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elmer

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2018 10:43 am

Regular contributor Joined: 28 Jun 2006 Posts: 37

After many years my Topfield has finally come to the end of its life so after a bit of research I purchased the HUMAX - FVP-5000T, but am disappointed with how unresponsive it is compared to my ancient Topfield. Are the BT or Panasonic Freeview boxes any better?

Thanks for any input

_________________
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 10/5/15?

Geoff Bacon

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2018 10:59 am

Frequent contributor Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 4300

"end of its life" because it is broke or because you think you should have something newer/shinier?

If broke get it repaired by andyfras or get a cheap one (sometimes free'ish on this site).

No idea what would be better for something that is supposed to be simple to use.
Several have gone to for an OpenVix solution (this is the operating system, not the make of a PVR). I have no experience but believe it involves a bit of a learning curve and slightly different way of working.

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™

elmer

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2018 11:31 am

Regular contributor Joined: 28 Jun 2006 Posts: 37

Hi Geoff

Thanks for the reply. End of life in that from what I have described to Andy he thinks it has a tuner fault. Andy did say if I could find a second hand one I could swap my HDD into it

I did have a look on ebay to see if there were any second hand topfields around but couldn't see any. If anyone is selling second hand ones on here I would be interested. The Topfield is so good in being able to have everything setup as you want with Mystuff, though on the flip side it can be a pain when something seems to go wrong with it every couple of years and you think I just want a unit that works rather than trying to remember how to fiddle with taps etc.

jimi

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2018 8:31 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 153

https://www.gumtree.com/p/tv-reception-set-top-boxes/topfield-pvr/1298813579

https://www.gumtree.com/p/tv-reception-set-top-boxes/topfield-tf-5800-pvrt-with-remote-and-instructions/1298884248

_________________
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

Scotty

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2018 10:34 pm

Joined: 12 Jun 2006 Posts: 23

Hi Elmer,

I moved over to a Vu+ Duo2 a year or so back, but kept my my old Toppy "just in case".

I have the following that could be available to you, or others, if people are interested:

5800 Black Panther (gone a bit sticky though!) with a Topfield SATA adapter. I had upgraded the PSU myself and replaced motherboard due to tuner fail (limited use since then).

5800 silver (was my Father's). The PSU is not upgraded but has had limited use and checks out OK- it was a Turbosat disk-free refurbished unit.

Both of these have boxes and remotes, but I will need to dig further into the loft for the Black Panther box.

I also have the original Black Panther motherboard with one good tuner remaining on it.

As I tend to buy spares I have an unused (new) PSU that I bought from Turbosat when I got the new Motherboard - from memory it has the later PSU/Motherboard connections.

What may be of interest to people watching the thread is an ASUS WL500g (Slug) which I used for accessing the Toppy over the LAN (FTP) when I was running later versions of Windows x64.

If anyone is interested in any of these let me know, and I'm sure we can come to some arrangement over PM.

Note due to my schedule, I may not be able to get to send anything out for a couple of weeks though.

Hope this helps,

Graham

mateybass

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 5:55 pm

Regular contributor Joined: 16 Dec 2005 Posts: 28

I can recommend a BT branded Humax DTR2100 youview box and they're ridiculously cheap off ebay. You don't need to subscribe, just plug and go. It needs a network connection either by ethernet cable into the LAN socket or by wifi with a cable to wireless LAN adaptor (mine is a VONETS Mini300) which you can power via the onboard USB, which is how mine is set up. Then download the youview app for your phone and you can search for programmes or genres of programme and set them to record either single or series link without actually being at home.

_________________
I used to have a Topfield 5800... I also used to have an Amiga 1200...

I now have a Humax DTR2100... and a twin quad core HP workstation.

gomezz

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 8:05 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Posts: 3985 Location: Buckingham

Can't say I can recommend any Youview box (including the DTR2100) as the UI, while looking slick, is functionally very limited. I only run mine so I can record the live MotoGP coverage from BT Sport.

_________________
TF5800, F/W: MS6 Recommended F/W 12/9/2009 -Sy+BmC0CbCfCtDEgEmEvEzIMPePsVdZ
TAPs: Power Down 0.75; QuickJump 1.72; MyStuff 6.6; TAP Commander 1.34; MyInfo B5.4; EPG2MEI v0.96;
Extend v1.7; EIT Sub v0.6; mei2archive BETA 3.8l6; Font Manager 1.0d; (Power Restore V0.7.3b)

mateybass

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 11:26 pm

Regular contributor Joined: 16 Dec 2005 Posts: 28

gomezz wrote:

Can't say I can recommend any Youview box (including the DTR2100) as the UI, while looking slick, is functionally very limited.

I'm genuinely curious... what is it that you want to do but can't?

_________________
I used to have a Topfield 5800... I also used to have an Amiga 1200...

I now have a Humax DTR2100... and a twin quad core HP workstation.

gomezz

Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2018 7:15 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Posts: 3985 Location: Buckingham

Perhaps the number one complaint is no way of setting fixed time recordings or add padding. Given that it is not very good at using Accurate Recording even when present and is bad at recognising changes to the a programme's end time for an active recording this makes recording live sport a dicy affair.

There are many more issues but I suggest you hop over to the Youview and BT forums for a broader view.

juwlz

Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 9:08 am

MyStuff Team Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 10801 Location: Wokingham, Berkshire (Hannington transmitter)

elmer wrote:

I have a growing number of unused Toppies if you're interested. In most cases, I can't actually tell you whether they're running, because they're no longer connected to anything.

_________________
5800, TS On, F/W: MS6 Recommended F/W 12/9/2009 -Sy+BmC0CfCtFsIMPePsR3UUuUxZ
5810, TS On, F/W: F/W: MS6 Recommended F/W 12/9/2009 +BmCfCtFsR3Z
MyStuff info; Help!; Reference
Harmony 885 remote. Sig date 8 April 2012

leenoble

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2019 5:05 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 09 Dec 2005 Posts: 291 Location: Cheshire, UK

I came across this article on Flipboard this morning: https://www.zdnet.com/product/amazon-fire-tv-recast/

It may be old news to some but I'd never heard of it until this morning. A DVR for the Fire TV stick. Has up to 4 tuners and a 1Tb hard drive.
I'm still happily using my Toppy. It had its full complement of capacitors changed several years ago courtesy of Andyfras and is still going strong on a 1Tb drive I intalled around the same time. I do find I'm watching more things on demand via Netflix, and I sometimes *checks both ways and whispers* watch programmes on the iPlayer that I know the Toppy is on top of, just because I happen to have the YouView box on at the time. It's good to know though that I can keep things to watch for years after recording and not have to chug stuff down before it leaves iPlayer for example.

Since Topfield have now gone away and I'm not aware of anything outside a homebrew box taking its place in terms of the capacity and ability to archive programmes off to a computer, this article piqued my interest. It looks doubtful that it'll provide file access as it's built by Amazon, but I'm less bothered by that sort of thing nowadays, it's mainly the being able to watch as my leisure that interests me. It does however have a USB port so maybe something could be jury rigged by wonderful people such as those found in the Toppy community.

I'm not in the market for replacement right now but I'm gonna keep this in mind if I ever need to junk the Toppy.

_________________
Toppy: TF5800PVR 250Gb; Firmware: 5.13.65T; Tx: Winter Hill;
Autostart TAPs: MyStuff 6.0, eit2mei, SuperPiP;
Other Taps: HDFW [Af|Br|De|E2|Eg|Em|Fs|I|R3|Re|Sl|Vb|Vy|Wf|Xp], Channel Remover;
EPGrt2mei 1.1 & rtsearcher plugin by me for MS description searching.

ccs

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2019 5:13 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 30 Oct 2007 Posts: 2537

Enigma2 is a more than capable replacement for toppies.

Long thread here..

https://forum.toppy.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=263728#263728

_________________
TF5810, F/W: MS6 Recommended F/W 12/9/2009 -FmXl+CtEzIScVdZ
TAPs: EIT Sub v0.6; EPG2MEI v0.96; MPDisplayLITE V1.2; MyInfo B5.6; SecCache (UK) v0.4; Extend v1.7; MyStuff 6.6;
Sig generated by MyInfo on 20/10/14 ccsx

alan_m

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2019 10:28 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 18 Oct 2006 Posts: 3484

leenoble wrote:

I came across this article on Flipboard this morning: https://www.zdnet.com/product/amazon-fire-tv-recast/

It may be old news to some but I'd never heard of it until this morning. A DVR for the Fire TV stick. Has up to 4 tuners and a 1Tb hard drive.

Since Topfield have now gone away and I'm not aware of anything outside a homebrew box taking its place in terms of the capacity and ability to archive programmes off to a computer, this article piqued my interest.
I'm not in the market for replacement right now but I'm gonna keep this in mind if I ever need to junk the Toppy.

I would be wary of the Amazon box aimed at the USA market supporting a UK 7 day EPG over the air.

Many Toppy users have moved to the Enigma 2 boxes running OpenVix. These boxes are fully network capable and support upto 1Gbps Ethernet so archiving recording made on these boxes to any device on your network is easy.

http://www.openvix.co.uk/index.php/openvix-features-2/

http://www.openvix.co.uk/index.php/screenshots/

http://www.openvix.co.uk/index.php/guides-and-tutorials/video-guides/

_________________
Ex Toppy 5800 user - now migrated to Extrend ET10000 Enigma 2 box with 2 terrestrial and 2 satellite tuners

leenoble

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2019 12:45 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 09 Dec 2005 Posts: 291 Location: Cheshire, UK

I am of course sceptical of Amazon, and chances are they probably would aim to prevent people dubbing off recordings. I'm not AS bothered about that as I used to be, the priority is being able to archive longer than iPlayer allows.

I did click the link provided above regarding the Enigma 2 and I'll probably look into it further when I need to but the first thing I noted was that the shop was out of stock and the device seems to have already been available for several years. Doesn't seem particularly easy to find a retailer but I found one eventually. Looks like I've got a lot of catching up to do with regard to what's possible. I got my Toppy what must be nearly 15 years ago now when it was just a decision between the Toppy or the more polished Humax 9200. Can the UI on the Enigma match MyStuff? Wink

Can't argue with networking ability though. Having to hook up the laptop every week to update the EPG is a tiny bit of a pain. I guess there's another learning curve with the Enigma with regard to alternative EPG sources and such but that's not a discussion to be had here. Thanks.

Geoff Bacon

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2019 1:21 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 4300

@leenoble
Why on earth are you hooking up the toppy every week to update the EPG?

Just use the taps that come with MyStuff (your signature implies you have very few taps installed - and you are using an old version of MS).

To get all this, just use my GCBMyStuffInstaller (select option 1 to also update the firmware as well as MS)

Also suggest you install TopManager from the same site; this will make it easier to update the things on the toppy (should the need arise), It would also be a good idea if you use TM to post your MyInfo Log in this thread

Geoff

All times are GMT + 1 Hour

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