I've been reading Nigel's website - it's a lot to take in Just got a Humax and am not pleased, so am thinking of trying the Toppy but have a couple of unanswered questions:

(1) Does the Recording Schedule not display programme titles and programme info? It only appears to show channel/date/time.

(2) Does the Recordings List display programme info for each programme highlighted without having to leave the screen?

(3) Does the REW only do up to x3?

(4) Is there a pic of a TAP'd EPG? The default one doesn't seem to display many channels.

parthena

Quick answers;

(1) It only shows Channel/date/time
(2) No
(3) Yes
(4) There are plenty of pics available of various TAp's, my personal favourite is MyStuff, pics can be found here

There are a multitude of TAP's available that change and enhance the basic features of the Topfield, checking out toppy.org is a good starting point as Nigel does a good job of collating just about all the TAP's available for the 5800.

2 is sort of. You get the first few words of the programme description.

Personally I wouldn't use the 5800 without TAPs. Most of the niggles disappear at that point. Although there's no workaround for the low FF/Rewind speed, it becomes less important once you've got a skipping TAP installed - you just jump around in 30/60/120 second intervals for example.

Some TAPs containing EPG views that might take your fancy:
EPG Navigator
iGuide
Jag's EPG
3PG
MyStuff has already been mentioned and is the one I currently use.

A skipping TAP.... any in mind????

Glen.

In current firmware versions, you're right about the recordings list. In the next one, it will show the name, and will also ff/rw at up to 16x (it's presently 3x rw, 6x ff). Of course, you can move faster by holding down the keys, or typing in a percentage, it's just that you don't see the picture until you stop.

The recording list shows the start of the synopsis - about half a line. Pressing 'i' will show the full synopsis in a pop-up box.

For the new look of these screens, see http://www.toppy.org.uk/static/fwfirstlook.shtml

Best advise people have been giving out is to run the toppy for a least a week in normal use and then later think about the things you would like changed. Then go and see if there are any taps written to address them and do your research from there. Mine is still just as I bought it months ago but I have been too lazy to spend the time researching my options and what to do

I appreciated that the answers were probably all at Toppy.org, but I could only take in 'so much'. I would like to say "absolutely sterling work, Nigel", but that might sound patronising Anyway, sterling work it is!

Thanks all. (My ISP is not sending me any emails since last night, so it may look as though I'm ungrateful for your replies, perish the thought.)

parthena

I use quickjump, which allows you to set the coloured buttons to skip programs back or forward. I have mine set at 1min and 5mins, and use them more than the normal RW/FF buttons.

Or I use FastSkip which is great for skipping adverts... you basically skip forwards and backwards but with a decreasing amount of time with each press, so essentially you can home in to the exact point you want (ie end of the adverts) with just a few key presses. It's hard to explain but if you get used to it you won't live without it! The FastSkip TAP comes with a good set of instructions that explains things properly.

There is a patch to speed up the FF and REW speeds, but the skip/jump TAP's are so much better.