Topfield TF5000PVRt

Topfield 500 – This machine is still working after almost ten years, I have had no problems, it was my second DVR, the first was the digicrystal lasted about 5 years. I have a second dvr, TIVO is excellent. All PVR's have the same problem that the programs can overlap due to the station you are recording running over time. Upgrading from Magnetic tape VCRwas heaven on a HDD  Show details

Bad – Its a risk - anything this cheap could be a lemon, but if you get a good one its money well spent Incredibly cheap for what you get (160gb) of data Makes a lot of noise.

Bad – Poor quality with very poor after sales service- Even contacting the company in Korea by telephone won't help-Told to call back later 2 tuners, quick record As a owner of a Topfield TF5000PVRT Set Top Box trying to get repaired under warranty, I am very disappointed with the after sales service. My dealings with Technical Support to date are as… Read more

follows:

After talking to Tech Support, the TF5000PVRT was returned to them on January 15, 2007 via Toll transport-Very efficient and all good so far!

The original Tax Invoice noting all the problems were faxed to the company the same day.

On January 25, I telephoned Digital Products to check if the status. After being put on hold for up to 40 mins waiting for “Technical Support” and being disconnected a few times, they informed that there is usually a wait for about a week and a half and therefore my unit should be close to having looked at. And “There is on one Tech working at the moment with others being on holiday”

On January 29, I emailed the company requesting the status of the repair-No response as yet.

On January 30 after un-successfully attempting several times to call them due to the phone being constantly engaged, I finally got through to Tech Support and were advised of the following:

They could not find the returned unit-He was checking while talking to me on the telephone-asking questions for ID such as using the serial number, surname and things like did I use making tape on the box?

That “There was further delay, because the company have moved recently”

“There is normally a three to four week wait for repairs” and in his opinion ‘That’s quite normal for electronic products repaired under warranty”

“They no longer distribute the products and the Manufacturer do not supply parts effectively”

After debating with him about wether the waiting period is good enough and defending his stance and reasons for not having looked at, yet alone repaired, the conversation got heated and he hang up on me. Several attempts to call the company straight back failed due to the phone being engaged again.

My Worst Experience with Technology, By Far – Very dissapointed and now use a different brand PVR (no problems). I am not making this up or exagerating, my experiences with Topfield PVRs are - Device No 1 Didnt' work properly, I returned it to store and got my money back (within first 14 days). Device No 2 purchased some time later (and don't know why I got a Topfield again), didn't work… Read more

properly, had a lengthy (about 2 weeks?) email and phone conversation with support guys and eventually was directed to take it to a local technician, worked for about 3 months, then had similar faults. Sent the device to topfield in Sydney, got it back 6 weeks later, when I got it back, it still didn't work properly. The they gave me a new one (Device No 3) under warranty (just) and extended the warranty for 3 months. Not long after had problems and decided enough to just chuck it out. Features are great, well priced. Bad Quality, Bad Quality, Bad Quality

Good – We love this machine, it's functions and userability is famtastic. However, luckily we purchased an extended warranty as we have had to have it repaired x 3 now. Mostly due to the hard drive failing- very annoying when you lose all your recordings...but even more annoying to have to wait 3 months to have it fixed. Menu are user friendly and… Read more

set-up / use is easy. Good guides and it is just awesome to be able to record 2 channels, watch a third, rewind live tv, plenty of storage space. Nothing wrong with the functions but our unit has had to have repairs under the warranty x 3. Hard drive failures. Repair service takes FOREVER! They should at least provide a replacement while you are waiting for it to be fixed if it is going to take so long.

Excellent – A great addition for our family. I can watch the shows I like when I have time and when I want!! I love my topfield. I hardly watch any "live TV" only the news. But I would like to know how to download photos from the computer and leave running on the TV. Jane I can't work out how to download photos. Sometimes it zooms through a program and does not record properly.

Good – So far I have not experienced any problems. It does everything is says it can do and does it well. It has already changes the way I watch television. Based on my initial impressions I would highly recommend this piece of equipment. I chose this Personal Video Recorder based on the reviews on this website. I should point out that I have only had… Read more

the PVR for 2 days, but so far I have been very impressed.

I already had a set top box, but wanted a more flexible way of recording and watching television. I don't watch a lot of television, but I have become increasingly annoyed by the volume of ads on commercial stations and TV shows not starting or finishing at the advertised time. I was also getting tired of the quality of my VHS recorder (recording quality and control). Although the PVR does not have high definition, the standard definition is still very good (my previous set top box had high definition, but truthfully I often found it difficult to tell the difference).

The twin tuners is an excellent idea. I often get home late and some of the TV shows I like are on at the same time, so now I can record both of them. It also facilitates the "picture-in-picture" function, which allows you to monitor another TV station while you are watching another programme. This might be helpful if one programme is ending and you are waiting for another one to start on another TV station (although the record/time shifting function means you never really have to worry about missing the start of a programme).

The time shifting function is great and works even better than I expected. You can literally pause live television. The PVR will start recording and when you come back to it you can start watching form where you were. If you are watching a TV show with ads you can also catch up to the live picture. It also seems to remember the last 5 minutes of what you are watching at any time, so if you are momentarily interrupted (e.g. phone call) you can go back to see what you missed.

The PVR I purchased came with 120Gb (about 60 hours viewing), which is more than enough for me. I don't tend to keep taped TV programmes, so this is more than enough capacity (if you keep a lot of recorded programmes you are probably better off investing in a DVD recorder which allows you to burn the programmes on to a DVD). If you are technically minded there is a way of uploading programmes from the PVR to a computer, but I haven't tried to do this.

It also had basic (think pacman) games and the ability to upload mp3 files. This is a bonus, but not something I am likely to use.

I suspect these PVRs are about to be superceded by better technology as the price has been coming down. I purchased it for $699, which is apparantly $200 off the recommended retail price (this was confirmed by another retailer who was still selling it for $899). As with all new technology it is inevitable that these will get cheaper as newer models come onto the market. The SCART cable (which apparantly give you are better picture than a CINCH cable) does not work. This could be a fault with my own television, so I can't definitely say whether this is a problem with the PVR. The picture from the CINCH cable is still very good, so this is not a great concern.

It doesn't have high definition, but this is not a significant issue for me. If picture quality is a big issue for you, you may want to wait until they develop a PVR with high definition capacity. As far as I am aware, everything on television is broadcast in standard and high definition, so this limitation does not affect your viewing choice.

On one occassion I had to replay a section of a recorded programme again to get the sound to work. I assume this had something to do with the hard drive. I was concerned enough about this and other potential technology issues to take out an extra 2 year warranty, which covers parts andlabour ($39). This gives me some comfort that, hopefully, I won't have to spend more money if something does wrong.

A small gripe is the keyboard function for typing in file names for recordings. Would be faster to have a mobile phone/SMS-type function, rather than having to move around an on-screen keyboard.

Good – I believe Topfield Korea has given rights in Australia to another company. That could account for the warranty problems some people experienced. Seems who ever sold it is the person responsible for warranties. I wouldn't be surprised if the original supplier would have trouble getting parts. Thankfully, I bought mine way before that happened. … Read more

I am in Melbourne, so sending it back to them would have been problematic. However, except for a few phone calls early on (when they were very helpful) I got all the help I needed through the Forum (including finding helpful Melbourne users who helped me put a larger hard drive in once the warranty had run out and new capacitors later on) From what I gather most problems are software/firmware related and the Forum is very helpful. I don't even want to upgrade to the HD version - I believe the newer models won't allow TAPS to be installed, which are what makes the Toppy so good. Anything that bugs you, you can bet that it has also bugged someone else, who wrote a fix for it. From what I hear, the TIVO is more user friendly (idiot proof) but has to have a permanent Internet connection, can't even be put on standby and certainly can't be "improved upon". Installing a bigger hard drive is also more difficult. It is the best present I have ever bought myself. I read about the then unavailable Tivo, and this sounded like the next best thing. It was! All the details have been written by others, but if you read their Forum and install some of the TAPs (small programs written by users) it has no faults. Any problem is solved by a TAP. I have been using it for 3 years and no longer remember what is "vanilla" Toppy and what is an improvement by a TAP. For instance, if there is a power surge, one of my TAPs resets the clock for me, so that I don't miss any recordings. I wish it had Ethernet and a DVD recorder. It would then be perfect

Good – This is a fantastic device that is reasonably mature with a good user support community available via the Topfield website (follow the links to the forums). We have upgraded the HDD in ours to 320GB (after the expiry of the warranty) and this gives the device an excellent storage capacity. Thoroughly recommended! Time shifting and ad skipping. … Read more

Watching previously recorded programme while recording on two channels,

Ability to transfer recorded programmes to PC for editing and archiving to various media (via USB 2 or HDD removal).

Great online community support for the this PVR. Power supply disruption upsets timers that you have set because the time and date setting is lost (and auto update of date and time does not work correctly).

Other very minor annoyances, some of which can be addressed if you are willing to experiment with firmware updates and "TAPS".

OK – Topfield Australia has shown good support and makes the difference by their attitude - if a device fails that's one issue; if the supplier company lets you down that's another. Based on my experience I recommend Topfield but advise care in keeping good records if any issues arise with device. I used DVD evidence to finally force the result that… Read more

was fair - a return and reund. all the obvious benefits are there; when good they're very very good but see cons. Larhe disk available (160GB) easy user interface, logical menu system, ergonomic remote, program protection (password), dual tuners and so on - this is a dream device IF no hassles arise - see cons. System glitches arose after a few months - poors communications at Topfield tech support (but good hearts)- eventually they took device back for repair - gave report to say nothing was wrong - despite pages of notes of freezes, refusal to record, timelip not working etc - then I made a DVD film of faults so they then back-graded system to earlier version as system they'd installed they now admitted was incompatible - then hard disk crashed and burned so they replaced that - then motherboard had to be replaced (3rd return). Then remote control fialed so they replaced that - now the device has failed again and the supplier has arranged a credit - hopefully cash as I will change brands - though commend their taking responsibility - in fairness I got a lemon - lots of these device would be hassle free and they are great - situation NOT helped by crap record-keeping at Topfield - they had to be re-awakened as to history of device each time.

Excellent – I've owned one of these since they first came out (about 2 years) and it is brilliant. I don't experience the loss of time settings problem that others have mentioned. This is probably due to the fact that I have the time set to auto, so it automatically picks up the time from the network. If you have it set to manual, then you will lose your… Read more

time setting if there is a power failure. This is found under by pressing "Menu" on the remote and selecting "System" then "Time". Make sure you're running the latest version of firmware.

I don't know how anyone can live without one of these. Too many things to mention but here's three really useful things I like.

Ability to hit pause during live telecast and then resume. This means that if you get called away just at the exciting part of a show, you don't have to record the rest like you do with a VCR and watch it later. You can just hit pause and then pause again to resume when you get back. You'll never miss a critical scene just because the phone rang or the kids came in yelling. No tapes to jam or run out during recording. If you have a show that comes on at 11:00pm at night and you think it may be delayed by 3 hrs due to sport then you just record for 8 hours and then you can easily fast forward if your show is delayed. If you ever get short of recording space, just upgrade your hard drive to a bigger one. I've got 300GB in mine and can record for days straight. No Ethernet port. It has USB2 but those of us with home networks, I would just like to be able to copy say a 4GB file off onto my server without having to cart my laptop into the lounge and use it as a transfer device. You'll only need to do this if you want to copy a recording onto a DVD. Apart from this, I have no other issues.

Good – You get spoiled and if you ever watch a live show, you keep trying to fast forward through the ads. Good picture quality - especially noticeable if you flick back to analog for the same channel. Having 2 tuners is great. How many times is one show running late and you have to risk missing the end of it or the start of another? Ease of use for… Read more

recording (I have PBK tap from Andy Cullen) Rewind, pause and chase makes viewing TV even more convenient Despite suggestions of a price around $860 reported in the East, I found it hard to get that in Perth and settled for $930 which is probably more than it should be. Despite every thing great about it, you are in the end just watching free to air TV.

Still only standard definition.

Good – Excellent and highly recommended although the manual is poor. You have to use it often and become comfortable with it. Excellent system - took a while to master but now cannot complain at all. Does anyone know how to set the date? We had a blackout and it lost the memory. I can set the time, but cannot seem to set the date. Would appreciate feedback from anyone.

Good – The Topfield 5000PVRt is an excellent digital transmission receiver at the SD level. It replaces the need for a VCR and also the costs of all the cassettes. It can be set to record well in advance and the recorded programme can be left for an indefinite period on HDD. The unit looks good and is easy to use if you take the time to read the book. I… Read more

give it a 4.9 as it is beaten by the HD settop box. The picture quality and ease of use is excellent. The manual is setout so the user interface is explained in a manner that anyone could understand. The installation is easy and all features are only a remote button away. The bookmark feature allows you to stop watching your programme and come back anytime to where you left off. The 120gb HDD provides plenty of room for recorded progammes. The functions that allow interface with a computer vide USB is a feature I look forward to testing-out. Should be able to upgrade the software to HD from SD to allow even better reception.

You have to monitor the recorded programmes to ensure that the HDD is not full. If HDD full your preset recording will not function. Must ensure that a double aerial socket if available or at least a splitter to allow both receivers to operate. Unable to run a DVD through the unit as you would using a DVD through VCR setup.

Good – Rately watch FTA now. I get the TV guide on Sunday & record 20 or 30 shows (then very little changes week by week. When I'm home I watch the recorded shows in half the time. Its like having a cross between a microwave & a VCR, shows in half the time. Record 2 watch another, go back to the beginning of a show if you have come in late, timer… Read more

record is easy to use, easy to erase once you have watched it & looks great. 6 x FF is too slow, it seems like its only 2 or 3 times. Hard to believe its 6 times. Would like to have 1 touch button (instead of 5 or 6 keystrokes)to preview timer settings.

Excellent – This is a great little unit. We were umming & ahhing at the shop & the guy said. "Ive got one of these at home & i couldn't live without it now." We thought yeah sure whatever, but you know what he was right! We bought it at Dick Smith because they have a policy where if you dont like it you can take it back. So we gave it a go & now theres no way… Read more

this thing is going back. Ive been making DVDs from the recorded files & they come out fantastic. A touch pricey but well worth it. Makes TV worth watching again. Does pretty much everything you'll want. Awsome picture. Great receiver. Good support from Topfield & other owners. (check out the forums at Topfields website). Connects to PC for easy DVD making. FFWD all the ads. Revolutionise the way we watch TV. Teletext is so fast now. Sometimes gets confused if file is too big ie: over 3-4 hours. MP3 player a bit limited (no random).