The IT Nerd

Over the air television? Sounds old school. But it isn’t.

You can get a tremendous amount of local TV programming over the air. The best part about it that the picture is sharp, the sound is great, and the price is free. Combined with set top boxes like Apple TV and Roku, you can completely cut the cord with your local cable company. The thing is, you can’t record anything. At least not as easily as the set top box that your cable company supplies. Not to mention that the experience of finding programming is pretty primitive.

A Canadian company is out to change that with their new digital video recorder called Tablo TV. Here’s what it has going for it:

• It is available in a two-tuner version, or four-tuner version
• It can record anything broadcast over the air
• It can stream the broadcast to a computer, mobile device, or compatible media hub.
• The Tablo has no onboard storage, but it has two USB ports. You connect a hard drive to add as much DVR space as you want.
• You can use a web portal on a computer, iOS or Android apps, to show the channel guide (with large icons or previews), or watch TV.
• You can also watch your recordings away from home by using Tablo Connect

I spoke with Grant Hall, CEO of Nuvyyo which is the company behind Tablo TV and he thinks the moment is now for the Tablo TV to be a hit. In the US, cord cutting is nothing new with thousands of Americans dumping their cable companies last year. In Canada, cord cutting is kind of new. But as Canadians become more aware of the trend, and what is available to them for over the air TV, Hall thinks you’ll see the trend take off here. The fact that the CRTC is talking about reforms to how cable companies deliver TV to Canadians is proof that this trend is starting to happen. Though, it may be coming under threat. The CRTC is holding public consultations yesterday regarding the future of television in Canada, including the possibility of allowing broadcasters to discontinue transmission of TV signals over the air (under Fostering Local Programming, refer to #69, question Q24). That would be a shame as I think Canadians need some sort of affordable alternative to the cable companies for the television that they want to watch. It’s a safe bet once the CRTC gets out of the way, Tablo TV will be the choice of many Canadians to get over the air broadcasting.

But if for whatever reason that Canada doesn’t work out, there’s a huge market in the US for them to play in.

This entry was posted on September 9, 2014 at 8:58 am and is filed under Products with tags Nuvyyo, Tablo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.