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Top UP TV info

Top Up TV Compatible Boxes

Top Up TV offers Freeview viewers a small number of extra channels for a monthly fee. We have more information over on our Top Up TV page.

This page outlines some of the equipment capable of accepting a Top Up TV subscription card.

Update Jan 2007: Note that Top Up TV is no longer selling their £7.99 subscription service to new customers. Instead, they're selling Top Up TV Anytime, which only works with the Thomson DTI-6300 box

What set-top box do I need?

To view Top Up TV, you need a subscription card, and therefore a set-top box or digital TV with a card slot. Before January 2007, it was possible to buy a subscription and subscription card to allow access to Top Up TV channels for £7.99 a month, but from January 2007, Top Up TV are only providing new customers with their Top Up TV Anytime service (reviewed here)

Set top box compatibility

Below is a list of the models that are capable of receiving Top Up TV with a valid Top Up TV subscription card.

If you need more help, try our Top Up TV FAQ, or post a message in our forum if you need more help.

Thomson DTI 6300-16 - Top Up TV Anytime PVR Record a number of "Anytime" shows onto hard disk. Twin tuner. 160 gig hard-drive (for 120 hours of TV). In January 2008, the DTI6300-25 was released with a larger hard-disk (250gig for up to 180 hours). Output: 2 x SCART, digital audio and RF modulated output More on our TopUp TV Anytime page	160Gig version for £89.99 from Empire Direct and Argos. £129.99 for the 250Gig version at Argos online
Matsui TUTV1 Good basic box that became available in Feb 2005. Supports interactive TV, has auto-tune and is easy to use. With remote control. Outputs: 2 x SCART, RF loopthrough	Know a supplier?
BT iPlayer+ Features: Internet & email access from your TV via built-in 56k modem, and optional QWERTY keyboard - onboard games, caller display on your TV, support for broadband - the most feature-packed box out there, and excellent value for money. More details on our iPlayer page	See our iPlayer page
Echostar T105 FTA Features: Sold preloaded 1 month subscription to Top Up TV (worth £7.99). Digitally interactive. 7 day programme guide. Output: 2 SCART, SP/DIF socket, audio sockets and an RF loopthrough	£58.22 from Amazon
Ferguson FDTT2500 Features: 7-day Electronic Programme Guide, and a slot for a TopUp TV card. Outputs: 2 x SCART, RF loopthrough	Know a supplier?
Fusion FRT101T Features: 8 Day 'Freeview EPG', automatic set-up, favourite channel facility, timer programming. Released in December 2004. More details on our Fusion page. Outputs: 2 x SCART, RF loopthrough	£59.99 from Maplin
Humax MGTU1 Features: Supports Top-Up TV card. Comes with a 7-day Electronic Programme Guide. More details on our Humax page Output: 2 x SCART, RF modulator	£52.99 from 24-7 Electrical
Goodmans GDB7CA Supports 7-day EPG. Outputs: 2 x SCART, RF loopthrough	£54.99 from Argos
Sagem PVR7280T PVR to allow recording onto a large 160Gig hard disk for up to 80 hours of recording, twin tuner (watch and record different channels), and a 7-day programme guide. Two SCARTS, Digital audio outputs.	Know a supplier?
Sagem PVR7280T PVR to allow recording onto 80Gig hard disk for 40 hours of recording, twin tuner (watch and record different channels), and a 7-day programme guide.	£151.92 from Amazon
Sagem ITD68 Basic Top-Up TV box. Outputs: 1 x SCART, RF loopthrough	£49.99 from Argos
Thomson DTI-2300 Freeview receiver with card slot ready for Top Up TV. More details on our Thomson page Output: 2 SCARTs and an RF loopthrough with RF modulator	£29.40 from Bennetts
Daewoo DSD9520 PVR to allow recording of Freeview onto hard disk. Has an 80Gig hard disk (for recording up to 40 hours) Outputs: 2 x SCART, stereo audio, digital audio	Know a supplier?
Topfield TF5800PVR - Hard Disk Recorder Details: First TopUP TV compatible Personal Video Recorder - Twin tuners, 160Gig hard disk (up to 88 hours recording time), supports time-shifting & dual recording, Electronic Program Guide (EPG), Became available April 2005. *(Requires a CAM)* Output: S-video, 2 SCARTs and RCA A/V output and RF modulator	£209.99 from Empire Direct
Humax PVR-9200T PVR Hard-disk recorder that can record up to 100 hours. twin tuner, electronic programme guide, picture-in-picture, USB support for PC connectivity, mp3 playback, live pause & dolby digital out. *(Requires a CAM)*	£180 from 24-7 Electrical
Nokia 221 Features: Personal favourites list, navi-bar menus, built-in games, 8 event timer.(Requires a CAM) Output: 2 SCARTs, RF loopthrough (modulator), 2 x phono, S/PDIF digital audio, serial port.	Not available - Try Ebay.co.uk
Nokia DVB9850T Old onDigital/ITVDigital box with compatible card slot	Not available - Try Ebay.co.uk
Pace DTR-730 and DTR-735 FTV Old onDigital/ITVDigital box with compatible card slot	Not available - Try Ebay.co.uk
Pace DTVA (Model: DTR-201-F) One of the first of the post-onDigital boxes to appear, and very popular due to the price and styling. Output: 1 SCART (No RF loopthrough)	Not available - Try Ebay.co.uk
PhilipsDTX6370 and DTX6371 Old onDigital/ITVDigital box with compatible card slot	Not available - Try Ebay.co.uk
Pioneer DBR-T210GB and DBR-T2010 Old onDigital/ITVDigital box with compatible card slot	Not available - Try Ebay.co.uk

Prices, specifications and offers are subject to alteration. Refer to the websites that we link to for latest prices, information and conditions

We featured Top Up TV Anytime in Show 10 of our online radio show.
Listen to the show online, or download it to your MP3 player.
Listen to Show 10 | Latest Show | More Info

Updating an old onDigital Box

Below is a brief summary of how we updated our Philips DTX6370 OnDigital set top box to work with Top Up TV:

	We received our Top Up TV card with an A4 set of instructions, and a covering letter that contained some amendments to the instructions. First off, switch on the box, and from the "Getting started" menu, perform a "Store channels". The box scans for new channels.
	Tune to a Top Up TV channel. We saw a green "Please insert your smartcard" message.
	We inserted the smartcard. From forum messages, it seems instructions on which way up the card goes may differ between models, or be inaccurate. For our Philips, it was chip-up. After insertion, we saw a green "This channel is not included in your subscription" message. If you don't see this, your card's probably in upside down. The instructions were to leave on channel 25 overnight switched "on", correcting the original instructions which state "in standby". After about 30 minutes, we tried switching to another Top Up channel, and found that the update had worked. No need to wait overnight (we did ours at 8pm), and we didn't see the "upgrading" screens shown in the instructions.
	As advised, we moved to UK Gold on channel 17, and found a "Congratulations! Your box has been updated" message. This confirmed that the upgrade had worked. The message (and the covering letter with the card) talk about a further update (leaving the box on channel 25 for a second night), but it's not clear why... Once the upgrade was complete, we found that we could view a movie that TCM was showing, and saw that many of the other channels were running promos ready for the launch.
	Problems with the update? A few people have hit problems with the update. Here are a few things to check: Card inserted the right way up? (The instructions aren't always correct!) Tried switching away to another Top Up Channel? Key channels seem to be Boomerang, TCM and UK Gold. Check the card information (Menu > OnDigital updates > Smartcard data). Before the update, the "Subscription ends on" said "01 JAN 1990", and after the update, this showed "30 APR 2004"

Links

Top Up TV info - More on this subscription service
Top Up TV forum - Discuss Top UP TV and TUTV Anytime
New to Freeview? - Considering Freeview? read on
Freeview FAQ - Our page containing answers to common Freeview questions and problems
Freeview set-top box summary - More on Freeview boxes
More Freeview links on our TV Links page

Note that we're not connected to Top Up TV, and can't help with account enquiries.

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