That's all I know; or rather, I did note down the number last time I took the lid off the 5810 I'm beta-testing but I can't find the bit of paper.

My screen is a Humax LGBT-32PVR, 1366x768, and I'm feeding it 1080i from the Toppy

nwhitfield - does the upscaled image look appreciably better than the normal (SCART?) feed when run into n LCD/plasma?

I think it looks sharper and more crisp than the 5800, which I feed via component into the same panel. But I suspect it may depend on the panel you're using too.

Thanks again...

Will this be released with the Freeview playback firmware from the start and if so does that mean that it will soon be available for the 5800?

Ta,

Yes, it will have Freeview Playback firmware from the beginning. And yes, the 5800 will get it around the same time - whether it's a little before, or a little after, I can't say for certain. But it's not going to be a big gap between them.

We had another beta firmware to test today, for both machines - the core Freeview Playback software is the same on each.

I'm looking at the possibility of getting a 5810 when they're out. Can I ask (apologies if it's a silly question!) is it possible to copy off individual recordings from the 5810 via usb, to a pc? If so, what format would the file be?

Yes; it has the same USB transfer capabilities as the 5800.

Files are in Topfield '.rec' format, which is essentially the Freeview bitstream (an MPEG Transport Stream) with a header of 3-4k that includes things like bookmarks and the EPG data for the recording.

There are some programs, like VLC, that will play these files directly. And there are others, like the free MPEG StreamClip, and a paid for Womble-something-or-other that can convert them to more standard MPEG2 files that you can burn to DVD for personal timeshifting purposes, such as playing on the DVD player in the bedroom, though obviously not for archiving, which would be very very naughty indeed.

Excellent wording there Nigel! I have lots of old video tapes with rugby matches on them; they aren't archived, I just haven't got round to watching them from live yet, they are timeshifted (by about 8-9 years!)

That's great, thank you for the info. 5810 here I come

What is the accuracy of playback start snd ending like?. I have been looking at the Humax forums and they are having problems with theirs. Are the topfields any better or are we going to have the same problems we had with the vcr's?

noefred

Will the machine have a different remote to the old one so use can use them together without interference (or any other means than straight out of the box)?

Yes it has a different remote, which doesn't clash with the 5800

Fantastic!!

When's it on sale?

Play has it available on pre-order, "Due for release on 14/03/2008".

There waiting for the final firmware to be ready. Any day now apparently.

The slow boat from China to the UK must have dumped a few in Jersey!

Well, as I understand it, although nominally a USB2 machine, the 5800 only delivers a pitiful download speed of 2.7Mb a second.

Has that been improved on the 5810 to produce true high speed USB2 please?

I must admit, I've not actually bothered measuring the speed on the new box, but I don't think there have been any significant architectural changes in that area of the system. So, you can probably expect (as with the TF5800) that a transfer of a recording will take between 1/5 and 1/3 of the show's running time.

So, has the firmware been signed off yet, given that some sites have it as available from next week. Things are getting tight!

Firmware arrived today, suppliers should have the box Friday 14th March.

www.toppy.org.uk/news has the info, plus a comparison between the two models.

Great, thank you for the update!

I'm off into town on Friday with my credit card

And would like to post comments here..?