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Tablo serves up Metro DVR with onboard antennas

Tablo's new $249 Metro DVR has onboard antennas -- and the company also debuted an improved app for Roku.

Ty Pendlebury Editor
Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He majored in Cinema Studies when studying at RMIT. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials
  • Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
Ty Pendlebury

Tablo

LAS VEGAS -- Network DVR maker Tablo's newest recorder, the Tablo Metro, incorporates two antennas into the casing. The company also outlined its new Roku app here, and it features a slick new interface.

The Tablo Metro is essentially the Tablo 2-Tuner DVR -- which has dual tuners so you can record one show and watch another -- in combination with dual fractal antennas. Unfortunately it's not quite all-you-can-eat as you still need to supply your own USB hard drive.

Tablo says the antennas are able to pickup signals within 25 miles of TV broadcast towers and eliminate the need for an external unit. Tablo says the antennas incorporate "intelligent switching technology" so they can capture incoming signals from two different towers on the fly.

tablo-roku.jpg
The updated Tablo Roku app. Ty Pendlebury/CNET

The Tablo lacks an onscreen menu -- it's a network streaming unit only -- because, the company says, the majority of its users watch TV and control the DVR via their Roku box. As we found in our review , the Roku app needed work and the company says it redoubled its efforts to improve the interface. It now features a blue program guide with recordings and live TV options on the left-hand side.

The Tablo is anticipated to ship in March for $249, while the antenna-less dual tuner Tablo is $175 and the four-tuner version is $240.