Tablo 4th Gen 2-Tuner Over-The-Air (OTA) DVR + 35-Mile Indoor TV Antenna - Watch, Pause & Record Live TV, News, Sports & Movies Throughout Your Home Over Wi-Fi - 50+ Hrs Recording - No Subscriptions

I'm not a big review person, but I haven't been this pleasantly surprised about a product doing exactly what it says in quite some time. I didn't have high hopes going in, but the promise of being able to pause/rewind and even record live OTA (over the air) tv was worth a shot.I've tried getting a signal at my house in the past, using what was supposed to be a good antenna, but had no luck getting a signal strong enough to watch tv reliably with it, so I stuck with cable for years. Since it had been a few years since I last tried, I decided to try it again with this Tablo.The app on my phone walked me through the setup process (wifi setup and a couple firmware updates) and told me where to face the antenna. Once I had set up the antenna (just stuck it to a window) and plugged in the Tablo, the channel search began and found 151 channels. I was really blown away by the number of channels it picked up. I was expecting a couple dozen at most.After downloading the app to my Roku Ultra, I started it and could see the channel guide with all 151 channels. I could scroll to the right and see upcoming episodes (not sure how far, but I went ahead 2 days so it's at least that). Then I set it up to record some shows. Over the last couple of days it has recorded several shows and I've played back some of them, and it works great! The best part to me is no monthly fees, especially when all its competitors seem to have them. The expandable DVR up to 8TB is really nice too. I'm not sure I'll need to expand since it comes with 50 hrs of HD recording built-in, but if that isn't enough it's nice to know I can expand it with a usb stick.I was really surprised by this device, and I'm glad I took a chance on it because it works great for me.

Loved the idea of a wireless antenna solution, where I could keep the antenna up high on the second floor for better reception, and transmit via wi-fi to my Roku stick at my TV. Other peripherals that connect with my wi-fi, like security cameras have always worked seamlessly and their companion apps easy and reliable. Not so with Tablo. From the start, we simply could not gain integration with our wi-fi. Setup steps would not allow us to proceed, requiring contacting Tablo’s service center.After repeating our prior steps multiple times, we finally got it to initially work, doing nothing different, btw. Now, our problems transferred to the operability with the Roku stick and use with our TV. Of all the apps we use, streaming services and otherwise, Table is the ONLY one that takes forever to load on startup, and is a 50/50 shot if it will work at all. There’s multiple ‘select’ steps just to watch a channel. IF you get to the channel guide, and that is a big if as it boots forever, you scroll to an available channel. You’d think selecting ‘channel 7’ would result in it playing. No. You’re slow played to another screen, with options to watch live or later as DVR. How about we just skip that part, and watch live. Many moments of circling symbol hesitation between initial turning the TV on and having your over the air channel broadcast. If it works at all, that is. This is not a reception issue, btw, it is a problem with the app, the wifi connectivity between it and its peripheral and the peripheral hardware itself. Google this and you’ll find multiple complaints just like it across forums, reddit and the like. Oh, and there’s a setting unavailable from the usual settings page, something to do with stereo vs surround sound.. it won’t work with anything other than stereo, and our Tablo was totally useless until one day, randomly, the message popped up recommending we switch that setting, and it brought us to the correct settings page. Now, it often works, but very, very slowly once selecting the app, and again navigating from home page to channel guide to channel selection to selecting live tv or not. Wow. Exhausting, lol!Tablo terribly executed a simple idea – sending over the air signal through wifi. From smart lightswitches to security cameras, and all manner of blue tooth and wifi integration throughout our house, Tablo found a way to be consistently unreliable. It was a waste of money. Do not recommend. I will say I have better luck watching tv on my phone with the Table app than I do with a Roku stick, but who wants to do that. By the volume of complaints and advice seekers throughout the internet on this very subject, there’s an ocean of unhappy customers with the same problems I have. Not sure why Tablo struggles to accomplish a simple task.

Ok, I was very suspicious of this bc the avg ratings are low; how good can free TV be, right? Well, first, maybe we're lucky with our location, but putting the antenna on a window gets us all the channels expected: ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, plus all the PBS, CW, etc. This being digital TV, no "snow" on the screen: either you get the channel in high quality, or you don't get it at all. Note that, at first, I placed the device close to our TV (as I thought: it's a DVR, it lives there), but it wasn't near a window and reception was minimal. Then I moved it to an adjacent room, placed it under the window there (check pic), and tada... Bc the device has WIFI, *it doesn't matter* where you place it, as long as the WIFI signal is good there! Now, with the DVR capability, I am able to record shows (NFL Draft coming, all scheduled!), which is better than, say, NFL+ which doesn't "record" and only has live, or replay after the show is done. Having said that, between my NFL+ sub (which *should* allow to watch all primetime games on phone - but not broadcastable on TV, oh well) and this Tablo device, I am *hoping* to save the $80-90 monthly sub to YouTube TV, Sling or Hulu to get the Sunday local + MNF + TNF games one way or the other . We shall see when the season starts! (I may update my review, stay tuned)BTW, speaking of the NFL+ app: this really the future of watching I think; I just moved from my TV (with an AppleTV device and the app on it), to my phone, to my laptop/browser, all without losing a beat on "GMF" live this morning :) - You *cannot* rewind if you pause during a commercial, though, it just gets you back live. That's where a DVR is useful.Share your findings here if you want.