So here goes...
I'm starting slowly and working on LOCAL channels: SUCCESS
I got my equipment today (Tablo 4 tuner and a 2TB USB Hard Drive). I hooked up the HD antenna to it, followed the 3 easy steps to set it up and I was able to find HD channels over the airwaves! This is just a start. Please don't take this as a huge sucess or a full-fledged endorsement yet. I'm only pointing out that I can get channels (now that I have a digital tuner, which happens to be part DVR). I recorded a few things, watched some live TV with some success. My wife walked by and commented on the picture quality being nice. But this si still far from passing "the wife test".
Functionality Review: WORK IN PROGRESS
Overall, this is still a work in progress. I have had some random resets of the DVR, some wonky stuff on my own WiFi (cable provider might have dropped), Tablo App issues and some buffering problems. All of this, I anticipated running into. I am using a Chromecast as the "receiver" on the TV. There are some known "issues" with Chromecast that I am working through.
Remote Access (out of home)
This worked flawlessly! In the Tablo App when I setup the DVR, I clicked the box to enable remote access. Later on, I turned off WiFi on my phone, launched the Tablo app over cellular (4G) and was able to connect and play a recording from my DVR. I could have been anywhere with cell signal and played it. Pretty cool! So then I treied to play a live show by just using the channel guide and IT WORKED TOO! Now that's just crazy! So I could be anywhere with internet access and watch stuff on my phone. That was really easy!
RWD (rewind), FFWD (fast-forward) and PAUSE
For recorded shows, these work. However they are a little different than a typical DVR. FFWD doesn't play things faster. It jumps the program ahead 30 seconds (not bad for commercials). If you wanted to go forward further, the playbar can be touched/clicked further acros the screen. RWD jumps the program back 20 seconds.
For live shows, you can pause. As long as you have enough of the program buffered (say you went to the kitchen to make a sammich), you could likely use the FFWD option but right now I'm getting some sporadic responce/function. As for RWD a live show, it doesn't seem to work the way I expected. Maybe I have to do some digging in the settings but the show isn't being "cached" on the DVR. So I can't RWD.
Important Information for Functionaility
Something that I think is important to anyone considering this is that there isn't a remote control with this setup. You need to use a phone app or a laptop to connect to the DVR or the Channel Guide and then pick the show for playback (in my case, I'm using ChromeCast, so once I pick the program to watch, I then have to click the "cast" button). The same would apply to something like a Sling TV subscription.
Along my journey I will start targetting Premium Channels
Some of the more intelligent "receivers" (other than Chromecast) like Roku and Fire Stick come with a remote and may allow me to install the Tablo app to access my local channels (live and recorded). Having a remote in hand will allow me to get things closer to passing the afforementioned test (for local channels). I am leaning towards Sling TV and for $25 month I get a decent set of channels and then can go al-a-carte for other things.
Right now I would say I am still very optimistic. The path I have gone down, doesn't seem like just "plug and play" for everything. I am expecting to have to purchase some other "receivers" to replace my Chromecasts (although Tablo is working to make them more palletable) and I also think I will need to get used to the way this functions.
More to follow.