Hi - I have had a Humax 9200 for over a year now and have been very pleased with it , especially its near-silent operation. However, I have recently added a second Hummy and was very disappointed to find that it was unacceptably noisy. I replaced it - same problem. Humax Tech Support tell me that the noise is 'normal operation'. I would guess they have had tp include a more powerful fan to cope with a larger disc.

So - I'm looking for advice on a replacement. As I understand it, a Topfield 5800 has essentially the same features as the Humax except that it has no fan. Is there any history of overheating? Also, does anyone yet know whether the 5810 with its bigger disc will still be fan-free?

Finally, altho' I can see that TAPs could be useful, I want a machine that is as user-friendly out of the box as the Humax - does the Topfield meet this??

Many thanks in advance - Roy

It gets quite warm to the touch and a few people, generally ones who leave the unit permanently switched on, have had PSU failures.

The 5800 user interface is functional but quirky, and is not a thing of beauty. The various screen elements look like they've been designed by different people. Some things are irritating, like the lack of automatic timer padding, the timer list shows the name of the channel, but not the programme to be recorded and it is sorted in set order, not date order These irritations can be addressed with various TAPs, so it's well worth spending a little time adding a few to improve the experience.

The 5810, we believe, won't have a fan. The user interface is also getting a spruce up. You can get an idea of the new look by visiting www.topfield.co.kr and downloading the manual for the TF600PVRt.

Is it definitley the fan which is making a noise and not the unit resonating on whatever surface you have it on?

It's just that mine made a loud 'hum' until I put the PVR on Acoustifeet.

Thanks for the replies. I am pretty sure that it is the fan/hard drive - I can get the noise and vibrations when I lift it clear of other units. So I decided to try-out Accoustifeet - not easy to find (I caused a lot of innocent amusement in Curry's by asking the assistant if he had any Accousti......) but eventually found something similar - Polipods - in Sevenoaks Hifi. Sadly, they have made only a marginal improvement.

So, I have decided to keep the Humax and apply a radical solution - I will switch it off when not in use.

best wishes - Roy

thanks for the excellent tip about the acoustifeet put them on my parents pvr totally quiet no more humming from the case...

and i only cost me £7.15 for 8

Can I ask where you purchased these acoustifeet from?

Try here?

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/pro...ng=yes&set=Set

K

Or cut some squash balls in half,

thanks - ordered some....

Do you think a Topfield with MyStuff and/or other TAPS looks aesthetically better or as good as a Humx 9200T and consistent between different menus?

I'm thinking of getting a Toppy, I've seen screenshots of MyStuff etc. - but can't really judge what it looks like in practice.. , I've a Humax 9200T at the moment (until xmas) - and I'm definetely leaning towards getting a Toppy myself.
But I'm a little worried that it will look clunky with bad graphics / icons etc. ?? (in comparison to Humax 9200T say)

I think this is too subjective a question to get a good answer. Some people love MyStuff, others hate it.

Assuming you like the Humax look and feel you might want to check out other taps that get closer to that look.

I suppose ultimately it would be possible for a tap to clone the Humax look and feel, but I haven't seen one yet (tap authors like to "improve" things, trying to get it exactly how they want).

I think looks are less important when placed against the ability to keep a specific number of episodes of your favourite programme

quietpc.com..quick delivery ..and cheap

andy1c - yeah, dispatched the same day as I ordered and the price seemed very good too - thanks for the recommendation....

hope they fixes the problem as it did for my parents.
i spent 8 months putting various things under the pvr to little effect, it was driving them mad..

£1 p&p so i brought 2 packs , so if anything dares to buzz im sticking these feet on it.

Hi, what grade of acoustifeet did you use? They do very soft, soft and medium. What worked best for you?

i am using very soft ,acf 3007-15 according the paperwork recommended max load is 8kg (2kg per foot).. stopped the buzzing...
i wasted 8 months of putting various things under the pvr..

£2.54 plus vat and p+p a bargain

Just shows it's 'horses for courses' - I'm returning my Humax precisely because I do not find it user friendly

The model I have is quietish, though not as quiet as my fanless, virtually silent, Digihome (now there's a user-friendly PVR, if only the new models weren't so buggy )

parthena

Can anyone tell me, how does the picture quality compare?

I used to have a Humax but sold it because I didn't like the picture quality. Specifically, the terrible colour bleed, mainly reds. That is the one thing that really winds me up about Freeview boxes, I like the colour to be pixel-perfect.

People slag off the Nokia 221T, but that box has no colour bleed at all!

Does the Topfield have any colour bleed? If so, how does it compare to the Humax?

Thanks!

I've got both boxes and picture quality I'd say they're about even though can't properly compare as they're on different TV's so and difference might actually be with the TV itself. I've got the toppy on the larger TV and if anything I'd say the pictures not as sharp but again it migiht be my tv settings.

The toppy tends to hold the signal for longer though, the humax will start to block just a little bit at times when the toppy wont even flicker. With the toppy it's either a perfect signal or nothing.

I'd agree about the Nokia, I still use it as a comparison to all new boxes I try. I have not yet found anything with better picture quality.

The Topfiled picture gets very close though and is better IMO than the HUMAX. This quite surprised me since most people rave about the HUMAX picture quality (however, most are not able to compare many boxes with each other side by side so they are only thinking it looks good compared to nothing - not a very scientifically valid way of comparison).

I also agree with the colour bleed problems on the HUMAX - the picture quality is pretty good but the colour overlay is not that hot. I also find that this varies between picture ratio settings. The 16:9 has little colour alignment issues compared to the 4:3 setting which is pretty poor to be honest. To most people these sort of problems are not really an issue (in fact some people can't even see them) so they think the pictures are better than they actually are.

IMO in a straightforward battle between the two the Topfield wins easily over the HUMAX. I would only recommend the HUMAX over the Toppy if it were necessary to consider such things as price and ease of useabilty.

I have a Toppy 5800 and a Humax 9200 both connected to a Denon upscaling AV amp. The Toppy is connected using component and the Humax by a rgb component converter. (The amp does not support rgb switching). Output is scaled by the internal amplifier faroujda upscaler to 720p and sent over a 7M hdmi cable to a Sony Bravia 40" TV. The picture quality from both pvrs with this arrangement is excellent and I honestly cannot detect any difference. when outputting the same channel. I can switch between the 2 at the push of a button. I have submitted screen photographs of both pictures to www.hummy.org.uk. This url at the moment seems to be broken. Not sure if it's possible to upload photos here but if it is perhaps someone would post and I will send pictures