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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
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160Gig version for £89.99 from Empire Direct and Argos .
£129.99 for the 250Gig version at Argos online
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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?
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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
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See our iPlayer page
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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
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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?
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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
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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
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£52.99 from 24-7
Electrical
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Goodmans GDB7CA
Supports 7-day EPG.
Outputs: 2 x SCART, RF loopthrough |
£54.99 from Argos
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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?
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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
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Sagem ITD68
Basic Top-Up TV box.
Outputs: 1 x SCART, RF loopthrough |
£49.99 from Argos
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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
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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?
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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
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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
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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
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Nokia
DVB9850T
Old onDigital/ITVDigital box with compatible card slot |

Not available
- Try Ebay.co.uk
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Pace DTR-730 and DTR-735 FTV
Old onDigital/ITVDigital box with compatible card slot |
Not available - Try Ebay.co.uk
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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)
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Not available - Try Ebay.co.uk
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PhilipsDTX6370 and DTX6371
Old onDigital/ITVDigital box with compatible card slot |
Not available - Try Ebay.co.uk
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Pioneer
DBR-T210GB and DBR-T2010
Old onDigital/ITVDigital box with compatible card slot |
Not available - Try Ebay.co.uk
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Prices, specifications and offers are subject to alteration. Refer to the websites that we link to for latest prices, information and conditions
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:
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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. |
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Tune to a
Top Up TV channel. We
saw a green "Please insert your smartcard" message. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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"
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Links
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