The Tablo Quad over-the-air DVR recently started shipping and our friends have posted reviews.
DVR boxes that plug directly into your television, such as TiVo’s Bolt OTA, are inherently simpler than all this, but Tablo’s advantage is that it works with whatever streaming boxes or sticks you might already be using. […] While the Tablo Quad isn’t any more powerful than the Tablo Dual Lite, it can record twice as many simultaneous channels, and it has an internal hard drive bay for storing recordings without the clutter of an external drive. […] As with previous Tablos, the Tablo Quad is unable to display interlaced channels (in 480i or 1080i) at 60 frames per second. That means video on those channels looks choppier than 720p channels when watching sports, news, or talk shows.
Tablo Quad still supports connecting to your network over Ethernet or Wifi. It still supports 5.1 surround sound. It still lets you watch your local TV stream even while you’re away from home. […] The software remains pretty darn good, too. Tablo has dedicated apps for nearly every platform you can think of. Apple TV. Android TV. Roku. Amazon Fire TV. Phones. Tablets. PlayStation. Xbox. And a web browser, if that’s how you roll. […] I get the idea of paid subscriptions for guides, even if I’m not crazy about it.
This new 4 tuner DVR is a huge step up from the older 4 tuner Tablo DVR. You will quickly notice how the DVR is faster with the new and improved WiFi. The ability to add an internal hard drive helps this stand out from other DVRs on the market.
I tried the Tablo Quad and it has great potential but I experienced frequent lockups while watching video, scheduled recordings that didn’t always happen and a few other quirky issues like the all or nothing surround sound etc. I sent it back before the 30 day trial was up as I didn’t want to get stuck with a system that got loose before it’s time. Maybe I’ll try again later, but the issues need to get fixed first.
For me, the interlacing issue on CBS and NBC causing jitteriness is a non starter. I watch a lot of sports and that would drive me crazy. One other disappointment is only having 1 audio stream to choose from. I use the cc3 subtitles a lot and Tablo doesnt offer it. I found the Tivo Bolt OTA fit the bill better for me.
Having to pay a guide fee to watch free tv is a drawback.
Well, you can use Tablo without a subscription and watch free TV for free. However, if you want the extended guide and DVR capabilities, it does require a fee. Amazon Fire TV Recast is the outlier with “full” capabilities without additional fees, but I put “full” in quotes because it’s fairly limited and restrictive early on.