Of course, we were also able to watch Tablo programming on
our PC using the Google Chrome Tablo web portal we used for the initial setup.
Features and Performance
Features
First and
foremost, let us re-iterate that Tablo is not a conventional set-top DVR; you’ll
be scratching your head for a long time looking for the HDMI-out. Tablo is essentially
a local area network “cloud” DVR, and with that comes a plethora of cool
superpowers which we will discuss below.
But before we
jump into that, let’s talk about what really sets Tablo apart from the pack, its
distinct and innovative user interface.
The Tablo UI
Tablo reimagines
the way to view OTA TV. Traditionally, OTA TV watchers were ruled by the
programming grid – what is on what channel at what time. Tablo redefines OTA TV
by turning its user-interface and program guide into essentially a Netflix-style
concept. Instead of thinking about what is on at what time, Tablo will show
what content is available via your antenna.
Although Tablo
has traditional OTA guide capabilities, the beauty lies in how it categorizes
and shows you what content is available out there. It’s like a Netflix-style
layout for your OTA channels content. Note how available episodes are organized by seasons.
To be honest, we
were at first taken slightly aback by the concept. Where are my channels?
What’s on at 7PM? In playing with the unit over several weeks we realized that
Tablo is right on track with the way people and cord-nevers (the younger
generation that will watch AppleTV instead of cable) are currenty using the
ol’tube.
Save for live
sports, more and more people are watching TV via recording or on-demand
content, either for binge-watching or to skip commercials. Tablo basically
gives that power now to OTA users by showing them all that is available via
antenna and allowing them to identify the content they’d like to record, and
then watch it when it’s most convenient for them.
By having
programming options presented to you by content rather than time/channel, it’s easier
to sort and categorize. Tablo can filter and show you all the programs over the
next two weeks that are identified as sports, movies, premiere showings or fall
into genres that range from agriculture to westerns.
As a bonus, this
type of user interface actually allowed us to discover interesting shows that
we didn’t even know aired by browsing through the titles in the Tablo guide,
usually because it was at certain ungodly hours of the night or morning.
Although Tablo commands, menus and the overall UI is only available in English, programming synopsis and descriptions will display in their native language, like French (above).
For example, the teen
music-video show Juicebox is a hit with the kids – but usually only available
via cable. With Tablo’s interface, we stumbled upon a 2-hour recurring session
that airs at 6AM on a local CTV affiliate, making it perfect to record and
playback when the kids are actually awake to appreciate it.
Watch Live OTA TV
Tablo allows you
to watch live OTA TV to streaming boxes like Roku and Apple TV as well as your
iPad, Android tablet or PC web browser. Think of it as streaming from your
antenna instead of the internet, saving you quite a bit of internet cap space,
and giving exceptional picture quality considering most DTV signals come in
uncompressed at 19Mbps at a quality of 720p or 1080i. With the hard drive
attached, you can also use Tablo to pause live TV or rewind back.
The Tablo guide
for live TV on tablets is a traditional layout with a large preview pane that
provides more program details. Unfortunately, the guide only goes 24 hours into
the future, even with a full subscription. On streaming boxes like Roku, it is
reduced to merely a list of shows currently airing.
Tablo’s Live TV
guide on tablets (above) resembles a traditional layout but leverages Tablo’s
excellent guide info. Only drawback (like all the other Tablo menus) is that
you can’t browse and still watching live TV in the background. Unfortunately on
Roku it is reduced to a list of programs that are currently airing.
Now about that
“live” TV - there is actually a short buffer delay on live TV which we measured
at about 11 seconds behind the live feed. This buffer helps give good quality
streaming and for the most part doesn’t really impact your TV watching. Well,
maybe those of you with thin walls may want to tell the neighbours on the other
side to tone down the goal celebrations during the hockey game (spoiler alert,
please). Overall we found the streaming quality excellent, with hardly any
artifacts, lagging or ghosting. Fast-moving images and action sequences were on
par with other streaming devices we’ve seen in the past. In cases where there
was lagging and such with live TV, merely pausing the feed for a few seconds to
allow the buffer to fill would resolve the problem.
The streaming
quality from Tablo is excellent; one of the best we’ve seen.
Tablo comes in
dual and quad tuner models, meaning it can receive two four live OTA TV channels at a time. Streaming is basically dependant on your network, as long as your network can handle it, you can have many devices accessing Tablo at the same time either for live TV or recorded programming. The best part is that
if you do go for a Tablo subscription, you’re covered for that unit and not dependent on the number of devices you use to access it (since the apps/channels are all free); so
whether you’re streaming to one or ten devices it’s all the same subscription price.
Whole Home DVR
The main
advantage to having Tablo as a network DVR over a set-top box is the whole-home
capability. Start watching a recording on the big screen, pause and resume on a
tablet without missing a beat. Tablo has this feature ready to go right out of
the box, no need to pay more for extra hardware or a special subscription
package.
Paused recordings
can be resumed on any connected device.
Recording can be
done automatically (with a guide subscription) or manually. Recordings are
smart enough to only record new episodes and will extend most live event
recordings (sports) in case they run late. The recordings are easy to find in a
dedicated recording menu and episodes are automatically grouped by program, which
means you won’t be scrolling around trying to find your shows. Settings allow
older shows to auto-delete if you start running low on hard disk space, ensuring your new shows record and helping you manage free space on
your hard drive.
The playback
interface is easy to use and the functionalities are on par with standard DVR
offerings. On the web and tablet interface, you can easily fast forward or
rewind back by using the sliders. Conventional skip fwd / skip back buttons are
provided as well for jumping commercials. On Roku, the DVR works directly off the
remote control commands. Overall, a good offering of standard playback
functionalities.
Make your own replays and scroll back in time during live TV, especially easy and fluid on tablets (above)
Cloud DVR
Tablo also can be
used as a “cloud” DVR when away from home. By setting up TabloConnect, another
pre-loaded feature ready-to-go out of the box, you can access your Tablo
remotely via a secure web portal. Impress your friends with cable by streaming your
OTA feed directly to your smartphone at their house. Hey, maybe they can
actually watch some of the real SuperBowl commercials?
TabloConnect can
be enabled in the settings menu and allows streaming anywhere there is an
internet connection and a suitable web browser.
One caveat is
that TabloConnect may not be easy to set up on certain home networks, but that isn’t
Tablo’s fault. Many “out-of-the-box” LAN setups with the big internet providers
come with default firewalls and other imposed security features that may not
like the idea of remote access to an attached device, so buckle yourselves in
for a fun evening of playing around with port mappings and other modem router configurations
before getting the feature up and running.
Menus and Navigation
The menu on the
tablet interface is very well done and consists of a sidebar that has the most
popular options and the advanced settings required to configure Tablo. This
sidebar is always accessible through an icon in the top banner area and all
menu selections respond and load quickly. The menus and the items are glossy,
fluid and fun to use.
Glossy, full-coloured
illustrated menus take full advantage of touch-enabled tablets; this interface is
what truly makes Tablo stand out from the rest.
On streaming
boxes, the menu is fairly standard and there are no advanced settings. The
simplified menu makes it easy to navigate to the important and most popular
features, especially with reduced remote controls like the 12-button Roku. Due
to this simplicity, you will always need the web interface as a minimum to be
able to configure Tablo.
On streaming
boxes such as the Roku 2, a simpler menu allows for easy navigation using remote controls.
The guide information
is rich and detailed. Each show is grouped by its title, which contains a brief
description of the series. In each of these groupings, available or recorded
episodes are grouped by seasons. Each episode contains a fairly detailed
synopsis. Programming in other languages, such as French, will have French
descriptions and episode synopsis. While great for providing the user with a
very visual and detailed description of programming content, the only
disadvantage we saw was that sometimes grouping by seasons made it harder to
find certain episodes. Ideally, it would have been great to have a setting that
would list all episodes in one list. For example, with many episodes of
Seinfeld recorded from various seasons, it takes a bit longer to find the “Soup
Nazi” episode for playback (Geez, was it season 7, 8 or 9? Guess I’ll have to
look through all the pages.). Having the option to also show the episodes as one
recorded list and then sort by season or title could have made these pages a
bit easier to navigate.
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Search
If there was one
area of Tablo that we found could use improvements, it was its search
functionalities. Currently there is basic categorization such as sports, movies
and show premieres. A search function allows to search by title, but it seems
that’s about it. This is a bit unfortunate because seeing as the end user is
paying good money for the guide subscription and that the guide is so rich and
detailed, it would have made sense to allow users to search by things such as
actor names, synopsis keywords or dates (i.e. let’s search for Clint Eastwood movies).
When asked for comment, the team at Tablo said this is something they may work
on improving in future firmware releases.
Tuner Sensitivity
Our testing
showed that Tablo is equipped with a very good ATSC digital TV tuner. We
noticed that it was fairly sensitive: don’t expect it to pull in extra
channels, but it will keep a stable lock on the channels it does receive. Due
to the sensitivity of the tuner, you are better off providing a good, clean
signal rather than an over-amplified noisy signal, especially in situations
where co-channel interference or multipath could be present. We noticed the
tuner would sometimes balk at signals if this type of interference was
prevalent.
Tablo's tuner is very good, but will not magically solve issues related to antenna performance such as multipath or co-channel interference. As with any sensitive ATSC OTA tuner, use a good quality antenna, aim it properly and ensure distribution of your TV signal is as noise-free as possible.
Operation
The unit is completely silent when operating as there are no
cooling fans; the internal components are passively cooled using the metal
bottom plate as a heat sink. In testing, the unit got quite warm but never
exceeded the published value of 48C, with values under stress-testing
(streaming to two devices at the same time for prolonged periods) peaking at
46C. If you’re packing Tablo in a tight or filled-to-the-brim cabinet with
other electronics that require convection cooling, you may want to make sure
the enclosure is properly ventilated for the sake of your other boxes.
Customer Support
Tablo is blessed with a great support team and, in general,
a really good customer support system. Besides being available through contact
info on their website, the customer support team is also active on Twitter with
a dedicated account and Facebook. On top of that, there is a great Tablo community forum available on their website where a Tablo owner can consult the existing
knowledge base for common issues, receive updates or simply ask questions to
other members. The best part for Canadians? With Tablo being based in Canada, there is
excellent support for updating and correcting guide info for Canadian
broadcasting chains and Canadian postal codes.
Prices and Where to Buy
There are many different options available to Canadians to purchase
Tablo. Best Buy and Future Shop sell Tablo online in Canada. All models can also be bought directly off the Tablo website. Other
online retailers such as Newegg.ca and Amazon.ca may offer better details from
time to time. For the uber-frugal, Tablo also sells factory refurbished units on
its website at a discount which may make the price-point more interesting for
certain people. Shop around and compare shipping fees as
prices will vary; and if you are truly interested in owning a Tablo, be sure to
follow them on social media as Nuvvyo will have promotions or contests advertised
through their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
In general the hardware prices make sense, in particular seeing
that the device comes fully loaded without the need to buy additional accessories
such as a Slingbox for streaming or other dongles just to access your WiFi
network. Whether you go for the 2-tuner or 4-tuner model depends on your viewing
habits; if you are a family that watches lots of network and live TV, and/or
you will be using Tablo as your primary source of TV you may want to have those
extra tuners on the 4-tuner model available. For most casual TV viewers or people that
stream specialty programming rather than watch network shows, dual tuners
should do the trick.
Now for the big question – what about the subscription fees?
Many cordcutters ditched cable because they didn’t like monthly fees, so
signing up to pay for guide data seems somewhat contradictory to the cause, no?
Well, first and foremost we do not recommend Tablo without a
subscription. One day of guide info is OK, but nothing special considering most
OTA stations will sometimes send out almost a week worth of guide info via PSIP
(data passed along with the TV signal). Also, being able to only set manual recordings
and losing most of the nice Tablo interface features isn’t really setting you
up for a great user experience. On top of that, there are many other devices
that can do those things and be more const-effective.
The good news is the cost of the subscription is fairly low,
it is per user and not per device which means you don’t need to double up your fees
if you double-up your hardware and if monthly fees really bother you, a one-shot
lifetime subscription is also available. The price of the Tablo subscription is
also considerably less than its prime competitor, Tivo, which is generally 3
times more expensive, in particular for its lifetime subscription at a whopping
$500 USD.
Tablo is sleek, it's sexy, and you will never look at OTA TV the same way again - but is it right for you?
So what's our recommendation? Well, if you already have a streaming box,
the choice as a no brainer – check the number of free channels in your area and
see if it’s worth adding some OTA via Tablo. Trust us, your internet streaming cap will
thank you. If you’re a new cordcutter, grab yourself a deal on the hardware (Tablo
+ a HDD + OTT box) and factor the cost of a lifetime membership in the
equation. With the nearest option of dual-tuner OTA DVR that can sort of (but
not really) match up to Tablo, coming in around $400, you may find it’s worth taking
the plunge with Tablo for all the extra features that come with it.
Conclusion
Tablo delivers the goods in terms of overall quality and
end-user experience. Tablo performs well and is easy to use, and will only get
better with future firmware updates. While the cost is a considerable
investment, this product will be a hit with current streamers and new cordcutters
alike.
Overall rating: 8.5/10
For more information or to purchase a Tablo unit please
visit the Tablo TV website.
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