The FrequencyCast team now have their hands on a Top Up TV Anyime set-top box, and are in the process of reviewing the box for Show 10. You can see the team’s initial review here.
We would like to get your questions on Anytime, so we can include them in the next FrequencyCast show. Please use the Comments section here to ask your questions…
Hi all
I have the new Thomson DTI 6300-16 box from TopUp TV. Can anyone tell me what the usb port is used for, I phoned TopUp Tv’s tech support but they did not seem to know. I have conntected an external hard disk to it, but this did not work.. The usb port is the same as you get on a laptop or pc and not the smaller or square connection and is position next to the card slot…
If anyone knows the answer please could they leave a post.
Thanks..
Hi,
If you permanantly delete channels, can they be re-instated..the handbook says… ‘no’.. but there must be a master reset as the information downloading to the box is a one way affair.
Also, does deletion of channels increase the number of individual programmes on the remaining (I suspect not).
Apart from these, the box is really good quality…
My box has no usb port….that I can see
supervolt
oops, sorry didnt read the whole thing about the location), will connect up and see
The initial problems with my box seem to have been resolved but it has developed a constant buzz – which is driving my wife, and hence me, mad!
i ordered my anytime box at the end of october. this morning ireceived confirmation that the money has been paid from my visa account. despite receiving a letter stating that it had been despatched on december 13th i have still not received it.oh and by the way, it is now too late to give as a christmas present as intended. can someone please explain? thank god i’ve got a skyhd box. yours disgruntled
Hi,
Why oh why does the thompson box refuse to tune in all the 94 channels when a cheap matsui £20 jobby picks up everthing with full signal strength? I’m not impressed Top-Up TV :-(
If your recording something onto the HD, You can sometimes find that your weaker channels break up or are lost completely. I’m sure the HD causes some kind of interference that messes with the signal recieved. Be Warned before you part with your £180 folks!
supervolt,
To achieve a master reset:
Menu > Setup > Help
Then press the Green Button (Even though it doesn’t show as an option)
Then press the red button for a full reset (Warning: You will lose all data on HD!)
From The help screen you can also enter 1397 on the remote to enter the hidden engineers screen.
Hope this helps somewhat.
I thought your listeners and readers would be interested in the following email i sent to TopUp TV this morning. The mail is self explanatory :)
———————————–
To whom it may concern…
My name is xxxxxxxx and i’m emailing you on behalf of my Mother, xxxxxxxx.
Back in August 2006, my Mum, as an existing TopUp TV customer, paid for a DTR and upgraded her subscription to TopUp TV Anytime. After a substantial delay Mum finally received her DTR in early December 2006. She called me to come over and set up the equipment for her. She was particularly keen to get the system up and running for the Christmas holidays. During the setup procedure it became readily apparent that there was a problem with the DTR. The unit reported that it was unable to detect a hard drive. I put in a call to your technical helpline immediately. The woman i spoke to seemed a bit flustered, but promised to inform the relevant department and said arrangements would be made to collect and replace the DTR by courier, also promising that details of the returns procedure would be sent to Mum by post, and that a replacement would reach us before Christmas.
Approximately a week after my first call, i called again to enquire about the status of the situation, because Mum had heard nothing from yourselves. On this occaision, i talked to a very helpful Irish chap called Craig. After explaining the details of my first call, he was astonished to hear that someone had promised to have the DTR picked up, and set about explaining the proper procedure to me. Whilst on the phone to me, he was checking your computer system and found a flag on Mums account. It stated that i had not supplied Mums DTR serial number during the first call. This is true… I wasn’t asked to provide it. Craig told me that until they had the serial number, a returns pack wouldn’t be sent out to us. now… Because of the information supplied to me during the first call, i had packed up the DTR ready for collection. I had taken my Mum out to do some Christmas shopping the morning before i spoke to Craig, so we had left a note on Mums front door to inform the courier that the box containing the faulty DTR was at a neighbours address, and left details accordingly. Craig asked me for the DTR serial number, but i couldn’t provide it to him as the box was still at the neighbours house. So he arranged to call back in 30 minutes to give me time to retrieve the box. When Craig called back, after unpacking the DTR, i supplied Craig with the serial number. Craig informed me that a returns pack would be in the post the following day, and that it was highly likely that Mum would receive her replacement DTR before Christmas.
20th December 2006… Still no returns pack…
By this time i had become annoyed… Since i had become very familiar with your telephone system, i decided to record my third call to your customer care department so i could refer back to it for details. Because of your polite message informing all callers that… and i quote: “Your call maybe monitored or recorded for training purposes”, i decided it was only fair that i warn the advisor that i was doing the same thing. Well… I was told very sternly that what i was doing was against the law, and she promptly hung up… In light of this, please don’t record any more calls that i make to you, or i shall be exploring the law on this very issue.
I rang again immediately, this time on speakerphone so that i had witnesses to refer to, should my memory fail me. Guess what? There was still no record of the DTR serial number on your computer system, and i was also informed that there was no chance for Mum to get her box for Christmas. Again i was promised that a returns pack would be dispatched to Mum asap, and again, as of January 3rd 2007, no such pack has been received.
Pull your finger out people, this isn’t good enough!!! I don’t know why, but Mum still has faith in you… Maybe it’s because she’s a pensioner and doesn’t like making a fuss. But… I want someone in charge to call her on 01xxx xxxxxx and provide her with a concrete delivery date. If not, i’ll buy her a Sky package and be done with it.
Incidentally, i have tried to call customer service several times this week and have been unable to get through… Are you still there?
Oh my god – do not buy the new top up TV Anytime box!! We had ours delivered promptly in mid December (the money was also taken out of the account promptly incidentally…) but does it actually do all of the things they claim?
Apparently you can record two channels at the same time. We can’t.
Apparently you can record one channel and watch another. We can’t.
Apparently we should get 100 hours of programmes downloaded each week. We’ve got a grand total of less than 20 since we’ve had the box.
Apparently the programmes are the very best hand-picked content. This is as may be, but when most of the programmes are either missing the beginning, end or a chunk in the middle (one film had the first 45 minutes missing)it’s hard to tell if the programmes are good.
And of course, this doesn’t even start with the added features they don’t tell you about; the fact that the box freezes at least once a day so that you have to unplug and reboot the box to get the thing to work at all; the fact that no-one appears to want to answer the phone at Top Up TV. Or answer emails. Or give out any information. Or make it possible to send the top up box back. Or get a refund.
RE: My posting of email i sent to DrainDown, i mean TopUp TV on January 3rd 2007…(For it was i who posted it i tell ye… ):
The email was returned unaccepted yesterday due to a full mailbox…
I wonder why? ;)
=i agree with the last blog totally don’t buy top up tv. it’s useless . and customers services are non exsistant. i finally cancelled today as i’d had enough. after 8 hours waiting to get through the last blog says everything you need to know. don’t waste your money. i’m now having sky fitted and free broadband and 24hr viewing on 300 odd channels all 7 days a week for a few pound more a month. and if there’s a problem you phone and get through right away. Don’t buy top up tv and if you have bought it you’re in trouble.
My TopUp TV box turned up mid December and after initially recording blank programs from the Anytime service things seem to be working okay. I can record two programmes whilst watching something I have recorded.
Some functions don’t work logically and it is anoying that you cannot resume a programme you were watching appart from when you leave to programme the unit.
My big gripe is the quality of the content, there is nearly nothing that comes down in a week that I want to watch!
I bought into TopUp TV to get British Eurosport and over the last couple of months what is broadcast via TopUp TV does not tie up with the listings in the Radio Times and we seem to be getting only some of the programmes broadcast by this channel. Why is British Eurosport not part of the Anytime function?
At the moment I am happy to basically have a PDR but the rest of the package will not justify my continuing to subscribe when my first year is up unless things change.
I shall be looking very carefully at what BT are doing I don’t think I will want to go to Sky since appart from the standard freeview channels British Eursoport is the only channel I have any interest in at the moment.
Re the USB port I am interested in what it is there for. Any information would be useful. I hope that it is not just there for service engineers to reprogramme the unit. It would be great to be able to attach an external drive and archive programmes off. Perhaps we could even watch then on a PC or Mac?
Hi,
R.E. The USB Port – it is for future expansion of the box, although it is not yet known if it will ever be implemented.
The Software update is scheduled for today (8th Jan) and should solve many of the problems.
Hope this helps
Ross
Hi all
Got the new update version 2.0. The only things different that I have noticed is the version number change and the channel switching is a bit faster. Sub Titles, Swap button still does not work. The more than 6 frequencies and more than 94 Freeview channels not fixed. Apart from that the box still works. Still not unhappy with the box as it is still a cheap DTR and works very well. The TopUp TV content does not always download correctly, missing the start of programs. Program recording times are sometimes out, starting too ealy and finishing early :-( And why are they sending me programs named Badly Dubbed Porn, was hoping TopUp TV would be a safe bet especially as I do not remember subscribing to this sort of thing.
Thanks for the info on the USB port.
Any way this is still a good idea as we do not watch enough telly to warrant Sky and cannot get cable. Picture Box is worth a try, although the film content could be newer as most of the films so far have already be aired on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5 networks. Last but not least if you unsubscribe to the channels you will never watch you get loads more room for recording your own stuff. And I must have been lucky with their support as I have always got through and they have been very helpful.
HI.
I ordered the topuptv recorder which was delivered december 15th 2006. It was easy to setup,scanning 94 channels and getting downloads ok during the next 2 nights .. On the third day the LED started to flash red stopping the recorder from working.
Nothing could be done to stop this from
happening ? I contacted the Customer Care Agents ON DEC 17TH AND spoke to a friendly fellow who told me
the Thompson DTI-6300-16 was CORRUPTED and it will have to be returned for replacement. He took
Details of the box (serial no etc)and assured me RETURN LABELS would be sent so that i could send it back? I expected these labels within days.
It is now 11th JANUARY and still havn’t received these promised LABELS to return this faulty DVR?
I have now found CUSTOMER SERVICES is none existant? they dont respond to e’mailing enquiries@topuptv.com. …. Telephoning is costly , you get made to listen to topuptv talk, then fobbed off c at 10p a minute
I have now written in to see if a letter works? customer service is a joke !!!
Hi
I ordered my box on January 8th. They took a £20 deposit fromy my credit card. Later that day I had a call from my bank informing me of a £79 transaction for TopUpTV. I then phoned TUTV and they told me the box had been dispatched at 5:30pm. Even they were astonished at how fast it went through. I got the box at 7:30am on Thursday 11th…
Set it up and tuned it all in. Found 7 freqs. and 95 channels, plus the 19 TUTV channels… Signal quality and strength is full to capacity. Image quality is superb. Connected it to my surround sound, and great sound :D
After the first set of programs downloaded I checked some of them and a few do skip and jump. At first in the engineers menu there was no fan speed or hdd temp. This has now been fixed.
When phoning TUTV the max time I have ever waited is 5 and a half minutes. I guess I must be one of the lucky ones :)
Hi all
Has anyone tried saving a TopUp TV program to disk. as it states in the manual you should be able to keep content past the six days if you save it. Well not for me.. If you save content it gets deleted after the six days. will talk to TopUp TV and see if this a an issue. Does anyone know what the update fixed?
Hello,
We have just returned our Top Up Tv Anytime DTR, The Buzzing noise mentioned by other reviews on this page is probably due to the missalignment of the cooling fan (so the customer service department say, We held the phone to the DTR for customer services to hear the noise. The DTR records using compressed files, the compression process drops four or five frames every five mins so on playback these files are missing hence the odd moment when the picture skips or a sentence suddenly goes missing.
Our DTR programme menu displayed a blue grid with a black infill where the programme listings were supposed to be and this was with the most recent of software downloads.
Our Digital signal strenght was 9 on a scale of ten and the signal quality was also nine.
We contacted Top Up tv customer services who sent out a paid postage slip to return the DTR for a factory reset, they said they would replace the box with a new one but we are not prepared to continue with a lousey customer service where you have to wait on some occassions twenty mins to get through to somebody and others up to two hours.
In bussiness you start as you mean to go on and if the customer service is this bad now what will it be like in a years time?
We have negotiated with Ntl and our landlord to allow us to have a small trench dug in our driveway to carry an ntl cable and after some haggling we find we can have 170 channels on Ntl for 9.99 a month the same cost for top up tv anytime and these channels are on all day not just for a few hours at night when they are recorded onto a hardrive for you to watch the next day.
if you like US comedy which is not funny and lots of cartoons with some very mild comic pornography then this DTR is probably for you.
We found that hardly any of the Top up programming was to our taste most of it seemed to be aimed at the middle aged woman with lifestyle programmes, basically recording all of the crap they put on during the daytime. Apparently the port next to the card slot is for the engineers to use at the factory to reset the DTR.
My best advice is Do not waste your hard earned money on this
rubbish, we have decided to ask for a refund we cannot understand why Top Up Tv couldn’t negeogiate to keep the old Top Up Tv service running is was far better than this pile of old crap they are offering up as new technology.
If you want to record tv do it on a tried and tested VHS recorder it works in real time and it dosen’t compress any files leaving gaps in your playback.
If it presents a problem like this awful buzzing noise then contact the customer services department and do something about it, don’t just put up with it. they have the power to replace the box for you.
I have read an awful lot of reviews in the past few weeks and many of them complain about this buzzing noise, it is not normal so do not accept excusses from customer services tell them you want to dsend it back to have it looked at under the guarrentee and they have to oblige, you have a legal statuory right in the UK to get it sorted out or replaced.
Our Buzz was louder than our domestic fridge and certainly louder than our home computer fan.
To those of you that like the DTR I wish you all the very best of luck for the future and hope that you are both very happy.
All the best…PC Builder.
Hi i recieved my Thomson DTI 6300 box about 3 weeks ago and have lost the little bit of paper with all the remote control codes on it.Can anybody tell me how to get the codes off the net so i can use my freeview remote with my tv to turn the volume up and down.Thanks.
Well. An interesting set of comments!
I have to say, i was quite looking forward to getting the top-up tv anytime. We’ve had it for a month now, and at the moment, it’s alright. Have had some problems with the box freezing, and glitching all over the place in some programs. We don’t watch any of the anytime programs sent OTA, i mean, not 1. It’s all absolute rubbish. But we are in the position that we can unsubscribe and keep the box. However, i will be giving it a couple more months to trial it, and will keep a diary of when it fails to satisfy me. If after 3 months the OTA channels are still bobbins, or the box is glitching, it will be going back. My brother has NTL and is well pleased with it, but he doesn’t have PVR capabilites. My brother-in-law and mother-in-law have Humax PVRs, which have no problems at all.
I made a lot of enquiries about Anytime before i paid up, and at the moment it’s not quite living up to the billing it portrayed. With any luck the OTA channels may become a little better…
TJ
Well interesting that you say that cos i get the same glitche’s and freezes.I am pi**ed off with it to be honest with you and as for the top up tv programmes that are stored.What absolute Sh*t.Also i cant recored programmes in the memory anymore cos somethings gone wrong on the favourites menu and everytime i enter it it freezes and crashes which then i have to unplug the box and reconnect it everytime to watch tv again.If theres a master reset i would love to find out how to do it just to get rid of this problem and clear the whole system.I am going over to sky, ive had enough of this bolloc*s.Excuse my french.
hi all,
can i use the top up tv anytime box without a card so i can record freeview channels?
many thanks
Thank god it isn’t just us.
I am absolutely disgusted with the freezing and the recording c*ck ups. It isn’t our fault. We’re very techy minded. Have written last week and given them until the end of this month (Jan) to sort it all out or refund. They haven’t even bothered to reply. I am cancelling the direct debit tomorrow. They can send a man with a gun for all I care. I’ll take him on. One evening of forcing him to watch tv via our topup box and he’ll be begging for mercy.
Hi All,
I tried the TUTV service for about 2 weeks and was very disapointed with the TUTV programs but I found that the Thomson DTI 6300 to be very good apart from one little niggle with the way the Info button works. When pressed the info comes up with Now and Next shown and you can cursor between these and get further details. The problem is that it will only stay on the screen for about 5 seconds unless you keep pressing buttons. So if your watching BBC 1 and you press info and keep pressing the right arrow you can scroll to say Film 4 on 29 (I think) but if you pause in pressing buttons the info goes off and your back to square one. You could press Info and then enter the number of the channel but it would be much better if the Info remained on until the Info buttton was pressed again, which is how all my Philip IDTV, Pioneer IDTV, Pace STB, Phillips STB work.
Alastair central scotland – we have had our box since day one and had all the usual problems at first, locking up, blank screen on library page. all sorted by unplugging and plugging in again. after the downloaded “fix” it is a little better but it gets confused if you try to record something at about 9pm onwards. even if you override all the messages it mostly does not record what you asked. it also deletes programs previously saved. rubbish programs being downloaded and part one of a series of two but not part two. GOD i could go on.
David chatfield
Hello to all, I must tell anyone not to bother with the topup TV’s new service. it is C–P! the box just freezes, technical support is a joke, you cannot speak to a superviser as they are always busy (no doubt on other disatified customers)my box went back at my cost 2 weeks ago no refund of postage even though it is supposed to be FOC £14.28 new box has not arrived and I am paying for the service. I wrote a letter sent it recorded,just ignored, waited on the phone for 20 mins for supervisor then cut off. please do not enter into a contract with this company. please be warned!
We got the new PVR box the week before Xmas on the £99 deal. It didn’t work properly, so I wrote to cancel and request it to be sent back. In the meantime, I managed to get it to work, and it seems to be going fine.
Annoyingly it ‘locks up’ quite frequently – there must be various software glitches, and the only solution is to unplug the power lead and then restart it. Maybe future software updates will solve the glitches.
However, the biggest problem is that TUTV no longer have anything worth watching. We’ve had it for a month – the kids have looked at some of the Disney channel programmes, and that’s about it. You need to be American to appreciate the Hallmark and Paramount programmes. The Discovery documentaries are pretty second rate. Some TCM films are OK, but the freeview channels have better offerings. UKTV is OK, but there are only so many ‘classic repeats’ that you can watch.
In the meantime, TUTV have cut back their basic offering. Their screening of Eurosport is virtually extinct.
TUTV used to be OK in the old days, when you got 6-8 additional channels and a resonable chance of finding something better than Freeview. Now you get a possible maximum of 100 hours (if you chose to receive all their channels) almost all of which is rubbish. That’s no different to most of the dross on Sky, except that somewhere among their schedules you have a chance of finding something you like.
TUTV Anytime could be great, but I really don’t think they can have done their market research properly. Either that, or I suspect they have been priced out of the market and are having to run with the only programmes they can afford to buy.
In the meantime, their admin has just caught up with my letter of cancellation and I’ve now lost the Anytime downloads. The PVR is still working OK, so I’ll keep it, and use it to record the decent programmes on freeview. Ultimately, I guess I’ve got a bit of a bargain. If TUTV get some decent programmes, I guess I can always go back.
Hi
judging by all the comments regarding Top Up TV Anytime nearly all the problems I have are the same as everyone else.
Locking up, programs not recording correctly & unable to watch a second program when recording another etc. I understand that a fix is being developed even as we speak but obviously this has not been found yet.
I will give them the benefit of the doubt until the end of February. If the problems have not been resolved I will then cancel my Direct Debit & may seek legal advice.
Hi all
The box from TopUp TV the new Thompson box is rubbish. Mine has never worked and I have been charged for the pleasure of watching extra channels I can’t get. I am now in the process of ending the thing back but had to wait four weeks for the return label. Not impressed with TopUp TV!
topuptv anytime what a joke i have had nothing but trouble i phoned them to complain but allthey say is that there is going to be a softwear upgrsde which should sort out the troubl. i think we should all get a free month for our trouble i for one will not be putting up with for much longer.
hi i got my new top up tv anytime box a week a go and i have not got picture box on i have phone them up yesterday and ask them if i can get it they said a film will be download over night i have check to day and i have not got IT wot can i do from robert thomas duffy
HI ITS ME AGAIN ROBERT THOMAS DUFFY I HAVE READ EVERYBOADYS REVIEW AND I WOULD LIKE TO SAY I AGREE EVERY SO OFTEN MY ANYTIME BOX WOULD FREEZE I COULD NOT WATCH A PROGRAMME THE OTHER NIGHT IT WAS SOUTH PARK BECAUSE WHEN I WENT ON TO IT THERE WAS NO PICTURE ON THE SCREEN I HAVE HAD NO PROBLEMS WITH RECORDINGS OR WITH THE CHANNELS I HAVE SAVED THE ONLY OTHER PROBLEMS I HAVE IS THAT YOU CAN ONLY WATCH UK GOLD BEWTEEN 4PM UNTIL 1 AM WHY IS THAT WHEN I HEARD IT WAS TOP UP TV ANY TIME I THOUGHT YOU COULD WATCH A CHANNEL ANYTIME YOU WANT BUT YOU CANT I WILL LIKE TO SAY THAT TUTV ANYTIME IS THE BEST THING I HAVE GOT AND I HAVE EVERY FAITH IN TOP UP TV ANYTIME GETTING ALL OF THESE PROBLEMS SORT OUT THANKS
HI WOTS THE DIFFERNTS BETWEEN THE £7.99 PAYMENMT AND THE 9.99 PAYMENT
I have finally given up with Top up T.V.Having taken their service virtually from day one I finally lost my patience when British Eurosport was banished to a morning slot.Can anyone please explain which planet the morons running Top up T.V. actually originate from.
1) The Thompson box is of unmerchantable quality (sale of goods act) as it is not suitable for the purpose for which it is sold.
2) Top-Up-TV are charging us for a service that either we cannot receieve or is unavailable.
Considering most of us paid a deposit up front, and that the despatch was delayed, and then the software had to be updated in january, the product was obviously rushed out without proper testing.
Everyone with a problem with this box should write to Top-Up-Tv and state that either the service is not being provided (ie channels are not being broadcast when the are supposed to be) therefore they are in breach of contract, or the equipment is faulty, and as the retailer they are liable for replacement, repair or refund under the sale of goods.
Note that they CAN NOT refer you to Thompson for warranty or repair if you bought the box from Top-Up-TV. The law says that the retailer is responsible to the customer.
Total hassle. I have just spoken to TUTV Customer Services. I have had the same problems as everyone else since December. No downloaded content for the past five days despite a re-boot and re-scan.
By the way some previous movies that have successfully downloaded have cut off mid way through!
They have asked me to call back tonight when I am in front of the T.V. to talk me through the process of “pairing my viewing card with the DTR via the menu” Are they making these reasons up as they go along?
Will give them this final opportunity and then they can shove it.
I’m sooooo disappointed. After everything working fine, except ‘saved’ topuptv progs not saving, I phoned topuptv and they told me to do a ‘factory reset.’ This deleted everything I saved including all the downloads that I had at the time. Since then I have had no downloads either so now I am worse off than before. I feel really fed up with this now.
I was a Sky Refugee who was completely dissatisfied with their service,having spent hours and hours trying to speak to an Human Being at their Customer Service.I cancelled and had Freeview,which was fine until they convinced me to go with their NEW Topup TV package.I signed on for 12months paying £75 for the new Thompson Box.The Box was delivered late,and from the first time I set it up ,I have been beset with problems.I have reset it some 12 times already after a Lockup,and frequently cannot access Topup anytime,or record preplanned programs.I have spoken to their Customer service,who stated all would be better at the end of Feb.Today the 1st March,I spent 45 minutes trying to reset after yet another lockup,and phoned them yet again.This time I am hit with,”we are very busy trying to sort out customers problems,so there is an extra wait.”Eventually I get a very noisy call centre ,with Alex who speaks broad Glaswegian,which I can hardly understand,so I ask for Cancellations,to be told after another 30 minutes wait,that I had a 12 month contract,so I could not cancel.I am now going through Solicitors under Sales Of Goods Act,for Delivery of a Product Not of Merchantable Quality,and Non Provision of a Proper Service.I will now go back to basic Sky,under protest.All those out there,BEWARE of Topup TV.Mike Parker-Stow@hotmail.co.uk
Hi all
I had the new box del december & from that time have spent endless hours phoning customer services not the most polite people in the world talk to you like its your fault the equipment is not working .What I want to know as one of the customers that sighned up for a year how do I stand about cancelling my subscription as even when the box is working the channel it tapes are really not worth watching. Very dissapointed.
wmlfvuiqfvsikahI am also very disappointed with topUpTv My Thompsom box has not downloaded for the past 3 days. – this has happened periodically before. The downloads and any programmes saved will not replay even though they are shwn as present in the library. I have tried phoning technical and customer services several times, but have given up after 30 mins wait. Want to cancel but concerned about contractual issues.
Being a top up tv customer already last year i thought things were looking up with the introduction of top up tv anytime, i enjoyed it then so thought i’ll go for the cheaper option and subscribe for a year unfortunately they since then have axed all the channels i like unfortunately the channels i watch the most are Discovery, Discovery Real Time which have both been axed, UK Gold which has had its viewing time snipped and my favourite EUROSPORT which now has a patheticcoverage of 2 1/2 hours a day so the channels have got worse what’s downloaded is poorand i’m paying extra for the previlage of a hard drive recorder i’m not impressed!
Fleetwood, UK.
Early days but so far so good… Ordered my DTR (online for £75) midday on Wed 28 Feb and received it at 3PM on Mon 5 April. Ran setup and tuned it all in. Found 8 frequencies, 88 channels plus the 19 TUTV channels. Was a bit concerned when I found no programs had been downloaded overnight on Mon/Tue 5/6 April but did receive an OAD (Over Air Download) which I duly installed. Contacted TUTV Tech. Support (took 15mins to get a reply!) and they confirmed that the OAD was intended to address program download problems. Must be a minor update as the box is still showing its s/w revision as v2.0 as it was when it first arrived. Anyway, the update seems to have worked as programs are downloading now. As I said, it’s early days yet but results so far are encouraging. If things remain as they are I think it’s a good deal for £2.50 per week. Will keep you posted.
Just a word of warning to those who may be thinking of signing up tp Top Up TV anytime. I’ve decided to leave the service on account of the range of programmes, and the fact that the box often fails to download what it should. It turns out that although I paid for the box, it’s not officially mine, and now I have to send it back to Top Up TV. Just to clarify you can only keep the box as long as you subscribe to Top Up TV.
I’ve had enough of this box too…just tried to record “Last days of the Raj” on C4 and watch Most Haunted on FTN – but not a chance. Added to the constant freezing etc with the box I’m calling TUTV tomorrow to cancel!
Top up TV, Poor after sales service still awaiting refund for sending the first box back.
The second one is now started freezing up and is noisy.
Not good value for what it costs and 90% of the programs are complete rubbish.
Not a happy user I feel used.
Hi!
An answer for Toni Lewis
I understand that the USB port is not in use at the moment (recieved an email from TUTV detailing this from what must have been one of their technojocks) it apparently will be used in the future for “archiving” whatever this may be,sounds a good idea,but what you will be able to archive is a mistory right now.
First let me say that I am not a TUTV or Freeview employee- in fact my only connection with them is that I have a box and have subscribed to TUTV Anytime.
I have been to many blogs and in all of them have seen some bad comment on these boxes. Mine is ok,though I did complain bitterly when Mythbusters was discontinued!!.
I would like to close by giving some general advise,
Digital TV transmitions are “piggybacked” onto the normal terestrial transmitions,but at a fraction of the power that they will be after switchover.This means that if you don’t have a good ariel system then there could easily be problems (the box however may not be the problem), some people may just buy the box and put it onto a crap antenna/downfeed system and expect it to work- dont do it- check your antenna, if its old then replace it!.
TUTV’s web site has information that tells you how to check your signal quality, get the info and use it!. My signal strengh is 5 the minimum that TUTV recomends and I have no problems
Life After Top Up TV
I started as a Top Up TV customer in 2004 and made the mistake of believing the hype and ordering the TUTV Anytime box, thinking it would be a better service.
I really should have known better. Previously I’d returned two TUTV set top boxes to Argos as they’d all stopped working within their 12 months guarantee. Then I bought a Goodman TUTV box which gets all the TUTV channels – no problem.
The reason I mention this is that all the duff boxes were made by Thomson (no other maker was doing the TUTV box back then). So if I had known that the Top UpTv Anytime box was also a Thomson, I would NEVER in a month of Sundays have ordered it in the first place.
When teh Anytime box finally arrived, it never found Channel 5 – and therefore none of the TUTV channels – even though my Goodman’s box found them all! In addition I was told by TUTV Technical Support that the box HAD to be left switched on 24 hours a day so that it can be upgraded. What joy, so now I also had to pay to hear its humming noise – 24 hours a day! So very environmentally friendly.
Of course I also had the pleasure of the same customer service as everyone else: delayed delivery for Christmas; long waits on the phone no mater which number I chose on that day; an unhelpful website; and a returns label that took forever to arrive.
One glimmer of hope, as a good will gesture, a very nice Customer Service operative said I could go back to the basic TUTV package at a raet of £4.99 for 6 months.
I decided to stay but after one month suddenly the TUTV channels wouldn’t work. When I checked, I found that they hadn’t taken out the previous month’s direct debit.
When I rang Customer Services, I was told that my account had been closed as I hadn’t paid! What a novel business ethic; they fail to take the direct debit, close your account and then blame you!
I decided that rather than argue the toss I’d finally let TUTV win and told them that the account could stay closed.
And having checked on the TUTV website I think I’m ‘quids in’. I’ve saved my time, phone bills, and a direct debit for £7.99 a month for very little: the basic TUTV only gets VERY limited viewing of four channels now that Anytime has been launched.
This reminds me of my previous saga with On Digital, leading to a complaint to the CEO, but that’s another story…
Hi all,
Since the last upgrade (now on version 2.4?) the previous problems seem to have been resolved. However, has anyone else experienced the following – when deleteing unwanted programmes, the box ‘crashes’ and reboots itself. This doesn’t happen all the time, but it did when I was recording something else and I lost the programme I was recording – very annoying. The other problem I have is my remote is not very responsive, especially when scrolling up and down the menus. TUTV customer services (that team of comedians) are suggesting a master reset to fix the problem of the reomote, but I am reluctant to do this as I will lose all my recordings and I can’t see how this will make the remote start to work again. Any comments anyone?
HELLO HOW DO YOU GET A 2.3 VERSION MINE IS STILL 0.94 AND AN ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE. THE REMOTE CONTROL DOESNT WORK UNTIL AFTER 9PM IT KEEPS JERKING ALL THE TIME. THE RECORDINGS ARE ALL WRONG AS ARE THE DOWNLOADED STUFF, ITS ALL MIXED UP SO YU DON,T GET WHAT IT SAYS IT IS. ALL CUST SERVICES KEEP TELLING ME IS TO GO TO FORCE DOWNLOAD AND LEAVE IT ON STANDBY, WELL ITS BEEN ON STANDBY SINCE A WEEK B4 XMAS!
Hi
My recommendation is, DON’T DO IT. I am throwing mine in the bin, absolutely useless piece of junk, even worse service. Switching to Virgin with immediate effect.
In 2000 I was paying £9.99 for Sky Family Pack. Four years later I noticed I was paying £21.00 for the same package. I cancelled my Sky contract and bought a Freeview box. In December 2006 I took delivery of a Topup TV Anytime box. Yes, they had some teething problems but they now seem to have got their act together and the service I now get from my Topup TV Anytime service box is light years ahead of the Sky box that I sold for £5.00 at a car boot sale, and it only costs £9.99 a month that I was paying Sky seven years ago.
10 April 2007
Hi
ref these BL**DY thompson boxes
mine came mid dec, ever since it has rebooted itself mid viewing or recording, freezing. locking out
recording wrong channels, missing end or beginning of recording, I have to unplug it virtually every day, and now to top it all the box reset itself and now only the orange light is on (hasen’t gone to red) so I can’t even turn the dam thing on to do a master reset or anything. Annoyiny as well I have saved some good films on it and now I’ll loose the lot and I haven’t seen them yet.
On Monday I am going to inform them of the sale of goods act, and cancel my subscription.
looking at the contract it says “if you cancel you have to return the DTR box at your cost”
on my receipt letter it says “your DTR will become yours when paid for in full” as far as i am concerned they can have the BL**DY thin back period!!!!
Ref last message
if anyone knows how to get my box back to the red light (not orange) whilst i am waiting for TUTV for the next 6 months to sort it out I would be grateful.
PS it is still going to go back but at least I could watch tv (at the moment it plugs into a projector so i cant watch anything)
thanks
Hi just to let you all know that i had ben getting probs with mt tuat box i refused to pay untill it was sorted and it worked they wer to be fair very good with me i gat 3monthe free air time and the the down the latest uprade seems to have worked.
Hi everyone, Its such a shame so many of us are disappointed with TUTV A. I have a query if anybody can help? I got my box on Friday (idiot me didn’t read reviews) and no subtitles (“definitely to be fixed in 2 weeks) – I’m deaf so can’t watch TV, and secondly, I can’t seem to get any programs from the anytime. I have the correct subscription (Help, 1397) I rang the helpline and with some difficulty made out that I’m to leave the box on standby but I don’t under what this means, does it mean for a whole day? or a during a certain time period? or on a certain channel? Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks
Will anytime tv get Bravo in the future?
Deborah,
You have to leave the box either on standby or fully switched on 24 hours a day. The vast majority of programmes are recorded overnight (except UKTV Gold which record in the evenings).
As for subtitles, this feature will apparently be switched on in the next software release (after 2.44) – same goes for instant record. This update was promised at the end of April by their customer service people but hasn’t been delivered yet :-(
Hope that helps
Steven
Thanks for letting us know about the engineer’s hidden menu! Has anyone tried any of the HDD tests or things like ‘force OAD update’ or whatever it’s called?!!?
Thanks STEVEN, much help! I’m hoping they get it updated sooner rather than later. No TV for ages now, miss my cheesy documentaries, mind you, I’ve been watching DVDs instead and started watching Dr Who Series 1. How brilliant is it?! Have even got Dallas recording on the series link but just realised they won’t be subtitled either so I’m just about to order it on DVD! :D Hurrah for DVDs.
I got a message last night saying there was a new update! My heart LEAPT for joy! Finally, I was to have subtitles. … oh..its for v2.44…I already had that….*gutted*
We bought the box when it first came out. As you said initially there were problems which were said to have been sorted out. However after numerous phone calls and two letters which have’nt even been answered I am just about to cantact my local Trading Standards Office. In other words don’t even entertain the idea of having one.
As a reminder – if you’re not happy with TopUpTV Anytime, consider one of the othert options – BT Vision, Cable or Satellite. See our Digital TV Options page.
I am sick of TUTV…I really am. I haven’t used my box at all since I got it and I’m charged monthly, I can understand that, I agreed to a contract. But not answering my emails any more? Taking the piss. I’ve put in a complaint with BBC WATCHDOG……..I couldn’t find a suitable category so stuck it under other or misc. If everyone else would do the same maybe we’ll get somewhere. Could cry really, I’m not asking for much!!! None of us are..
In answer to how to get the accursed machine from just having the orange light continously on and nothing happening, this is it: you need to interupt the power to the thing, and then keep pressing the ‘standby’ button on the thing until the orange light comes on. At this point press the ‘menu’ and then the ‘ok’ button.
I’m told this may work. Failing that restart it again whilst holding the ‘standby’ button until the first light comes on. At this point press ‘up arrow’, then ‘down arrow’ then ‘left arrow’ and then (you guessed it) ‘right arrow’.
This worked first time out, but you lose everything that’s saved. Sub-optimal.
Can any body tell me how to record on the unit when you have stopped paying tutv? All it says is you must subscride, how can you get rid of this message?
I have had absolutely no trouble with Topup TV. The programmes record fine, I can save stuff for as long as I want and I’m getting the updates I want. I have had no need to call customer services, and the communications they sent me to secure a delivery date were accurate.
The only thing I have had a recent problem with is replacing the batteries in the remote has meant I need to reset the codes for operating my TV, and I can’t find the codes or remember how to do it. Small potatoes in comparison to all your problems. I have had nothing but satisfaction from my viewing. Some of the programmes wouldn’t necessarily be my first choice, but it’s easy enough to delete them.
As a subscriber to the Top Up TV Anytime service since December, I came to this blog to find out why the TellyRadio website now says “Top Up TV – NOT RECOMMENDED”.
Having read previous comments, I still have no idea why.
Yes there are still a few problems with both the service and the hardware, but they are being ironed out and worked on by the Top Up TV team.
I think it’s a great service for the price. Who has time to watch the many channels on Sky and cable anyway to make it worthwhile?
I would, and do recommend Top Up TV Anytime to anyone and everyone.
For £9.99 a month you get a good selection of TV programmes from the likes of MTV, Paramount Comedy, Disney channels, Discovery Factual & Lifestyle, UKTV Gold, Eurosport and many other channnels, downloaded to your DTR overnight without you having to lift a finger to go through an EPG or other TV Guide to find something interesting to watch.
Spend more time watching TV rather than searching for something to watch.
Matter of personal choice. I had Top Up Anytime and had nothing but problems – the ones reported here – box lock-ups, failed recordings, and dire customer service when I can to call them. Gave up in disgust and got a refund – I now have BT Vision which has a stack of TV shows to view on demand. Shows that I want to watch, when I want to watch. Box more stable, and the price is lower!!
It definately was sold before it was ready for customers and has needed several software downloads to get subtitles,text,stop it freezing or recording correctly. Top UP TV have been good in refunding subscriptions as i have been threatening to cancel and have been quite good customer service wise but if i had bought it from a shop it woud have gone back! However it seems the latest download has made it a lot better and many problems have been solved. Its just a pity the company didn’t warn cutomers that this may happen until all the software was downloaded.
This is all a bit one sided, everybody knows that people will post a bad comment, but very few post good comments, why not check out http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=156 or http://www.ukkafka.co.uk/phpBB2/index.php people over at these two forums just might be able to help people out, they know an awful lot about the Anytime box and service.
The only trouble with http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/ or http://www.ukkafka.co.uk/ is it is controlled by a few TUTVAT fan boys or possibly they are employed by TUTV.
At least you would certainly think so. because if any one dares to have any grievance against TUTV they will all gang up against the poster and intimidate them or will take the thread so far off topic till the whole point of the posters grievance is lost.
Also for some reason the mods on DS are scared of them even offering them an apology at the top of the page.
If you want an unbiased view of TUTV keep away from these sites as you will only get a one sided view. That of the fan boys not a true picture.
In reality the box is still very unstable i.e.. constant lockups reboots needed daily green screen problems and various others to many to mention.
Also lots of repeats. and stuff you get on freeview for nothing.
Also when the fan boys see this they will try. SORRY, no succeed in destroying this post by trying to FORCING THEIR OPINION ON YOU THE READER
They have even intimidated this site because IT DARED TO NOT RECOMMEND TUTV.
Hello one and all.I had so much trouble with Sky,I changed to Freeview 2 years ago;then last December upgraded to Topup Anytime.From day one ,nothing but problems;tried to send it back to be toldI had signed a contract ,so could not;went to trading standards who said”Topup TV have a contract with you and that does not include the Thompson Box”.How can you get rid of that Box?I tried,and told them days when they could pick it up,again to no avail.I have now been forced to endure this for a year.Absolute pergatory-Continuous freezing,Uploading during day viewing,Cutting off recording of films and programs before end,inability to access Topup,frequent resetting and rebooting,and a continuous whirring noise 24/7because you must not turn it off.Finally the programs that they record for you are rubbish.Oh,I forgot to mention losing the signal,when noisy Mopeds,and old cars go past,and when construction workers nearby use high powered Electrical equipment.I made the mistake of trying new aerial and booster,in line with the Topup help board.The Customer service is of no use at all.So one pissed off user!!
The TUTV box is only fair at best. I’m on software version 2.88, and it still has some of the same problems as it had from day 1 (locking up etc.) In fact Version 2.88 seems a little worse than version 2.7, and there is no way to roll back to an earlier firmware!
I would give this box 6 out of 10
As for TUTV as a company, they are worse than British Gas, now that’s saying somthing!
Billy, why dont you just give TUTV a Call on the tech line and speak to them about it!!
For your own information the old firmware was 2.81 not 2.7! and you can reverse the software!
If you are rude to people on the phone they will be rude back to you and not help you. use your manners and talk to them nicely. explain the situation and they will help you!
2.88 is better than 2.81 and as for freezing its mostly caused due to signal strengths not been strong enough! another issue that causes freezing is the fact people will insist on using an ANALOUGE areial with DIGITAL equp* where the hell is the common sence in that one??
ANOTHER issue is the fact that if you come on a site like this, you reaad all the problems then strat to look for problems in your own box!
REMEMBER TUTV never made the box! its not there fault! it was made by THOMPSON!
Top up tv? Absolute rubbish! Can’t get out of the contract either! It’s so bad, we thought it might actually be owned by Murdoch, to push people towards sky! It works intermittantly at best – they keep telling us “it’s the signal!” but our other 2 freeview boxes work fine. One day it actually mixed up the titles on the downloads, so, click a kids program, and you get South park or Jackass! It may well be the signal – but if they had told us that watching crappy TUTV content required us to fork out to install a whole new antennae system and wiring, we would never have got it. I believe this company will go bust in early March, and we will get another box to add to our collection of failed TV venture equipment (Our old Ondigital box still works fine!)
Hi. I’ve had, and am still having a problem with corrupted files, which makes a 30 min (from regular TV scheduling) program takes up all the room on the disk. This happens on a regular basis.
I’ve had a replacement box, but I’m still having the same problem.
It’s running of version 2.88. Wonder if anyone has had the same problem (and hopefully found a solution).
Thanks all!
2.88 update has seriously bricked my DTR. I now have no EPG and it has taken to randomly recording shows or ignoring ny recording requests. Oh Joy.
i’m having a problem with the box, i got it all set up and connected,
wehin i switched it on, it comes up with the press the green button to install the programs, but the box isn’t responding to the remote, i know the remote works as it works on my tv,
is there a code for the remote to work the box? its a thomson DTI 6300-16
thanks
Hi Kevin
I know this is really obvious, so sorry if you’ve done this, but have you pressed to button towards the top of the remote to switch the remote over from TV mode the PVR mode?
Hey, i have a top up tv box and on wednesday most haunted live is on does the box show most haunted live on living? The operaters seem to say that it will but i want to be sure answers much apreciated x:)x
Well finally had enough of this totally pants product and returned it to John Lewis after 7 months, who instantly gave a refund. They informed me that they have had so many return they’ve discontinued them and put them on ‘refund on return to store’. They’ve practically had every one returned with some fault. What a totally dreadful product. I strongly recommend that if you have a faulty unit (which it looks like most of you do), that you return them for a refund and buy a different model. Bought a ‘Topfield’. More expensive, but my god it works with no fuss what’s so ever (and has top up tv). Good luck all & bye bye.
Hrm. I’m in two minds as whether to copy Jon, there. Given the quite laughable recording time compared to claims (less than 40 hours i’d reckon), I’m using it more as a timeshifting device to slurp interesting repeat series out of the freeview channels (Dave, Five US, ITV4 etc) then dump them onto VHS. Which works… fairrrly well. But it still has the stupid glitches – missing or corrupt or mistimed recordings, occasional lockups, series link stupidity, inability to seek, etc.
I’m going to push Thomson to see if any updates are going to be forthcoming any time soon to fix this nonsense (even if they have to be put on a USB stick, or floppy disc via a USB drive)… If not, then I’ll probably be looking for a more expensive (but better value) Freeview-only PVR – or ditching it altogether for a V-box, as we still have a vestigial Virgin cable box hanging around – and returning the Thomson to Tesco after retrieving anything of value from it.
Luckily I haven’t yet been tempted to either upgrade the hard disc, or extract programmes direct to DVD using my computer, so the sanctity of it’s case and warranty are assured.
Not to mention it’s a noisy beast, takes more than 45 seconds to come back online after power-cycling, and – if the measurements on “Radio and Telly” can be believed, uses a full 17 watts even on standby… My LAPTOP doesn’t even need that much juice!
PLEASE HELP!
MY DAUGHTER TOOK THE BATTERYS OUT OF OUR REMOTE FOR THE THOMSON
DTI6300R, AND NOW WE HAVE NO VOLUME CONTROL,
DOES ANYONE HAVE THE CODES TO USE/INSTRUCTIONS AS WE CAN’T FIND OURS, AND IT’S DRIVING US MAD!
ANY HELP MUCH MUCH APPRECIATED.
THANKS
MAZ
OMG… it works. after a year of problems, my thompson box now works without problems. A year and more of unplugging and plugging the box to get the thing to start after freezing had obviously taken its toll on the poor thing. With no recorded programs and no top up tv channels activated my disk space was only 62 percent which suggested that i had lots of problems on my disk. The record function had long since recorded a whole program all the way through and it was ready for the bin. After i opened the box and cleaned all the dust out, cleaned the fan unit and then did a master reset of the box. The thing started working again. Disk space available was 99 percent, it was quiet and a week has passed without it freezing up,, i can record and play back a whole episode of how to look good naked without missing the good bit. I am amazed.
lets not get too carried away….. surely it cant last.
my dt16300-299 at set up stuck on child set tried setup 3 times then
i just accepted th 12a and it ran thro ok this was not explicit i am
age 85 had 70 years in rx/tv electronics comms book stated press
red to record planned result a blank
plan page i then used the [R] BUTTON
the book wasnt clear ive not opted to use free topup card .now the help
usage down load on the library
bottom storage area has ceased and also i have one saved prog in my area will not delete if i try to
the box locks up like a pc does and
i have to sw mains off restart the progs on top of this library item
i can continue delete so why or will it go itself many days
HOW TO GET ALLLLL CHANNELS
UPGRADING YOUR SOFTWARE TO VERSION 2.99
1-go to menu
2- go to setup
3-go to help
4-press 1397
5-go to force next OAD press ok to activate
6-WAIT 10 MIN
7-switch off by power
8-WAIT 5 MIN
9-switch back on waiting for the amber light to go red then press on with your remote
10-WAIT 40 MIN IT WILL INSTALL INTSELF
P.S I HAD TO DO THIS TWICE BEFORE IT WORKED. TO CHECK YOU HAVE THE NEW SOFTWARE GO TO MENU/SETUP/HELP CHECK THE SOFRWARE VERSION IS 2.99
just bought one of these tutv things lol
i got it for £70 and so i took the one months free trial to tutv
and my HONEST OPINION IS LMAO WTF IS THIS LOL ………lets all go back to sky digi lol ….i must say this is bad ……the pvr box is nice for 70 bucks ……..but the tutv is garb lol i dont even like will and grace lol
shocking way to watch tv ………….garlic bread its the future lol
thats my 10p’s worth thanks for letting me rant lol
After reading the list of problems with topupt/v i have had nothing but trouble with it, first the Thompson box then a bush,both locked at 11.32 each morning missing my recordings,customer service are a waste of time and very little help.if i worked for topup i would be worried about my job in customer service.
I have tryed 2 of the Bush TUTV boxes, both had various problems: noisy, lockups, failed recordings (>50% failure), insanely needs user interaction when 2 channel recording and not in standby. The two positives were the search feature (text search for program names) and the re-scheduling feature did suggest other times to record repeats if the box failed to record, but thats like providing an oven glove with a new cell phone because it sometimes catches fire!
I was almost going to stick with it and accept that all those problems were just becuase it is a new technology and further firmware updates will fix it. However, I bought a TVonics box (with a no quibble 14 day moneyback gaurentee) to see how a slightly more expensive box handled things; man! what a difference. I have had it for 2 months now, not a single failed recording, records 2 channels without you having to remember to put it into standby (which you do with the Bush). Basically, it does what it should and handles all those normal contentions & scenarios in a logical and expected manor. I was not surprised then to find that the hardware and user interface was designed in the UK. I sent the Bush boxes back citing ‘unfit for purpose’ which to their credit, Argos were happy to accept.
I put my box on this morning and none of the top up tv programes had been recorded. I have not had any problems before. When i went to scan the tv channels they all came back, what was already saved was still there, but not last nights. I have used the guide to see what will be recorded tonight but it is not showing anything, also most of the channels had been deactivated which are now activated
Hi,
This is to all the people like me that are having troubles with the big pile of rubbish that is the Thompson top up tv digital box. I have had 3 now and they have all had the same problem they just keep freezing so much so that most days it happens about 5 times in 10 minutes. I contacted the brilliant people at Consumer Direct and told them the problems i have been and still am having. They have informed me that under the supply of goods and services at 1982/common law scotland, this provides that work should be carried out with reasonable care and skill and goods supplied as part of this service should be of satisfactory quality. If they fail to do this you can hold the trader in breach of contract and seek compensation for any such losses caused by the breach of contract. They have advised me to write a formal letter to them telling them of my complaint and that their attempts to replace them have clearly failed and that i want a refund. I have been told by Consumer Direct that it is adviseable to ask for a reasonable outcome as if i am unable to resolve the matter with the trader then ultimatley it will be up to a judge to decide in court. Thet also told me that as i purchased my box on my card that under section 75 of the consumer credit act 1974,which will make the gredit card company equally liable under the suply of goods and services act and for this reason the card company should be contacted and informed of the situation. It is about time that Top Up Tv are held responsible for peddling completely useless rubbish and start paying back those people who went and bought there rubbish under the misconseption that this would be the way forward for tv boy was i suckered!!!! if any one wants the contact details for Consumer Direct or the top up tv head office then let me know.
Thomson DTI6300 – well, I wish I had come across these comments before buying this junk! It is quite unbelievable that in the year 2010, stores like Tesco are allowed to sell this kind of simply unusable rubbish.
The people who designed the box should be on the dole right now … the reliability is simply abysmal:
it is freezing up, it is randomly ignoring/losing recordings, the display has “hiccups” (irritating pauses) etc.
User friendliness is another idea the Thomson experts obviously never heard of, just one example here:
there is one (!) red LED indicating the recording status of two channels, so the user has to guess what is happening. Or go through various sub-menus to investigate. For goodness’ sake, add another blooming LED for 2 pence so that there is one for each channel!
There are other signs of programming incompetence, esp. in the way the EPG panel behaves …. can’t be bothered listing them here, the crappy box is going back today.
In case you were wondering, the software version in my box is 5.08, ie. the latest creation. I think they should get some schoolkids to do the programming for them.
hi all,had all the same problems,but fixed most myself,top up tv cancelled.took box apart removed all connectors,used compressed air aerosole to clean out connectors and made sure all connections were remade correctly,this cured most of the freezin and picture break up.problem seems to be poor quality connections that are either not done properly at factory or they creep when box is moved about.
this solved 80% of the problems,adding a digital ariel booster has improved picture break up further even tho the signal quality and strength show very little improvement.
after doing all of this, box was much much better,being able to watch programes and record,with very little freezin or break up.however is was still not happy so i took it all apart again,this time i removed the motherboard and redid alot of the solder connections.i would now say that the box is 95% better.i dont think that i could get it 100% as this box has been made down to a price.but now the problems are only occassional and i have a usable piece of equipment.
it is a shame about all the inbuilt problems,because when it works as it should it is very good.
altho you shouldn’t have to.these fix’s are very easy to do if you feel confident taking things apart,if not you may know someone who could help.i cant promise that will get the same results but could be worth a try.however please ensure that the power is not connected before you start.
hope that some of you find this helpfull.