The Topfield 5800 Freeview digital video recorder is one of my favourite technology gadgets, given how much TV I watch - short summary of its features here. If you have a Toppy too and you didn't get the email from the excellent Toppy.org.uk site about it, note that over the next couple days you can upgrade easily to the latest firmware, which is being broadcast free OTA (over the air) in the UK - but only if your firmware is not too old.
The new firmware incorporates some minor improvements to the previous Bastille Day firmware version 5.12.88 upgrade of last year.
According to the Toppy.org.uk news page, the broadcast is taking place from 10 am 15 March till 9 am on 19 March 2007 (although the broadcast will be repeated in future, for those who miss this window):
"However, if your current firmware version is before 5.12.00, then you won’t be able to do the update over the air; you can see the current version by pressing Menu, then selecting Information and then IRD status - the firmware version is called ‘Application version’ on the screen that will appear." (For those with older firmware, you'll only be able to update it by downloading the upgrade to your PC, connecting it to the Toppy via the USB cable and using special software - all dealt with on the Toppy.org.uk site.)
To update your firmware OTA, during the period when the new firmware is being broadcast "you can do the update by turning your PVR on and then pressing Menu on the remote. Select Installation, then press OK and then select System software update. The PVR will display a screen telling you that it’s searching for the update; be patient – it may take several minutes to find and download the update. When it’s been downloaded, you’ll be asked if you want to perform the update. Choose Yes, and then wait while the new firmware is installed".
However, that didn't work for me at first. I kept getting a message that "No new software is available at this time". But a look at the Toppy forum thread about the update helped me fix that - in my case, because of having various TAPs installed, I had to turn my Toppy off, then power it back on and immediately press and hold the 0 key on the remote control until it had booted fully (I tried holding down the 0 key while turning it on but that didn't work, I had to do it a split second after powering on). Then I could carry out the Installation etc steps mentioned above and have the Toppy pick up the broadcast of the new software.
It took about 10 minutes to download it, then it asked if I wanted to install it and I said yes to everything, and it all went fine after that.
There's more info about the upgrade on the Toppy.org.uk news page.
Tags:
No comments:
Post a Comment