In the absence of any local obstructions I'd expect a cracking signal from Oxford. Your aerial should be pointing approximately NNW. If you are trying to pull in adistant station for a different region your dist amp may be overloading from Oxford pickup.
Your signal should be more than enough (barring local obstructions) to split with a passive splitter. Can you see the Oxford transmitter from your location?
In message , John Rumm wrote
Hundreds of reports of failing power supplies on the Topfield 5800 Many reports of failing hard drives on the later 5810 :( Topfield haven't bothered with any bug fixes for 12 to 18 months to fix the last lot of c**p they released as firmware/software.
Topfields reputation is/was based on the older 5800 model which is no longer available and the use of third party software to improve its capabilities. The new Topfield 5810 is not recommended especially as Topfield seemed to have walked away from providing any firmware/software support to make it work as advertised.
Should be aimed at Beckley (Oxford) around 11 miles at 281 deg ETN...
This one 'ere...
My one is a 5800 black panther IIRC. Been fine for a few years now. It does runs quite warm, and there has always been some vibration from the HDD. I have not tried a 5810 though.
What other networkable PVRs are out there at the moment?
You are better off with the firmware recommended here:
Well, you can still run firmware which is a adequate base for running MyStuff - so in that sense it does not really matter what they do with updates etc.
As I said at the start, its going to suit folks who are happy to fiddle[1] more than those want something straight out the box.
[1] Ought too suit folks in this group.In message , John Rumm wrote
The Topfield has no network capabilities of its own unless you mean the dumb USB port?
The problem with the 5810 boxes seems to be how many times they have to be replaced in the two year warranty period and how often you want lose the contents of the hard disk.
In article , Alan scribeth thus
The real problems with most all set top boxen and PVR's is insufficiently developed software..
And poor underrated power supply components...
The dumb USB port can be hooked up to a cheap and simple NAS box like the Linksys NSLU2 which will glue it to a network and make it accessible via FTP.
Hence I can drag and drop files recorded by it to a hard drive or network folder in Filezilla, and then start watching them immediately in VLC media player (even before they have finished copying!)
Not suggesting that reliability is not important, but if I were worried about the liklihood of failure, I would just schedule a daily task to copy off any new recordings etc.
Do you know what percentage of boxes sold actually have problems though?
In message , John Rumm wrote
I think it's misleading to call a Topfield PVR a "network" capable product if you still have to add a £50 box (which in itself doesn't work with the Topfield "straight out of the box").
BTW, been there and got the T shirt. NSLU box lasted around 18 months and now is in landfill.
Judging by the number reports in Toppy.org.uk, the regular sales of returned boxes (without hard disks) by the UK distributor, and from personal experience of a friends 5810 Toppy, it's not a box that I would recommend to anyone as being reliable.
As a long term user of the older model, with hard disk upgrades and power supply capacitors changed, I'm not too impressed by Topfield as a company nor in the quality of firmware/software it provides for its boxes.
The boxes only still work because of the work by a few customers in the very knowledgeable UK, European and Australian user forums. If left to Topfield many of their boxes would be in landfill by now. Customers who haven't found the correct UK web site dedicated to the UK PVR models must be having a very difficult time with their unmodified boxes as supplied by Topfield.
Have Topfield bothered to fix SplitNit problem yet or are people running bug fixes provided by customers?
I don't know how many others have problems but my 5810 was trouble right from the off. The first was returned within a few days for repeated freezing and also failing to record. The second was damaged in transit and the third was someone elses reject (or even my own) but since that didn't reach me until after Empire Direct had gone bust I suppose I was lucky to get a box at all.
I have downloaded an upgrade from Toppy.org but it still freezes occasionally and cannot be relied on either to record all the programs set or not to record the endless repeats that some programs have.
Don't bother with a short list.
Just get a Topfield 5800, download the MyStuff + recommended firmware package available from links at toppy.org.uk, connect computer and Toppy with a standard USB cable and install MyStuff + firmware.
Then sit back and enjoy the ride...
As I seem to need to repeat; if you want an out of the box solution, look elsewhere. (or for that matter make do without, since last time I looked there were not any off the shelf options).
If you are aware of an alternative that will do what toppy and the humax can do with extra hardware etc, then please spill the beans.
You don't have much luck do you!
I have bought quite a few of the Linksys boxes since they are quite handy for all sorts of jobs (being open source means lots of development goes on that uses them). Used to be able to pick em up for about £20 ish. Not had a single failure yet.
So that would be a no then. ;-)
(no offence intended - but anecdotal evidence from a self selecting group of posters does not really give anything approaching a statistically valid sample)
An option the OP could look at presumably would be a 5800 second hand if fears about the 5810 put him off.
I have not been impressed with *any* DTV box company in that respect.
However since toppy has good third party support, that is less of a concern than it would be with other brands that have to rely on the OEM.
Your point being what exactly?
Here in the UK, you can buy a box, you can get decent firmware and UI code for it, and you can glue it to a network. There are plenty of people actively supporting it and developing for it. The result seems to work nicely.
As far as I am aware the standard firmware handles split NIT, and the alternative ones certainly do.
You seem to have an axe to grind...
In message , John Rumm wrote
It's just I don't wear rose tinted glasses when viewing a Topfield PVR.
I have a 5800 Topfield PVR which works well but that doesn't mean I'm willing to recommend it to others.
I believe the Topfield (good) reputation was based on the older models before it was found that hundreds of power supplies were failing and the reluctance for Topfield to provide any meaningful support for the product.
The newer 5810 is not held in such high regard even by those on the Toppy.org forums.
Did you hear me say it was perfect?
Like I said, I also have one that works well. I am willing to recommend it to others with the understanding that to get the best from it you need to be prepared to do some tinkering.
PSU failures are obviously not good. However do we know the scale of the problem? Is that hundreds out of sales of thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of etc? If one bought a new 5810 would that translate into a
25% chance of PSU failure or a 0.25% chance?Which manufacturer of twin tuner PVR boxes does better?
With good third party support, does it matter as much?
T5800s available on ebay...
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