Eero router - 1TB SSD connected to Tablo for more recording time - Terk antenna in our attic - watch via Fire Sticks & Android TV After the App Update to 1.4 on the streamers and the accompanying firmware update in mid-December 2024, everything is working much more reliably. We can manage the occasional error message that pops up but doesn’t prevent watching what’s playing and can be fixed via the retry button. We started first with Apple TVs, but one feature that isn’t on and won’t be coming to them was watching a show from the start of a recording that was still in process. We decided to use the Black Friday deals and get a few fire sticks. The fire stick experience was bad at first with app version 1.3. repeated crashes and error messages, as often as every 3 minutes. It nearly caused us to return it, and honestly I would have if I had kept the box. It uses ATSC 1.0 tuners - which mean in a few years we might have to upgrade, but for now this no-cost way to watch our local stations and DVR those stations and shows is totally worth another device in a few years. If your’e in a metropolitan area and looking to cut the cord but retain some of the perks of streaming TV or DVR, this is worth checking out

This review only applies to ROKU as I have not used it on any other device. Things I like about Tablo 1. Picture quality seems better than antenna 2. No need for antenna for additional tv's 3. Able to record tv programs Things that need to be improved 1. Doesn't remember last channel watched. Because of this channel listing always start at top 2. Channel sound goes off when exiting channel 3. No way to toggle previous channel I have 2 tvs. One uses a ROKU streaming stick that has worked flawlessly. The other uses ROKU Ultra LT that worked fine for a couple of weeks, but now will display a channel for a while and then exit Tablo. Have notified Tablo about this. I'm hoping when AppleTV and LG are available these problems will be resolved.

The Tablo works well, but it is still a new product with some kinks to work out. Setup was easy, but took longer than it should have due to playback issues in the Android phone app causing me to think i had a reception problem. Once i figured out it was the app and not my antenna placement it was easy. As stated the android phone app currently has playback issues with live TV and other bugs it is causing with my phone just by being installed that make it unusable. The IOS app on my wife's iphone and the apps for adroid based TV streaming sticks (Fire TV stick, Chromecast with google TV) work fine. The streaming sticks on my TVs are my primary use case so its fine. I just hope the get the bugs worked out on the Android phone app soon.

I have been using a Mediasonic Homeworx converter to record programs, but recently, it has been crashing after each recording session. I saw adds for the 4 gen Tablo advertise online and decided to try it. I am happy I did. As far as the receiver, it out performs the Homework box, I have 4 TV's tied into my antenna and not all of them are equal, but the Tablo is on par with my better TV's. I like the fact that I can record streaming channels as well as over the air. The interface is easy to use. The reason I am only giving 4 stars is because I had issues with the setup. I followed the link in the QR code in the onwers manual, then follow the link for Android, it took me to the Tablo legacy app which started the firmware update, when that finished, the app just stopped. At the time, tablo support was gone for the day. Anyhow, after trying a number of things, I eventually figure that Tablo has two different apps. I downloaded the correct Tablo app and was able to finish the setup. I am impressed with Tablo it appears to be well worth the price. I just wish they had more information on their support pages about which app to download.