ATSC-3 is something that I would have to consider for the long term sustainability with the house. However, the coaxial line is and should be treated as obsolete. A push for DRM which will eliminate the ability to have networked DVR?s. With that said, the future Tablos will likely connect via HDMI. Here is the thing, I know there will be a TV in the living room, but will there be a need for a TV in the bedrooms? What about the office? Since there are so many variables, I will assume for HDMI over ethernet. There will be a converter box that will connect a TV to the one end, then that box will connect to the ethernet jack. That ethernet line will run to the communications room where it will be converted back into HDMI using a second adapter. This will be the way I will be able to run lines without a coaxial line in the house. All Tablos will be located in the communications room, and will connect via HDMI over ethernet. Each room that needs a television will have a dedicated Tablo DVR to assure that they have access to all of their channels.
With this setup, there will be no coaxial lines anywhere in the home. Instead – RJ45 is the only communications lines available. This will also mean no telephone which is fine as most lines will either use an ATA or SIP phone for communications. The 6 LAN jacks will be as follows:
- HDMI converter
- Apple TV with ethernet
- Blu-Ray Player
- Microsoft Xbox
- Sony Playstation
- Open
The HDMI converter as mentioned above the TV will plug into the HDMI converter, then the converter will plug into the ethernet line. The line will run to the communications room, converted back into HDMI to plug into the Tablo. This will mean that the one Tablo must be used on that one TV unless there is no DRM in ATSC-3 which is not likely the case. There will still need to be a Tablo TV app to work with the channels, and recordings. With that said, the Apple TV will have an app for that.
The Apple TV device will replace the need to acquire a smart TV. Instead, the Apple TV will be an adapter that would allow me to focus on getting a standard TV that is not smart which is easier said than done. The Apple TV box will be the hub for Apple Home, and Matter Support – both of which will be good for smart home resources.
I will also acquire a Blu-Ray player which I will use to watch any media that might be on DVD or Blu-Ray. When possible though, I will have movies downloaded to the media server which will be located in the communications closet, and therefore allow me to have choices in case I can’t find a digital version, but will be able to find a DVD option. If need be, I will get a disc rack to store my DVDs. When given the option of a normal DVD or Blu-Ray, I will always choose Blu-Ray.
The 2 game systems will be nice if an overnight guest has a game disc they wish to play. I might also consider getting into gaming. By moving these systems to a hard wired ethernet cable, it will reduce the latency, and download times to get a new game, or content. If possible, I will consider upgrading the drives to the highest capacity drives.