Topfield TF5810PVRt review

The TF5810PVRt is the first Freeview hard disk recorder we've seen with an HDMI output, although it also has SCART connectors, too. This may sound exciting, but we found the only benefit was HDMI's neater connector and more flexible cable.

When comparing the HDMI and SCART outputs, we couldn't detect any difference in picture quality. We tried upscaling the HDMI output to 720p and 1080i, but couldn't see any tangible benefits. Freeview uses MPEG2 compressed PAL (576i) video, and the TF5810PVRt did no better a job of scaling this to our TV's native resolution than the television did itself.

Fortunately, HDMI isn't the only selling point of this excellent hard disk recorder. For starters, it's more stylish than many we've seen previously. It's relatively slender and has a pleasingly simple black fascia. Behind this are two slots for adding Conditional Access Modules for subscription TV services.

As well as HDMI, the TF5810PVRt has all the outputs you'll need, with twin SCART sockets, S-video and an optical S/PDIF, among others. The remote is easy to use but, unusually, the channel and volume controls are arranged left to right, rather than up and down.

The menus are well designed and clearly presented. The electronic programme guide (EPG) shows all the programmes on the current channel, but annoyingly you have to press a button to see a timeline layout. This shows three hours of programming on four channels simultaneously, plus the current programme appears in a window. You can access the EPG while timeshifting, enabling you to browse the schedule while your programme is paused.

Making recordings on the massive 500GB hard disk is easy. It will even offer to record entire series of shows, but only if the broadcaster has added this information. You can schedule two recordings at once, or timeshift one while recording another. You can even watch a programme while recording two others, as long as that channel belongs to one of the recorded multiplexes. For example, if you're recording on BBC1 and ITV1, you can simultaneously watch BBC2, Channel 4, BBC 3 or ITV3.

As soon as you switch channels, the TF5810PVRt will start caching video to the hard disk, so you can rewind back as far as the moment you switched. Unlike the Top Up TV DTR, you can't pause one channel, switch to another and then come back to find the first channel still paused. Timeshifting causes the hard disk to run constantly while you're watching, which draws extra power and makes unwanted noise. However, the TF5810PVRt was very quiet, and we couldn't detect any drop in power usage when we disabled timeshifting.

Even with its huge hard disk, which should store around 300 hours of programmes, the TF5810PVRt is expensive. The Humax PVR-9200TB (Labs, Shopper 240), which is virtually identical, has no HDMI output and only a 160GB hard disk, but you can archive shows to a PC, and it costs just £200 including VAT.