HD on an SD Toppy

Australian networks have been broadcasting in high definition for many years, but prior to 2008 they were not allowed to show content that differed from their standard definition counterparts. This year they've been slowly introducing new content to their HD channels, and the crucial moment for me occurred when Ten announced that the second season of Torchwood would only be shown on Ten HD. Without spending any money on a new HD PVR could I see Torchwood? After briefly trying an inconvenient PC-based solution I settled on a nice way of using my SD Toppy PVR.

Solution 1 - PC TV-Tuner card

I already have a very underused high definition digital TV tuner card in my PC. However, I don't like to leave my PC on when I'm not using it, so recording Torchwood would require me to break that habit. I'm especially unkeen to leave it on when I'm away for a week or two on holiday. Anyway, I tried this for a week. After saving the file my PC was busy for an hour converting it to DivX so that I could more easily watch it via a laptop attached to my TV. This added to the overall inconvenience, and I certainly wouldn't want to do that regularly.

Solution 2 - SD Toppy + laptop

My second, much improved solution, is centred on my existing SD Topfield 5000PVRt. It is based on the fact that a PVR has two distinct elements. Firstly, it sucks the digital bitstream out of the air and stores it on its hard disk. Secondly, it decodes the bits into an image for display. Now, although my PVR was purchased some years ago, and does not have the ability to display HD channels, it can quite happily record these channels.


If you switch the Toppy to an HD channel it will display a blank picture, and pop up a message about being unable to show the HD or encrypted signal. However, you can set a timer for that channel, either manually or through the EPG. You can even get some idea of what you've recorded by playing the file at anything other than normal speed. Backwards at 1x, or forwards at 2x are probably most useful. That allows you to view the top left quarter of the HD show, in silence.

Naturally, you will now want to watch the HD show. This can be done by using an external computer as the decoder. I connect an eeePC via USB and copy the program across. Unfortunately, the Toppy's USB port is not fast enough to stream the HD in real time (even using Deadbeef's USB accelerator patch). Actually, Altair is probably just fast enough in turbo mode, but Altair locks the file until it's finished. The alternative is Aldarin's FTP Server for Topfield, which doesn't lock the file, but is too slow for streaming, even in turbo mode. My favoured solution is copying the file across using Altair in its entirety before I want to watch it, then viewing it using VLC.

I now have some breathing space before I need to purchase a dedicated HD PVR. I can watch HD-only programs on my SD television via my SD PVR with the assistance of a (borrowed) eeePC. This was only possible because of the highly extensible nature of the Topfield 5000PVRt, and is yet another reason that people love their Toppies!