FAQ 05: How do I get a 7-day EPG on my Toppy using a Mac?
Firstly, this only applies to Australian and UK users for the moment.

Grab a copy of MacTF-EPG and start it up. Go to the prefs and select your region and how many days to download (up to 8) then hit the "Fetch EPG info" button. This may take a while so be patient. Once the data is downloaded, connect the Toppy via USB (make sure other programs such as MacTF and MPEG Streamclip aren't running) and hit "Upload EPG to Topfield". It uploads the data in the form of "TGD" files to the Program Files directory by default.

The next step is to display the EPG data. There are two options at the moment, epg_uploader and JustEPG.
1. epg_uploader is a TAP that takes the TGD files and loads them into the Toppy's internal EPG storage. You can then use the built-in EPG, or any other EPG TAP, to look ahead in the guide. Timers can also be created based on a flag set in the TGD file, enabling you to mark programs to be recorded from your computer. Setup requires you to edit an .ini file with some values for your area, and instructions are in the TAP package.
2. JustEPG (although the current version is here) is a TAP that acts as a replacement EPG that displays a list of programs for 6 channels at once. It is able to read the TGD files directly (but you can also use it in conjunction with epg_uploader if you want). It is very intuitive and makes setting timers dead easy. Although this also requires you to edit an .ini file to set it up, this step is less complex than epg_uploader's.

BTW, if you inadvertantly download EPG data for the wrong region, you may need to delete the contents of your ~/Library/Application Support/MacTF-EPG/output folder to force any cached data out.

FAQ 04: How do I burn a DVD from my recordings?
Although it is possible to use MacTF to download recordings from your Toppy to a Mac for later burning, I recommend you instead use MPEG Streamclip from Squared 5. This app shares a lot of functionality with MacTF but also allows you to stream the file direct off the box and other such goodies, and saves a few steps in the DVD burning process too. As both MacTF and Streamclip try to use the USB port, please do not use them at the same time to avoid problems.

Firstly, if you have not used MPEG Streamclip before, go to the prefs and enable the Altair option. Then you can use the Altair/Files... menu option to navigate through the Toppy's hard disk much like MacTF. Go into DataFiles and select the recording you want, then you have the option to either download the file or open it. Either way is fine, but the simplest way is probably to open it. Then you can use the editing features of Streamclip to remove any ads or programs on the ends that you do not want (note that doing it this way does not actually change what is on the Toppy, just what will be downloaded when you hit go later).

When you have the file ready, you can convert, export or demux it to a number of formats. Personally, I use "Demux to M2V and M1A..." but you could use "Convert to MPEG..." just as well (in fact this is probably the easier option as you can then take it back to Streamclip for further editing if needed) or "Export to DV" if you want to use it in iMovie. Whatever way you do it, the file will now be downloaded from the Toppy and converted on-the-fly to the format you have chosen.

Now that you have your edited file on the Mac, you can burn it. The easiest way to do this is with Toast. Simply select the "Video" tab in the Toast (versions 6 or 7) window and drag the file to it. (If you used the M2V/M1A option above, just drag the M2V file, the audio should be found automatically if you haven't moved or renamed it). Change any options in regards to menus that you want, and make sure you have selected DVD-Video as your output format. Then hit go!

Some things to remember:
1. DVDs hold ~4.7GB, so watch how much you are trying to fit onto the disk. If you exceed the limit, Toast 7 will re-encode the video to fit, which is slow and reduces the picture quality too. I can't remember what Toast 6 does, probably just complain.
2. You can always use the File/Save as Disc Image... option in Toast to do the conversion etc without actually burning the disk. Therefore you can preview how the disk will look without wasting a disk. You can also use this to get around the space limit if you are using Toast 6, as you can then use the disk image in a DVD shrinking program such as DVD2OneX or Popcorn before burning.
3. If you want advanced things like multiple soundtracks and/or subtitles, have a look at ffMpegX in conjunction with projectX, this can handle it.

FAQ 03: How do I upgrade firmware with a Mac?
The official program provided by Topfield to upgrade the firmware is a Windows program and I gather there is no intention of them writing a Mac (or Linux) version.

However, thanks to FireBird for giving me some protocol information, I was able to write a Mac firmware updater called ToFi. It currently works great on USB2, but not so well on USB1.1 machines.

FAQ 02: How do I install and run TAPs?
As seen in FAQ 01, you can upload TAPs to anywhere in the Program Files folder. Once you have placed a TAP in this folder, call up the file list using your remote (sometimes called the Archive button). Usually when you first call it up it will display your previous recordings. However, if you use the << and >> buttons on the remote you can move to the Program Files and MP3 folders too. You should see the TAP listed here now (only files ending in .tap will be displayed by the Toppy onscreen). If you select it and press OK, the TAP will start. Depending on the TAP you may see nothing or a message may be displayed. See the instructions with the TAP for information on how it should be used.

If you would like a TAP to always run on startup, place the TAP in the Auto Start folder. If for some reason there is no Auto Start folder in the Program Files folder, you can create one, just be sure to have the right capitalisation and the space too.

Some TAPs come with .ini files that you may have to place in certain spots (or not). Again, see the instructions for that particular TAP.

FAQ 01: How do I use MacTF?
Firstly, once you have installed MacTF and plugged the USB cable in, click the "Connect to Topfield PVR" button. You should see three listings in the table now (DataFiles, Program Files and MP3). Double-clicking on a listing will go into that folder (if it is a folder of course!). Once inside a folder, double-click on the ".." listing to move up the hierarchy to the parent folder again.

The three folders you start with store three types of files mainly. MP3 holds MP3 files, DataFiles holds .rec files (your recordings) and Program Files holds everything else (but mainly TAPs and associated ini files).

Once you are in the folder you want, hit upload to upload a file or files from your Mac to the Toppy, or you can select a file or files in the table and hit download to transfer them to your Mac. You can also rename and delete files.