Comments on: How Topfield lost the plot

By: Bernard Whitfield

Bernard Whitfield — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:50:51 +0000

Inote all comments seem to be about the 5800 and 5810. Has anyone any experience of the TF 7710 HDPVR.? I purchased one in june 2009 . In july 2009 it developed a fault i.e Switching itself off and on periodicaly. After repair it went reasonably until feb 2011 when it would not start up until several attempts were carried out and then it again switched itself off periodicaly.Repaired again under warranty in May 2011(PSU replaced and atuner) and ran until September 2011 when again the receiver began switching itself off completely or did eventually switch itself back on again.Needless to say during these periods the EPG was completely haywire.

By: Ian

Ian — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:54:54 +0000

Couldn’t agree more…

I love my TF5810 (which replaced an ailing TF5800) but it’s long in the tooth now and I really want to move to Freeview HD or Freesat HD.

Trouble is I’d really miss my Toppy (specifically the excellent MyStuff EPG TAP).

By: Steve Hart

Steve Hart — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:41:01 +0000

Hi
Can’t agree more with all these comments.
I’ve had a 5800 since 2006. One PSU fail, HD upgrade to 500Gb
It’s still going strong. I recently bought a Samsung HD TV and was seriously disappointed with its PVR via USB capability so am now looking around for an HD PVR solution.
If there was a viable HD Toppy out there I would buy it – no question.
This decision would be ENTIRELY down to the fantastic work done by the toppy community.
As it is I’m looking at Humax or possibly something running MythTV – anything as long as it’s not Sky.

In this brave new world of convergent TV TopField must be nuts.

By: Lee

Lee — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:45:29 +0000

Oh dear Stuart – I would say the engineer shouldn’t have recommeded a Toppy for you – you really need to be a bit technical and willing to download and install patches from the amazing team of people who have written TAPS and firmware patches. You’re right – out of the box it’s not good at all – but stick on a few TAPS and it can transform it into the best bit of kit for your needs. Like many others, I am mourning the fact that a Toppy-like machine won’t be available for HD. I still use mine (6 years on) and it’s still top of the list for PVRs. I also have a Virgin+ box which is only used for HD.

Everyone will have thier own opinion but for me, the EPG display for MyStuff is the best I’ve ever seen – all the manufacturers of new PVRs should look at this link:

http://www.toppy.org.uk/~mystuff/cgi/Screenshots.cgi?shot=07g%20EPG%20with%20C3%20as%205&title=EPG with C3 as 5&t=2

How could anyone ever go back to only being able to see 4 or 5 channels, over only 1 hour, no indication if it’s a ‘F’ Film, and not being able to see the full description without pressing the ‘i’ button – I have to do this on the virgin box all the time and it drives me mad!!!

The other thing that annoys me is the front LCD shows the channel number on all these PVRs. I don’t want to see the channel number I’m on – I know that already!! I want to see the time. With a Toppy no probs – there’s a neat TAP that lets you choose exactly what it displays on the front.

But yes, sadly over the years it’s meant various downloads and installs and learning new menus (which I love doing) – I say sadly because the Toppy got a lot of poor reviews from people who didn’t want to do these sorts of things (and fair play to them – why should you have to do this in the first place to make it useable).

By: Stuart D Murray

Stuart D Murray — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:29:35 +0000

My TV is a B&O which has served very well for a number of years without any trouble, then we went DIGITAL. On the advice of the then B&Oengineer I bought a Topfield 5810 and that’s where my troubles started.The hard disc failed on the first box after just seven months and my supplier asked for its return. They duly contacted me and supplied a completely new one which has turned out to be a nightmare to operate although it did work when first delivered. Then I found the Topfield Forum and lo & behold I found many fellow sufferers who were like me very disappointed. I am not at all technical where digiboxes are concerned but feel confident in my ability to operate correctly. If this box had cost £30 it would have been bad enough but £250 leaves me bereft of comment

By: Ian C

Ian C — Sat, 14 May 2011 15:51:06 +0000

Am I unique? I’ve had my 5800 since 2006 updated with Freeview+ firmware – and have had very few problems with it. maybe the TV companies are getting better with their start stop markers but I’ve only missed 1 or 2 programs using the series link in the past 18 months or so. The only problem I can’t resolve is the habit of purging the buffer when a recording starts so that if running a delay on a live program (chase TV?) that channel jumps to live TV when a recording starts on the other tuner. This used to happen on the original firmware (predating Freeview+) but was cured by one of the later Toppy.org firmwares. Wish there was a similar patch for the Freeview+ firmware. Otherwise i love the box. Even the original 160GB disc is sufficient given the ability to easily transfer recordings to the PC and onward to DVDs when required. Pity there’s nothing out there that allows easy transfer to PC. Bought my elderly mother a Humax as it was slightly easier to set up and use but it doesn’t have a usb link to transfer files (although I thought it did until i took it out of the box!)

By: Chris Kenney

Chris Kenney — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:32:23 +0000

I have both a 5800 and a 5801. The only good thing about the 5801 is the hdmi upscaler.

The electroletic capacitiors failed on the 5800 psu causing missed recordings but changing them is easy.
The 5801 firmwear is inferior to the 5800 and freezes when running “mystuff”. I then have to reformat the hard drive and reset factory settings. What a shame for a otherwise nice machine.

By: son_t

son_t — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 11:24:22 +0000

Thanks for the reply Nigel. Very interesting – I wonder this would be the trend for the 3view box…

I see that the SRP-2100 has been taken further and at least in Germany, there’s the SRP-2410 now…

By: Nigel

Nigel — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 09:47:19 +0000

I believe Turbosat has sold the 2100 in the UK, but I’ve not played with one myself.

I would suspect that, like most non-platform satellite kit, it will have sold in relatively small numbers, to enthusiasts. That’s one of the key differences between the UK and the rest of Europe – for most people here, satellite reception is tied to a platform, originally Sky and now Freesat as well. Historically, that hasn’t been the case in other countries, and without a platform to push the technology in a certain direction, any receiver is fine, as long as its based on standards.

As the ongoing sagas of the MHEG engine and Freeview Playback show, Topfield don’t seem to do terribly well when they have to incorporate specific functionality for a platform, and pass certification tests.

In Germany and Australia, two countries where that hasn’t been essential, they’ve done pretty well. The introduction of more stringent testing with Freeview Playback/+ is where things started to go rapidly downhill here. It will be interesting to see how they fare in Australia with the new requirements of their Freeview system. And indeed in Europe where the growth of companies like Sky may see more platform-based functionality in future.

By: son_t

son_t — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 09:00:23 +0000

Nigel, did Topfield every released the SRP-2100 in the UK? If so, why did it not take off? If not, then why do Topfield keep releasing products for the German market, and not the UK? (There’s also the SRP-2410 for the Germans.)

Do you know anything about the SRP-2100, is it any good?