Tablo over-the-air DVRs still struggling to record following server outage

A popular and inexpensive plug-and-play DVR that records shows from a TV antenna and works over Wi-Fi might sound like cord-cutter nirvana, but Tablo DVR users have been experiencing more headaches than bliss following a major service outage late last month. 

While Tablo’s most serious connectivity issues have been resolved, many users are still complaining of missing data on their electronic programming guides, which is making a mess of their recording schedules. 

In other cases, users are saying their guides are working again, but that they’re getting errors when they try to record either currently airing or upcoming shows. 

Responding to a query from TechHive, a Tablo spokesperson said the brand is “acting with urgency and focus to resolve [the issues] as quickly as possible.” 

The outage was first reported by TheDesk, which pinpointed the cause of the initial outage to a worldwide disruption in the third-party servers employed by Tablo owner E. W. Scripps. 

That outage left many Tablo DVRs completely inaccessible via TV or mobile apps, meaning users couldn’t use the device to watch live over-the-air TV shows, view their recorded shows, or access Tablo’s selection of live streaming channels. 

While the initial outage, which first hit in late July, was “quickly resolved,” it “did temporarily slow our efforts to investigate a separate and ongoing problem… that was preventing programming data from being processed correctly,” the Tablo rep told TechHive. 

That issue stretched well into August, with users seeing large gaps or “Programming Data Not Available” errors in their Tablo programming guides. 

As of Friday morning, many Tablo users on Reddit and the Tablo support forums were saying that their programming guides appear fully filled-in again. But others complained they were facing a new problem: their Tablo devices were throwing errors when they tried to record current or future shows. 

The recording errors appear to be patchy, with one user saying their Tablo could record anything except for a particular episode of The Young and the Restless, while another said they couldn’t record NFL games on CBS or NBC. 

For its part, Tablo says it is “seeing signs of improvement across our systems” but acknowledged the ongoing problems, adding that it’s “continuing to share updates and troubleshooting steps with customers to help ease their frustration.”

The spokesperson declined to “commit to a concrete timeline” for a full return to normal operations. 

“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.