Hi, all
Nearly (so very nearly!) made the decision to buy a Toppy but there's one thing I need to check out - hope someone can help.

Recently installed a new aerial and checked it out using the Humax FOX thingy - it's fine. How does the Toppy compare to Humax tuners for sensitivity? Is there any suggestion it needs a stronger signal?

I'm in a bit of weak area for reception, hence the query...

Thanks a heap
Adam

Adam,
I found on another forum that Topfield have made a slight change in the hardware on the TF5800T. It contains different tuners and apparantly are more sensitive, which should interest you. Nigel or Turbosat (the UK distributer) may know when customers will start to receive those instead of the current machines.

My Toppy always received the available signal at a higher (indicated) signal strength than my 9200T. That said of course, you can't trust meters, but I could never tell which one I was watching by the picture alone.

Nigel would say that for 99% of people the new tuner won't make any perceivable difference and that people looking to buy should not mither suppliers about only wanting Toppies with new tuners, because as yet the suppliers will not have any in stock.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

Nigel.

Would you say that Humax and Toppy tuner sensitivity is about the same at the moment, then?

I believe they are different - tuner sensitivity - but you wouldnt notice if you were getting a good enough signal to make them work. Reports in the past suggest that signal strength of 20% on the humax is still enough to have a good picture/viewing. Quality of the signal is an important factor and if this isnt stable or say 60% you can notice problems.

EDIT: The Humax tuners will work from a signal strength from down to -95dBm and the toppy from -78dBm. The average for stbs are probably somewhere in between. The toppy tuners however will perform much better with very strong signal - like if you live right near a transmitter (can still work up to -20dBm) whereas the hummy (-35dBm). Too technical? Dont ask me to explain. The learned people residing in the freeview sections on DS were the ones that tried to explain to me why certain STBs and PVRs perform better with low signal strength than others, so you could ask some questions about detail there.

Do you know anyone in your street that has freeview OK?
Last edited by marcdavis : 17-10-2006 at 16:52

There are a handful of shiny new aerials up.

We're in a dip in Bath, about 15 miles from the Mendip transmitter. Signal is tricky but the Humax I tested with worked fine on a range of channels. The lender of the box forgot to bring the remote, so didn't get access to signal data (doh!)

I live in Bath and have put a new high gain aerial up which has nearly a clear line of site to the Mendip Transmitter (with a hill and some trees slightly in the way). I get a good signal and my Toppy works fine. I know some parts of Bath cannot get Freeview at all!

Hi, anothergo - whereabouts are you in Bath? In the centre? Twerton? Up a hill?

I'm in Bathwick, so down at ground level. My antenna's pointing at a big tree but signal seems to be ok!

hi - just bought a toppy (already have humax) i cant seem to get channel 5 it is all choppy and channel 4 and itv seem not to work sometimes

didn't have any such problems with humax

bugger - maybe it will sort it self out as only just got it

maybe i need a signal booster for aerial ?

Have you tried switching the Hummy and the Toppy in the aerial food chain to rule out the possibility that one is getting a stronger signal than the other?

Richard

no the humax is in the bedroom and the toppy in the lounge - channel 5 on toppy is still buggered if i take the aerial out of humax upstairs - got my booster aerial back from a friend tonight - toppy still doesn't work on 5 - so looks like it will go back

unless less it comes to its senses in the next 24 hrs

Sometimes people get problems with a booster whhen the signal is too strong... a powerful analogue signal can swamp the tuner and make it hard for it to pick up nearby (frequency-wise) digital ones.

Nigel.

well without the booster it was really bad - with the booster it seems better - having said that it has now crashed - now it is trying to verify folders etc - so i let it do that over night

i am not getting a new aerial for it so unless it starts behaving itself it will go back and i will go back to using the humax - which was great apart from limited mp3 storage and the inability to play mp3 and rec tv at the same time

maybe the toppy is just having first night nerves !

a simple check would be to remove the toppy, put the humax there, and see if the hummy can recieve all channels. If it works ok replace the toppy. if still the same with the replacement toppy, maye it just needs a signal booster in your setup

Marc; As indeed I suggested a few posts back. Although the test would depend on also doing a rescan on both boxes.

Richard

Sorry. I'll put it down to it being late.

ahoneymonster "well without the booster it was really bad - with the booster it seems better"

Crap in= Crap out Im afraid. no matter how much you boost the signal, you just boost the noise as well I had the same problem [no ch5], upgraded the antenna and picked all channels up no problem. My postcode is marked as "freeview not available", my nieghbours STB always loses the signal whilst my toppy is rock solid now.

Also the link cable supplied for connecting the two tuners is ar*e, your gonna have to replace that.

ahoneymonster "no the humax is in the bedroom and the toppy in the lounge"

The antenna cable wouldnt happen to go to the bedroom first and then to the lounge would it?

Cheers
PC

have sorted the problems out now - yes there is a aerial that goes to humax in bedroom ( it may go to h first, not sure ) but as mentioned in previous post, if i take the aerial out from the h upstairs, still have same problem downstairs in lounge.

the booster seemed to solve the problem for me - infact with out it the toppy would have gone back - i wasn't prepared to change my roof aerial esp as with other set top boxes including the humax, i have had no reception problems

yes have heard a booster could make things worse, but luckily for the toppy it seems to like it

It has been three months since this thread started. Now I would like to ask the question again...

Have toppies with new tuners percolated through to major suppliers?

And, if so, how can I be sure? Slightly different model number, perhaps?

Sorry to be fussy, but since the new tuners require new firmware, then I think perhaps there may be more to them than just increased sensitivity.

Different tuners will require different drivers, same as when you plug a new bit of kit into your P.C and it asks you for the driver software.
the old firmware/software wont have the drivers for the newer tuners, but the new firmware will have drivers for both old and new.

That sounds like they are *completely* new tuners - not just an enhanced first stage to up the sensitivity.

They're a newer version from the same manufacturer, apparently.

Units with the new tuners will have Loader version 5.14, rather than 1.01, which you can see on the IRD status screen.

Nigel.

So, has anyone bought a toppy recently with Loader version 5.14?

Quite a few, yes; and if you went to the main distributor you'd most likely get pretty fresh stock.

But there have also been a couple of people on the forums recently who have bought new units, and found that they came with much older firmware, so presumbly have been sitting in someone's stock room - I don't know which supplier.

And if you buy one of the white units, which Turbosat are getting rid of since they're not being made any more, I don't think they're likely to have new tuners either.

But as I've said before, unless you have a marginal signal, it probably won't matter which ones you get.

Nigel.