With the Pace Twin,if one wishes to commence,or discontinue viewing,while a recording from standby is in progress,one presses the power button on the remote control.
With the 5800,when I tried this to commence viewing I received a message asking if I wished to switch off the power.When I pressed the power button to discontinue viewing I lost the recording.
What is the correct procedure for the Topfield?

There isn't a concept of recording whilst in stand-by with a Toppy - it's either "On" or "Off". I'm not sure what the behaviour is of the dialogue you're referring too, although I know the prior advice for your situation was to "leave it on screen and don't select anything" - the operation, and hence advice, may have changed in subsequent firmware upgrades. The reason I haven't kept track of this, however, is that most people make use of the sleep timer - if you have a recording going and, for example, you're off to bed and want the Toppy to switch off when finished, hit "Opt" and set the "Sleep Timer" to 10 minutes - it'll start counting down immediately, but won't actually switch the Toppy off until the current recording has finished.

Wouldn't it be good to do this automatically or even with a tap?

In effect the method described by jon_c (just leave the on-off menu on screen; without selecting anything) does automatically turn off the Toppy at the end of the recording.

So I just press power if I am recording when I go to bed and thats it; one button press.

Shame is the message does not indicate this option. Another incomprehensible interface design decision; particularly as 'leave on until recording complete' is a much more likely requirement than 'on' or off' in this context.

It still works like this by the way.

Subsequent to my posting,I was advised by Turbosat:
1.if the 5800 activates a timer recording from standby it will switch off automatically at the designated end time;however
2.if one is already viewing when a timer recording is activated the 5800 will not switch itself off at the designated end time.One must wait until the recording is completed,and switch off manually.
With the much maligned Pace Twin,the operating system is definitely superior.

I did this for the first time last night

I simply set the timer (as others have suggested) for 60 mins and voila it went off after the recording.
I know what you mean - but it's no great trouble to do the timer if you are caught that way ,.

Sorry dont understand this. If you are actually watching TV (probably through the Toppy) I would certainly not want it automatically going into standby everytime a recording finished. (The Pace Twin certainly does not do this either).

If you want to stop watching before the recording finishes and then go into standby (unattended) when it does finish follow the procedure described above. (edit)
Richard

The reason for my original posting was due to the operational difference between the Pace and the Topfield.
The Twin when recording from standby does not output picture,and sound,to a connected TV.Therefore,to commence,and discontinue,viewing on the TV one operates the power switch on the remote without affecting the timer recording.
Switching off with the Topfield lost the timer recording.

we (well I did) know that (I think)

Just the way it's designed really

(from memory the inverto does like your pace I think)

Thanks Richard46 and jon_c. I hadn't picked up on that.

For the last year I've been using the sleep timer and grumbling every time (having a Pace Twin before that also).

DLS

Note that in some earlier firmwares, leaving the menu on screen caused a crash; it doesn't in recent ones, but that's one reason for simply giving the advice to use the sleep timer - it works with every firmware, without the risk of crashing.

Nigel.

Yes, the 4TV machines (Fusion/Thomson/Inverto) record in standby... I do prefer that, but there's so much more to prefer about the Topfield, that it's not a big deal that it doesn't.