Watch and record live TV, subscription-free.
Just one Tablo delivers antenna TV and free streaming channels to every screen in your home.
you could buy the Tablo DVR fromTablo’s online store,Amazon,Best Buy, and other retailers.
Corbin Davenport / How-To Geek
The only visible features are a Tablo logo on the top and an LED status light.
The USB 2.0 port can be used to add more storage for recordings.
The new Tablo DVR has enough built-in flash storage for 50 hours of HD recordings.
Watch and record live TV, subscription-free. Just one Tablo delivers antenna TV and free streaming channels to every screen in your home.
A compass app on your phone can help you figure out the exact direction.
You might notice something missing from that list of ports: there’s no video output.
If you don’t have a compatible TV, you’ll need to buy astreaming stick.
Watch and record live TV, subscription-free. Just one Tablo delivers antenna TV and free streaming channels to every screen in your home.
Software & Setup
The setup process for the Tablo is fairly quick.
The Tablo app is organized into three tabs.
If the show or movie is live, tapping it will instantly take you to the live stream.
Corbin Davenport / How-To Geek
That makes the Live tab much more difficult to read on a phone.
The bottom of the screen has filters that organize the recordings into TV shows, movies, and sports.
That might come in handy, because just like with the Live tab, there’s no search function.
Corbin Davenport / How-To Geek
The player interface is pretty simple.
I also noticed on my iPhone 15 that the app wasn’t properly rotating when switching to the player.
The Android and iPad apps didn’t have the same issue.
Corbin Davenport / How-To Geek
The video quality also looked great for me, but the resolution will depend on the given channel.
Many broadcast channels in the US are still 720p or 480p/480i.
Tablo’s lack of ATSC 3.0 support doesn’t mean you lose any channels, though.
Competition
There are a few other popular over-the-air streaming and DVR boxes.
You have to plug in a drive or buy one of the higher-end models with internal storage.
The main difference with HDHomeRun is the software.
Corbin Davenport / How-To Geek
you could also pair an HDHomeRun with a Plex server to stream and record TV through Plex.
Basically, an HDHomeRun is more versatile, but less user-friendly and potentially more expensive.
Should You Buy the Tablo 4th Gen?
This new Tablo DVR would be much easier to recommend widely if the software was more polished.
Two steps forward, one step back, as they say.
Here’s hoping the software gets better in the months and years ahead.
