I know I am on a forum with potential grounds for bias but I have to ask the question somewhere.

A year or so ago I did a lot of reading of the main Toppy thread but had a change of heart (cash) at the time and bought a cheap FVRT100 which luckily blew up last night with 20 days left on the warranty.

Chortling down to Currys got a full refund tonight and now have 130 smackers plus to spend on a new PVR.

So, where does the money go? I'm thinking Topfield (BP 250GB). Can anyone point me at a thread/comparison website or give me some opinion please.

I predominantly use a G4 Mac laptop but it does have W2K on it in case its needed for updates etc.

Picture quality needs to be good as it will be displaying on a 6ft screen (well, kitchen wall to be honest).

Cheers,
CDG

Well the Toppy has been improved since then. The only serious competition that has emerged in the last year is the cheaper Humax 9200. I would suggest you focus your interest on those two.
In fact the choice is probably more limited than a year ago. ie Panasonic; Digifusion; Thompson have fallen behind or just stopped being widely available.
There seem to be a rash of digital recorders at the low end of the market (£100ish) but they probably do not compete with what you are already used to.
I personally would recommend the Toppy but then I have used them and do not have a Humax.

Comparison Chart

Slightly out of date in that the Humax now has Chase Play, and autopadding (albeit it has limitations), and a vanilla Toppy now populates the EPG whatever mux it is tuned to.

Owning both I would normally have no hesitation in recommending the Humax, but given your info re a Mac I think you would be better off with the Toppy.

You might want to browse the excellent dedicated forums:

Toppy Forum

Hummy Forum

Hummy Forum - cute, wonder where they got the inspiration for that one

Thanks for the link. One thing I remember now is the rather naff FFW facility. I got quite used to using the 16, 32 and 64x speed of the FVRT and noticed that the Topfield is a bit lame in this department - likely to be any firmware enhancements on this or is there an alternative?

The amount of times I watched an England game during the World Cup at 16/32x speed isn't true!

With the standard firmware there's a "progress bar" that allows you to move through a recording more quickly. There are also TAPs available that give you faster FFW, and also the ability to jump forwards/backwards by given amounts (configurable).

I Like both machines, If I was buying for the parents would choose the humax easier to use, however the toppy does takes the edge, Its that old tap thing, Its pretty amazing what people can programme and unlock and add loads of extra features.

As a Mac user, I'd suggest the Toppy; ok, I'd probably suggest that anyway, but there are good tools to use with the Mac, whereas that's not the case for the Humax at the moment.

Nigel.

Some good comments there thanks.

OK, so I'll get the Topfield but where from, who has the best deals around? I didn't think I'd be bothered about the TUTV CAM etc but maybe I should get one with?

The 250GB noise issue doesn't really concern me as the FVRT was hardly quiet and my projector sounds like a small turbo prop!

A machine that can be heard above the missus' nagging has not been designed either...

I am near Bath and don't think there is a supplier in earshot so it would be bought off t'web.

Check out the Shops section on www.toppy.org.uk you can select your region and it will tell you which shops in your area sell the Toppy.

It also gives details of web outlets.

Just had a quick look around and although I've no experience of using them and they aren't the cheapest, Peter Tyson do offer a 2 year Warranty as standard.
Last edited by captain747480 : 02-08-2006 at 15:48

Ta - Just been Kelkooing.

The 2 year warranty is not such a big deal for me as my credit card will give another year's warranty on top of the retailer's.

I seem to remember Turbosat were the daddies but they are £25 more expensive than another option on the 250GB model.

Do we know if they price match?

got mine from EmpireDirect.co.uk a few weeks ago; £270.32 inc. VAT & Delivery. Arrived promptly, no problems.

They still seem to have them listed, at that price, although neither black nor silver currently in stock.

Give them a ring, if not bothered about a brand new one, sometimes they have returns/refurbs at a good price with warranty, also they normally have discount days on bank holidays.

You weren't wrong. Gave them a buzz first thing and, touch wood, looks like I've got a good deal.

Looking forward to it being delivered tomorrow and getting stuck in.

I am figuring I shall need a few TAPS installed but I'm going to get used to the thing first before attempting to get under the bonnet.

Good choice i have had mine since launch with no problems

Excellant, Dont forget, you will need a usb lead if you are going down the tapp route, forget the type, somebody else will know its the big square connection, and most of all the place you need to be visiting is toppy.org.uk.

The USB lead is an A-B and is the same as you'd use with a printer or scanner.

A-B eh. Thought it might be when it was described as the square one, I've got USB cables coming out my ears and I have a broken printer so it's all good news.

The only down side is I seem to have a lot of reading to do on toppy.org.uk on EPGs, Mac and TAPS.

Read half the new manual last night which sent me straight to sleep really.

How do people get on with the remote, looks a slightly esoteric setup!?

It is a strange one......my first reaction when seeing it is OMG.....but it really isn't that bad once you get used to it.

USB cable... fine if the units are close together. We only connect for up/downloads to the Mac which is in another room. We have the A-B and three Active USB leads. Works fine. Maplins, among others, has them.

As for the remote, SWMBO is a demon at programming our Pronto remote, so the Toppy interface has the same feel and looks pretty much the same as that of the old VCR it replaced. Prontoedit running on Win98 through VirtualPC on an iMac G3... Sometimes I worry about that girl....

My PC is 20m away but the Toppy is going to be right next to my router.

Is there such a thing as a USB to ethernet cable that will allow it connect to my router?

Unfortunately that won't work.

Have a look at the Computer Connections section on www.toppy.org.uk/forum and it'll give you an idea of what is needed to link a Toppy to an existing network.
Last edited by captain747480 : 04-08-2006 at 13:43

here:
http://www.hummy.org.uk/invison/index.php?showtopic=2

Just bought the 250gb box today from Turbosat themselves. Got a good discount. £269 all in.

I was going to order one online, and then realised that they were based in Sittingbourne. Since I work in Sittingbourne, I drove round to their place at lunch time.

I will be installing it tonight.

How do you like it?

All good so far. Impressive bit of kit.

I've installed MyStuff + eit2mei and also AutoMove and TopCommander.

Also did the Bastille update.

On top of that I did the download a .rec and convert to Mpeg thing. Next stage is to convert to Divx/Xvid.

All pretty straightforward.