I’m not saying anything you don’t already know. The price 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, or OTA, television. With the Tablo, I can watch and record live TV for one set price with no subscription fee.
Though TiVo was once a popular way to record TV, especially OTA, the company’s fortunes have faltered somewhat, with its last antenna-based DVR — the Edge — being discontinued earlier this year. In the Edge’s place stands the Tablo, and it improves on the TiVo due to the fact that there is no subscription fee. Ever.
The Tablo has a 14-day program guide, which is pretty standard, and it also adds a bunch of free streaming channels. The fact that these channels are also recordable is a boon for cord-cutters, and it’s why the Tablo is our pick for the best OTA DVR in 2024.
The Tablo is easy to set up and has massive storage capabilities
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 enables you to watch live TV anywhere in your home.
The Tablo includes 128GB of storage onboard, which is enough for 50 hours of HD content, so it’s ready to go out of the box. However, the device also enables you to add a USB hard drive, and these are also inexpensive.
The Tablo also has dual tuners, which means you can record one show while watching another, and there’s also a four-tuner Tablo for $140. The Tablo has the ability to pause live TV, too. I was able to press the OK button to pause a show for 5 minutes; pressing it again continued the show.
Given that it’s so cheap, there are some concessions that can be expected. For instance, you need to have an internet connection, and you also can’t copy recordings to a mobile device for offline viewing.
If you’re a cord-cutter who doesn’t want to pay for a live TV streaming service, Tablo offers a wealth of live content for free. It’s a great companion to a Netflix or Hulu subscription.
