Wasn't sure where to put this..

[walls]

So we have decided to drop dish and go with sling TV. So part of the process was to get an antenna for our local channels, well we tried two 40 mile range models and had little to no luck then on a whim while at Walmart my wife bought the Mohu Leaf. It is rated up to 60 miles so we gave it a shot, well I'm happy to report that it works!! We managed to pick up 28 channels and every one is pretty much flawless, and the best part, it's as thin as a paper plate and is velcroed to the back of our TV so you don't even know it's there.
We split the signal to the other four sets in the house (already was wired with coax to each TV) and have no problem on either of the sets.

The most surprising thing to me is that I never realized just how compressed the picture was with Netflix and Dish, pretty sure the only way my sets have looked this good has been with bluray.

We plan on starting sling this week, im really hoping sling doesn't have too many hiccups because with it, an antenna and Netflix I am at $30 a month unlike dish which was $110.

 

[Batman]

Pretty interested to see how things work out for you. I'm beginning to get a bit tired of my monthly Dish bill. BUT I'm apprehensive to ditch the whole house DVR and some of the other perks.

 

[jomari]

Pretty interested to see how things work out for you. I'm beginning to get a bit tired of my monthly Dish bill. BUT I'm apprehensive to ditch the whole house DVR and some of the other perks.

this is the thing i will miss the most, the convenience of recording certain shows and watching it on my own time.

Holy smokes batman!

such timing and wierd akward coincidence that we both bought it from walmart, AND we bought it today AND we both are getting great signals with it.






sidenote,

http://holysmokesbatman.com/ is a great website that shows each and every holy robin reference robin made during the tv show.

 

[walls]

I've never had a DVR so I won't miss it. To be honest the only shows that I really watch are walking dead and the NFL so the sling has me covered, and the boss watches TBS and HGTV, perfect.

 

[walls]

Wait, you bought the Mohu leaf as well?!?!

 

[jomari]

Wait, you bought the Mohu leaf as well?!?!

ugh, yeah! and you know whats awesome i ALSO bought it at walmart! so double yeah!

 

[Haywood]

I'm telling you guys, the Tablo is an excellent full-house DVR system that integrates well with Plex Media Server and damned near every streaming service out there via Roku. It is a thing of beauty to be able to get to all of your local media, all of your live and recorded TV and all of your streaming services in one interface on one source component.

 

[Towen7]

Yeah ... I'd be looking at Tablo too. I'll keep that discussion in the other thread as they are starting to get into the same territory.

:text-link:

 

[jomari]

I'm telling you guys, the Tablo is an excellent full-house DVR system that integrates well with Plex Media Server and damned near every streaming service out there via Roku. It is a thing of beauty to be able to get to all of your local media, all of your live and recorded TV and all of your streaming services in one interface on one source component.

thanks haywood, i remember we talked about it, but never really got to study it well enough... its a bit pricey for an initial payout, but if my house wasnt so simple, id definitely consider it.

 

[Haywood]

I'm telling you guys, the Tablo is an excellent full-house DVR system that integrates well with Plex Media Server and damned near every streaming service out there via Roku. It is a thing of beauty to be able to get to all of your local media, all of your live and recorded TV and all of your streaming services in one interface on one source component.

thanks haywood, i remember we talked about it, but never really got to study it well enough... its a bit pricey for an initial payout, but if my house wasnt so simple, id definitely consider it.

They also make a less expensive two tuner model. For someone like you, I might recommend checking out the Channel Master DVR. It is a traditional single-location off-the-air DVR box. Seems to get a lot of good reviews. It just didn't work for me, because I have TV sets in too many rooms.

 

[Batman]

Well I can vouche for the MoHu Leah (50 mile range) it outperformed an antenna twice the price and 5 times the size. I'm currently tinkering with the TiVo Roamio OTA. I am currently focusing on TiVo because this setup seems the most capable of replicating the Dish Hopper/Joey "whole home" configuration I currently have (which is what I'd miss the most). The set-top box has, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu and some other apps built in. Although the tuner pulls in 36+ channels the only ones I care to watch are the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, WPHL-17, the CW) when requesting content it will pull shows from the other web-based apps if necessary, the feature is called (OnePass). If I decide to stick with TiVo and OTA combined with the built in apps, plus AppleTV ,I will most likely trade it for the the next TiVo model up because then, if I choose, I can pay for a lifetime subscription and eliminate the $14.99 monthly charge. One down side of that, is there's no protection beyond the warranty...

 

[Haywood]

The main reasons I chose Tablo over TiVo were:

1. Less expensive, especially when you factor in extenders and program guide service.
2. Lifetime is the lifetime of the account, not the device.
3. It integrates with Roku to provide one-stop shopping for all of my non-disc media.
4. Accessible from a ton of different devices.

The main disadvantage of Tablo vs. TiVo is that it is a much less mature product overall with a much more basic interface and somewhat less functionality.

 

[Haywood]

The reason I like Roku so much is that it does not tie you to any one ecosystem and provides the most overall flexibility. I am heavily invested in UV and DMA movies, but Roku also supports Google Play Video and Amazon Instant Video if I were invested in those. It allows me to access my Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, IHeartRadio and a variety of other music services. It gives me access to pretty much every major streaming service out there for other content with channels for Neflix, Amazon, Hulu, Vudu, SlingTV, YouTube, Vevo, Crackle and a ton of others. It also has a rich wealth of news channels, quirky niche channels and "internet" channels (i.e. College Humor). Local media support is pretty versatile. It has a decent DLNA client, a Plex Client and clients for several other media servers as well as DVR clients for both Simple TV and Tablo. About the only thing it will not do is stream rips of fully uncompressed Blu-Ray rips with lossless audio tracks.

Roku + Plex + Tablo means that my wife and kids only have to use a single interface anywhere in the house to get to anything they could possibly want to watch other than discs. I think it would be very expensive to find an alternative that can provide that kind of content consolidation and ease of use.

 

[Batman]

The main reasons I chose Tablo over TiVo were:

1. Less expensive, especially when you factor in extenders and program guide service.
2. Lifetime is the lifetime of the account, not the device.
3. It integrates with Roku to provide one-stop shopping for all of my non-disc media.
4. Accessible from a ton of different devices.

The main disadvantage of Tablo vs. TiVo is that it is a much less mature product overall with a much more basic interface and somewhat less functionality.

Some fair points for sure. I see both avenues as trade-offs. I put a TON of value on user experience and ease of set-up. And I'm in no way saying your configuration isn't perfect for you. I just don't see myself swapping every one of my AppleTV boxes for a Roku. And in my home they are the gateway to all my server media. I'd also be forced to AirPlay the DVR content to my AppleTVs and I'm not even a little interested in that. I'm kinda hedging my bet that Apple does indeed follow thru this fall in finally adding a whittled down TV subscription service. If they can indeed deliver ABC, CBS, FOX, HBO, ESPN, and a few others, with their menu of built in apps, in the $30-40 range as rumored, I'd personally be right where I want to be. NFL Network, AMC, TNT, TBS, and a couple other networks would be icing on the cake. The fact of the matter is that there is simply no current service/configuration/price point that is going to work for everyone. All I know is, I'm sick and tired of shelling out $180+/month.

 

[Batman]

The reason I like Roku so much is that it does not tie you to any one ecosystem and provides the most overall flexibility. I am heavily invested in UV and DMA movies, but Roku also supports Google Play Video and Amazon Instant Video if I were invested in those. It allows me to access my Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, IHeartRadio and a variety of other music services. It gives me access to pretty much every major streaming service out there for other content with channels for Neflix, Amazon, Hulu, Vudu, SlingTV, YouTube, Vevo, Crackle and a ton of others. It also has a rich wealth of news channels, quirky niche channels and "internet" channels (i.e. College Humor). Local media support is pretty versatile. It has a decent DLNA client, a Plex Client and clients for several other media servers as well as DVR clients for both Simple TV and Tablo. About the only thing it will not do is stream rips of fully uncompressed Blu-Ray rips with lossless audio tracks.

Roku + Plex + Tablo means that my wife and kids only have to use a single interface anywhere in the house to get to anything they could possibly want to watch other than discs. I think it would be very expensive to find an alternative that can provide that kind of content consolidation and ease of use.

I think all this is awesome! And am truly happy that you love your setup and flexibility it provides. While I may be perceived as drinking the Kool-aid and perhaps one of the many millions of Apple "sheeple", I have embraced their ecosystem. I have very few issues, and the ones I have are minor. The inter-connectivity, and ease in which its accomplished, between their devices is what I enjoy the most about their ecosystem. Outside of A/V, and related larger-scale builds, I'm not the guy who's gonna build an HTPC with OTA tuners and then narrow my choices down to one of hundreds of DVR software options, jailbreak umpteen devices to load open-source apps, in an effort to marry all my media together. I'm not gonna sit at a keyboard until my fingertips bleed putting in the research to avoid something that already works for me (I'm not saying that is what you are or aren't doing Haywood). The ideal scenario for me, as stated in my other post above, is Apple adds a TV subscription service and I get billed thru iTunes.

 

[Haywood]

The main reasons I chose Tablo over TiVo were:

1. Less expensive, especially when you factor in extenders and program guide service.
2. Lifetime is the lifetime of the account, not the device.
3. It integrates with Roku to provide one-stop shopping for all of my non-disc media.
4. Accessible from a ton of different devices.

The main disadvantage of Tablo vs. TiVo is that it is a much less mature product overall with a much more basic interface and somewhat less functionality.

Some fair points for sure. I see both avenues as trade-offs. I put a TON of value on user experience and ease of set-up. And I'm in no way saying your configuration isn't perfect for you. I just don't see myself swapping every one of my AppleTV boxes for a Roku. And in my home they are the gateway to all my server media. I'd also be forced to AirPlay the DVR content to my AppleTVs and I'm not even a little interested in that. I'm kinda hedging my bet that Apple does indeed follow thru this fall in finally adding a whittled down TV subscription service. If they can indeed deliver ABC, CBS, FOX, HBO, ESPN, and a few others, with their menu of built in apps, in the $30-40 range as rumored, I'd personally be right where I want to be. NFL Network, AMC, TNT, TBS, and a couple other networks would be icing on the cake. The fact of the matter is that there is simply no current service/configuration/price point that is going to work for everyone. All I know is, I'm sick and tired of shelling out $180+/month.

My setup would make no sense for you. We are basically on different ecosystems. I definitely was not trying to imply that one size should fit all and the TiVo user experience is very, very good. The Tablo is definitely more of a tweaker product for someone not unwilling to suffer through the growing pains of a newer system. I am really, really looking forward to the complete re-write of the Roku interface that is coming out by the end of the month, because the interface I have now is a bit clunky. The iOS, Android and Fire TV interfaces are already excellent, but they still do not offer quite the level of polish and feature maturity offered by TiVo. I was willing to make that trade off partly because I am much more dependent on streaming than OTA and because I had a reasonable level of faith that Tablo would improve (and it has).

 

[Haywood]

The reason I like Roku so much is that it does not tie you to any one ecosystem and provides the most overall flexibility. I am heavily invested in UV and DMA movies, but Roku also supports Google Play Video and Amazon Instant Video if I were invested in those. It allows me to access my Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, IHeartRadio and a variety of other music services. It gives me access to pretty much every major streaming service out there for other content with channels for Neflix, Amazon, Hulu, Vudu, SlingTV, YouTube, Vevo, Crackle and a ton of others. It also has a rich wealth of news channels, quirky niche channels and "internet" channels (i.e. College Humor). Local media support is pretty versatile. It has a decent DLNA client, a Plex Client and clients for several other media servers as well as DVR clients for both Simple TV and Tablo. About the only thing it will not do is stream rips of fully uncompressed Blu-Ray rips with lossless audio tracks.

Roku + Plex + Tablo means that my wife and kids only have to use a single interface anywhere in the house to get to anything they could possibly want to watch other than discs. I think it would be very expensive to find an alternative that can provide that kind of content consolidation and ease of use.

I think all this is awesome! And am truly happy that you love your setup and flexibility it provides. While I may be perceived as drinking the Kool-aid and perhaps one of the many millions of Apple "sheeple", I have embraced their ecosystem. I have very few issues, and the ones I have are minor. The inter-connectivity, and ease in which its accomplished, between their devices is what I enjoy the most about their ecosystem. Outside of A/V, and related larger-scale builds, I'm not the guy who's gonna build an HTPC with OTA tuners and then narrow my choices down to one of hundreds of DVR software options, jailbreak umpteen devices to load open-source apps, in an effort to marry all my media together. I'm not gonna sit at a keyboard until my fingertips bleed putting in the research to avoid something that already works for me (I'm not saying that is what you are or aren't doing Haywood). The ideal scenario for me, as stated in my other post above, is Apple adds a TV subscription service and I get billed thru iTunes.

I would make exactly the same decision in your shoes. The Apple ecosystem is pretty complete and the level of integration Apple products offer right out of the box is fantastic. If I already had your investment in that ecosystem, I would not upturn the entire thing by buying a solution that does not work well with it.

I was mainly attempting to share why I like what I have done in my house. It is very stable and very low maintenance, but it definitely follows a completely different design ideology and aligns me with different content providers.

 

[Haywood]

I should also point out that the heart of my system from a television and local media point of view is a $600 DVR solution paired with an $1800 media center solution and a fairly heavy duty hybrid home network that consists of a combination of hard wiring, power line network and WiFi. Far be it from me to claim that this was some kind of dirt-cheap venture or that anyone who is not reasonably tech savvy should attempt to configure a NAS on the scale of the one I'm using, yet it is because I have a heavy duty NAS that my local media solution is so stable and performs so flawlessly.

 

[Batman]

The reason I like Roku so much is that it does not tie you to any one ecosystem and provides the most overall flexibility. I am heavily invested in UV and DMA movies, but Roku also supports Google Play Video and Amazon Instant Video if I were invested in those. It allows me to access my Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, IHeartRadio and a variety of other music services. It gives me access to pretty much every major streaming service out there for other content with channels for Neflix, Amazon, Hulu, Vudu, SlingTV, YouTube, Vevo, Crackle and a ton of others. It also has a rich wealth of news channels, quirky niche channels and "internet" channels (i.e. College Humor). Local media support is pretty versatile. It has a decent DLNA client, a Plex Client and clients for several other media servers as well as DVR clients for both Simple TV and Tablo. About the only thing it will not do is stream rips of fully uncompressed Blu-Ray rips with lossless audio tracks.

Roku + Plex + Tablo means that my wife and kids only have to use a single interface anywhere in the house to get to anything they could possibly want to watch other than discs. I think it would be very expensive to find an alternative that can provide that kind of content consolidation and ease of use.

I think all this is awesome! And am truly happy that you love your setup and flexibility it provides. While I may be perceived as drinking the Kool-aid and perhaps one of the many millions of Apple "sheeple", I have embraced their ecosystem. I have very few issues, and the ones I have are minor. The inter-connectivity, and ease in which its accomplished, between their devices is what I enjoy the most about their ecosystem. Outside of A/V, and related larger-scale builds, I'm not the guy who's gonna build an HTPC with OTA tuners and then narrow my choices down to one of hundreds of DVR software options, jailbreak umpteen devices to load open-source apps, in an effort to marry all my media together. I'm not gonna sit at a keyboard until my fingertips bleed putting in the research to avoid something that already works for me (I'm not saying that is what you are or aren't doing Haywood). The ideal scenario for me, as stated in my other post above, is Apple adds a TV subscription service and I get billed thru iTunes.

I would make exactly the same decision in your shoes. The Apple ecosystem is pretty complete and the level of integration Apple products offer right out of the box is fantastic. If I already had your investment in that ecosystem, I would not upturn the entire thing by buying a solution that does not work well with it.

I was mainly attempting to share why I like what I have done in my house. It is very stable and very low maintenance, but it definitely follows a completely different design ideology and aligns me with different content providers.

I think we're on the same page :handgestures-thumbup: I just didn't want you to think my posts were either "angry" or that the entirety of the posts were directed at you specifically.

 

[Haywood]

In a way, I am a Roku guy because I can't seem to pick an ecosystem. Think about this. I use Microsoft Windows, Office 360, Outlook.com and OneDrive. My daughter and I are on Motorola Android Phones. My wife is on Windows Phone. My oldest daughter has an Android tablet. My youngest has an Amazon Fire tablet. My wife loves her iPad Air 2 and I use a Windows 8.1 tablet. I use both Google Music and Amazon Music. My wife buys all of her music from iTunes and then I put it on the NAS. My NAS is running a version of Linux. I still use Logitech Squeezeboxes as my primary music streaming devices. We also use Sony PS3s as our primary gaming machines and for most disc playback. We use Roku for everything else, because it is the only box that works with both Amazon and Vudu services. Seriously, it is all a hugely schitzoid mess.