Home > Consumer Reviews > Topfield TF-5800 Digital Video Recorder

I've had the Topfield (160gb version) for around 18 months, and I can no longer live without it; I rarely watch appointment TV anymore. The ability to use the 7-Day EPG to record up-coming programmes at the touch of a button, and easily set it to record each week, weekday, or daily with just a couple of extra buttons is so convenient. Plus, the pause, bookmark and rewind facilities for when I am watching live TV are major plus points. It holds loads of programmes, has the ability to create sub-folders so each family member can have their own. There's the 30-second-skip function, for zipping through the ads, and the build quality is also excellent.

Previous gripes with the interface have been resolved with the latest firmware version (released in July), which adds to its ease of use and fixes any issues I've ever had.

Other major plus points are the community of people who own the box, and a web site where easy downloads of firmware are available (with idiot proof instructions). It does require a PC/Mac to use this aspect, but straight out of the box, it's still a marvellous piece of kit.

There's some noise when the unit's recording and the TV's not on to mask it, but it's not 'loud'.

We have 4 different boxes from 4 different manufacturers and use them all on a daily basis (unlike some professional reviewers) and this knocks spots off anything else on the market.

Set-up is the easiest ever, and the instruction manual is the best written for any product I have ever come across.

Very quiet when on - no fans. Silent when on standby.

Excellent tuners (knocks spots off the others we have)

Outstanding features and ease of use - as standard, I haven't even looked at TAPPS.

ONE MAJOR ADVANTAGE THAT YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT BEFORE BUYING ANY PVR OR DIGIBOX:
It appears that the way that most boxes work when auto-tuning is that they scan the frequencies and store the first channel they come across - which is not necessarily the strongest signal. Thus you may have poor quality reception on some channels as the box has tuned into the weaker signal. This is the way our other (new and expensive) boxes works. We only diagnosed the problem with the rest of the boxes after we bought the Topfield which scans and stores ALL signals and lets you use the strongest. Thus we are able to watch stations that were not usable on the other boxes.

This is the product I have been waiting a while for. It is brillant & I am not connected in any way with the company ...

The version I have (bought early-2006) has been just amazing. There are a few less positive comments around on the web & elsewhere, but I think these related to earlier versions of the software, which may have been a bit less good. The current version is excellent. We have been running it constantly now since purchase without a single glitch.

We constantly record one program while watching a second, or watch a recording of one program while recording 2 other programmes! We pause & rewind live TV while recording.

The box is full of amazing features: Play a program, want to jump forward? Type a number between 1 - 100 and the play jumps to that "Percent" through the program ... i.e. type "50" into the remote & it jumps to 50%, half-way through.

The program guide is very good, and a simple click on any program sets it to be recorded. This feature is very reliable, though you sometimes get a few extra minutes of the next or prior program recorded as well.

My house used to have a LOT of pressure on the TV, with lots of arguments about who was going to watch what ... that's a thing of the past now, as we almost always record stuff & then watch it when we have time.

In fact I don't usually "just switch on" the TV any more ... I go straight to the Archive of recorded programs & flick through that until I find a great program I want to watch ... I often can only watch late at night, so this is fantastic, I can watch what I want, rather than some rubbish that's showing at midnight.

Don't just buy one, buy 2!

Adam

After much research and going from one review website to another I narrowed down my choices to 2, the topfield or the humax, boy did I make the right choice, the topfield is a without doubt the best there is on the market, even the slightly higher price tag its worth every penny. It will transform the way you can watch televison, its so easy to use and set up and the picture quailty is much better than the previous digital box I used. Having heard the noise from a neighbours sky plus machine I was very concerned about the noise the machine would make and the topfield does not have a cooling fan, unlike the humax.There is a slight noise at start up but once its up and running the machine is totaly silent. The other amazing plus point is that once you get to grips with the basic machine updating via the website and forum pages takes the machine to the next level. Bought from amazon it arrived within 2 days and was up and recording in minutes!!

Have you noticed how the only programmes you want to watch all seem to be on at 9.00 pm on the same night? Now you can record 2 while watching one.Everyone else has mentioned the obvious aspects easy tuning,etc and I agree with all this. But as well as liking TV I am a big radio fan and before Digital the the only way I was able to record was using Audio Casetters which were pretty useless, Now I can "diaryise" Radio channels as well as TV and I love the old Radio 4 Archives on BBC7.
The digital radio channels are wonderful.
I also own one of te original Pace recorders which were good in their day but only 10 hours of storage!!! The topfield is just so much better.
the TV Guide within it makes setting up a doddle. Just scroll down the channels guide and press record on the ones you want. You can then adjust to daily,weekdays, weekly one off etc. oddly I seem to watch less as I just watch the programmes I really want. Cannot recommend it enough