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Why not call Topfield support and ask - there's a chance that adverse customer feedback to the forum removal could result in it coming back.

I emailed them. Their reply was (I'm paraphrasing here) "The forum was a user run forum and we have no control over them". Sound like complete bulltish to me, but certainly doesn't sound hopeful for the return of the forum, does it?  Can Vortical etc. comment on this?

Regards, Ron.

Progress report. No information available about the forum's return. Someone is (said to be) working on it. Comment was made that the more people that call and complain about its absence the more likely it is that the work will be given higher priority.

It's been a while now. Is there any further information on this? Obviously not a high priority for Topfield.

Regards
Ron

Hi. Yes, I can vouch for the Harmony 525, which I use. My wife prefers the Topfield remote, but I use the Harmony almost exclusively. You will definitely need to customise the buttons, as I found that the Logitech setup program put in too many functions (many I never use so I deleted them), and not always where I wanted them. I also combined TV/PVR functions on the one "device" setting, so I didn't have to swap between devices just to access some functions (TV Volume for instance). But once you've done this the Harmony is a dream.

As mentioned, the keys are a bit small, but you get used to them, and they are well spaced. Perhaps one of the other Harmony units would be better suited to your wife's needs, but they do get pricey. Go into a decent store and ask them to let you play with the various units, until you find one your wife likes the feel of.

Why do you expect IceTV to support a beta product? Win7 is still in beta testing, things have (and are) changing between releases. If the issue still exists when the full version of Win7 ships (or it's not fixed within a reasonable time frame) then you have a valid point.

Given that Ice have numerous other devices to support, that are actually properly released products, I think it's slightly unfair of you to expect them to expend a large portion of their resources supporting a beta program.

If someone wants a rock solid machine for use in production, then they shouldn't consider Win7.

The reasons are that ICE TV encouraged the beta testing on WIN 7 from the earliest release. It has now been roughly four (4) months since and no real work has been done to resolve it. The problem is a known quantity. I would need to be convinced that anything relevant is changing. And indeed that is not the reason that has been offered. A large number of people world wide including ICE Tv customers are using WIN 7 on production machines for obvious reasons because it is hardly beta software and Microsoft has pushed the software with a very wide public release and numerous leaked builds. Finally, it would probably be a different story if the functionality being added was to enable the use of basic equipment required by subscribers. But it is redesigning the website, mobile phones applications and widgets for those who already have functionality.

I'm sorry, but Release Candidate is not a shipped product. Microsoft can (and may) still change things under the bonnet. Until it is shrink wrapped and on the shelves, ready for us to hand over cash so we can own it, you use it at your own risk. Anyone who uses Win7 on a Production Machine is brave, at best (I didn't want to say stupid, as that may offend  :o ).

Yes, IceTV encouraged people to undertake BETA testing. This is always done at your own risk, irrespective of who is encouraging it. It is implicit that you do this at your own risk, and that you accept that there are likely to be problems, which is rather the point.

So, like others, I think bagging IceTV for not fixing all the problems with this release is very unfair.

(I have no connection whatsoever with IceTV, in case you were wondering.)

Hi all,  Just a quick question...

...I only have a Toppy 7000 and can't do the whole wireless thing so have to keep going between the computer and the STB to set the recordings for channel 9...

Hi Ben. Have you thought about connecting a wireless access point to the ethernet connector on your 7000. This should allow you to link in to your home network wirelessly (assuming you have one set up). I haven't tried this myself but I'm sure I've seen references to it somewhere in the (sadly unavailable for the moment for some reason) iTopfield forums. There may also be references to it in the "old" Topfield forums, which cater mainly for the older Toppys, but also covers the newer models.

The original Topfiled forum can be found at:  http://www.topfield-australia.com.au/phpbb2/

Even if there isn't already a thread to cover this (unlikely), If you start one, I'm sure the fantastic Toppy community will come to your rescue in short order.
I see no reason why it shouldn't work. And if you have an "N" network set up at home, it will actually be faster than the "G" wireless dongle you get with the 7100.

Good luck.

Ron.

I rang TF support and was told the site would be down for at least 6 weeks. Managed from Korea, ouside the control of people in Australia. Hard to believe though.

That's quite a long time to be down for.
Anyway thanks for ringing and letting us know.

Edit: The itopfield website and forum is hosted in Korea but as for why the 6 weeks + outage for the forums only has occurred we're all in the dark on that one.

This topic got hijacked very early and seems to have turned into a F/W thread for a little while then nothing.  Has there been any update on the iTopfield forums? Or are they still down for an unspecified time? Is it time to hammer Topfield with annoying phone calls, or perhaps Topfield in Korea?

Ron

...What are people's experience with playing non-recorded videos on this device. I understand they need to be in MPEG format and have a special topfield file header? Given my videos are already in Mpeg format, to add the special header does it require a complete transcode or is it a relatively fast and simple process.

Not sure what you mean by non-recorded videos. If you mean videos that didn't originate on the Topfield (DVD rips etc), then I'm afraid there's no easy way to import these and watch them on the Toppy. It's not designed as a Media Player, but as a pure PVR.  It can be done, but requires some software that has been written by others much cleverer than me to build a couple of ancillary files the Toppy uses to navigate videos. You need to transcode your video to MPEG format, then use this software to build the extra files. Then transfer all of these to the Toppy to watch. I haven't done this as I'm too lazy. I'll just watch such things on my PC.

If it's a media player/PVR you're after, then the Beyonwiz products are probably more what you need, as they provide fairly comprehensive media capabilities. I have a Topfield, with which I am very happy, so can't really advise you about the Beyondwiz. There are forums on Whirlpool, and on Beyondwiz's website where you can get more details. There's also a lot of discussion/comparison of Topfield vs Beyondwiz on the Topfield forums, if they ever come back on the air.

There are other brands, such as Homecast, and of course the Pioneer offerings, about which I know nothing, but Topfiled and Beyondwiz seem to lead in this particular market segment.