I'm trying to buy a Freeview twin-tuner PVR to complement my Sky+ box.
I've been looking for over a week (including the very useful
http://www.emsee.co.uk/pvr/) and I can't really find anything that comes
anywhere close to the functionality (and - according to all the 'bug
list' and 'failed update' sites)  reliability of my Sky+ box.  And, no,
this is NOT a troll: I don't particularly like $ky, but "whatcha gonna
do"?

- It seems that NO Freeview PVR has Sky's 'series link' functionality
(by which I don't mean "record at the same time each day/week/weekday" -
BBC2 switches "The Daily Politics" and "Working Lunch" back and forth
more often than I change my .... anyway ....)

- The two boxes with 'Output to PC' functionality - Humax
PVR9200somethings and Topfield 5800somethings have this great facility
but (according to http://www.emsee.co.uk/pvr/) are so riddled with bugs
and annoyances that they seem like V1.0 of any Micro$oft software ..... 

- The 'best of a bad bunch' - the Humax, with its huge 160Gb hard disk
seems - ludicrously - to be limited to 20 timer entries!    Even
assuming that a 'record at same time each day'-type entry just counts
once, that's a ridiculously small limit.

So - IS there anything worth buying?   This is very frustrating!

Thanks for any input ....

On Wed, 22 Feb 2006 11:49:53 GMT, "no spam here, thanks"
 couldn't be arsed to read the last few days
messages before writing:

>So - IS there anything worth buying?   This is very frustrating!

As discussed before, Topfield 5800 with Jag's EPG.
www.toppy.org.uk for details.
-- 
Andrew, contact via interpleb.blogspot.com
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
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On Wed, 22 Feb 2006 12:19:29 +0000, Andrew <spamtrap@localhost.> wrote:

>>So - IS there anything worth buying?   This is very frustrating!
>
>As discussed before, Topfield 5800 with Jag's EPG.
>www.toppy.org.uk for details.

Hmmm .... I rather think you could be right!   I had originally shied
away from this unit because of what I saw as the inherent complexity of
dealing with TAPs, but they do seem to deliver significant improved
functionality ....

Any recommendation for a place to buy one on prompt delivery (I want to
take it away on holiday in about 10 days' time ...... and I suspect I'll
need a week to load and configure the TAPS and things!)

Thanks vm for input ....

On Wed, 22 Feb 2006 12:43:35 GMT, "no spam here, thanks"
 wrote:

>>As discussed before, Topfield 5800 with Jag's EPG.
>>www.toppy.org.uk for details.
>
>Hmmm .... I rather think you could be right!   I had originally shied
>away from this unit because of what I saw as the inherent complexity of
>dealing with TAPs, but they do seem to deliver significant improved
>functionality ....

Installing TAPs is daunting at first, but is simple really. I had my
5800 with Jags up and running inside a day, and got to grips with it
all within about 3 days.

>Any recommendation for a place to buy one on prompt delivery (I want to
>take it away on holiday in about 10 days' time ...... and I suspect I'll
>need a week to load and configure the TAPS and things!)

I got mine last week from www.tracsat.co.uk , it arrived the next day
even though I didn't pay for next day delivery. Great service.
-- 
Andrew, contact via interpleb.blogspot.com
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
Check groups.google.com before asking an obvious question.

In article , no spam here,
thanks  writes
>- The two boxes with 'Output to PC' functionality - Humax 
>PVR9200somethings and Topfield 5800somethings have this great facility 
>but (according to http://www.emsee.co.uk/pvr/) are so riddled with bugs 
>and annoyances that they seem like V1.0 of any Micro$oft software ..... 

My Topfield is fine, very few problems and various clever people have
written TAP's which are programs which enhance the firmware some of
which give it the versatility of a Tivo.

Mike

-- 
Michael Swift           We do not regard Englishmen as foreigners.      
Kirkheaton              We look on them only as rather mad Norwegians.    
Yorkshire                                       Halvard Lange

On Wed, 22 Feb 2006 12:19:29 +0000, Andrew <spamtrap@localhost.> wrote:


>>So - IS there anything worth buying?   This is very frustrating!
>
>As discussed before, Topfield 5800 with Jag's EPG.
>www.toppy.org.uk for details.

It's very nice!  ;)

On 22/02/2006, no spam here, thanks wrote in message
:
 
> Any recommendation for a place to buy one on prompt delivery (I want to
> take it away on holiday in about 10 days' time ...... and I suspect I'll
> need a week to load and configure the TAPS and things!)

The UK importer is Turbosat:

http://www.turbosat.com/acatalog/Topfield.html

From stories on the UK fansite, delivery is never reported as being more
than three days.

Oh, and if you're thinking of getting a Topfield, you should definitely see

http://www.toppy.org.uk/

Simon.
-- 
http://www.hearsay.demon.co.uk

On 22/02/2006, no spam here, thanks wrote in message
:
 
> - It seems that NO Freeview PVR has Sky's 'series link' functionality
> (by which I don't mean "record at the same time each day/week/weekday" -
> BBC2 switches "The Daily Politics" and "Working Lunch" back and forth
> more often than I change my .... anyway ....)

The technology is patent-bound and Sky is sole licensee.  Even if they
haven't bought sole-licensee status it would cost a huge amount for
another company to buy a license.

> - The two boxes with 'Output to PC' functionality - Humax
> PVR9200somethings and Topfield 5800somethings have this great facility
> but (according to http://www.emsee.co.uk/pvr/) are so riddled with bugs
> and annoyances that they seem like V1.0 of any Micro$oft software ..... 

That page is out of date (and not even internally consistent since it
mentions bugs which aren't present in any one version of the software).

Nevertheless, the general principal is correct: all PVRs marketed for the
UK market are buggy.   But note that the sort of bugs mentioned there are
collected from very thorough discussion of the boxes by geeks that own
them.  They notice /everything/.  In terms of daily use, most of those
models work acceptably.

> - The 'best of a bad bunch'

How did you arrive at that evaluation ?

> - the Humax, with its huge 160Gb hard disk

If hard disk size is important to you then you should know that the
Topfield is currently available with a 250Gb disk.

> seems - ludicrously - to be limited to 20 timer entries!    Even
> assuming that a 'record at same time each day'-type entry just counts
> once, that's a ridiculously small limit.

If you think 20 timers is too restricted, don't get a Humax.

Simon.
-- 
http://www.hearsay.demon.co.uk

Simon Slavin wrote:

>> - It seems that NO Freeview PVR has Sky's 'series link' functionality
>> (by which I don't mean "record at the same time each day/week/weekday" -
>> BBC2 switches "The Daily Politics" and "Working Lunch" back and forth
>> more often than I change my .... anyway ....)
>
>The technology is patent-bound and Sky is sole licensee.  Even if they
>haven't bought sole-licensee status it would cost a huge amount for
>another company to buy a license.

Hmm. My Tivo has series links and it came out long before the Sky+
did. Also the series links on my Tivo work a lot better than the Sky+
ones do. Also my Tivo allows me to put them into any priority order I
wish, which the Sky+ doesn't do.

-- 
Digibox problem? : A reboot solves 90% of these.
The Sky Digital FAQ: http://tinyurl.com/8vef5
UK TV overseas: http://tinyurl.com/6p73
BBC reception questions? ; http://www.astra2d.com/
Fed up with on-screen logos? : http://logofreetv.org/
----
Only the truth as I see it.
No monies return'd. ;-)

On Wed, 22 Feb 2006 11:49:53 GMT, "no spam here, thanks"
 wrote:

>So - IS there anything worth buying?   This is very frustrating!

I'm so far very pleased with the Topfield (apart from the dreadful
Korglish manual - thank the powers that be for www.toppy.org.uk!)

Easy install (and it has the latest firmware) - albeit a tad annoying
because I live close to two transmitters and get duplicate channels -
but that's not the Toppy's fault: in fact it's probably to its credit.

But - wow! - what a difference from the Sky+ box for BBCi (and similar)
- I can now see the reason for it!  Unlike the dreadfully sluggish
performance on the Sky box, the Toppy seems to respond instantly to the
'red button' and page selection etc - it's actually usable now!
Whether that's a credit to the Toppy or the Freeview technology I don't
know - but I'm dead impressed with my new toy.  

Can't wait to try out some of these 'TAPS' proggies - just have to prise
the wife off her laptop ....

Thanks for the recommendation!

On Sat, 25 Feb 2006 12:41:27 GMT, "no spam here, thanks"
 wrote:

>Can't wait to try out some of these 'TAPS' proggies - just have to prise
>the wife off her laptop ....

I wasn't instantly impressed with the Toppy as it comes out of the
box, it isn't much different to the Humax I had before and is pretty
user hostile in comparison. Once you install some TAPs though,
epecially Jags, it is transformed.

>Thanks for the recommendation! 

Glad you like it :-)
-- 
Andrew, contact via interpleb.blogspot.com
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
Check groups.google.com before asking an obvious question.

"Jomtien" <jomtien@the.beach> wrote in message 
news:6c2002td64mbjdujkj56rqiscc2jvob4tn@4ax.com...
> Simon Slavin wrote:
>
>>> - It seems that NO Freeview PVR has Sky's 'series link' functionality
>>> (by which I don't mean "record at the same time each day/week/weekday" -
>>> BBC2 switches "The Daily Politics" and "Working Lunch" back and forth
>>> more often than I change my .... anyway ....)
>>
>>The technology is patent-bound and Sky is sole licensee.  Even if they
>>haven't bought sole-licensee status it would cost a huge amount for
>>another company to buy a license.
>
> Hmm. My Tivo has series links and it came out long before the Sky+
> did. Also the series links on my Tivo work a lot better than the Sky+
> ones do. Also my Tivo allows me to put them into any priority order I
> wish, which the Sky+ doesn't do.



yep - nothing to stop anyone else doing it - at worst they would have to 
think of a different name for it.



-- 
Gareth.
Goblins are real... your Grandpa Seth is telling you!
http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/dsbmusic/