I’m not saying anything you don’t already know. The cost of streaming services continues to rise. In fact, streaming is almost as expensive as cable now (we did the math). Yet there’s one thing that’s been free for decades: over-the-air TV, or OTA. With Tablo, I can watch and record live TV for one set price with no subscription fee.
While TiVo was once a popular way to record TV, especially OTA, the company’s fortunes have faltered somewhat, with its latest antenna-based DVR — edge — discontinued earlier this year. In Edge’s place is Tablo, which improves upon TiVo by virtue of having no subscription fee. ever.
Tablo has a 14-day program guide that’s pretty standard, and it also adds a bunch of free streaming channels. The fact that these channels can also be recorded is a boon for cord cutters, and that’s why the Tablo is our pick for the best OTA DVR in 2024.
Tablo is easy to set up and has huge storage options
The Tablo app is available for most phones and TVs and is also easy to set up. You simply connect the Tablo puck to an antenna (or buy the version with one included) and then connect it to your network via Wi-Fi or Ethernet. The device then allows you to watch live TV anywhere in your home.
Tablo includes 128GB of built-in storage, which is enough for 50 hours of HD content, so it’s ready to go out of the box. However, the device also allows you to add a USB hard drive, and those are cheap too.
The Tablo also has dual tuners, meaning you can record one show while watching another, and it also has Tablo with four tuners for $140. Tablo also has the ability to pause live TV. I was able to press the OK button to pause the show for 5 minutes; pressing it again continued the show.
Considering it’s so cheap, some discounts are to be expected. For example, you must have an internet connection and you also cannot copy recordings to a mobile device for offline viewing.
If you’re a cord cutter who doesn’t want to pay live tv streaming serviceTablo offers plenty of live content for free. It’s a great companion to a Netflix or Hulu subscription.
