Anyone with a Topfield PVR?

[moonman88]

Hi.
I'm new to the FTA arena. I have been doing a lot of reading the past week. I decided on getting a receiver with PVR in it. I saw Iceberg's good review of the PanSat 6000 so I started doing more research on PVRs. I came across the Topfield PVR (5000 Line) with 160GB HD! It's about $50 cheaper than the PanSat 6000 with a bigger HD. Also it seems that it's very popular overseas because of their great support and their unique TAP feature (you can create custom software for it). My question is why is it barely mentioned in these forums? Seems like it's only sold in the UK and Australia. Most of the the dealers there don't seem to ship overseas (even online dealers). Where can I pick one up in the USA?

 

[Katrinasucks]

Link man Link! ;-)

I'll be all over it tonight. How many tuners?

 

[Mr Tony]

My question is why is it barely mentioned in these forums? Seems like it's only sold in the UK and Australia.

you answered your own question. If its only sold in the UK & Australia and most of us are in N. America you can draw your own conclusions

 

[moonman88]

Sorry..
http://www.topfield.co.kr/
It has a dual tuner.

 

[moonman88]

you answered your own question. If its only sold in the UK & Australia and most of us are in N. America you can draw your own conclusions

True..
Anyone knows if it would work with FTA here if I could lay my hands on one?

 

[Likvid]

True..
Anyone knows if it would work with FTA here if I could lay my hands on one?

Yes you can set it to NTSC for you yankees.

 

[PSB]

If you can get the voltage power supply problem corrected ( Different in UK) then the DVB standard is worldwide!

 

[Katrinasucks]

The 4000 is 150 bucks cheaper than the Pansat 6000, has an 80gb drive and 2 tuners.

Haven't figured out how it scans yet.

As for the power, adapters are overrated. Cut the end off and put on a US one. Cost 99 cents and 3 minutes. (well assuming the PS can handle it which is all the cheap adapters do anyway.)

 

[Mr Tony]

where did you find the pricing?

 

[Katrinasucks]

ebay my good man, ebay...

And they have some game emulation or something,... apparently you can play over 5000 games on it.

I was kinda joking abot Tetris on the NA the other day but 5000 games is serious.

Korean company... looks top notch so far.

 

[Mr Tony]

ebay my good man, ebay...

really?

0 items found for topfield

 

[Katrinasucks]

From a very favorable review of the 5000
http://www.peter.com.au/pvrs.html#TopfieldTF5000PVRT

>Setting up the device is relatively easy. It can automatically scan for available channels, and then you can delete any duplicates or unwanted ones, and then copy from one tuner to the other (each tuner can actually have independent channels, although I doubt many people will use this).

Very interesting.

 

[Mr Tony]

.

As for the power, adapters are overrated. Cut the end off and put on a US one. Cost 99 cents and 3 minutes. (well assuming the PS can handle it which is all the cheap adapters do anyway.)

Lets not get cheeky : )

Yes you can cut the end off but then you just voided the warranty. Get an adapter, they’re like 3 bucks at Radio Shack and they work great.

 

[Katrinasucks]

Like my old man used to say... You must be holding your mouth wrong.

http://cgi.ebay.com/TOPFIELD-TF4000...ryZ32845QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I never was sure what that meant. ;-)

 

[Mr Tony]

when I type in topfield it still doesnt come up. The link shows up

I noticed it doesnt record two shows at once
2 Tuners (Recording a program while watching other program from other TP simultaneously

 

[Stargazer]

That is a bummer that it does not record two programs at once.

 

[Katrinasucks]

poor wording

> (GENUINE TWIN TUNER)RECORD 2 CHANNELS SIMULTANEOUSLY WHILE PLAYING BACK A PRE RECODING [Oh Yeah Baby! -ed]

http://www.topfield-australia.com.au/product.asp?SKU=TF4400PVRt

EDIT: Maybe not... That was the terrestial not Sat verison

http://www.topfield-australia.com.au/product.asp?SKU=TF4000PVR

Edit 2: It looks like the 4000 will record 1 tuner and the 5000 both.

 

[Tron]

Also I see nothing about AC-3 (SPDIF digital audio is not necessarily AC-3)...

I am leaning more and more toward the "roll your own" approach to a FTA PVR. You can get everything you want (EXCEPT, unfortunately, blind scan) with a decent, dedicated FTA PC. You can even put two tuners plus an OTA HDTV tuner card such as the ATI HDTV Wonder all in the same box. Add 3.5" hard drive carriers, and you've got removable high-capacity storage to boot. Add a $75 DVD burner and you can archive your recorded content.

You'd still need a STB for finding the feeds.

 

[moonman88]

Also I see nothing about AC-3 (SPDIF digital audio is not necessarily AC-3)...

Looks like the 4000 does not have AC-3, but the 5000 does. I have seen the 4000 on ebay as well. That seems like the only place to get Topfields for USA customers.

 

[Mr Tony]

I found a couple sites that have the 5000 at 280 pounds (GBP). qucik conversion and its about 500 bucks US