Anyone got the Topfield 5810 yet?

Tyler Durden · 19-03-2008, 10:08 AM

I would be interested to hear any owners thoughts on the new Topfield, as I have just placed my order with Play.com

In hindsight it may have been better for me to start this thread before placing my order, but I am impulsive like that

Hal_loe · 19-03-2008, 10:29 AM

There are some owners of the new 5810 posting their thoughts at www.toppy.org.uk.

evo7 · 20-03-2008, 12:08 AM

yes i got mine today.i origionaly pre orderd it from play.com but i rang them yesturday as nothing had turned up and i was told that they didnt have any in stock and it was going to be at least 2-3 weekd before they did so i asked to cancel the order.i then placed my order with pulsat and the unit ended up costing me £10 more.anyway it turned up today at three pm and my mrs opened up the box and to have a look at it,but within 30 mins we had an email from play.com saying that are order had been dispatched(even when i cancelled).so now im trying to get my money back on the one from play but they said it would take a while,so its cost me so far £700

.as for the recorder its ok,but im not mega impressed.the picture quality isnt as good as my sony freeview box and i dont like the fact that any recordings you have made dont have thumbnails,just text.all that said it may be the best on the market for all i know as i have never had a hdd recorder before.

aekostas · 21-03-2008, 9:43 PM

What connection are you using for the Toppy?

If there is any difference in PQ it should be in Toppy's (and any such PVR's) favour, in that it records the exact bit-stream broadcasted, as opposed to MPEG-encoding that your DVD Recorder does.

son_t · 22-03-2008, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evo7

as for the recorder its ok,but im not mega impressed.the picture quality isnt as good as my sony freeview box and i dont like the fact that any recordings you have made dont have thumbnails,just text.all that said it may be the best on the market for all i know as i have never had a hdd recorder before.

When you say PQ, do you mean the HDMI output to your HD TV set?

The plain Toppy (out of the box) is NOT the best PVR on the market. The Toppy status as the best PVR can only be qualified when TAPs are run on it... Are there many TAPs available for the 5810 or do TAPs for the 5800 work on this box without modification?

Thumbnails is most common on Panasonics, this could be available via a TAP on a Toppy...

How is the FP facilities fairing on the 5810?

evo7 · 22-03-2008, 8:08 PM

im running it thtough hdmi ti a samsung 46" f86,my sony freeview box is the best i have evr come across and that was used with a 1.5m scart lead that cost me £150 so the topfield has alot to live up to i suppose.when i can be botherd i will try the same scart lead on it to see it that improves it.sorry but what does FP mean?

son_t · 22-03-2008, 9:07 PM

FP = Freeview Playback. The specification/facility on Freeview for Series Record and Accurate Recording, etc...

So are you saying the upscaled SD image (output via the HDMI) is pants compared to the SD image (from the Sony) upscaled by the LCD TV set itself? Yes, the only way to find out if the upscaler in the Toppy is pants or not is to use the same SCART cable and plug it in and see...

We certainly would be interested in the result...

nwhitfield · 23-03-2008, 11:54 AM

I find the HDMI output of the 5810 looks very good compared to the component output from the 5800, on the same screen. It's a fairly decent upscaling chip, from Pioneer. A few people on the Toppy forum have reported pretty good results.

aekostas · 23-03-2008, 1:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evo7

im running it thtough hdmi ti a samsung 46" f86,my sony freeview box is the best i have evr come across and that was used with a 1.5m scart lead that cost me £150 so the topfield has alot to live up to i suppose.when i can be botherd i will try the same scart lead on it to see it that improves it.sorry but what does FP mean?

I would be very interested in the outcome of this test. It may confirm what I have read repeatedly in this forum: that native upscaling on the panel can be significantly better than on the AV box.

BTW, you are comparing the PQ of the freeview box on the same panel, yes?

son_t · 24-03-2008, 9:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aekostas

I would be very interested in the outcome of this test. It may confirm what I have read repeatedly in this forum: that native upscaling on the panel can be significantly better than on the AV box.

I hope you also repeatedly say that this is 'on the assumption that the scaler chip in the output device is far inferior compared to the scaler chip in the HDTV set'... because this is a very important 'assumption' you must note.

Let me see, a £500 HD output device vs £500 HD input device. Which internal scaler is better? (Not that the Toppy or the 42", in this case, cost £500. Not that price might have a big influence, I suspect the same Samsung range of TVs from £400 to £1400, will have the same internal scaler... and the cost increase is to to the size of the panel...)

P.S. One empirical confirmation does not prove a theory

--

evo7 · 25-03-2008, 11:11 PM

ok hear are my personal resualts.the picture on my old sony freeview box with ixos scart is defo better than the topfield.i conected the same scart to the topfield but the picture looked a little blurred/softer but not a great deal.i then tried the topfield on hdmi against the sony and the results were the same.i then tried the ixos scart on the toppy against the hdmi on the toppy and i could not see any differance at all,but as i said before this is a £150 (1.5m) scart lead so the hdmi had its work cut out to beat it.i think for most the picture will look good if not better then they already have and its just a case that i had a very good setup before and personaly have never seen a better freeview picture than what my sony and ixos scart put out.all the tests were done on the same panel which was a samsung 46" f86 lcd (£
1500).
any questions just ask but i warn you i dont know alot about the topfield yet as i have not had time to read all the instructions.one thing i can tell you that isnt to good is the fact that in the instructions there is nothing to tell you what buttons do what on the front of the unit,there is just a picture of the back.

nwhitfield · 26-03-2008, 8:19 AM

Buttons on the front of the 5810 - menu, ok and the big silver thing - do the same as the correspondingly labelled buttons on the remote.

Menu takes you in and out of menus; ok selects items and the big silver one is a 4 way navigator, like the 4 arrow keys.

evo7 · 26-03-2008, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nwhitfield

Buttons on the front of the 5810 - menu, ok and the big silver thing - do the same as the correspondingly labelled buttons on the remote.

Menu takes you in and out of menus; ok selects items and the big silver one is a 4 way navigator, like the 4 arrow keys.

thanks for that

.i did work it out for myself in the end but still you would think it would have been included in the instructions.
one problem i am having is that if i go into the epg and go forward by say 1 day and then scroll up and down through the channels it will suddanly jump back to the day and time at presant?

big-al123 · 26-03-2008, 12:18 PM

how much is the toppy 5810 please?

evo7 · 26-03-2008, 1:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by big-al123

how much is the toppy 5810 please?

£330 from play.com

nwhitfield · 26-03-2008, 4:14 PM

It's down to 300 already!

evo7 · 26-03-2008, 6:46 PM

what a nightmare,i cant belive its dropped that much already.oh well at least i was one of the first to own one,cant go around worrying if the price will drop or not as prices never stay still for 5 mins.

Tyler Durden · 26-03-2008, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nwhitfield

It's down to 300 already!

Bummer! Do Play do a similar scheme to Amazon where they will refund the difference if the price is reduced within a certain time scale?

I paid £329, and I missed the delivery today, so will have to go and pick it up knowing I have already over paid!

I am going to call Play tomorrow and see what they say, when I suggest it would be better for me to return this order for a refund and then reorder it at £299. Hopefully they will see sense and refund me £30.

I'll let you know what happens.

Tyler Durden · 27-03-2008, 9:18 AM

It didn't work. I have got to refuse delivery, get a refund then reorder.

Ridiculous!

evo7 · 27-03-2008, 10:09 AM

i wish i could do the same as you mate but i didnt get it from play in the end as you may have read earler on in the thread.seems silly that they wont give you the differance back as it is going to cost them more by you refusing it and it going back and then them sending out another at there cost again

.when you do get it let me know as i wouldnt mind asking you a few question on how your performs as im not to sure if i have a problem with mine or if it does this thing on all of them.

Tyler Durden · 27-03-2008, 11:23 AM

I am thinking about not reordering it now. Might save myself £170 and go fir another Humax instead, as I really like my existing 9200.

FozzieTheBear · 23-06-2008, 2:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evo7

-snip-.i then tried the ixos scart on the toppy against the hdmi on the toppy and i could not see any differance at all,but as i said before this is a £150 (1.5m) scart lead so the hdmi had its work cut out to beat it.-snip-.

Thats a really interesting test overall, and specifically the bit above- it looks like the TV upscaling quality from analogue scart to the 1080 panel resolution is similar to what the Toppy is achieving on HDMI. This assumes that the Toppy HDMI output is set to 1080I (can you confirm this?).
Of course the TV has also to deal with the deinterlacing, but it will have to do this from the scart or the 1080I HDMI.

Finally, does the Toppy look any better/worse on the other HDMI resolutions (576 or 720), against the scart?

And was it really £150 for a scart- surely a DP missing!