Tablo fans have noticed they've been quiet since Scripps bought their parent company about 18 months ago.
Today, they opened the floodgates.
https://www.tablotv.com/blog/evolution-of-tablo-introducing-4th-generation-tablo/
They have:
- New logo
- A new two tuner device for $110, which includes a little antenna
- Integrated hard drive, with optional expansion
- No-subscription required guide
- New App
- Integration of some FAST streaming channels
- Continued support for legacy devices
- ATSC 1.0 tuners (2), and punting on ATSC 3.0 for now
So there it is. I don't know a whole lot about this, I'm just passing along information.
At first glance, this looks nice. ATSC 3.0 has been a sh*t show of epic proportions, so I don't blame them for shelving it for now. They started focusing there, and it probably hosed them completely until Scripps bought them.
Scripps. Uh huh. There ya go, that's the FAST (Free Ad Supported TV) streamer integration. It is focused on Scripps channels, with no integration of others. I personally like the FAST stuff that PlutoTV or Roku Channel puts out. Still, there's a few nice channels that the new Tablo supports like H&I and MeTV that will be cool to be able to record. Yeah, that's right, the device allows recording some streamer channels.
I paid a lifetime subscription for my Tablo, so I don't intend on changing anything, and they promise that's OK. I get this feeling that there's something I'm not seeing here, cough, cough, likely some strict tie in to the Scripps world. I don't want to give up what I paid for. There's a lot to digest with this massive announcement. If I want this new stuff, I'll just get a new device.
A lot of the announcement is USA focused. Tablo was (or is) a Canadian company. That's a small chunk of the North American potential. Looks like Scripps slapped them around a bit and really wants to expand the USA market.
This is probably worth a look if you currently don't have a device like Tablo now. ATSC 1.0 is good for at least 3, probably 5 or more years. Maybe by 2027 ATSC3.0 will play nice with recording devices (patents and other problems are holding that up).