My brand new Topfield TF 5800 PVR 250GB was delivered on Monday.

All I can say is wow! What a wonderful piece of kit. I've only had it two days and it has already revolutionised the way we watch TV.

Still got loads of features to investigate/play with.

Same here, started using on Tuesday. So far, excellent. No faults found here so far (one of the reasons I bought a Toppy).

I have not thought about trying any of the TAPS uet - need to get used to basic functions first.

Next stop, try out the advert cutting tools

Hi guys and welcome to the wonderful Toppy.

Could I just ask how you find the basic UI on the Toppy? - when I got mine I noticed a lot of people in various forums didnt like it at all - but I never saw much of a problem.

Also you are quite right - dont rush into TAPS until you get to know the machine and can then decide what extra functionality you want.

What I can say is that, if you think the native Toppy UI revolutionises your TV watching, then diving into the MyStuff TAP may just be too much to bear!

5-star recommendation from me!

Check out http://www.BobDsMyStuff.co.uk for screenshots etc..

K

I find the native UI OK. Nothing I would complain about. However, I am looking forward to trying some of the TAPs which from what I read, improve on the native UI by quite a bit.

Although, I have also read that quite a few users just stay with the native UI having tried the others.

I will be happy whichever UI I end up using, if the Toppy continues with the current fault free performance. I had (have) been reading various forum threads regarding the BT Vision, TUTV offerings, and it appears that those boxes have a long way to go before they are half as good as the Toppy. And it seems, the Toppy *may* be usable for those services as well.

Can't see any problem at all with the basic UI, but then I've only been using it since Monday!

I have downloaded a program so that I can transfer programmes from the toppy to my PC but haven't got the necessary cable to do this yet. Can anyone recommend one, I've only found this so far :

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...20usb&doy=11m1
Last edited by Claires_dad : 11-01-2007 at 17:35

That isn't what you want. You just need a normal USB A-B cable such as this one

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?...11m1&source=15

You may already have a suitable cable if you have a USB printer or other device.

So it is! I hadn't seen the usb port on the back of the machine only the rs232 as they are labelled incorrectly in the user manual!

I've got one of those leads and my local computer shop sells them for about £5

Thanks

You are correct the numbers connection 13 & 14 have been transposed in the text in the manual.

You can just use a standard A-B printer cable as already noted

Richard

Is there a way I can tell what channels I can watch if I'm recording 2 other things at the same time?

Is it to do with which MUX is broadcasting the signals?

Just press OK/List and the channels you can't watch will be greyed out in the list.

If you're recording two channels from the same mux you can watch anything you like; if you're recording from two different muxes, you can watch any channel from either of those two.

Nigel

If you do at some point consider TAPs then the MyStuff EPG (latest version) also greys out stations unavailable while recording 2 others.

Richard

Hi Richard,

You helped me out with a couple of questions on the Toppy site. I should have my Toppy coming shortly and want to mimick Sky+ functions. I've got the MyStuff TAP and some nice skins with channel logos. Is there anything else worth putting on?

There are so many; see Jani's Tap World site

http://www.tapworld.net/component/op...page/Itemid,1/

it is difficult to say.

Perhaps try the MyStuff suite of TAPs and perhaps Nigel's favoured alternative EPGNavigator. If there are still things you cannot do with either of those then ask again. If you look on the other place in the new users section there are lots of threads asking similar questions. This one may be relevant for instance.

http://forum.toppy.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7188

I wouls however suggest TF5000 Display TAP which much improves the info available from the display panel.

Richard

Excellent, thanks for your reply......still enjoying & still learning about my toppy

Also note that there's an updated manual here:

http://www.toppy.org.uk/documents/58...nual_Rev.4.pdf
TF58000PVR User Manual rev 4; this is the latest version of the manual, re-written specially for the UK.

although it may already be shipping with current 5800s?

That's the manual I got & the usb port & rs232 port are incorrectly numbered!