The latest addition to the home theatre setup is this spiffy new PVR.
The Topfield TF5000PVRt sports twin standard definition digital tuners and a suitably large 120gb HDD. One can record two shows and watch TV at the same time, pause live television and generally simplify viewing habits.
I’m particularly impressed with the recorded image quality - there is little/no image difference between a recorded [tv] program and watching a DVD. Artefacts (odd patters and encoding errors), which I had expected due to being recorded in MPEG2 at 4mbit/sec were non-existent, quite surprising. Playback was smooth and clean, one could easily be mistaken and feel that it was live tv, not a recording
The device appears to have more than enough encoder chip horsepower to write two 4mbit streams to the internal HDD concurrently - something that requires some serious CPU power in an equivalent PC based PVR.
While sporting a DVD writer would make this a 10/10 product, it does come bundled with a USB2 connection, allowing for very quick file transfer speeds across USB2 to a suitable desktop (which is my next project).
The navigation to record a program is a little more convoluted than really necessary - having to go into the PVR menu, then setup, just to reach the timer program screen is a tad annoying - a hot key on the remote would go along way usability wise.
Pros:
- Very very good recording quality despite reception at standard def (not hi-def).
- Dual Tuners
- High Picture quality
- Built in standard def digital tuners (most sub $1000AU PVR’s only bundle analog tuners)
- Massive HDD (well over 55 hours record time at 4mbit/sec)
- USB2 uplink
- Full EPG support*
- Small and sexy
Cons:
- No DVD R+/- drive
- Convoluted timer recording navigation
*dependant on local services
So, for me 8/10 isn’t bad in my book. I can certianly recommend the Topfield. :)
≡ This is a journal entry relating to the topics of geek.
Brendan Borlase is a Systems and Network Administrator living in Adelaide, Australia, having lived, worked and breathed Information Technology for over 12 years. Learn more.
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