Topfield Freeview Playback Recorder
Posted by Notcot on May 17, 2010 in Home Cinema & Video |
Product Description
The Topfield TF5810 PVR is an incredibly specified personal video recorder featuring HDMI with HD upscaling of Freeview to 1080i, a huge 500gb hard disc, two digital tuners for simultaneous recording and viewing of multiple channels, support for Setanta Sports and file transfer to/from a PC via USB. Get the most from digital TV with this amazing “Toppy”.
- Topfield 5810 Freeview Playback receiver
- HDMI Upscaling to 1080i
- Twin Tuner PVR
- Massive 500GB HDD allows up to 250 hours of recording
- USB for fast file transfer
As far as I can tell the issues identified by other reviewers have been sorted. It’s easy to use, easy to upgrade and a pleasure to own.
A quick tip regarding the issue with not being able to turn off the box without losing a ongoing recording. You can simply set the timer to turn off the box automatically, just use 10 minutes. If the 10 minutes elapses and the recording hasn’t finished it simply waits until it has before turning off.
Rating: 5 / 5
Big selling point on this box is a truly great picture (1080i video upscaling is very impressive) but, despite this, the Topfield is hard to love. Operationally the unit is fiddly, inconsistent and buggy. Manufacturer admitted to me some problems they know of (make sure you have firmware version 5.15.09+).
Cheap bargain-basement remote needs a complete redesign to lay buttons out logically and give prominence to often-used commands. The unit has a VERY bright blue display and power button light which, even when off and just showing the time, is almost but not quite as distracting as the annoying scrolling title display whenever you watch anything (which of course cannot be adjusted or disabled).
It seems to detect timer clashes well but I don’t trust it’s going to do what I tell it to do when presented with solutions. If you’re watching a recorded program and the second timer starts recording something, it switches the programme you’re watching off (without leaving a bookmark so you’re back at the beginning when you resume playback). And, as mentioned by other reviewers, I’d prefer a 430mm wide case to match other DVD players/hi-fi separates.
On top of this I’ve had problems with unit refusing to play some recorded programs, random resetting of aspect ratio to 4:3 (from 16:9), random deletion of series timers (making it difficult to trust the unit to record everything you want) which has made the whole owning experience so far something of an endurance test.
On the plus side people at Topfield are easy to communicate with and respond promptly. I’m about to reformat hard drive and install latest firmware. Wish me luck.
Rating: 3 / 5
We purchased this a couple of weeks ago (from John Lewis)to replace an old Humax which had been giving us problems.
Easy to set up but then I came across the first frustrating point: you can’t alter the start and end times of a set recording. Ok, apparently the solution is to download “TAPs” and these sort out all sorts of issues. So we tried downloading various TAPs from the Topfield website…and tried…and tried. Now my husband is very computer literate but he couldn’t get them to work and after about an hour and a half I was ready to throw the machine out of the window. Maybe it’s fine if you have a PC but we are Mac users and it seems that the “Toppy” (even the nickname irritates the hell out of me) is just not very Mac compatible. Why the manufacturers can’t take these issues on board and incorporate themselves I don’t know.
Other frustrations – dreadful, unintuitive remote control (for example volume up is on the left and volume down on the right…); confusing on-screen menus and commands; box display constantly scrolls the name of the channel you are watching which is very distracting; pressing the record button sets a fixed 2hr recording rather than just to end of the current programme; you can’t alter the channel order on the epg or set “favourites” so you have to scroll through lots of dross to find the channels you want. I could go on…
Plus points – the EPG is very fast to load (it was sometimes excrutiatingly slow on the Humax) and the picture quality is extremely good.
However, the good is not good enough to outweigh the bad and I returned the box today for a full refund.
If you are a PC user who likes to fiddle then the Topfield might suit you but if you just want a decent PVR which works straight out of the box then I would suggest you look elsewhere.
Rating: 2 / 5
If i can i will start with a couple of small negatives. For me the back-light around the power button is too bright and focused making it distracting, especialy in low light. I live in a weak signal area for freeview no matter what transmitter i point the arial at but only 2 channels seem affected by this…ITV1 and CH4 give a jumpy but watchable picture all the rest are fine.
The good stuff: Lots of features, easy to use, looks good, i like the feel of the buttons on the remote control.
The USB transfer between the recorder and PC works a treat although to watch a programme on the PC takes 3rd party software as the recorder uses the “.REC” format, easily found by Google though.Still with USB…The firmware is easily updated too.
I WOULD recommend this to anyone that is thinking about going for freeview and/or needing to replace a worn out VHS machine.
I would have given it 4.5 stars but the rating wouldn’t let me.
Rating: 4 / 5
Recently received my 5810 from the helpful folks at Firebox and just in the process of returning the box.
I got it all set up with the standard firmware and HDMI connection to an 1080 HD screen. Digital TV never looked so good and standard EPG and recording all fine.
Having been through the basic set up I thought ‘time to do the really interesting stuff'; link up to the PC and download the MyStuff TAP. The box now hangs during its booting routine and goes no further! Topfield support say issues with latest MyStuff and 5810. Toppy.org.uk say MyStuff is tested as compatible with the 5810.
I will update this review once I get a clean box back from Firefox and try the MyStuff TAP again. Meanwhile, you have been warned!
Rating: 3 / 5