Am not sure whether it is considered sacrilege to post here but here goes.

I have been 'loyal' to Humax for quite a few years and have gone through three boxes, the other two are with my flat mate and my parents.

I looked at the Topfield manual for the TF5810PVRt and it appears, at first glance, to have more features and bangs for buck than the Humax.

I'm not going to buy another PVR until Humax and Topfield launch a terrestrial HD unit and I can compare.

I have been following the various threads with respect to firmware upgrades and it seems that Humax just don't test stuff properly before releasing. It appears that they are playing 'catch up' with firmware 'upgrades'.

I'm wondering whether to go the Topfield route when then release a HD box. I looked at the Topfield thread and it doesn't seem to feature people moaning about screw ups at all. I don't know whether they sell far fewer units, owners don't read DS or the units are just reliable and do what it says on the tin.

I don't know what to do!

p.s. Perhaps I should post this on the other forum and garner their views.

Happy tapping toppers live in toppy land ...

http://www.toppy.org.uk/

They are excellent hobby PVRs.

There is no evidence to suggest that any new Topfield product will support TAPs. That feature was so blindingly amazing that the grey-suits and "cool cat" ad men seem to have taken it away from us.

My money is on the non-Freeview HD certified 3view box to become the hacker's choice.

Thanks for the info. From what I have seen online they certainly seem to be. I like that too.

Maybe it's time to drop the Humax 'loyalty'. The debacle in various areas with firmware upgrades makes me think either they don't have a great quality control operation or don't care much for it. They could at least acknowledge 'issues' on their website. Playing dumb isn't entirely helpful and I think downgrades the brand.

Downloading the latest Topfield terrestrial box [manual*] swayed me rather. The menus are in colour, not in such a large chunky font and seem to be oriented at folks who have progressed beyond basic Lego.

It's a shame that the terrestrial Topfield has a green display. Although appearance isn't everything I think blue is easier on the eye. Hopefully they will either go for blue or at least allow a choice with their HD offering. I await both company's offerings with interest.

* edit to add Manual.

I have a Humax 9300 and a Topfield 5800 which I am just getting used to. Got as far as adding the recommended software and MyStuff and I like what I see so far.

The Humax is the choice for those who want a reasonably stable PVR and have no intention of customising it or ever asking it to do more than it says on the tin.

The Topfield is the clear winner for any customisers out there and as an ex-DigiFusion user I fall into that category. It'll likely take me a couple of months to get it doing everything I want of it and at that point I'll probably relegate the Humax to the bedroom to replace the DigiFusion which I painstakingly mounted vertically behind the plasma on the wall.

http://picasaweb.google.com/carl.g.t...10576055008002

Thanks IWantPVR.

My lodger is using an ancient Freeview box of mine so I will, more than likely, upgrade to a HD terrestrial Topfield PVR when they launch it and give my 9300T to him. I like the idea of being able to customise and generally 'play with' it!

Thanks again.

Can you point me in the direction of some details as I did not know that Topfield would still include TAPS and firmware customisation with an HD version

Hi, I don't have any information about what might be available with a new Topfield offering. I await it with interest though!

I am not holding my breath for a HD Toppy to appear - having ben the owner of a heavily-patched Toppy 5800, for a number of years I will be sorry to move to a non-Toppy PVR for HD, but that is what I shall be doing. Topfield have really dropped the ball on HD

TBH most of my viewing I now do on my Foxsat HDR as the picture quality over HDMI of even upscaled SD is better. I still use the Toppy for making back up recordings as the Foxsat cannot be totally trusted and for recording Red Button material and for watching stuff remotely from the bedroom TV (although the next major recabling exercise will include feeding the Foxsat through the video sender as well as dropping from two Toppies to one and ditching the VCR to make way for a Freeview HD PVR unless Channel 4 HD / Five HD become available on HD).

Wow I can't believe you bought a Humax Gomezz after what you said about them messing up your previous boxes and not supporting them

Don't see it as a choice between Humax and Topfield. I think one way of looking at this is whether you want a standard freeview+ / freeview+hd machine - or - a Topfield where you can experience all the joys of tinkering and setting up a recorder in various ways until you are happy the way it records and works. Anyone who decides on the former, then has the task of deciding which out of all the freeview+/freeview+hd manufacturers has an offering that works nicely out of the box and quietly gets on with it - basically another dilema

Also Mossy2103 there is some skepticism over whether Topfield will release a HD recorder and still have taps. I hope they do.