November 9th, 2010
Thomson Top Up TV – 160GB Freeview Digital TV Recorder – With Free Top Up TV Trial
- HDD Capacity – 160GB
- Remote Control Included
- Colour – Silver/Black
- Recording Time – up to 120 Hours
- Warranty – 3 months
This product has been professionally repaired and repackaged but may have some minor scratches on the outer cabinet – Comes with 3 month warranty Top Up TV Freeview+ offers a new way of watching TV. Now you can access all Freeview channels, Pause Live TV, record 2 channels at the same time and more with a Top Up TV Freeview+ DTR. Its like Sky+ on Freeview. You can also top up your TV choice with programmes from great Pay-TV channels with Top Up TV Favourites, enjoy great sport, catch blockbuster
Rating: 
(out of 197 reviews)
Price:
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581998 items found. Showing results 1 to 15 next page
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Review by John for Thomson Top Up TV – 160GB Freeview Digital TV Recorder – With Free Top Up TV Trial
Rating:
This has to be the biggest heap of junk I have ever had the misfortune to use! Firstly it will make your living room sound like there is a jumbo jet taking off in it! This I could just about deal with but the most annoying thing is it doesn’t record! Out of the 10 recorings I tried to make 9 of them became corrupted and were automatically deleted (which you only find out once you check your messages). Dont be fooled by all the fixes available, I spent a week trying to get the thing to work but gave up and got my money back. This is a cheap, tacky piece of junk and the only reason I gave it one star was because that was the lowest it could go!
Review by freakfunk for Thomson Top Up TV – 160GB Freeview Digital TV Recorder – With Free Top Up TV Trial
Rating:
I don’t normally take the time to review goods but because of the problems i’ve had i felt i should.
I’ve had the box for for 2 months now, my 2nd box i should say. The box seems to reset itself constantly, this is a manufacturing fault, and as if yet no update has been made to correct it. It seems to happen when things are set to tape, it just switches itself of and wont go back on. Incredibly annoying sitting for 5 minutes waiting for it to correct itself. even if you unplug it and replug it you still have to wait 3-5 minutes before the picture comes back, annoying when your watching sport or the news or something.
I think its a great idea, however it just simply doesnt work, and theres nothing i can do to fix it.
Review by monkeyspank for Thomson Top Up TV – 160GB Freeview Digital TV Recorder – With Free Top Up TV Trial
Rating:
I had been thinking about buying one of these for a while. To be honest, I had read so many poor reviews of this item that I was slightly put off. But the area where I live does not have cable, and I didn’t want a satellite dish on my wall so Top-Up TV plus seemed the only choice.
The unit does make a noise. It reminds me of the noise that the old VHS video players used to make- except it’s there all the time of course. The noise is not as much as you’d get from a desktop PC, but it’s a similar type of noise. We got used to it- well, you have no choice really. My friend has an identical unit which he keeps in a glass fronted cabinet. The glass stops the noise completely.
As for the unit itself, it is very easy – “intuitive” to set up and it is remarkably easy to use. We do have had a couple of problems with “skipping” ( where the picture jumps) but nothing too serious. In the main things have been OK. Let’s face it- It was made by Thompson,, it only cost 79 quid so what do you expect? I’d say it is a very easy piece of equipment to get the hang of, and it does change the way you watch TV. It is delightful being able to “fast forward” through the adverts.
We have had to “re-boot” this recorder on occasion, because it freezes up. Strangely, I don’t get annoyed by this- I just think that the machine is “quirky”. It’s actually quite a fun item to own.
And now for our new friends, “Top up TV Plus”. The call centre is in Scotland and I phoned them a couple of times when I was setting up the account. They are very helpful indeed. As for their program content, well it is pretty poor but you can usually find SOMETHING you’d want to watch. There are no children in our house so we didn’t activate the childrens TV- thus reducing the program content by about 25% right away. Not having a mental age of 8 or nine puts you at a disadvantage too, as the comedy channel consists of old American re-runs which don’t seem particularly funny. I would say that Top-up TV plus’ programme content is of marginal value, and I have recently cancelled the subscription.
In particular, I’d say that the “picture box” channel- (which downloads 1 movie a day, for a price of 5 pounds per month) – just simply is NOT worth the money. All the movies are 10 or 15 years old. In fact they’re the type of movie you’d find in a cancer research charity shop for 50 pence each.
So what are you left with? – A slightly noisy 160 GB hard disc recorder which is very easy to set up. HOWEVER TODAY ( 17TH MARCH 2008)I NEED TO AMEND THIS REVIEW. THE MACHINE HAS FROZEN UP OVER 20 TIMES IN THE LAST 4 DAYS AND WE CAN NOT ACCESS ANY OF OUR PREVIOUSLY RECORDED PROGRAMS. I WILL BE RETURNING THIS AS “UNFIT FOR PURPOSE”. I CAN NO LONGER RECOMMEND THIS HEAP OF ATROCIOUS TATTY JUNK. SORRY BUT THERE YOU HAVE IT.
Review by Mr. Mark S. Penrice for Thomson Top Up TV – 160GB Freeview Digital TV Recorder – With Free Top Up TV Trial
Rating:
Enough of these reviews have been written already… I just want to bring the average down from the inexplicable 2.5 stars it’s at already :)
The price was right, but maybe I should have been more wary about expecting it was possible to get this much technology so cheaply. The basic features are all there, and it’s nicely laid out and easy to use, and when it works, it works quite well. However there are, like in most of the preceding comments, a number of flies in the otherwise tasty soup.
Things are somewhat improved with the most recent over-the-air software update (which may take a few days to be re-sent if you have a freshly purchased box), and so the main concept of queueing up programmes in the EPG to be recorded for later viewing is generally reliable… which it certainly wasn’t originally (though that may have been something to do with our originally poor aerial), but even over the last fortnight there have been some issues such as a couple of mistimed recording starts (being an hour or so early, though it at least didn’t cut short), one corrupt recording that locked the box the first few times I tried to delete it, three or four missed recordings and failed series links, and the ever-present fastforward and rewind glitches (occasionally going so far as to freeze the thing), and couple of silly annoyances like not being able to start an ad-hoc second recording without actually adding it from the EPG rather than using the “one touch record” function.
Plus the incessant disc and fan humming (more audible, across the room, than the laptop I’m typing on right now, and of a more annoying tone particularly because it keeps “revving” up and down as if it’s about to explode), the slowwwww startup time, and how it – apparently – uses a good 17 watts *even at standby*.
I’m on the cusp of sending this back, if I can’t get a reasonable assurance from Thomson that a fix will soon be forthcoming for these final niggles… and if said promise isn’t delivered on promptly. It may cost a little more to get a rival PVR, but it’ll also be far better value. I’m not bothered by losing the Top-up ability after all – it wasn’t a great part of the purchasing decision, and by all reports it’s pretty weak. That or revive our Virgin cable subscription (dormant for a while due to cost) and get their V-Box … providing that isn’t just as flaky as the Thomson device or as underpowered as the older (Pace) Virgin digital cable box.
It’s a good choice if you absolutely want the recording ability and extra top-up channels, and haven’t got the money for Sky or the ability for cable to be installed… but otherwise, not so great. Make your decisions accordingly.
Review by Roger Tauber for Thomson Top Up TV – 160GB Freeview Digital TV Recorder – With Free Top Up TV Trial
Rating:
hi,, this freeview box is very noisy. and the foreward and rewind is very irratic. making it very difficult to find a program. and thomson dont seem to have any support numbers to ring. give this box a miss. its rubbish.