Top Up TV has updated their software from v2.88 to v2.91. This appears to be a minor release that apparently addresses a “channel scanning issue” that affects users on the Sutton Coldfield transmitter, adds an option to the Engineering menus to temporarily stop the video preview window in the library, and adds some stability fixes.

Top Up TV has started sending out a batch of new Top Up TV viewing cards to their subscribers. It’s not immediately clear from the rather condescending covering letter what the change is all about “Why a new viewing card? Well the boffins here did explain, but it’s a bit techy”

Here at FrequencyCast, we suspect the cards are to support a different encryption system, as the cards have a NAGRAVISION logo on them. To use the new card, you remove the old one, insert the new (chip down), then leave your Top Up TV Anytime box tuned to channel 5 for an hour. We’ll cover this in the next show, due out in April 08

Top Up TV has released an updated version of their Top Up TV Anytime box. The Thomson DTI6300-25 comes with a 250Gig driver (versus the original 160gig version), and can hold up to 180 hours of Freeview programmes, plus the small amount of content that’s automatically downloaded overnight.

 The new box costs £129.99 (£30 up on the previous version, which is still available). More on our TUTV Anytime page.

Some changes to Top Up Tv Anytime, the service that provides extra content on a special set-top box. Broadcasting hours for UKTV Gold on the TopUp TV service have dropped (again), this time to make way for some new content. Boxes will now be able to get programming from The History Channel, the Crime & Investigation Channel and the Sci-Fi channel – but you have to go Menu > Customise to get this new content.

We reviewed Top Up TV in Show 10 - See http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/topuptvanytime.html for more.

A new version of Top Up TV Anytime software began being rolled out on 8th November 2007. This reportedly offers: EPG & VOD Search, an expanded Synopsis window, stability improvements to Series link and VOD downloads, and some other user interface changes. Updates should be received on your Anytime box automatically.

www.frequencycast.co.uk/topuptvanytime.html

Top Up TV has dropped the price of its Anytime box to £99.99 (saving £40). Not a bad price for a dual-tuner Freeview hard-disk recorder. You’ll need to pay £10 a month to get access to up to 100 hours of non-Freeview content that that’s captured overnight. See our Top Up TV Anytime page.

Another over-the-air patch for the Top Up TV Anytime box has just been rolled out. This adds Subtitles, has some user interface improvements, and also has some stability fixes.

v2.81 is being pushed over-the-air from 4th July

Top Up TV has just released another patch for their Anytime box, which we reviewed in Show 10. V2.44 adds Series Link and parental control. The fix reportedly addresses the issues raised in the BBC Watchdog show – such as failed recordings, black screen and playback skip.

New Features: Series Link, Child Lock and display of programme synopsis information in the guide screen.

Fixes: Fix to Saved Items being deleted, Fix to Radio Services breaking up. Fixes been added to reduce the number of times that a DTR fails to make Top Up TV Anytime recordings. Improvements to Download Playback. Performance improvements to reduce the times when the box will need to be rebooted. Fixes to reduce loss of Video/Black Screen. Library now shows the actual start and duration.

It looks like Top Up TV is reducing their £7.99 non-Anytime service even further with the Discovery channels and Cartoon Network disappearing from the live line-up in February. This puts the live content to:

UKTV Gold (4pm - 1am)
UKTV Style (1pm - 4pm)
British Eurosport (7.30am - 10am)
TCM (7pm - 1am)

It’s rumoured that this is to make room for subscription sport channel Setanta. TUTV has also stopped selling the basic £7.99 service to new customers, making Top Up TV Anytime their only product.

The FrequencyCast team now have their hands on a Top Up TV Anyime set-top box, and are in the process of reviewing the box for Show 10. You can see the team’s initial review here.

We would like to get your questions on Anytime, so we can include them in the next FrequencyCast show. Please use the Comments section here to ask your questions…