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Recording television programmes from Freeview can be a hassle. Unless you have two set-top boxes, you have to watch analogue TV while you record the digital channel.
Not with Topfield's TF5800PVR, though, as it's got two tuners built in, which means that as well as watching one channel while recording another, you can record two at the same time and play back a previous recording.
It has a 160Gb hard disk that can store about 80 hours of recordings and it's the first PVR (personal video recorder) in the UK that has a USB 2 connection to transfer recordings to your PC.
PVR devices are fast becoming the replacement for video tape recorders. They record directly to a built-in hard disk, so there's no need for untidy heaps of old cassettes piling up next to the television.
Using a hard disk also means that recordings can be found very quickly using the unit's menu system. In short, they are a much easier way of recording and viewing the programmes you want to watch whenever it suits you.
The Topfield is slightly smaller than a video recorder and very quiet, although you might hear the hard disk clicking from time to time. It has two Scart sockets, analogue and digital audio connectors for your Hi-Fi, plus the USB 2 port, and a TV out for old televisions with no Scart.
Setup was easy, although it took around five minutes to scan for all the available channels, dividing them into TV and radio stations (with BBC Parliament oddly listed as radio).
You can create a favourite channels list allowing you to skip through the channels you rarely, or never, watch. There's also a slot for using a TopUpTV card, which costs £50 and allows you to watch a selection of subscription channels.
As a device for watching TV, the Topfield does what you'd expect, then some more. You can press Pause to stop a live TV programme and then carry on up to an hour later, skipping the ads to catch up.
There's a full seven-day electronic programme guide (EPG), although the display only shows four channels at a time so you have to scroll down to see them all. You can also download updates as and when they come out directly from the device, which is a nice touch.
We found that recording worked well with weekly, weekday, weekend and daily timer options, which you can set directly from the EPG. You can also transfer recordings to your PC and archive them to DVD (remember though that, like video recording, this is only legal for personal use and sharing them is illegal).
It's not that quick to transfer, though, taking around one minute for every five minutes of TV using USB 2. Nevertheless, if you want to save your favourite snippets of classic TV, the Topfield is an option.
There are a few niggles. Some menu options are tucked away, and there are no bookmarks to resume a recording if you stop halfway through. The manual doesn't really offer that much in the way of help either.
The maximum fast forward speed is only 6x, which is slow compared with other PVRs that can whizz through recordings five times faster.
However, on the whole it's simple to use and after only a couple of days we found that we watched TV when we wanted, instead of when the programmes were broadcast. And unlike Sky+, you don't have to pay monthly for the privilege.
See also:
All Home Entertainment
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