Have recently moved to a new flat and the estimate to uprade the communal system to provide an extra feed for Sky + is £300! In my previous property I had Sky+ I am quite happy with the free to air content, but I do miss the record features.



I am looking to buy a PVR, anyone care to comment?



I have heard some good reviews about http://www.laskys.com/tv_and_dvd/fre...vr9200t_b.html

I have heard some bad reviews about http://www.laskys.com/tv_and_dvd/fre...ti6300_25.html

I have heard this is cheap but not so good

http://www.laskys.com/tv_and_dvd/fre...n_pvr1622.html

The new TOPFIELD TF5810PVR looks very good, but pricey. Is it worth the cash

http://www.laskys.com/tv_and_dvd/fre...#specification

Well, you could visit the Toppy website www.toppy.org.uk for more details about the new box. My personal opinion is that it's only worth it if you have an HDMI-enabled screen that you insist on wanting to use. Freeview doesn't do HD yet so if you've only got an ordinary display, that's probably an unnecessary feature. Also, if you don't feel you need loads of disk space (if you lived happily with Sky+, then you probably don't) then that's an extra cost as well.

Basically, in my opinion, if you don't need those extras, save yourself about 130 notes and get the older 5800 model and put TAPs on it to give you the same features (and more) that you'd get on the newer model.

K

Pros of the 5810 in my house hold hdmi for upscaling on my lcd, better display, bigger hard drive. Slightly larger unit

cons of the 5810, no rf mod due to hdmi being added, freeview playback firmware, still flakely due to broadcasters (though can get the firmware for that on the 5800 as well). The price as well.

To be honest the 5810 nice looking machine a few extras but really its the same as the 5800 in software capabilities under the bonnet.

I have the 5800 love it with taps, control timers using a tap called mystuff at the moment beats the series link stuff at the moment in my opinion. However dependant on the upscaling of the freeview capabilities of the 5810 would sway me to buying that one. As its new to market I will wait for some screen shots on that one.

But if on a budget the 5800 all the way. Also used to have sky plus, never looked back (except miss sky one a bit). I sometimes say to the wife, shall we get sky again, reply why we have the toppy.


Humax or toppy its the old age battle. The humax out of the box is easier. Nice machine. The toppy takes a bit of learning, but the use of taps makes up for it.

I would liken the 5800 (£200 for 250Gb) as Sky+
and
the 5810 as Sky HD (£329 at Play for 500Gb) as it upscales better with the HDMI. (from what I have read anyway)

I couldn't consider being without my 5800 now, and so happy I got it.

I'm coming from having owned Sky+, then SkyHD, and now, realising that I'm wasting £57 a month on multiroom and Sky in general, am ending my contract with them. Custmer service is terrible, and the fact that hadware is not so readily available is not good either.

So, I've got a spare HDMI port in my 4-way HDMI switch, a spare optical input there too, and a logitech harmony remote ready to configure. Purely in terms of integration, the 5810 was the way to go.

Sure, you read about all the problems people are having with the latest firmware, but that does not just affect the 5810, it's the 5800 as well. Most people in the know with the 5800 stick to the older, more stable firmware. However, what people are failing to acknowledge, is that the problems are really only to do with series links out-of-the-box. Firmware is upgradeable, bugs can be fixed. Besides, anybody who buys a Topfield and leaves it as standard is wasting their money - get a Humax 9800 if you want ease-of-use and stability.

The 5810 is fully compatible with the "My Stuff" tap, which gives you better-than-series-link functionality, without the hassle. The PQ on my 46" TV, upscaled, is every bit as good as the SD channels via my SkyHD box, if not better.

Basically, you pay £100 extra for the 5810, and it's worth every penny in my book, for the following reasons:

- Integration with my existing setup
- Box looks much nicer
- Massive 500GB hard drive to store hundreds of recordings in their respective folders
- Futureproof in terms of being able to ouput a HD signal. Once HD is broadcast over the air, the 5810 will be able to accept it via a simple firmware upgrade

Six months ago, I would have said get a 5800 instead of waiting. Now, unless you have no intentions of using a HD Ready TV, are absolutely depserate to save money and want to run every single TAP out there, you need a very good reason to NOT get the 5810.

That is *not* the case. The current plans for HD over DTT are using the DVB-T2 standard which the TF5810 does not support and cannot with a firmware update.

The HDMI port is for upscaled SD only.

As long as you remember *not* to mix and match native set timers with TAP set timers The current 5810 firmware cannot cope with this as yet. For now, set timers either one way or the other.

That *would* be a problem for me as the BBCi MotoGP coverage timers have to be set from the native interface (due to lack of EPG info for the BBCi channels).

Just to repeat what russellelly said, there is currently NO PVR that will be upgradable to view HD - you will CERTAINLY need a new box. It's gonna be at least a couple of years anyway. Everyone will be getting their HD from Freesat long before then.

Glen.

And I'll re-iterate that too - nowhere has anything even remotely official from Topfield suggested that the 5810 will do HD; it's strictly an SD box with upscaling.

Fair enough, my bad. Still, the comment about not mixing timers is what I've heard before. But, with "My Stuff" installed, I can't see why you'd want to bother with standard timers anyway.

You wouldn't bother with standard timers if you were using MyStuff but if you've bought a TF5810 over a TF5800 then one of the reasons may be for 'proper' series link which must be done with standard timers.

Glen.

I've bought a 5810 over a 5800, but with all of the flexibility offered by "Control Timers" in MyStuff (recording based on keywords etc.), I can't see the point in using series links. Well, for me anyway - somebody buying one and keeping it "stock" might use them.

Glen.

Whatever... Anyway, I thought the 5800 handled series links now just as the 5810?

Yeah, it does. But the benefit is that you can stick with the older, more stable firmware - with the TF5810 you're stuck with 5.15.08 and its 'nuances'.

Glen.

This is true, but like all things new, they have their problems and eventually get fixed. Skipping the 5800 was an educated decision I made, for better or worse!

I'm sure it'll settle down eventually - apparently the original TF5800 firmware was a real nightmare - but you're a brave man for jumping in so soon!

Haha, we'll see if the decision was a correct one! It's my first Toppy so I guess you could say I've got no real expectations. As long it, well, "works"...

I thought you could downgrade the f/w on the 5810?

The one thing MS does not give you is the ability to easily distinguish between repeat episodes / series and new ones. But I would rather have false positives and go through excluding them than have false negatives and rush round trying to get hold of a missed programme.

Not really, R2-D2 has hacked a 5800 firmware for any unhappy 5810 owners to try, but I'm not sure if anyone has.

Glen.

Ah man. This will be unpopular I am sure, but don't get the 5810. It's bloody awful.

Before anyone complains, I mean as an out-of-the-box product. Yeah I have tried (and was looking forward to trying) taps but all the ones that are vaunted are incompatible at the moment due to the firmware "issues", and the box is already SO very slow to operate I worry the taps will make it a complete pig dog.

I am sure you can find my rantings about it elsewhere, but it's slow, unreliable, noisy(ish) and for that kind of performance REALLY expensive. Considering £99 buys you a dual tuner PVR, £40 a HDMI freeview box and £70 a 500GB hard drive, I can't see where the extra £120-ish is going - it's certainly not in development of the firmware.

If you expect the rolls royce of PVRs by getting the topfield, dont. If you expect something that doesn't always record, crashes occasionally, makes a bit of a din, and is SLOWWW, buy one of the numerous Vestel things that are around for £100, I am sure it will actually be better.

Again, sorry to toppy lovers. I can't get over my bitter disappointment!

I agree the firmware on it at the moment is pretty awful; there is, thankfully, some progress - we're starting to get some test firmwares through. I have no idea how long it's going to take to get it perfect, but at least they are starting to address the issues.

I'm surprised you think it makes a din, though - the one I have here is virtually silent - the two things I can hear in my living room are a) the fan in the TV and b) the Thomson box whining away.

i have a 5810 the only noise is the harddrive spinning.
as for the missing recording i leave mine on if im recording so not missed one yet.

but i do agree it slow on power up compared to my old pvr and one thing that bugs me is the picture appears on a recording and a few seconds later the sound starts.

and the remote control ,why are the buttons so small for the pvr functions??

The firmware is without doubt the most disappointing. For the price and reputation of the thing I think the quality of it is unforgivable (as I said before I think the hardware alone does not justify the price).

Unfortunately it does look like mine has happened to be fitted with a particularly noisy hard disk too, so I can accept maybe Topfields aren't noisy usually, although I would have expected it to have some damping and a decent PVR specific HD - maybe it does, I am not going to open it to find out. I have still got an Access Devices Ferguson PVR that you do have to hold to your ear to hear the HD is on and running. I can hear the toppy from across the room well enough over what I would call normal TV volume. The only other noise in the room is an all in one home cinema thing which has a fan. Somehow the noise of the HD is more intrusive though - kind of metallic is probably the best I can describe it.

I can wholeheartedly accept that others may be prepared to wait for firmwares and taps that resolve the issues in the current 5810. I have been in two minds myself but I come to the conclusion I want to set it to record stuff now, for it to catch the start and the end, and record everything I ask of it. Maybe it will in the future, but maybe that goal can't ever be achieved due to some hardware problem or something. I am also not convinced that any firmware or TAP update can make the thing operate faster, ever! I will keep an eye on the toppy forums and see if it becomes the uber box it should be, but my decision for now is to return it, as it's not even fit for purpose.


@andy1c - I pretty much have left mine on I think, but it's missed 13 out of 65 (ish) at so far. It's also made a complete botch of the file names. I think that's a pretty high fail rate (on a par with the old Sagem!) I am not so bothered about the slowness in starting up, do you not find it slow to channel surf/browse the EPG? That's what makes me REALLY grind teeth!