A widely used, budget-friendly DVR that easily connects and records over-the-air TV programs via an antenna and streams them over Wi-Fi seems like the perfect solution for those ditching cable. However, Tablo DVR customers have encountered more problems than satisfaction after a significant service disruption in the recent weeks.
Although the major connection problems with Tablo have been fixed, a significant number of users are still reporting that their electronic program guides are missing information, causing their recording schedules to be disrupted.
In some instances, users report that their program guides are functional, but they encounter errors when attempting to record live broadcasts or scheduled programs.
In response to an inquiry from TechHive, a Tablo representative stated that the company is “acting with urgency and focus to resolve [the issues] as quickly as possible.”
The outage was first reported by TheDesk, tracing the original service interruption back to a global issue affecting external servers used by E. W. Scripps, the company that owns Tablo.
The service disruption rendered numerous Tablo DVRs totally unusable, whether through televisions or mobile applications. As a result, users were unable to utilize their devices to view live, broadcast television, watch previously recorded programs, or access Tablo’s array of live streaming channels.
The Tablo representative informed TechHive that although the first service interruption, which began in late July, was “quickly resolved,” it “did temporarily slow our efforts to look into a different, persistent issue… that was stopping programming information from being handled properly.”
The problem persisted deep into August, as Tablo users encountered significant omissions or “Programming Data Not Available” messages in their TV guides.
As of Friday morning, numerous Tablo users on Reddit and the Tablo support forums reported that their program guides seemed to be completely populated once more. However, others voiced concerns about a fresh issue: their Tablo units were generating errors when attempting to record shows airing now or in the future.
It seems the recording mistakes are inconsistent.one user sayingTheir Tablo device was able to record everything with the exception of one specific episode of.“The Young and the Restless” remains as is., whereas someone else mentioned that theycouldn’t record NFL games on CBS or NBC.
Tablo, on the other hand, claims to be “seeing signs of improvement across our systems,” but admitted that issues persist. They also stated that they are “continuing to share updates and troubleshooting steps with customers to help ease their frustration.”
The representative wouldn’t promise a specific date for operations to completely return to their usual state.
“This remains our top priority,” the brand spokesperson said. “Once the immediate issue is behind us, we’ll be in a better position to share more technical details about the root cause and outline the steps we’re taking to prevent something like this from happening again.”
The Tablo DVR allows users to record over-the-air shows with help from a TV antenna. The $99 device ($129.95 with an antenna included) is popular for a couple of reasons: no subscription is required (most OTA DVR devices require a subscription fee for access to programming guide updates), and the unit can transmit video to an Apple TV, Fire TV, Google TV, Roku, or other streaming players over Wi-Fi rather than needing to be connected to Ethernet.
But while the Tablo DVR can grab over-the-air TV shows and store them locally in its internal storage, the device still needs a cloud connection to work.
Following the initial outage in late July, Tablo promised an offline mode for its fourth-generation unit that would allow users to “connect to [their] device and play back both live TV and completed recordings during server and internet outages,” but didn’t say when the feature might arrive.
This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best media streaming devices.
