“Aereo has really been great for us in increasing awareness on free, over-the-air HDTV,” Grant Hall, CEO of Nuvyyo, which makes Tablo, an app-based system for watching local TV at home and on the go. “That has been one of our biggest challenges. Most people just don’t realize that those days of ghostly pictures and rabbit ears and bad TV that fades in and out are gone. With HDTV, now you’ve got a stunning-quality picture.”
Tablo is among the players hoping to build on Aereo’s momentum. You buy Tablo’s set-top box ($219.99) and a location-based programming guide (one-month free trial, then $4.99 per month, $49.99 annually or $149.99 lifetime), then connect your antenna and an external USB 2.0 or 3.0 hard drive. (The Tablo has flash memory built in, but it is devoted to system processes. You need the external drive for viewing more than one channel of live video.)
