The basic formula of the Toppy is not new, this is a twin tuner hard drive based PVR or personal video recorder, the two tuners are DTT or Freeview suitable ones which enables you to record two programme simultaneously. The 160 gigabyte hard drive should be good for just under 80 hours of programming and access to the Freeview EPG gives the Topfield PVR Sky+ like features.

The unit is not a  normal Video size at 340 x 60 x 265 mm so its sites a little uncomfortably amongst other AV kit under the TV and it's not pretty either and is frankly a rather utilitarian design for such a high price tag, this is no Sony Vaio clone that's for sure. Accompanying the main unit there is a rather bland remote which works well but is basic and again ugly. The rear of the unit is functional and clearly marked, there are sockets for 2 x SCART, S-Video, Composite (on RCA), RF, USB 2.0, RS232 and S/PDIF for digital audio, so you shouldn't have any issues with connecting it up to either your TV or LCD screen or your PC. You'll note there are no DVI or HDMI outputs and that is because the Toppy is not HD ready but then at the time of writing Freeview HD services are still only on lower power test on one transmitter in the UK.

Power up your Topfield and it will start by performing a set-up, whereby it will locate all the DTT muxes off your local transmitter and compile the available channel list, this can take a few minutes as with any Freeview box or integrated TV. We performed all the tests in our review with the Toppy linked to our Panasonic 26" LCD via SCART and also with the RF feed looped through the TF 5800.

With all the channels now populated the unit produced it's first images which were decoded live and in this mode the PVR is acting as a bog standard Freeview unit. First impressions were good and flicking through all the channels proved that the RF performance was strong and as good as the inbuilt DTT tuner in the Panasonic telly. The Toppy has 2 Tuners and these are fed by splitting the RF signal, something that concerned us a little that in some way this would affect the image quality or stability, we tested this by using the picture in picture or PIP function which showed 2 good quality stable images.

The PVR supports standard 4:3 aspect ratio and also 16:9 widescreen with the usual array of zooming options which are best left alone. The manual is sort of OK but not great, luckily the on screen menus do an OK job of guiding you through using logical English, so after a brief play you can set-up audio and video preferences.

Noise level  is critical with Freeview PVR's and this is easily overlooked in a showroom but once you have one in your relatively quiet living room you'll appreciate how the noise given off by kit is important. Some devices have very large fans to keep them cool and even in standby sound like a light aircraft taxiing to the runway. Not the Topfield TF5800 it is virtually silent in standby mode and even when in dual record there is a little disk noise and the lack of a fan helps greatly to make this the quietest PVR we've tested to date. However the downside is it gets mighty hot, the top surface over the power supply feels mighty warm to the touch and we'd ensure you do not tacks other kit on top making sure there is clear airflow around your toppy!

So time to make some test recordings, this is where paying so much more for your Freeview unit makes sense, instead of just showing the EPG and maybe allowing you to mark a programme for a reminder the Toppy allows you to tag programmes for recording. It does take some time for the EPG to fully populate over the air, but the full 7 day EPG for all channels is eventually received and with a quick selection you can browse through channel by channel and day by day making programmes you wish to record. Your selections are added to a record list which the unit will follow day and night providing the unit is left in standby mode. You can make an instant recording by pressing the record button on the channel you are viewing but this will continue for a default 2 hours rather than use the EPG to work out the end time.

A nice function is that if you are watching a programme live and then have to miss the rest (due to some emergency) then you can set the Toppy to record the rest and bolt it onto the portion you have already been watching in one file. This is possible because providing one tuner is not in use the unit will always record what you are watching in case you want to pause it to go for a pee or rewind to see that goal again. It is possible to simultaneously record 2 programmes and the EPG planner will stop you trying to record three things at once, you can actually record 2 programmes and watch a third live, as long as the live programme is on the same Mux as one of the recordings.

We set some 15 recordings to be made over the course of a week and can report that we had a 100% success rate with the PVR waking up from standby and catching all those programmes we would have otherwise missed. Plus there is so little hassle unlike setting up your old VHS machine, even if you had the old numerical code system and a newspaper the Toppys way of working is simply streets ahead and more like a SKY+ unit without having to pay £30 plus a month to Mr Murdoch.

Once you have some programmes stored on the large 160gb hard drive you can start to view, first up the picture quality is really rather good and the 4mbps encoded files look great even on a large TV screen (ore review used a 26" screen). There are some minor encoding artefacts but nothing that a normal person (not tech geeks like us) would pick up on, colours are good and strong and even high motion programmes like sports or music channels look clean and crisp. The recordings are far better than the old VHS machines and easily on a par with PC based PVR software and PCI cards.

Programmes are listed in time / date order when you search through the disk and it is possible to even get a thumbnail of the programme (more on that later). replay is simple and very VHS like in its fast forward and rewind, expect you can skip through much much faster, ideal to hack through those ad breaks. You can even record and playback Top Up TV programmes as the Topfield unit supports a CAM (conditional access module) which can be inserted to slide in your Top Up Card giving you access to these and other future pay TV services.

Up to this point the TF5800 is at least as good as the Humax 9200T we tested a month ago and like the Humax it also has a USB link to a PC in order to gain access to files and updates, even allowing files to be pulled onto the PC, but the Topfield goes one important step further. We can describe this as being a bit like the difference between Windows and Linux, the Humax is like Windows good at its job but best left alone in order to keep working. However the Toppy is more akin to Linux in that it is open to taking extras written by a community of users or Toppy geeks who have written Tap's Topfield Applications. These Tap's range from simple ones allowing you a better media manager view of the unit to ones that we loved that extended the EPG capability with enhanced data about programmes, thumbnails and the killer application a series link!

Series link is something that native Freeview does not have (but Sky does) it means you can tag a series like Eastenders so that you do not have to make the episodes to record each week (like you have to on the Humax). The series link is not perfect as there are no unique ID's sent by Freeview to use but by use of keywords these cleaver Tap's provide near perfect function so that each episode of Eastenders is recorded, there is a risk that it may also record the Omnibus or repeat but this is a small price to pay for getting this great feature.

Many more TAPs' exist and are growing by the day, in fact the Toppy community also fixes known bugs before Topfield! so users can download fixes very rapidly making this one of the most stable PVR's on the market today. we found only one negative and that was a very slow transfer time for files pulled over the USB 2.0 connection which seemed to take an aged to move GB's of media, not sure why as USB 2.0 can run faster than this as we can only assume it is limited to protect the Topfield's primary application.

During our review period we found the Topfield to be highly stable, reliable and to produce great recordings with innovative TAps written by the user community. The TF5800 may cost you more than almost every PVR on the market but it really is worth the money leaving the very competent Humax in second place. Priced between £250 - £270 it is not cheap and is a significant purchase but one that should be considered an investment in cutting edge Freeview PVR technology, you won't be disappointed.

Published - 21/10/2006

More Freeview PVR Reviews

Visit the Toppy community to download TAP's and for user guides toppy.org

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