technocat

Thanks for the info Carl. The model I bought is the 7100tHD. The TAP that you mention is worth looking into as I was not aware of it. I was thinking of selling off the 5010 which probably wouldn't fetch much because it is a SD model but still a handy piece of equipment all the same at this point in time. May I add that on my 32" Viewsonic TV I can't really tell the difference in PQ between HD and SD. Cheers Brian

The Topfield 7000 series that support USB will play MP3 files so I can't see why it wouldn't do what you are looking for.

Since my last post on the wierd problems I was having with my PVR TF5010 I replaced six capacitors all 1000uF 16V on the power board and happy to report that it is performing faultlessly like new again. These caps can be bought on ebay as computer grade low ESR types from China 4 bucks a packet of ten inc. P&P. In the interim I did invest in a TF7100HDt of which I had quite a few teething problems as the first one froze up and I couldn't, try as I may not get into the menu and so it went back to Topfield and was replaced. This one also gave me grief but Fredi at Topfield finally sorted it out. Unfortunately the TF5010 and the TF7100 share the same remote IR code so I can't work them together. Sometimes with electronic equipment you just can't win. Cheers Brian

Around the 550 mark at JB's Hobart

Sorry Carl I meant low ESR as caps do go high causing DC leakage which plays havoc with the voltages around the board. This is a problem with Topfield power boards which creates all sorts of strife with the operation of the PVR. Thanks for your help and Futurlec is another source of low ESR caps. And yes I did see the Topfield 7170 the other day, looks much the same as the 7160 but never had the time to go into the specs to see what improvements have been made. Best thing is to look in on these pages now and again and wait till someone buys one and give us a review.

Someone posted replacement capacitors for the TF5010 which have been a source of grief for this model. To the best of my knowledge they were high ESR types and I am damned if I can find this post. Could anyone point me in the right direction please.

My Diginet 628 after two and a half years died and is about to go to the tip unless it is of any use to anyone, PM me. I have replaced it with a new Topfield 5000 series which is streets ahead of the Diginet which IMHO was a PVR from hell. The toppy has a ton of technical back up and support which the Diginet was sadly lacking. Cheers

Yes there is some truth in that but going on memory The Topfield 5000 series was well outside my financial reach when I bought the Diginet 648. At $299.00 the toppy is a much better deal and still going strong. I must admit the Diginet did teach me a hell of a lot about PVR's even though it had absolute zilch in technical backup and non existent firmware upgrade.

I bought a Topfield 5010t H a couple of weeks ago for $299.00 from Retravision and not complaining about the price. It gives a damn good performance and at 1080i SD on my 32" Viewsonic TV/monitor a PQ of excellence. After suffering the idiosyncrasy's of the dreaded Diginet 648 for the past three years before the HDD karked it and ending up as more chinese landfill it was reassuring to find a plethora of technical backup on the Topfield site. In the short time I have owned the 5010 I have found this piece of equipment to give faultless service. No wonder they were snapped up so quickly. Cheers BMG

Upscaled SD gives best result.

It must have taken a lot of effort to dream up a name like blu-ray

I have just bought a Topfield 5010t H from Retro $299.00 and am quite happy with the price and performance. While the user guide states a HDMI connection I just get a blank screen with info on the bottom on all HD channels, so consequently have deleted these channels off the service list. My TV/Monitor is a 32" Viewsonic which is capable of HDMI but has a analogue tuner, however the Toppy 5010 is a SD PVR and and definitely won't give you HD. I have cranked the resolution up to 1080i and get a pretty fine picture so I am really not complaining. IMHO HD appears to me a little bright and overdone and not how my eyes perceive the world. This however is a individual perception and should not be taken as a general criticism of HD per se. Cheers BMG

Hi Keith Looking back on previous posts buggy firmware seems to be an issue with this PVR of which there appears to be no upgrade, which is quite surprising for a piece of equipment that shows promise. Couple this with component failure eg. (electro's going out of tolerence). common with equipment that generates a fair bit of heat like this PVR does you end up with a technological nightmare. Perhaps YESS are still going through the R&D stage and we are the unsuspecting bunnies. Brian Tas.

Hi Keith I to came up through the electronic consumer market repair industry back in the seventys and eightys and have a Diginet T628 and after initial bugs finally managed to get the beast to settle down. However of late it has been playing up through the ad breaks such as pic breaking up and loss of sound. Thats not a bad thing you may say but having an enquiring mind of anything technical I find this behavior a little upsetting. This PVR otherwise works perfectly, and does everything it is supposed to do. I haven't had the cover off yet and wouldn't expect to find anything blatantly obvious as I guess most of the electonics would be contained on a LSI chip controlled by a microprocesser. Any comment would be welcome. Brian. Tassie.

WOW! glad to see some input here, exactly what the south channel needs. To bad we haven't a broadband forum, but then thats another story.

Sorry Alan but I couldn't find anything really relevant to our neck of the woods in your post other than what was in DBA. The geographical layout of the south channel is quite diverse with inlets, bays, hills of all shapes and sizes, and depending on whether you are situated under them, over them or around them or sometimes direct line of sight, obviously affects the outcome of what sort of a signal you will come up with. Bit like looking for the elusive Tassie fox.

Dave I guess when you have limited resources a policy of big is best is the way to go as a little attenuation is probably better than a masthead amplififier, Unfortunately the terrain south of Kingston doesn't help much. Reflected signals off Woodbridge hill were always a bane with analogue giving ghosting problems. Going digital was a worthwhile exercise as the PQ I am getting now is truly amazing after years of mediocre veiwing. Congratulations on your product, of which I found to be of excellent quality. Cheers Brian

I won't argue with that, but digital reception is tricky science and it seems high end PVR's and STB,s are more forgiving that the budget ones. With that said my post was to put anyone in the south chanell area of which not a great deal has been writen about in these pages in the ball park. After all isn't that what these forums are about, sharing experiences. The old bush mentality "she'ell be right mate just wack up a bit of no 8 wire" won't work with digital technology.

For south channel viewers living past Snug and beyond, trying for a good clean digital signal and also analogue from a single antenna you can't go past a Hills Digi Tel DY14. This is easy to erect, but being a little on the large size size (boom length just over 3 metres) it will need staying. No M/Head amp needed for this baby as it has heaps of gain. Using good quality quad shield co-ax and F connectors this antenna will pull in signals on band three fom Mt. Wellington as if it was next door. How do I know all this, well after a lot of experimenting I threw away my bygone era trusty UHF/VHf combo antenna, and finally got it right. Hope this helps, for all of you who live down my way. Cheers, Brian

Andrew The much reviled Diginet PVR will give you Auto, Pillar Box, & Vertical Cut, which I think is what you are looking for. This PVR is a budget unit found on ebay works well, providing it has a good clean signal otherwise it will give you hell. My LCD display unit supports Auto, Zoom 16:9, & 14:9, which as a widescreen seems a little pointless. Cheers Brian

Alas they were a mighty team once under the guidance of Ricky Stuart (sniff sniff)

The week before they were 53min over for the start of an 11pm movie. Make that 30min more like 60min, if you could be bothered persisting with them. Anyone seen their ch99 EPG, or is their website that out of date as well. Andy I sympathise with you man I get the same deal wth WIN TV in Tassie with the NRL played in the small hours of the morning. I set up the event an hour before the scheduled time and an hour after then I might be in luck. Dunno why they bother putting the ads on though as my PVR goes through them at a hundred mile an hour

The Diginet DVB-T 628 will not record two channels concurrently. If you try booking two separate channels to record at the same time even though you allocate different event numbers you will get a message back saying "event conflict" and it will set the status of the last event booking to off. If anyone can work out what the "phase 2" explanation is I take my hat off to them, as it has been obviously written by someone who has no idea of the subtletys of the English language. I am not familiar with the workings of the Topfield but I guess you only get what you pay for. One thing I can say is the Diginet PVR is very unforgiving regards signal strength and couple this with firmware issues you have heaps of instability problems. With that said it seems to be quite a reliable unit with shortcomings which comes as no surprise considering its budget price.

The Diginet DVB-T 628 will not record two channels concurrently. If you try booking two separate channels to record at the same time even though you allocate different event numbers you will get a message back saying "event conflict" and it will set the status of the last event booking to off. If anyone can work out what the "phase 2" explanation is I take my hat off to them, as it has been obviously written by someone who has no idea of the subtletys of the English language. I am not familiar with the workings of the Topfield but I guess you only get what you pay for. One thing I can say is the Diginet PVR is very unforgiving regards signal strength and couple this with firmware issues you have heaps of instability problems. With that said it seems to be quite a reliable unit with shortcomings which comes as no surprise considering its budget price.

Video and audio dropouts could be attributed to to little or to much signal strength (antenna, co-ax feed or amplifiers if any). or you may have a firmware problem. Antenna power should be on if you you are using either a masthead or line amplifier, otherwise it should be off.