Good Gear Guide
21/08/12
The Topfield TRF-2100, new to the company’s set top box range, is a personal video recorder with twin digital TV tuners and an internal 320GB hard drive. It’s small and discreet, quiet and quick to operate, but misses out on some features that we would have liked to see.
The Topfield TRF-2100 is a basic set top box, with dual TV tuners that let you record one program while you're watching another. It's simple, easy to operate and quick to respond to commands. We wish it had more hard drive capacity though, and the lack of Internet features (included on a cheaper model) is disappointing.
The TRF-2100 is much smaller than its companion TRF-2470, measuring only 260 x 195 x 50mm. It’s able to be hidden out of the way behind any reasonably-sized TV stand, and will fit in discreetly with any other devices in your home entertainment setup.
The three-digit, single-line liquid crystal display on the front of the TRF-2100 is extremely basic, only showing up the channel number of whatever you’re currently watching. Apart from that, the front of the set top box is almost blank — you’ll find a central power button and channel buttons near the screen, but that’s it.
Around the back, the TRF-2100 has connectors for antenna input and output, component video and composite A/V, optical digital audio output, HDMI output, a USB input, and 12V DC power input. We would have liked to see the USB port on the front of the box, but otherwise we’re happy with the TRF-2100’s range and variety of inputs and outputs.
The remote control bundled with the Topfield TRF-2100 is as simple as the set top box itself. A central five-way navigational pad also handles volume and channel changing, there’s a number pad up top and play/stop/pause/rewind/fast forward buttons down the bottom. The labelling is OK, not great; we would have liked to see better descriptions on some of the buttons to save reading the manual for information.
The menu system of the Topfield TRF-2100 is the same as the more expensive TRF-2470 — it’s simple, relies largely on text rather than graphics, and is thankfully quick to respond to commands. It’s also logically laid out, and easy to navigate to both common and less common functions.
The twin digital TV tuners of the TRF-2100 mean that you can record one program while still watching another live TV channel, or record two programs while watching something you’ve previously taped.
What you’ll be using most is the Recording menu and its EPG, which makes adding reminders and scheduling recordings a relatively easy process. The TRF-2100’s 320GB internal hard drive can store around about 80 hours of high definition digital TV recordings, and about double that if you’re only recording in standard definition (or if you’re just recording a standard definition channel). This is a fair amount of hard drive space, but it pales in comparison to competing brands’ 500GB models which only cost slightly more.
In terms of its feature-set, the TRF-2100 lags behind the TRF-2470 it was announced alongside, but also behind the cheaper non-recording TBF-7300. Both of these models include access to YouTube and the ABC iView catch-up TV service, but the TRF-2100 isn’t able to connect to the Internet. You can still use the rear USB port to play back compressed audio and picture files (JPEG picture, MP3 audio), but video isn’t supported.
Similarly, the TRF-2100 isn’t able to deliver the same 128x fast forward/rewind speeds that the TRF-2470 can. The cheaper set top box is limited to only 64x — while this might still seem like a lot, if you’re watching a longer video and want to skip ahead, the extra speed is useful.
The Topfield TRF-2100 is a very simple personal video recorder, and while its simplicity isn’t necessarily a bad thing, you can find more fully-featured competitors for similar price tags. We do wonder why the TRF-2100 is lacking the Internet capability and iView access of the cheaper TBF-7300, though.
If you’re just looking for a reasonably cheap PVR that’s easy to understand and easy to operate, the Topfield TRF-2100 ticks all your boxes.
1
Purchased this unit and it has not worked properly from day one. It does not pick up signals dispite having all our antennas upgraded and approved and all our TVs work perfectly. When this unit is operational, picture is distorted with screeching noises and just will not record. I can not stress strongly enough to give this product a miss. Can not get any support from company that sells this.
2
I have had a topfield 2100 recorder for about 2 months, I taped 2 programs one afetr the other so could not lengthen the duration time, the first program cut out about 3 minutes before the end, VERY frustrating. Also on 7two it scrambles badly for no reason.
3
I would not recommend this product. I had a unit that would "jump" forward while leaving the audio intact, resulting in a brief desynch of video/audio. I exchanged the unit and the same happened with the second unit.
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eamonn
1
how do you record xbox with this pvr
Linda
2
I have had this model for 3 months and really liked it. until today. It has given up the ghost. It keeps going to boot/run/channel then a red light turns on and it goes L101. This just continues and continues. I have rebooted and unplugged. Customer service were no help. They just said to take it back. I have read elsewhere that it is not supported by Topfield.
Linda
Jacob
3
how do you record playstation/xbox with the pvr?
stanley Oakley
4
Hi I would like a full Guide for TRF2100
Lisa
5
http://www.itopfield.com.au/data/download/TRF-2100_Eng_online_version.pdf
marcia ryan
6
i would also like a full guide for TRF-2100. The bookilet is inadequate as there is no trouble shooting page and the photocopied pictures in the book are too dark to see. as yet i cant get the thing to work. am returning it on tuesday to the store to see if they can help me get it started. The book is clear as to connecting the thing but if it does not work and there is no reference booklet you are lost. marcia
Jackie
7
I have tried to download PDF file for manual on TRF-2100 but it's just not there. Can anyone help me!! The booklet that comes with it is shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! or can you tell me how to permanently take text off. Every time I turn unit and TV on the text comes on automatically and I have to turn it off all the time.
Joe
8
Hi Jackie, I have the same problem with text coming on autimatically on my TR-2100 so I got into the menue and programmed the PVR to stay on all the time as I now use it as my normal everyday TV viewing and electronic programme guide.
colin
9
can you please tell me where the stop button is on the controller is on a 2100 drives me mad trying to stop it.
ian smith
10
i bought this a trf2100 it is crap channels drop keep getting a no service message and drop outs and scamled message
Susan
11
Just found link that could download manual.
http://www.topfield.co.kr/data/download/TRF-2100_English_UserReference_020713_2013_Feb.pdf
Kaz
12
Can you save a recording that you have on your TRF2100 to a USB stick and if so, how?
Jonmal
13
Can anyone tell me why ' lip sync. ' drifts sometimes and can it be rectified ??
Eva
14
Their website does not work. After lots of hunting, I found a manual on this page: http://www.topfield.co.kr/eng/product/detail.asp?idx=295&page=1&lang=1&tn=satelite&code=p_00001 - after downloading, I had to change the file name because the PDF seemed corrupt, but once I changed the file name to simple name, it opened fine.
Ron
15
Are subtitles rendered correctly? Live added subtitles are normally after the vocal. Ones added by the maker of the program are usually in sync with the vocal. But Toppro and DGTec have subtitles that are ahead of the vocal. Can anyone tell me about the 2100 subtiles?
dappa
16
http://www.topfield.co.kr/data/download/TRF-2100_English_UserReference_020713_2013_Feb.pdf
This PDF file downloads OK. I'm yet to plug and play my new TRF-2100 it all sounds a bit spooky!!
The instruction booklet in the box was crap.