I am using a digifusion at the moment,and would like toupgrade to a toppy. But I am a little cocerned that it may be a bit over my head,Can I use it the same as any other pvr or do I have to use a pc.

Yes you can use it like any other PVR. The connection to the PC is for transfering TAP's, which are little programmes you can add to customise your toppy. But that is optional, and the toppy is superb without adding any TAP's. The other use of the PC connection is to upgrade the firmware, but if you are getting a toppy it will come with the latest firmware upgrades. From December the upgrades will be tranmitted over the air so you will not need to do that either. The best way to find the latest info is to look here.

Further to Gornall's post, the Toppy is not as easy to use as the Digifusion, but it is actually better in my opinion. The remote is a million times better in terms of quality. The manual though is not very helpful so you might get a bit frustrated trying to figure out what it can do. This is where Topfield excels above all the others in that it has a dedicated forum for help set up by someone who has direct contact with Topfield and many many contributors who know what they're doing and love to help.

Further to my own post there is another very helpful forum here:

http://www.pvrworld.co.uk/forum/index.php

Yes it can be used stand alone.

But internet access to forums and TAPs
and a PC from time to time would make life much easier.

Certainly... the manual is not very helpful... the forums are.

Fantastic, there is someone else wanting to ask similar questions to me and for a similar reason (although my Fusion died!)

I've been looking at the PVRT5800 on EmpireDirect (and I can pick up in Bradford - yey for stingy me not wanting to pay postage), and most of my questions have been answered on here, but to add a few more (many of these will seem basic to most of you - but i'm an engineer and had trouble with the VCR until I stopped using it!). I have tried to search for answers to these, so my apologises if the answer was right under my nose:

Will the unit still record when it's put in standby?

Can you record 2 and watch another recording (99% sure of this, but can't find a definite answer)?

I've read a few posts that seem to imply that I would only be able to recieve the OAD Firmware updates with specific firmware pre-installed. Is this the case and/or will anything I buy now have the correct firmware update on it?

The whole jumping to live TV from chase play when a program stops recording... has this been solved, or does the 'press the yellow button to return' technique to return work. Could see that being mighty annoying otherwise!

EDIT: I forgot to add, do you have to add time to the beginning/end of program manually, or is it clever enough to do that itself?

ANOTHER EDIT (memory like a sieve): What are the favorites lists like? Can you delete channels totally? If you put channels in favorite lists do they retain their LCN, or number in order on the list?

Yes, it will record from standby, but unlike other DVRs it actually comes fully out of standby to do so. In theory, it then goes back to standby afterwards, except when it doesn't.

You can record two channels while watching a recording. You can even watch a third channel at the same time, if it's on the same "mux" as one of the other two channels, and watch a fourth channel with Picture-in-Picture!

You need recent (latest?) firmware to receive OADs. No guarantees, but several people who bought Toppys recently have reported that they came with the latest firmware already installed.

Jumping to live only happens if you are watching the thing that is currently being recorded. If you're watching something else, you don't get interupted, at least that's been my experience.

You have to "pad" (add time to beginning/end) recordings manually, unless you load one of the TAPs that does it automatically.

You can have multiple, named favourites lists (e.g. for different users of the DVR), or you can completely delete channels so that a rescan is required to get them back. Channels retain their LCNs. One drawback of favourites lists is that TAPs can't make use of them. So I've just deleted all the channels that I don't want.

austin4404
Thanks for the replies, It would be good to see one in action and explained a run through in fact, anyone in eastbourne or near?

Any firmware from August (5.12.00) onwards will be capable of receiving this month's OTA update. I'd be pretty surprised if there are any retailers who have stock that's been hanging around so long that it has anything older than that pre-installed. The UK distributor usually makes sure boxes sent out are updated before they pass them down the chain.

Nigel.

Thanks for the quick replies, have actually ordered one this evening.

Very impressed with EmpireDirect, as i'm picking it up they have said it is available straight away... good service that.

I ordered one on line 3 days ago and received a delay notice of about 2to3weeks

You were unlucky. Empiredirect is the only good reason i've found so far for living near Bradford!

I'm very impressed with the box thus far, so hopefully it'll be worth the wait!

Sitting down almost in a snooze state, bang goes the door suprise suprise my toppy is here! So much for the delay, still Im happy. Expecting a few problems installing,looks abit more than a fusion. Any sugestions for an easy life

Crack open a can of lager, sit back and tell SWMBO that she is so much better at this sort of thing than you are.

It is nowhere near as straightforward as the Fusion but since you've used a PVR before, you will be able to figure it out, but you will probably have to read some of the Toppy forum like I did (also an upgrade from Fusion). The manual is very little help.

Since you've had 4TV EPG on a previous machine, I think you'll want to use Jag's EPG which writes the EPG to disk, which alleviates the problems inherent in populating the Freeview EPG. I don't like the look of this EPG much, but as far as I know it's the only one that improves the EPG population problem (though doesn't cure it altogether).

After 3 'other' PVRs (though I still don't see whats 'Personal' about it) I finally bought a Topfield.

After passing my Topfield driving test, I find it much better than the other makes I've had. Only one 'silly' in 3 months - a record. On the whole, very impressed.

However, I have become re-confused.
I have a Pana DVD recorder attached to the VCR socket which I haven't used since I got the Topfield.

Every time I try and record on the DVD, whether live TV or HD recording, the Panasonic refuses. The PAnny puts up a message which implies the signal is copyright protected.

As a test I reconnected the Panny to my old Pace - all is fine. Analogue TV recording is OK. I've changed cables but still no joy when connected to the Topfield.

Has anyone any (relevant) suggestions that don't require a soldering iron?

Question number 2: Does anyone know if its possible to run through the EPG and set the timer without leaving the channel you're currently viewing?

On your first question, you need a firmware update - a small change to the main board on later boxes wasn't taken account of in some firmwares, and as a result they output copy protection signals which some DVD and video recorders don't like. The latest firmwares resolve that problem.

At the moment, no, you can't browse the EPG without the channel changing. That's something that will be resolved in a future update, likely in the new year; I've seen a test version, but there were some other issues so it didn't make it into this week's update.

The first Over The Air update is due to be broadcast 17th to 19th of December. More information over at www.toppy.org.uk.

Nigel.

Try one of the TAP EPG's. MyStuff is excellent. It does rely on Jags EPG to gather info and this involves a little more work setting up than MyStuff itself but well worth it.
Transforms the Toppy IMO.

Many thanks.