I am of the strong opinion that anyone with a relatively long-term living situation — think owning a home or renting an apartment you know you’ll be in for a while — should have an over-the-air antenna at the ready. It’s a good backup for streaming live TV and is a one-time expense.
And while plugging a single antenna into a single television tuner is fine, we can do better in 2024 thanks to what I call “networked tuners.” The gist is this: You plug the antenna (and, most likely, an amplifier) into this magical device, and then you can watch the free, over-the-air broadcast channels on multiple devices — and record shows.
I’ve been using this sort of setup for years. And my current go-to remains the fourth-generation Tablo DVR (be sure to check out our full Tablo review), and it happens to be on sale as part of Prime Day.
Tablo has a lot of things going for it. The DVR is built in, so you don’t have to deal with an external hard drive (hough you can augment the 12GB of onboard storage if you want). There are no additional subscription fees. And the user interface is excellent.
There aren’t a whole lot of negatives here. OK, yes, it doesn’t support ATSC 3.0, or NextGen TV, which gives higher resolution and better audio options, but also requires an internet connection and feeds all kinds of data back to the companies trying to sell you things. A lack of ATSC 3.0 just isn’t a reason to not buy something at this point. Slightly more problematic is if you’re using an Apple TV 4K — the Tablo app is still in beta testing for that platform. But if you’re on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, or Google TV, you’re good to go.
One final decision to make: The fourth-gen Tablo DVR is available with either two tuners, or . I’m of the mind that if you can pony up for the extra hardware, it’s worth it, because it’s not the sort of thing you can add on later. Four tuners lets you watch even more on multiples devices, and record that much more, all at the same time.
The four-tuner Tablo is on sale or $120, down from $140. The two-tuner Tablo is on sale for $80, down from $100. And there are packages available with antennas, too.
