745 replies to this topic

[audiohobbs]

AlfredE.Newman, on Jul 22 2009, 09:56 AM, said:

I still would have to recommend TVsuite for people like myself who don't have a very strong computer background and want to edit and transfer their material as painlessly as possible, and no I'm not on the payroll...

Good conclusion from your side project, then. :-) Many people do go for a commercially available suite to do some things (I did myself for stream capture) rather than muck around with several different programs (which I did for Toppy file conversions for a while, then I took the hardware route!) It is fun finding these things out, even if at the time it feels like banging one's head against a brick program....

Al.

[andy08]

AlfredE.Newman, on Jul 22 2009, 07:56 AM, said:

I've got TSdoctor sitting in my programme files having downloaded it OK some time ago but haven't really played around with it at all, wow, that sounds like quite a balls-up you've had!
I "think" I have finally gotten Video Redo's TVsuite sorted out although I am yet to fork out the hard-earned cash for it. I've got the Toppy.rec files accumulating in my 1TB external HD, I'm up to 19 episodes of Top Gear now The lip synch issues I've also worked out, I discovered TVsuite has got an Audio dialog box which allows you to fiddle around going either fowards or backwards with the calibration, very easy to use and it's suprising what a difference 27 milliseconds delay can have! I still would have to recommend TVsuite for people like myself who don't have a very strong computer background and want to edit and transfer their material as painlessly as possible, and no I'm not on the payroll...

Since I've had my system up and running again I've rationalised what I've reinstalled and for the moment am getting by with only HDTVtoMPEG2, Toppymaker and WiiVideo9, all free.

HDTV... accepts transport streams, both .mpg and .ts, edits, and outputs either a non ts mpeg2 or .ts. I can't get it's commercial scan to work but it's easy to manually edit them out. Toppymaker has no problem identifying the audio stream from the .ts it outputs in the tests I have done so far with with HD off ABC and SBS. WiiVideo9 also accepts the .ts it outputs and I've previously used DVDFlick to go to DVD. All I need to do now is sort out what to use to make AVI's so am playing around with VLC player for that but there are others too. With these I think I can go from almost anything to anything else.

[AlfredE.Newman]

andy08, on Jul 22 2009, 11:02 AM, said:

All I need to do now is sort out what to use to make AVI's so am playing around with VLC player for that but there are others too. With these I think I can go from almost anything to anything else.

For novices like myself I like the "one-stop shop" concept of software like TVsuite but I can appreciate that there are those among us who like to tinker

[AlfredE.Newman]

audiohobbs, on Jul 22 2009, 10:34 AM, said:

Good conclusion from your side project, then. :-)  It is fun finding these things out, even if at the time it feels like banging one's head against a brick program....

Al.

Yes Al, I think I've finally cracked it! The nice thing is that once I've waded through all the Top Gear stuff I can start archiving things that I want to keep on DVD, I'm a happy little camper....

Edited by AlfredE.Newman, 22 July 2009 - 11:34 AM.

[audiohobbs]

andy08, on Jul 22 2009, 11:02 AM, said:

All I need to do now is sort out what to use to make AVI's so am playing around with VLC player for that but there are others too. With these I think I can go from almost anything to anything else.

Try Super - I have used that and it seems to do conversions into just about anything. Fairly easy to use, too, and it is free. It has links to the codec authors, too - seems to be an ethical piece of software IMO.

Al.

[andy08]

audiohobbs, on Jul 22 2009, 02:36 PM, said:

Try Super - I have used that and it seems to do conversions into just about anything. Fairly easy to use, too, and it is free. It has links to the codec authors, too - seems to be an ethical piece of software IMO.

Al.

Yes, thanks, I got hold of it after one of your earlier posts so may well finish up using it yet. I've always used Movie Factory that came with a DTV card I have on my old PC but am looking at making AVI's instead now that both of our DVD players can handle them.

[kittykatts]

Hi

Is someone able to lead me in the correct direction to upload the lastest firmware for my Toppy 7000 pvr using Mac OSX, even just a link to more info??

thanks!

[JaffaMan]

kittykatts, on Jul 28 2009, 08:12 PM, said:

Hi

Is someone able to lead me in the correct direction to upload the lastest firmware for my Toppy 7000 pvr using Mac OSX, even just a link to more info??

thanks!

There is nothing special about the mac in this regard - as with most things mac works pretty much like a windows box. Go to www.itopfield.com.au and you can get the firmware from there, along with some instructions to install. Copy the .upd file to the root of a fat32 formatted USB. Goto the toppy, select installation, select upgrade firmware, when it says, insert the USB and away you go.

[kittykatts]

JaffaMan, on Jul 28 2009, 09:57 PM, said:

There is nothing special about the mac in this regard - as with most things mac works pretty much like a windows box. Go to www.itopfield.com.au and you can get the firmware from there, along with some instructions to install. Copy the .upd file to the root of a fat32 formatted USB. Goto the toppy, select installation, select upgrade firmware, when it says, insert the USB and away you go.

My problem is that when after downloading the .upd file, my computer is saying it is unsupported format, so making it hard to unzip and copy into my usb...

[audiohobbs]

kittykatts, on Jul 29 2009, 06:59 PM, said:

My problem is that when after downloading the .upd file, my computer is saying it is unsupported format, so making it hard to unzip and copy into my usb...

I think the .upd file is what is read by the pvr, not the computer (Mac or Windows). Just copy it to a USB and load it onto the Toppy. That said I have never downloaded the firmware for a 7000 as I have a 5000, but there should be no problem.

cheers,

Al.

[prl]

audiohobbs, on Jul 29 2009, 08:15 PM, said:

I think the .upd file is what is read by the pvr, not the computer (Mac or Windows). Just copy it to a USB and load it onto the Toppy. That said I have never downloaded the firmware for a 7000 as I have a 5000, but there should be no problem.

cheers,

Al.

Nevertheless, what you say is correct. Download the .upd file to the Mac, copy it to a FAT-formatted USB stick (or download straight onto the stick), and plug the USB stick into the 7x00.

[jpmccorm]

Are any of the beta testers from the iTopfield forums still around and trying new firmware?
Do they have a web site or forum they converse on and what version updates are they currently running?


John

[JaffaMan]

jpmccorm, on Aug 1 2009, 01:14 PM, said:

Are any of the beta testers from the iTopfield forums still around and trying new firmware?
Do they have a web site or forum they converse on and what version updates are they currently running?


John

Yes, some of us are still around. No, we have no web site or other forum to talk on. In terms of the 7000, I have not seen any firmware later than 1.00.10 (March 2009), and I run 0.99.84 rel 5 (June 2008) on my machine.

In terms of the 7100, which I don't have, I don't believe there have been any beta releases later than the published firmware 20090317 from the www.itopfield.com.au web site.

[AlfredE.Newman]

Hi there, I'm back with another query regarding file transfer using Altair on a Toppy 5000 PVR I've been experiencing a few probs (or should I say a few more probs) with offloading files. I've found, to my bitter experience that if I attempt more than a single file transfer at a time i.e. highlighting say 3 or 4 programmes that invariably it/they glitches and I basically end up with 0KB in the external HDD which is frustrating to say the least as I usually go off and do other stuff assuming that all is well. It even happens on single file transfers from time to time. What's going on? I'm at a bit of a loss as when I initially started doing this I made a few multiple transfers quite OK. A second query is that I have a file of a concert on the Toppy as a programme file but for some reason when I attempt to transfer it across I get an "error" message no-can-do, it still plays fine if I look at when in archived programmes on the TV, what gives? Thanks muchly (BTW I have transferred at least 25 or so episodes of Top Gear so I am getting somewhere...)

[deangelj]

AlfredE.Newman, on Aug 5 2009, 09:18 AM, said:

Hi there, I'm back with another query regarding file transfer using Altair on a Toppy 5000 PVR I've been experiencing a few probs (or should I say a few more probs) with offloading files. I've found, to my bitter experience that if I attempt more than a single file transfer at a time i.e. highlighting say 3 or 4 programmes that invariably it/they glitches and I basically end up with 0KB in the external HDD which is frustrating to say the least as I usually go off and do other stuff assuming that all is well. It even happens on single file transfers from time to time. What's going on? I'm at a bit of a loss as when I initially started doing this I made a few multiple transfers quite OK. A second query is that I have a file of a concert on the Toppy as a programme file but for some reason when I attempt to transfer it across I get an "error" message no-can-do, it still plays fine if I look at when in archived programmes on the TV, what gives? Thanks muchly (BTW I have transferred at least 25 or so episodes of Top Gear so I am getting somewhere...)

There may be invalid characters in the filename of the recording which aren't allowed on Windows, e.g. ":" or "/" or "\" etc.

As for the transfers, I can't remember but does Altair allow you to resume a failed transfer? I know there are a few utilites out there that allow you to resume a failed transfer (including mine - ToppyPC for the 5000)

[tonymy01]

AlfredE.Newman, on Aug 5 2009, 09:18 AM, said:

I've been experiencing a few probs (or should I say a few more probs) with offloading files. I've found,  I basically end up with 0KB in the external HDD which is frustrating to say the least

Did you go to the Topfield-Australia forums and read the tips/FAQs?  As De-Angelis says, the well documented "illegal windows chars" issue has been discussed many times before.

[audiohobbs]

AlfredE.Newman, on Aug 5 2009, 09:18 AM, said:

Hi there, I'm back with another query regarding file transfer using Altair on a Toppy 5000 PVR I've been experiencing a few probs (or should I say a few more probs) with offloading files. I've found, to my bitter experience that if I attempt more than a single file transfer at a time i.e. highlighting say 3 or 4 programmes that invariably it/they glitches and I basically end up with 0KB in the external HDD which is frustrating to say the least as I usually go off and do other stuff assuming that all is well. It even happens on single file transfers from time to time. What's going on? I'm at a bit of a loss as when I initially started doing this I made a few multiple transfers quite OK. A second query is that I have a file of a concert on the Toppy as a programme file but for some reason when I attempt to transfer it across I get an "error" message no-can-do, it still plays fine if I look at when in archived programmes on the TV, what gives? Thanks muchly (BTW I have transferred at least 25 or so episodes of Top Gear so I am getting somewhere...)

Hi, Ian,

I know what you mean about this. I swear I checked all possible filenames for odd characters and still got the copies dropping out when transferring multiple files. I think it was the major factor in my taking the hardware route for transfer to DVD. The only thing I can suggest is that you note very carefully the filenames and change them accordingly before transferring some files.

Another thing to watch out for - what is the total  amount you are transferring and how much disk space do you have? There surely cannot be a limit on the filesizes that Altair transfers, but who knows what it would do if it detects there is not enough space. Perhaps it is even the number of files transferred in one go that is limiting things. It is very frustrating when you leave it overnight or whenever, get back and find the copies haven't!

Good luck.

Al.

[deangelj]

The other thing you need to consider is file permissions on the PC end. Make sure you transfer to a folder you have write access to! I know some Vista builds don't give you write access to several parts of c: (unless you override it).

[AlfredE.Newman]

deangelj, on Aug 5 2009, 10:49 AM, said:

There may be invalid characters in the filename of the recording which aren't allowed on Windows, e.g. ":" or "/" or "\" etc.

As for the transfers, I can't remember but does Altair allow you to resume a failed transfer? I know there are a few utilites out there that allow you to resume a failed transfer (including mine - ToppyPC for the 5000)

I haven't had time to go back and check but you may well be right, I went over the 38 or so Top Gear file names and corrected all the character issues possible but hadn't been quite so rigorous with my own recorded programmes! Not sure about the failed transfer being able to be resumed, I guess I just went back to the "one at a time" scenario and didn't have much of a failure rate. Is the utility you describe part of Topfield's free updates?

[AlfredE.Newman]

tonymy01, on Aug 5 2009, 11:19 AM, said:

Did you go to the Topfield-Australia forums and read the tips/FAQs?  As De-Angelis says, the well documented "illegal windows chars" issue has been discussed many times before.

Hardly ever peruse that particular site obviously because the quality of information touted here is so wonderful I don't need to  
But having said that I will whip over and have a look shortly.

[audiohobbs]

AlfredE.Newman, on Aug 6 2009, 09:05 AM, said:

I haven't had time to go back and check but you may well be right, I went over the 38 or so Top Gear file names and corrected all the character issues possible but hadn't been quite so rigorous with my own recorded programmes! Not sure about the failed transfer being able to be resumed, I guess I just went back to the "one at a time" scenario and didn't have much of a failure rate. Is the utility you describe part of Topfield's free updates?

Don't know about Altair being part of the updates but it certainly was a free program. Whether it has been updated at any time I could not say. I hope you finally get the problems sorted, though; the only way to do it is to keep at it but I just got lazy :-)

Al.

[AlfredE.Newman]

audiohobbs, on Aug 5 2009, 12:20 PM, said:

Hi, Ian,

I know what you mean about this. I swear I checked all possible filenames for odd characters and still got the copies dropping out when transferring multiple files.

Another thing to watch out for - what is the total  amount you are transferring and how much disk space do you have? Good luck.

Al.

Hi Al,

Yes it's been rather a frustrating business but I think I'm going to get through it with my sanity intact! I'll check the file names and go over them with a fine-tooth comb tonight just in case there are still issues that need resolving.

I'm transferring the files across to a 1TB external HDD that is virtually new i.e. about 850 GB available so I can't see how space at this stage is the issue, I'm trying to transfer say , 3-4 programmes at about 2GB each, I would love to be able to do 8 or 9 at a time but the the thought of having one glitch and having to start again is a bit annoying to put it mildly!

[deangelj]

AlfredE.Newman, on Aug 6 2009, 09:05 AM, said:

Is the utility you describe part of Topfield's free updates?

No they aren't. If I can explain briefly: all the file transfer utilities, whether they are Topfield's (like Altair) or 3rd party (like ftpd-topfield or my ToppyPC), use the usb library interface that Topfield provide. One of the features in that library is the ability to resume a transfer. All that I know of are free. For a complete list of all software for the SD version, go to tapworld.net - there's a long list of add-ons that you can use.

[OwNeD162]

Hey,
I'm not sure this is the right place to post this question, but I figured I'd give it a shot anyways.
Dad picked up a Toppy 7100 yesterday, which of course he got me to setup.
Anyways, cut a long story short, it's all setup and working, and connected to our WiFi. I can get the IceTV EPG, and send recordings to it through their website and everything, but I can't get to the built-in online programmer, not even locally, but it obviously is getting on to the network, and out to the internet, otherwise IceTV wouldn't work...
I've got port forwarding turned on, tried every trick I can think of to no avail... Any one have any suggestions? I'm using a Linksys WRT160N router.
Cheers,
Mitchell.

[deangelj]

OwNeD162, on Aug 11 2009, 02:21 PM, said:

... I can get the IceTV EPG, and send recordings to it through their website and everything, but I can't get to the built-in online programmer, not even locally, but it obviously is getting on to the network, and out to the internet, otherwise IceTV wouldn't work...
I've got port forwarding turned on, tried every trick I can think of to no avail... Any one have any suggestions? I'm using a Linksys WRT160N router.

Hi Mitchell, the 7100 does not provide a http server - it has an http client (wget) which it uses to fetch stuff off the Internet. If you want to program stuff remotely, use the icetv website (ice interactive) to program your timers.

Edit: it does provide an FTP server but you can't remotely schedule timers that way (if I understand what you're asking)

Edited by deangelj, 11 August 2009 - 02:40 PM.