Tablo 4th Gen Over the Air DVR and Wireless Tuner Review

In this video I review the new 4th generation Tablo 4-tuner over the air DVR for antennas. This is a network connected DVR that can be accessed wirelessly on multiple TVs in your house. It can also be used as a wireless tuner to connect one antenna to multiple TVs over WiFi.

🚨IMPORTANT INFO🚨 The Tablo distributes the raw MPEG-2 video from the OTA signal for the best picture quality possible. This requires a newer streaming device that can handle it. If you own a Roku that's several years old and have problems using the Tablo, you might need to purchase a new Roku.

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[wildwestunlimited]

Tyler man!!!.... I just ordered a 4 tuner Tablo, a Fire Stick and a 4 TB Hard drive using your affiliate link. I was JUST about to order all this without using your link BUT I remembered that Tyler is the MAN!!! I knew you had a great video on this so I watched it and bought all using your link(s). ROCK ON MY MAN!!!! You're doing a great job!!

[tjnaevans]

Hi: I purchased a fourth gen 4 tuner Tablo from Best Buy in June 2024 based on your recommendation. Over all my experience has been OK but far from perfect. Pros: Clear picture and relatively easy to navigate home page on the TV app. Excellent sound through my surround system. Small unit so it's not an eyesore in a room. Easy setup and the additional external terabyte hard drive I added is more than adequate space for recordings. Cons: First biggest issue I have is no PC capability. I would watch TV (when I had cable) on my PC pretty regularly but now I do not have access to live TV or my recordings from my PC. When I purchased Tablo I did not think I'd miss that feature as much as I do. Second issue is failed recordings are more prevalent that originally advertised. Also there is no explanation for them either. Third. The IPhone app is difficult to use when setting recordings. You have to scroll through days and day and hours and hours of live TV channels to find the specific thing you want to record. This is truly a pain in the ***. Fourth: Connectivity and updates. I get sporadic connectivity issues and I always check my other internet devices and Tablo is the only one suffering through issues. The "spinning circle" has been a real issue in our home. Also updates are a problem. A recent update wiped out scheduled recordings and one before that required a total reboot of the internet connection, the app and the Tablo unit itself. Needless to say another pain in the ***. A heads up on updates would be nice. I get barraged by emails from them but never a communication about updates that I should look out for. I'd say for sure the NO PC app is the biggest issue for me but the $$ I've saved with Tablo in lieu of cable costs has softened the blow some. I've been told the third gen had a PC App? What the Let's get that fixed Tablo

[scottstormcarter]

I bought one and returned it.
Pros:
1. 4 tuners under $150
2. Free accurate guide.
3. All the connectivity options are fantastic.
Cons:
1. 2 week guide seems accurate, but it takes much scrolling to determine if it plays the next week. Searching is best way.
2. No way program based on time, only the guide works. I watch movies and mini-series educational shows. I have to know the name of the show in advance to schedule by searching. With PBS recording by time works better than the slow to scroll guide.
3. The tuner only got one city reception better than the discontinued Channel Master. (They now sell the Tablo.) And that city never has more than 2 things on at once. Don't need 4 tuners.
4. Only channels available on the last scan are listed in the guide. I have 5 antennas.

Possibly the old model is better. Moving through the guide is faster. And manual recordings can be setup by time. No idea if scanning would work better with 5 antennas on the old one.

[ronaldsimmonds]

I have an antenna on my roof and it was installed in the late 1950s. It still works amazingly well after all these years. You have to see it to believe it! Made in USA.🇺🇸👍🏻

[romanseano]

Thank you, Tyler, for this review! I've had the 2-tuner 4th gen Tablo for about 8 months (Streaming on 5 Rokus throughout the house) and while it's had some growing pains / bugs here & there, overall it's been a very good TV / DVR experience. Mine is linked to an amp boosted outdoor antenna, one you recommended to me around 2017... reception & image quality is on point, though one channel is just barely out of sync with audio.

One thing I want to add to your review, especially for 2-tuner owners, is that there's currently no firmware-driven way to handle program recording prioritization. So users just need to be aware that whichever programs they set to record or subscribe to most recently, will fail to record if there's a conflict (both tuners already being used for recordings). The programs that you set to record first, are given first priority.

Depending on how many things you're scheduled to record, that can be tedious to keep track of. The workaround is basically to take whatever programs you least care about, and cancel them, then schedule them again. That moves them to lowest priority.

Side note: I really believe if more people knew about Tablo and could see the quality & features it has to offer - and how it can easily be a permanent whole-house solution, that most would make the effort to install that exterior antenna and get it all connected. Thanks again for all you've done and keep doing, Tyler. You're awesome.

[--DP]

I’ve had this same unit for a few months (since I cut the cord). I love it. Only a hundred bucks, and works very well for me.

[jeremiahchamberlin]

Great review. I’m a happy 3rd generation user. I’m glad to hear the new owners preserved the ‘no monthly fee’ feature, as the previous owners tried to initiate one. I’ll probably upgrade, as I like some of the streaming channels on my newer Samsung, but aren’t available on my older Panasonic. Also, I didn’t realize the Tablo had their own antenna and amplifier, especially the amplifier.

[onehitsword]

I do hope Tablo brings back the optional subscription to edited out commercials. I loved that feature with old Tablo.

[foox]

we have this model. we have a roku tv that we mainly use it on. for a while, the tablo app on roku tv was having some issues, but recently (past 3-4 months) it has been working good. would highly recommend, very simple and easy to setup and use

[TRA]

I’ve been delighted with my Tablo. It’s really good. I use it mainly as a PVR.

[DanielJohnTobin]

I've been debating for months whether or not to pull the trigger on this. It seemed as if it would be the perfect solution for my situation, but I was a bit nervous about some of the things I read. After watching your review the other day, I decided to give it a try. So far, it's been a solid decision. I'll be even more happy once the AppleTV app is released. Thanks for the thorough review!

[Terrylhkt]

Took advice from your channel. prior to getting the same small antenna you have behind you, I would only get less than 5 to 8 channels using one of those flat antenna. Now I get clear reception and my only complaint is, there are more channel than than I can remember. Many thanks and great luck with your channel.

[billmearns]

Hey Tyler, Thanks for letting me know about this amazing product. Living in the concrete canyons of New York City and using rabbit ears for OTA reception, I found that the smart TV was not really up to the challenge of obtaining a stable picture on several channels including METV which is not available on my live steaming service.. After I ordered the 2-Tuner Tablo through your link and hooked it up to the rabbit ears, there was an amazing reception improvement. And as an added bonus, I can now use the Roku remote to access the OTA channels rather than switching to the TV remote. Great!

[MichaelPavek]

We've been using the how about you 2-tuner version for about 9 months now. At first there were a lot of bugs we had to work out between the device, storage, our coax connection and our internet. We ended up going with a wired ethernet connection and it's been smooth sailing ever since. We use it almost everyday!

[lout]

This is very, very interesting to me. I do volunteer in a 55 And over community. Recently the contract with the cable company and the 55 and I er community is no longer. They don't want to pay streaming services because channels that they like is mostly over the air. Her Samsung TV provides free television using internet, however local channels can be somewhat of a problem and requires switching from TV to antenna which is not a good combination for elderly people. I feel this product can solve a lot of problems for people in this situation. I'm beginning to see that a cable company when annual contracts fall though with the community, they want to charge normal prices which they can't pay on a social security check every month. This needs to be tested on a much older people to see what they think. I forgot to mention most of the community has some kind of good to basic Internet. I can't thank you enough for sharing this.

[DonBayan-hb]

New subscriber here. Your videos are well presented, very helpful, and no added gimmicks. You give very easy to follow instructions and valuable informations. My household recently stopped subscription to cable tv. I’m looking to get a DVR, and had watched your videos about DVRs, and other topics. Thanks a lot. God’s blessings to you, and your mission here

[shanafan]

To get the best use of the Tablo, I HIGHLY recommend hard wiring it to your router/modem

[meme-bgjz]

I was thinking about cutting dish because the bill was way to high. After figuring out what channels we really watch the most it came down to 12 channels and the locals. Philo has the 12 channels we watch the most and I was looking for something to bring in the locals. I watched at least 13 reviews and all said the antenna it came with was not that good and you will need a better one, but Tablo worked good. I found a tablo from a yard sale, I paid $12.00. The woman purchased it and forgot about it. I was very surprised because the antenna is so tiny! Happy to say the device brings in 112 channels and works great! ( I live 20 miles from the nearest tower) Everything comes in but PBS channels. Thanks for the review.

[dchall]

I bought the 4th gen as soon as it came out. I had been disappointed with the previous model's buffering, and I thought the new one would be better. It was an easy buy since it was less expensive than the first one. Not only did the new one buffer, but it kept disconnecting from my network. I returned it and got a new mesh WiFi network. That cleared up the buffering completely, and I've never felt the need to get the new Tablo again. Glad too see you like the new one. Another step I took for my network was to get an Ethernet switch, so everything is hard wired now.

[anthonylewis]

I appreciate it the way you broke it down for people but for me I wish they would have just made one for people who just want to watch regular TV for me it's just another way that Wi-Fi companies stay in overpricing their customers and never dropping their prices and for that reason I'm out thank you for explaining it you did a good job