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The latest Tablo news along with tips to maximize your free TV experience. 

Advanced Recording Features for Tablo OTA DVRs

ADVANCED RECORDING FEATURES FOR TABLO OTA DVRS

Tablo launched Advanced recording features on all their Tablo OTA DVRs in January 2018. All Tablo Over-the-Air DVRs enjoy flexible scheduling and recording management capabilities on compatible Tablo apps.

tablo advanced recordingstablo advanced recordings options bar

What’s New:

Advanced Recording Features include highly requested recording management tools including:

Feature#1: Adjust Start/Stop Times for Recordings

tablo start stop

You can now set recordings on episodes or full series to start up to 10 mins early and end as much as 3 hours after the scheduled program end-time.

This is especially useful for shows scheduled after events that typically run long like sports, or when certain broadcasts regularly begin a minute or two early.

Feature#2: Keep X Recordings

tablo keep x

Ideal for programs that air frequently like talk shows, game shows and the news, you can now preset your Tablo OTA DVR to retain all recorded episodes, or only the most recent five, three, or single airings (plus any protected recordings). *** Update – Keep 10 & 20 options have been added! ***

Feature#3: Recording Channel Selector

tablo channel select

Handy for those who live in between two broadcast areas, or on the Canada-US border, you can now choose which channel Tablo will record from if multiple channels are airing your favorite program.

This flexibility helps resolve recording conflicts and allows you to override Tablo’s smart scheduling (which automatically chooses the channel with the best signal quality) so you can specify the source broadcaster for each of your shows.

Adjust start/stop times for recordings and the recording channel selector features are available for both individual airings and series recordings (ALL or ALL NEW).

As you can imagine, keep X recordings is available only on series recordings.

How To Access New Features

tablo firmware update 2218

Access to all new features requires an active Tablo TV Guide Data Service subscription (or in-progress free trial), Tablo firmware (2.2.18+) and the latest Tablo apps.

Supported Tablo Apps

tablo apple tv advanced recording

Advanced recording options are available within most Tablo apps including those for:

  • Roku
  • Amazon Fire TV
  • Android TV
  • Apple TV
  • LG webOS
  • Samsung TIZEN
  • iOS & Android mobile devices
  • PC/MAC
  • Tablo DUAL HDMI & Tablo QUAD HDMI interface

Advanced Recording FAQs

tablo advanced recordings android preview

Since these new advanced recording features affect the default scheduling functionality of Tablo OTA DVRs, there are a few changes our loyal Tablo customers might notice.

  • Why do my recordings no longer have 5 minutes of extra time?
    On firmware prior to 2.2.18, if a tuner was available, Tablo began recordings 60 seconds before and ended them 5 minutes after the scheduled air time. Now, recordings set to start and stop ‘On Time’ will start 15 seconds before and end 1 minute after the scheduled air time.
  • I have ‘Extend Live Recordings’ checked in my settings screen. How will this affect recordings that I choose to extend by adjusting the stop time?
    Unless you specifically change the ‘Stop Recording’ time of an airing or series, the ‘Extend Live Recordings’ feature will continue to automatically extend recording of all airings marked as ‘live’ in your Tablo’s guide data by 50%, up to 2 hours.
  • What is the behavior of Keep X Recordings feature on older recordings? How does Tablo decide which recordings to delete?
    If you select a ‘Keep’ setting and you currently have more completed recordings in that series than the limit you just set, older recordings will be deleted when the setting is enabled, unless you select cancel.(TIP – this is a great way to quickly delete some but not all recordings from a particular series!)tablo keep limit
    Keep X recording limits are also based on completed recordings, so if a recording fails due to poor reception or another issue, it will not count towards your limit and Tablo will maintain the oldest completed recording until the limit is reached at which time it’s replaced with the newer completed recording. Keep X will also override Tablo’s Auto Delete function. Auto delete helps manage your Tablo’s recording storage by deleting the oldest unprotected recordings to maintain enough space for upcoming scheduled recordings. Users with smaller hard drives who make frequent use of Keep X on recording schedules should carefully monitor available storage space to avoid recordings being deleted before they’re able to be viewed, or running out of disk space altogether.

We hope you enjoy these new Tablo features!

If you have any questions about the updates or would like to leave feedback, join the conversation on our Tablo Community.

Updated March 17, 2021

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How to restart your phone/tablet

Sometimes, just restarting your smartphone or tablet can clear up issues with apps. The links below will provide detailed instructions on how to force close your Tablo app. 

Apple iPhone

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Most Android smartphones and tablets can be restarted by holding the POWER button and then selecting RESTART or POWER OFF and RESTART from the POWER OPTIONS menu.

NOTE: Newer Samsung devices require you to hold the POWER/SIDE button and VOLUME DOWN to make the POWER OPTIONS menu appear. On the Google Pixel 6, hold the POWER and VOLUME UP buttons.

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Sometimes, just restarting the app can fix things. The links below will provide detailed instructions on how to force close your Tablo app. 

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