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k9oxon

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:19 pm

Regular contributor Joined: 19 Aug 2005 Posts: 51 Location: Devon (Caradon Hill X'mttr)

After being a Topfield owner for well over 10 years, having had three 5800s, frequent measurement of p/s voltages, three complete p/s recaps, quite a few new disks and countless rebuilds, to say nothing of endless validating/trimming of channels and all the other stuff we topfield owners are encouraged to do to persuade our poor beasts to limp on another day - I have suffered my final failure. IT threw yet another hissing fit and corrupted the hard drive. This time, even TopHDRW couldn't resucitate my recordings, even with scan/match.

I'm sure I could massage its fading heart back to life, but I can no longer tolerate living with such a precocious best. The loss of all recordings made the decision quite easy, really.

So, farewell world of Topfield, I am sure I shall miss the fabulous Mystuff facilities, but I shall not miss wondering when my next failure will be.

Ron
Recovering Topaholic

_________________
TF5800, TS On, F/W: MS6 Recommended F/W 12/9/2009 -Sy
TAPs: EPG2MEI v0.96; MyStuff 6.6; Font Manager 1.0d; Extend v1.7; SecCache (UK) v0.4; EIT Sub (Game) v0.6; MHEG On/Off A3; MyInfo B5.6;
Sig generated by MyInfo on 30/10/14

jimi

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:47 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 172

Your tale makes the Toppy sound unreliable, when my experience has been the opposite. in 12 years of ownership it virtually been on 24/7 with very few problems.
I upgraded the HD to get more storage space (the old HD was still working fine) and installed a cooling fan
Changed the caps before they caused any problems.
Installed MyStuff, etc
Retuned when needed.
Had a few corrupted recordings over the years (mainly caused by bad reception) but not many. Had the occasional problem to sort out but nothing major.
Apart from that it's pretty much just worked, there's hardly a day gone by where it hasn't been used to record something.
I'd say it's probably the most used and reliable piece of consumer electronics in the house, going to be a very sad day when I can no longer use it.

_________________
TF5800, TS On, F/W: MS6 Recommended F/W 12/9/2009 -Sy+Pe
TAPs: PcControl B1.4; Extend v1.7; EPG2MEI v0.96; SecCache (UK) v0.4; EIT Sub (Game) v0.6; Font Manager 1.0d; MHEG On/Off A3; (MyInfo B5.6); PruneEPG 1.0; MyStuff 6.6;
Sig generated by TopManager/PcControl on 01/05/18

5800

Geoff Bacon

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 7:53 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 4404

I can recover the recordings on the disk but obviously this isn't required if you have already decided to abandon life with a toppy.
Cheers
Geoff

_________________
TopManager program
TF5800, TS On, F/W: MS6 Recommended F/W 12/9/2009 -Sy+EvEzPfUUuZ
TAPs: PcControl B1.4; StopExit v1.01; PruneEPG 1.0; fsSave 1.1; QuickJump 1.72; SecCache (UK) v0.4; EIT Sub (Game) v0.6; EPG2MEI v0.96; MyStuff 6.6; Bookmark 3.0; Extend v1.7; Font Manager 1.0d; MyInfo B5.6; MHEG On/Off A3;
Sig generated by EMJB's MyInfo.tap on 29/12/18™

slimgym

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 7:53 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 19 Aug 2009 Posts: 113 Location: Essendon, Herts.

I have had my fair share of woes with the hardware and occasional corrupted programme, occasional corrupted NVRAM and the odd 'format disc yes/no' when you can't choose the no.

I keep being brought back all the time by the excellent MyStuff that has never for me been equalled and like you will be a sad day for me when I have to move on. I shall definitely be attempting to keep it going until DVBT disappears and signs its death sentence.

It was one of those "I was so impressed I bought the company". Started with a 5800 but liked the display of the 5810 so replaced one with t'other. Then got another 5810 for my mum and a 5810 spare. We are back on the 5800 I can't remember why now but I think I have a spare set of capacitors that need to go in it. The original ones I replaced with those from andyfras have not needed replacing since.

I upgraded the HDD in them all to 2.5" SATA using a gamble interface from China which has worked flawlessly.

In all, great little box, just a shame the manufacturers didn't rid it of all the bugs before MyStuff came along, and if they had put a DVBT2 tuner in it, could still be using it beyond SD switch off.

_________________
TF5810, TS On, F/W: MS6 Recommended F/W 12/9/2009 -Fm+Sc
TAPs: EIT Sub (Game) v0.6; EPG2MEI v0.96; Extend v1.7; MHEG On/Off A3; MPDisplayLITE V1.2; MyInfo B5.6; MyStuff 6.4; SecCache (UK) v0.4; (FastScanGUI v0.6b)

YorkshireJumbo

Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 10:00 am

Frequent contributor Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 768

A way around the corruption issue is to run backups. I use a windows cmd file and antares to run backups every day. I do need to go through the backups and remove old files, but I only have to do that every few months

_________________
YJ - You may have speed, but I have momentum
Black Panther since Sep '05, Caps replaced July '10
WD10EZRX and Turbosat adaptor added May '16
Noiseblocker XR1 fan added Mar '18
F/W: MS6 Recommended F/W 12/9/2009 -Sy+U+Uu
TAPs: MS 6.6 Suite, UK OZ Surfer

k9oxon

Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 1:43 pm

Regular contributor Joined: 19 Aug 2005 Posts: 51 Location: Devon (Caradon Hill X'mttr)

Thank you all for your comments. Jimi, good on you, I only wish my toppys had been so reliable (and, alas, the activities of geoff bacon and andy fraser suggests that my experiences are not unusual); indeed slimgym your experiences sound so familiar.

It is only the excellence of mystuff that makes us pick ourselves up, do what is necessary and try again! Alas, YorkshireJumbo, your practice makes sense, but does show what a precocious, high maintenance, beast the toppy can be.

Finally Geoff. Tell me more? Can your program recover recordings where hdrw can't - and after hdrw has had its wicked way with my drive?

I've hauled out a Humax Fox HDR2 Fox T2 used by the kids and am trying to get used to it. plusses as well as minuses! I can see me being a recovering topaholic for some time!

Ron

Geoff Bacon

Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 4:11 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 4404

I use my own ToppyDiskMedic program to recover the disks.

It can recover recordings after HDRW has "repaired" it but ideally I prefer to process it before HDRW has written to it (this minimizes loss of data).
As recordings are scattered around the disk so, even if it has been reformatted, they can be recovered by matching the data inherent in the recording streams. Depending on what blocks have been overwritten (if any), you will probably get 95% of the recordings back

pm sent

Geoff

MelTam

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 11:35 am

Joined: 03 Jan 2018 Posts: 1

You'll be back, Ron. You just wait. Old habits die hard lol.

k9oxon

Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 10:10 am

Regular contributor Joined: 19 Aug 2005 Posts: 51 Location: Devon (Caradon Hill X'mttr)

You could be right - have kept them just in case. We are finding the humax fox a bit of a struggle, has some obvious redeeming qualities (eg hd), but bit unstable on iplayer etc

Geoff Bacon

Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 11:31 am

Frequent contributor Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 4404

I can still repair your disk!

Geoff

Bucksfez

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 7:18 pm

Joined: 05 Jun 2006 Posts: 10

Geoff Bacon wrote:

I can still repair your disk!

Geoff

Yep, Geoff just recovered my 12 yr old 160GB HDD, returned with all recordings in correct file structure, MyStuff working correctly etc.

A corrupted HDD needn't be the end of your Toppy or mean that you've lost your recordings.

PaulH

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2018 10:15 am

Frequent contributor Joined: 12 Nov 2005 Posts: 275 Location: SW London

"Precocious"? I'm not sure how that applies to the predicament. Must have meant some other word.
Mine is twelve years old, and has never seen a soldering iron. Of course, I rarely watch TV these days, so there's that. The Toppy sits there, occasionally recording stuff that I will not get round to watching.

_________________
Firmware 5.13.65 patched TAPs TF5000 Display, EPG2MEI, EIT_Sub, SecCache, Extend, UK Subtitle, , FontManager, QuickJump, MyStuff MHEG/red button off TS on

underquark

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 1:18 am

Frequent contributor Joined: 06 Oct 2005 Posts: 1790

Like you, PaulH, one of my Toppies has been used daily for a very long time - 12+ years with a change of hard drive just after I got it (for capacity reasons rather than for failure of the original). I did buy a kit of capacitors to change them prophylactically a few years back but my eyesight deteriorated to the point where using a soldering iron isn't as safe as it used to be. I periodically hook it up to an RM tablet PC (itself 13+ yrs old) when a sufficient number of channels change to make it worthwhile.

To put that in perspective, the same Toppy has plodded along running for perhaps seven hours per day whilst I have had four cars, five outdoor jackets, eight pairs of work shoes, three woks, three computers, seven mobile phones, two fridges, three dishwashers and three washing machines. The kitchen lights were originally halogen then cold-cathode, then LED then a newer type of LED. We needed our boiler replaced and have gone through three water pumps. I have rebuilt wooden playhouses, filled in gaps between slabs, painted all sorts of surfaces, replaced several toilet cistern parts.

The only thing that has out-performed my Toppy in terms of reliability is the 8-way TV aerial amplifier/distributor in the loft which has been switched on permanently for just over 15 years.

_________________
A 5800 and a 5810 still in use with various dead ones and bits lying around, one Toppy with UPS and dedicated aerial; MyStuff 6.6; QuickJump 1.72; EPG2 MEI; Various remotes - URC1056B01 (my fav.), URC11-7140 R02 (to learn new codes) programmed using tools from the excellent JP1 site.

andyfras

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 6:51 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 3457

I'm impressed that you can keep track of those items.

We still have the same dishwasher, washing machine and boiler that we had when the Toppy was bought 13 years ago; they have needed some fixes though.

I strongly recommend fitting the prophylactic capacitor kit that you bought. You may find that if your Toppy gets turned off at the mains, it won't come back on again.

You could send me your PSU with the kit if you don't want to do it yourself, or I can do an exchange PSU.

_________________
Toppy PSU repair service or capacitor kits for DIY available - PM me for details.
MyStuff 6.6 : Little Clock : MHEGOnOff : Extend : EPG2MEI : SecCache : EIT_Sub : TSSaver : Prune EPG
Channel Organiser : Tap Commander : HDD Info : PCControl : Signal Monitor : MyInfo
URC-7555 remote: TF5800 320GB 2.5", Recommended_5800.tfd + CfPePsScUUuWfZ

underquark

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 1:46 am

Frequent contributor Joined: 06 Oct 2005 Posts: 1790

Good to know you still provide a service. Voltages are still OK, though (I can read my voltmeter without magnification). At some point I had five Toppies so I might try to find their corpses and see if any are Lazarus-able. I suppose it is possible that some Toppies were just lucky in that all their capacitors were maybe towards the better end of acceptable tolerance? Possibly the fact that the main Toppy is in quite a cool area (near window in conservatory) helps.

I wonder - are there any modern platforms (Raspberry Pi, Arduino etc.) that could be adapted to use Toppy (and MyStuff, of course) firmware/software? Many TVs nowadays have basic recording features but are single-channel.

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