I have just bought my first Toppy

Now I understand that there are various TAPS to enhance the usibility of the machine.

Can people suggest the key TAPS to let me use the machine to it's capability and to make it easy to use?

The best thing to do is to pop along to the New users section of www.toppy.org.uk where you'll find some basic guides.

Also, since everyone likes to use their PVR in different ways, the best thing to do is probably to use it for a while and then decide which things you think could be done in a better way.

There's no single answer to which TAPs you might like; many people don't bother with any. Some prefer the way certain ones work to others.

As Nigel says, try it for a week or two 'naked' and see what features you think could be improved.

Then install MyStuff!

K

Kenny,

Thanks for the insight. Have looked at it already!!!

Primarily I want to be able to set up the system to:

1) automatically record programmes by "key words"

i.e. "Doc Martin" so that when the next series starts (whenever that may be) I am pretty confident that it will be recorded. Doc Martin was only an example - my wife likes it!!!

2) Automatically start recording the program just before it starts. Taking into account of any delays - PDC?

Or at an absolute minimum alsos pad out the beginnign and end of a program to take into account any small variances in broadcast time.

3) An easy way to transfer recordings to a separate DVD recorder.
Will it just be a case of connecting the SCART and then playing the recording to the DVD? or is it more complicated?
Is there a way for doing it without actually playing the program?

If the above is problimatical, I would need simple way of connecting the Toppy to my laptop, convert the program somehow to allow me to burn it to DVD.

4) I have never seen a Toppy displaying the time on the front - can this be done?

I think this is all for now. When I connect it to my new plasma TV and a recordable DVD player, no doubt I will have many more questions to ask.

thanks to the help so far

Steve

OK, MyStuff does the first using a thing called Control Timers. They are easy to set up if a programme is already in the EPG (you just highlight it and hit the 'slow play' button). Ask in the MyStuff forum on the toppy site for how to best do it if you're not starting from an scheduled show.

Item 2 is called padding and MyStuff does that too. I set 2mins pre-padding and 5 mins post-padding which is usually enough. PDC (part of the new Freeview Playback standard) depends a bit too much on data from the broadcasters so I wouldn't necessarily trust it - yet.

Never done Item 3. Transferring programmes to a PC for cutting to a DVD is fairly easy using a package called Altair (depending on how you want to be able to watch the DVD - I use VLC on my PC so I don't need to transcribe to MPEG first but you'll have to do this if you want to watch on a 'normal' DVD player). Look in the computer connections forum on the troppy site for loads on this.

4 Yes. You need this. http://www.toppy.org.uk/downloads/info.php?tid=161

Enjoy.

K

Fantastic - thanks very much.

I suppose there will now be hours of fun playing with TAPS!!!!!

I am taking it that TAPS are really easy to install!!

Steve

Installing them is a drag and drop thing...

There are also other TAPs that will do the record by keyword - for example UK Auto Scheduler, which I use.

There's a beginner's guide to installing them over on the Toppy site as well as guides to making DVDs with Mac or PC. You can, of course, play recordings on the box and record to a DVD recorder via SCART but you don't get the chance to edit or make pretty menus that way.

Is this the beginners introduction to Toppy EPG TAPS?

There's also an installation guide - "Beginners guide to installing TAPs (Windows)" which should help you out with the PC software side of things.

Congratulations Highly Confused! I might be joining you soon.

Hi there Highly Confused. You might want to see R2-D2's replies to my questions about TAPs.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...php?p=19542331

But make sure you read my postscript!

K