Top Up TV DTI6021-25 Thomson 250GB Digital TV Recorder
Product Description
Top Up TV Freeview+ offers a new way of watching TV. Now you can access all Freeview channels, pause and live TV, record 2 channels at the same time and more with a Top Up TV Freeview+ DTR. Its like a Sky + box for Freeview. You can also top up your TV choice with programmes from great Pay-TV channels with Top Up TV Favorites, enjoy great from ESPN or receive a different movie everyday with Picture Box plus, the great news is your first month of all these packagesTop Up TV Favorites and Picture Box is now included in the price*.
* No long term contracts
* No phone or broadband tie ins
* No dish or cable
* Gives you the flexibility to add on TV packages in the future
* It’s the best value 250GB DTR on the market
*(£20 connection fee and terms and conditions apply)
- HDD Capacity – 250GB
- Twin Tuner – Yes, Remote Control Included – Yes
- Remote Control Included – Yes, LNB Loop Through – Yes
- No. Of S-Video Outputs – 1
- No. Of Scart Connectors – 2
This seemed like a bargain – 250gb HDD freeview recorder for under £100? I snapped it up. For the first month it was fine…then it all started to go horribly wrong.
We’ve had all manner of problems: programmes becoming ‘corrupt’ and deleting themselves, series links removing themselves, programmes we’ve set to tape not recording at all…. recently it’s even started recording programmes we haven’t even set it to record.
It’s not just bad for recording – part way through live TV the screen will freeze and then the machine will turn itself off, sometimes taking a few minutes to reboot, often meaning you miss a crucial part of your programme.
During that first month where the machine worked I recommended it to my parents, who bought it and were also initially impressed. They too are now suffering the exact same issues. If I could give this 0 stars I would – awful product, avoid at all costs.
Rating: 1 / 5
I bought this thinking how it’s exactly the same as Sky+ without the expense of a subscription and even has the same remote.
Within 2 weeks it was crashing daily, even accessing the menu would lock the whole system.
I took it back and went for the Humax which cost about £20 more and have nothing but good things to say about it. It has crashed a couple of times over 3 months but as an earlier reviewer says this seems kind of the norm for recorder boxes. At least when it does crash you can switch it off at the back without pulling out a cable or switching off at the wall and it’s back watchable in around 10 seconds, the Thompson averaged around 2 minutes.
Rating: 1 / 5
Stay away from thomson, they have made millions of people very unhappy with the sub standard digital tv equipment. My box would lock out at least 2 times a week and then every 2 months or so would need formatting because as the error message said ‘all of your recordings have become corrupt’.
Buy a panasonic thats my advice
Rating: 1 / 5
this has to be the worst piece of technology that I’ve bought in a long time. It freezes, misses recordings, loses information and is generally just utterly and completely unreliable. Fortunately I haven’t paid out for the Top up TV as well!
Rating: 1 / 5
At first, it seems to work okay: wow, it records two channels at once, it records a whole series with just a couple of clicks. Even the minor quibbles, such as not being able to start watching a recording a specific point, are forgivable.
Then, things start to go wrong but, y’know, it was so cool before that you deny it.
Then, when you notice that it has failed to record a few episodes of your favourite programme — and it only tells you that by displaying a message in an obscure menu somewhere — you get angry. “Why? It was going so well! Why are you doing this to me, box?”
Then, you find yourself bargaining with it: “Come on, I don’t mind if you miss Deep Space 9, just make sure you record Wallander.”
When you realise that, despite it offering to automatically record the second half of the film that’s shown after the news, it hasn’t done anything of the sort, then you enter depression.
Finally, you accept that this is actually one of the buggiest, least reliable consumer electronics items you’ve ever come across and you take the heap of junk back to the shop.
Rating: 1 / 5