18 Jan
Blog

Nuvyyo Tablo Dual HDMI OTA DVR review: Staying home

Tablo Dual HDMI DVR above

"A simple, straightforward OTA DVR solution."

  • HDMI for TV connection

  • New remote control

  • Easy adjustment

  • Simple interface

  • Local streaming to televisions and boxes

  • No remote access

  • No streaming to mobile apps and browsers

  • No internal memory

For Nuvyyo, the tablo devices have always been an alternative to expensive cable packages, and the concept has always been an easy sale. Take advantage of free wireless TV channels and either watch them live or record them to watch later. Just stream it to compatible devices and you'll get loads of content that doesn't have a fat monthly bill.

The new Tablo Dual HDMI OTA-DVR sticks to the plan, but differs in execution, mostly due to the limitation of where you can actually place it. In contrast to other tablo devices, this box must be connected to a television. Anyone can appreciate a straightforward approach, but is it right for your cable television freedom?

Out of the box

There isn't much to see when you unpack the Tablo Dual HDMI OTA DVR. What stands out is the new remote control – a first for Nuvyyo. There is also the set-top box as well as a power supply unit, an HDMI cable, an Ethernet cable and a quick start guide.

Ted Kritsonis

Set up

The size and weight of the Tablo Dual HDMI are similar to other Nuvyyo products, but there are two major functional differences that we will discuss later. There is an IR receiver on the front and an HDMI port on the back. For those familiar with Nuvyyo products, the setup of the Tablo Dual HDMI isn't all that different. After you've made all the connections on the back, all you need to do is go to the appropriate HDMI input on your TV and follow the instructions instead of accessing an app on a mobile device.

You will still need to connect the Dual HDMI to your home internet connection via Ethernet or Wi-Fi in order for the latest firmware to be downloaded and installed.

Once that's done just search for channels and let the main screen populate with the shows that you want to be broadcast on the TV Guide shows. Since the device itself has no built-in memory, it needs an external drive to store all recorded shows. Any drive will work except Tablo will format it to work with the box, which will completely erase everything on the box. Just do not use USB sticks as they are not officially supported.

These details aren't new, except that we noticed a few other nuances that are pretty important when considering a possible setup. For starters, the direct HDMI connection means that your TV is already near the optimal location for the antenna to feed in channels. We already had an antenna attached to the TV so it was easy to remove and connect to the dual HDMI.

That made us notice something else. Assuming the antenna has a signal booster that is powered by USB, you may encounter an issue with insufficient backlash. For example, the USB port of the Dual HDMI is only used for external storage and is not a power source. So we had to use it on the TV ourselves. The cable for our Mohu antenna feeds into the coaxial and USB extensions, but each needs to be connected to separate devices – coaxial to the tablo unit, USB to the TV. For a wall-mounted television, this was a cumbersome setup due to the short cable length. We tried using a USB extension cable to make up the difference only to lose the booster performance.

Ted Kritsonis

There's one more potential problem: if you already have a Chromecast, Roku, or Fire Stick that takes up the TV's USB port for power, you'll need a hub to share it and accommodate the antenna booster. If your antenna doesn't have a booster or isn't plugged into a power outlet, you're good. In this case, you may need to bypass this type of connectivity congestion.

Support and features

Despite the connectivity differences, Nuvyyo's support is very intact apart from one major gap. The apps for Apple TV, Fire TV, Android TV, Roku, Chromecast and Nvidia Shield are still available. The user interface and layout have changed over time, but we've found that the navigation is pretty much the same.

The main difference at first was running through the TV's interface with a dedicated remote control. It's not particularly fancy but does the job of playing / pausing recorded shows, muting or adjusting the volume, and even switching channels up and down. For anyone who is used to watching TV with a clicker, this is pretty familiar.

There is no remote access.

Given that this is a new opportunity for Nuvyyo, there are casualties along the way, such as the inability to stream on Nuvyyo's mobile or web apps. While it works with the TV and streaming device apps mentioned earlier, we sorely missed the ability to stream to mobile devices. There is also no remote access. You can't stream anything you've recorded when you're not home. This is because this is considered to be a "Tablo DVR with TV Connection" which is not compatible with Tablo Connect, the remote access feature.

Ted Kritsonis

All of this results in streaming to the home, which Nuvyyo says is the intent of the dual HDMI. The direct TV connection, however, limited the openness of the platform.

This leads us to the subscriptions involved here. Nuvyyo offers 30-day trials of its TV Guide and Tablo Premium services and treats them separately once you need to start paying for them. The TV Guide portion starts at $ 5 per month, $ 50 per year, or $ 150 per life, and offers you graphics, metadata, show filtering, a more varied menu, and 14 day guide data. It lets you view movies, shows, and sports that are arranged separately for smoother searching. Without it, everything is a mess and you can only see 24 hours of master data.

Premium refers to the Automatic Commercial Skip feature for recorded shows. As the title suggests, the Tablo Dual HDMI cuts out all the ads during a recorded broadcast and offers you an ad-free viewing experience that is comparable to any other paid streaming app. For that you will see an additional $ 2 per month or $ 20 per year.

performance

The devil is in the details, as we pointed out, but when it comes to actually watching and recording shows on the Dual HDMI, we have little to complain about. With two ATSC tuners we can watch one show while recording another, watch two shows on two devices, or record two at the same time. This has been an important feature on tablo devices for years, and there are quad tuner models that can do this with four programs at the same time.

Of the two subscriptions, the TV guide is more effective. Seeing guidance dates for two weeks makes a big difference so you can get early recordings for shows or movies. The cover also gives the layout a typical appearance of a streaming media platform, which makes navigation easier. Nuvyyo almost makes you submit to how sterile the software looks when the pieces of information are reduced to a dime without a subscription. That way, you can still watch and record shows. It's just a lot less fun.

Skipping commercials is great too, but at least you'll have recourse if you're patient enough. For example, suppose you chose not to subscribe to this feature and a recorded show includes all of the ads: you can use the remote control to manually fast-forward ads if you tend to. Cumulatively, the ads will pile up on your hard drive (keep in mind that for an hour-long drama or reality show there is around 12-16 minutes of that), but we'll assume you won't want to spend the extra money if you can can handle noise.

The video quality is good, but limited to 1080p. You also get passthrough for 5.1 surround sound, but Dolby Atmos is not included. Even so, the encoding was seamless and we had no problems watching TV on a TV with a Sonos Surround setup.

The irony of this device is that it adds a lot of familiarity to previous tablo owners, even if the mobile and remote streaming features we claim don't make the others stand out. Forget about relaxing in bed with a tablet to catch up on a show. Outside of the home, this device is essentially inaccessible, so we realized early on that it is aimed at users who are more comfortable parking on the couch at home (not that this has been an issue lately) and their shows within these devices consume walls.

Warranty information

Nuvyyo offers a one-year manufacturer's warranty for the repair or replacement of the Tablo Dual HDMI OTA DVR. Buy it directly from the Nuvyyo website and you have 30 days to return it after purchase, although you will have to pay the shipping costs. Buy it through a retailer and return policy takes precedence.

Our opinion

At $ 150, the Tablo Dual HDMI is comparable to the other Nuvyyo devices, but it's not the upfront price that matters, it's the additional features that determine what the experience will be like. It is very clear who this device is made for and what type of setup is required. The company eventually fixed a lack of direct-to-TV connectivity, but pulled back some other flagship features to make it happen.

Is there a better alternative?

For streaming absolutely. With the Tablo Dual 128 GB you can put it wherever the signal is optimal and it includes a good internal memory to begin with. It's also the same price or sometimes cheaper than the Dual HDMI. If you have four tuners and want to provide storage, the Tablo Quad 1TB over-the-air device costs $ 240 and doesn't even connect directly to the TV. Both give you mobile streaming and remote access.

There are other excellent OTA receivers worth a look, starting with the TiVo Edge for antenna for direct TV connections with a remote control or the SiliconDust HDHomeRun Connect 4K for preparing ATSC 3.0 OTA broadcasts. The latter is more technically set up and may not work for you if you want to keep things simple.

How long it will take?

As long as networks continue to send wireless channels, nothing will stop the Tablo Dual HDMI from doing its job. Since there is no internal storage, you may need to replace or overwrite your attached drive. However, this is only basic maintenance. Nuvyyo is built on solid foundations and has solid support so you can solve problems at least relatively quickly.

In the future the box will no longer support ATSC 3.0. So if at any point you are looking for 4K shows, they will no longer be available once they are generally available. You can find more information about the rollout in our ATSC 3.0 explainer.

Should you buy it?

Yes, but only if you don't mind mobile streaming and remote access not being available. If you don't want to stream to anything other than your TV and you want a DVR that is easy to use, the Tablo Dual HDMI is for you. If it's more important, remotely or otherwise, consider one of the other Tablo models instead.

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