I know the Toppy is a fantastic piece of kit and I've got my heart set on buying one, but I was just wondering how easy they are to use for somebody like my aging mum who is a complete technophobe!

Now I understand the principles of a PVR such as using the EPG to select programs for recording etc. But with a Toppy can you do something as simple as swtich to for example ITV, press record at a couple of minutes to 7pm and then leave it recording until told to stop to record Emmerdale followed by Corronation St (I love my soaps)!

Or in that case would the Toppy presume that you wanted to record just the current program and stop at the end of Emmerdale for example?!

Any advise from current Toppy users would be much appreciated, thanks!

I've only done this a couple of time, but when you press record while watching a program you get a box on screen allowing you to choose from three options:

Stop after X amount of time (X defaults at 2 hours but i believe you can change it)
Stop after current event: Emmerdale (for example)
Stop after next event: Corrie (another example )

You choose one and its stops recording based on your choice.

I'm sure another user can confirm this?

Cheers
Stu.

When you press record on the Toppy it will start to record the programme that it is showing at that time. It will continue to record for the default time setting of 2 hours only unless told to do otherwise. Personally I would prefer it if the toppy continued to record forever until the disk is full and not have the default 2 hours.

The easiest way to change the time it records for is to press the record button again whilst it is already recording and adjust the appropriate part os the list as mentioned in the above post.

My friend's 86 year old mother has a Toppy and uses it after a fashion. If somebody can explain the concept to the poor old thing then most people can manage to get the hang of it, eventually.

Start by explaining that a PC is like a large filing cabinet: if their eyes glaze over I should give up.

As explained above you can do things like this; but surely your mother would find it easier to just bring up the epg and press record for the programmes she wants. Also this could be done in advance. Remembering to Set recordings when the programme has already started and you happen to be watching anywat rather defeats the purpose of a PVR.
Why not set a weekly timer for every Monday at 7.30 on ITV etc. Set four of those for the four episodes each week and forget it.

My mother has a PVR and she is 82 and she records OK from the EPG on her Pace Twin.

Richard

Well I know mine would Actually that was the first thing I was told about a PC (20 years ago?) and it is about all I still understand.

Hehe. I was going to suggest that the EPG programming might be easier. But that would involve explaining "padding", and I just know that the next thought to occur to most females :headdown: would be cushions.

Having changed my mother in laws to one without all the multifunction oven controls and sorted her through many a digibox problem. I can sympathise.

It is particularly a problem if the OAP is going a bit blind. ( I know watching TV is a contradiction here but with macular degeneration these new wide screen jobs really help)

The big problem is the controller and this is common to so many things today, the buttons are small and of course they call up menu's that need reading.

So much kit these days is not 'disabled' freindly and the Toppy is one of the more complex.

I'm still in dispute with my wife / daughter after installing MyStuff ( I think it's great ). SHE WILL NOT READ ( or listen!) INSTRUCTIONS.

I sold MyStuff to my partner by quitely setting up searches/timers for all her favourite programmes. So whenever she went to set a timer she found it was already set. How does it always do that? she asks; I just smile. When she forgets to record a programme or when its time slot has changed and she finds it has recorded anyway she is even more impressed.
She now thinks the Toppy has some kind of intuition.

Thanks for all the advice everyone! I took the plunch today and went out and bought one! I got a cracking deal too from EmpireDirect in Bradford. They have the 160Gb version for £237.83 but then they gave me the 250Gb version by mistake!

Anyway I'm very happy with it so far, but only time will tell how she gets on with it! Just one quick question though... I have tunred off buffering / timeshifting but the disk is still spinning all the time even when not recording anything, is this normal? It's only very quiet, but I was just thinking of keeping the unit cool.

Ahh, it was just me being impatient! The disk does spin down after leaving for a while

You jammy so & so.