Topfield TF5810PVRt

The noise generated by the fan / hard-drive is unbearable - it's Chinese torture by virtue of a continual whispering / whirring noise.  If you want to remain sane DO NOT buy this.

I have Just set this System up, its working ,the first one i had would not record they replaced it

The only minus i have with this is that when you time a recording by the EPG guide it will not let you alter the start time or finishing time though it says you can in the Manuel

I don't know if this is a fault on the machine as you can manually time recordings by the menu

has anybody Else had the same problem

I had been looking at a number of different Freeview+ PVRs when the review for this came out giving it 5 stars. The main point was that it had HDMI output, which at the time I do not believe any others did, as well as a 500GB hard drive and the ability to off load recordings to a PC. So I went a head and bought this just in time for Christmas 2008.

I have to agree with the comments already made, and I'm afraid it doesn't deserve 5 stars (certainly now). The remote is unresponsive, as well as being quite fiddly - small buttons etc. Also series recording is a joke. I've always used the EPG (well that's what it's there for, isn't it?), but frequently the system will drop episodes or even whole series after successfully doing the first one or two. Recently I even noticed that it had changed the supposed start times of future recordings. Having done looking around, I have found similar comments on the toppy.org.uk web site and even a recommendation that the series record feature should be avioded.

As it did cost around £300 I'm reluctant to just bin it, but I'm coming seriously close.

The other feature is that you are able to install  TAPS, basically little applications provided by third parties, to either supercede the default functionality or provide new functionality. This is probably my final attempt to keep the Topfield and install some thord party TAPS to see if the overall experience can be improved (although I'm not sure much can be done about the remote).

Having said all that, when it does actually record something, the quality both in picture and sound is very good.

I have to say, I did notice in this years awards that the Topfield didn't get a mention at all and I haven't seen a Topfield product mentioned or reviewed since, so I'd be interested to hear what the What Hi Fi team have to say about this product now.

Not worth five stars. This has the worst remote control ever - it is cheap to touch and the buttons respond inconsistently so that for some you need lots of pressure and for others just a light touch. This makes it virtually unusable. The system is also illogical: choose 'series record' and you get every single episode from all channels which, again, renders it virtually an unusable feature. Against that, the quality of the picture and sound are very good.