As some of you may recall, I bought the Tablo quad-tuner headless OTA DVR when it was first released. I have now been using it for a couple of months and really like it. Here are my general observations:
It is cool, quiet and stable. The unit gets warm to the touch, but never hot. I keep it in an enclosed cabinet and it never overheats. There is some very soft fan noise that I would put on par with a laptop computer. It is definitely not audible with anything else going on in the room and wasn't even when I had it out next to the TV. In other words, it is not plagued with any of the problems the Simple TV 2 exhibited. Stability is rock solid. I've had ZERO issues.
The interface is gorgeous and consistent across the HTML 5 web app, iOS and Android. It looks great and offers a lot of nice functionality in terms of being able to search for and sort shows. It is worlds better than a cable company DVR. The Roku interface is the only one that is different and for obvious reasons. It looks very nice and I think they've done about as much as anyone can do within the limitations of the platform. The only real drawback is that the Roku interface is a bit more sluggish, something Tablo claims to be working on.
The fact that it is accessible outside the home is really great, but there are some caveats with that. The device must be paired with the Tablo on the same network one time in order for it to work. In other words, I can pair my laptop and my tablet and watch the Tablo on them anywhere I have internet access, but I cannot log into my Tablo from any other computer. It is not possible to access it from my work machine, for instance (I have a VM terminal, not a laptop).
The Tablo is a great device for someone like me who mostly records shows to watch later. It would be a terrible device for a channel surfer, because changing channels is NOT fast. The interface on the Roku is a bit sluggish and it can take a few seconds to tune into the selected channel. There is no good way to channel surf with this. The load time is just too slow. Again, this is not an issue for me personally and I am quite happy with the device overall.
One thing I wish they would fix is the commercial skip function on the Roku. You can skip forward in increments and you can skip backward. The problem is that skipping pauses the Roku, forcing you to hit play. This is a bit annoying, but Tablo claims that they are working on the problem and will introduce better skipping functionality for the Roku in a future firmware update. The functionality in the other clients is MUCH better.
The real triumph here is that I can now access absolutely all of my non-disc programming from a single easy to use interface that I can put anywhere in the house cheaply. Fire up the system, grab the Roku remote and it is all laid out: Tablo, Plex, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus, Vudu, DramaFever, Funimation, Amazon Cloud Player, Pandora and a variety of other channels. It is compelling because it is simple and comprehensive. Since ironing out my network problems and getting my 500Mbps Powerline Network in place (along with my new media server), everything is rock solid stable and pretty seamless. This is the setup I've been dreaming about for YEARS.
It is cool, quiet and stable. The unit gets warm to the touch, but never hot. I keep it in an enclosed cabinet and it never overheats. There is some very soft fan noise that I would put on par with a laptop computer. It is definitely not audible with anything else going on in the room and wasn't even when I had it out next to the TV. In other words, it is not plagued with any of the problems the Simple TV 2 exhibited. Stability is rock solid. I've had ZERO issues.
The interface is gorgeous and consistent across the HTML 5 web app, iOS and Android. It looks great and offers a lot of nice functionality in terms of being able to search for and sort shows. It is worlds better than a cable company DVR. The Roku interface is the only one that is different and for obvious reasons. It looks very nice and I think they've done about as much as anyone can do within the limitations of the platform. The only real drawback is that the Roku interface is a bit more sluggish, something Tablo claims to be working on.
The fact that it is accessible outside the home is really great, but there are some caveats with that. The device must be paired with the Tablo on the same network one time in order for it to work. In other words, I can pair my laptop and my tablet and watch the Tablo on them anywhere I have internet access, but I cannot log into my Tablo from any other computer. It is not possible to access it from my work machine, for instance (I have a VM terminal, not a laptop).
The Tablo is a great device for someone like me who mostly records shows to watch later. It would be a terrible device for a channel surfer, because changing channels is NOT fast. The interface on the Roku is a bit sluggish and it can take a few seconds to tune into the selected channel. There is no good way to channel surf with this. The load time is just too slow. Again, this is not an issue for me personally and I am quite happy with the device overall.
One thing I wish they would fix is the commercial skip function on the Roku. You can skip forward in increments and you can skip backward. The problem is that skipping pauses the Roku, forcing you to hit play. This is a bit annoying, but Tablo claims that they are working on the problem and will introduce better skipping functionality for the Roku in a future firmware update. The functionality in the other clients is MUCH better.
The real triumph here is that I can now access absolutely all of my non-disc programming from a single easy to use interface that I can put anywhere in the house cheaply. Fire up the system, grab the Roku remote and it is all laid out: Tablo, Plex, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus, Vudu, DramaFever, Funimation, Amazon Cloud Player, Pandora and a variety of other channels. It is compelling because it is simple and comprehensive. Since ironing out my network problems and getting my 500Mbps Powerline Network in place (along with my new media server), everything is rock solid stable and pretty seamless. This is the setup I've been dreaming about for YEARS.
