Antenna TV: All Through the House

Cutting the cord isn’t just for the living room.

I was in high school before my parents grudgingly bought a color TV. Back then a television was a piece of furniture, and any family who owned more than one… well that was pretty high class. Today it’s hard to imagine a modern home with less than three TV sets!

All those screens in the modern home can be a challenge for cordcutters. Free digital TV broadcasts and the plethora of streaming services make it easier than ever to ditch expensive cable bills. But to get a stable signal of free over-the-air TV often requires mounting an antenna on your roof or in the attic.

Next problem: How to share that signal amongst a number of televisions throughout the house? That typically requires a splitter and/or amplifier to maintain a usable signal. Unfortunately that’s a finicky solution depending on the number of TVs and length of coax cable you’re dealing with. Seems like there ought to be a wireless solution?

There is.

Commercials for the Tablo device had left me unimpressed. It sounded like the typical “HD TV Antenna” hype. Then I came across a video explaining how to wirelessly connect an antenna to multiple TVs. The reviewer gave the first generation Tablo device high marks for features and ease of use. Wow… they never mentioned that in their commercial!

Tablo TV is a whole-home DVR that allows you to wirelessly share programming from a single antenna to any room on your home. It eliminates the need to trace coax cables across your attic or crawl space to all your TVs. Instead, each television can view live or recorded programming via your home’s Wi Fi.

Two different versions are available, and each is offered with or without an optional indoor antenna. The basic version can watch or record two channels simultaneously, while the enhanced version increases that to four channels. Either version stores up to 50 hours of HD recording, which can be expanded further with a USB hard drive.

Setting up the Tablo TV is pretty straightforward. You’ll need to find a location that offers access to your ISP hardware, as well as a convenient antenna location (or route for a cable to the antenna). If opting for the supplied leaf-style antenna it’s best to find a nearby window for best results. If your Internet hardware is tucked away in a closet it’s probably best to run coax up to an antenna. Plug in the power and connect the Tablo to your home router via the supplied Ethernet cable. Then connect your antenna and your ready to start the channel scan.

I opted for a simple directional antenna. The design is called a Yaggi after the man who invented it. It’s mounted on the roof gable with the included post. I was able to reroute existing coax cable through the attic from the previous owner’s cable installation. The initial channel scan found 219 channels.

The Tablo app provides various settings and options to manage the Tablo and your recordings. Once the channel scan is complete you can choose which stations show up in your Live TV channel list, then download the programming guides for those stations. There’s even switches for the built-in antenna amplifier and audio compatibility. It also offers a helpful tool to aim your antenna.

What’s the catch? A Tablo unit will set you back at least a hundred bucks. But compare that to the average monthly cable bill at $121. Live TV viewing can be a little clunky, changing channels isn’t as instantaneous as what you may be used to. Also, since your Wi Fi network is carrying the signal each television set must be “smart” or at least fitted with a smart doo-dad: a Roku, Fire TV stick, Apple TV, Google TV— or simply watch on your Android device or iPhone.