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Anyone Bought a Thomson TV?


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I am thinking of replacing our ancient 32 inch Sony TV, it's one of those TV's you almost need a crane to lift it, it's so heavy. I have always really been a Sony man when it comes to TVs, but after doing some research had pretty much decided to purchase a 47 inch Panasonic LED TV, as LED TVs seem to be the preferred option out of the three options on offer (plasma, LCD and LED). But after having been into But last week we were rather taken by a 50 inch LED, 3D, Thomson smart TV for 849€, which I thought a good price considering all the facilities built into the TV. After researching Thomson on the internet I see they are a French company, and whilst I have seen their products in shops I have never really taken much notice of their products.

Has anybody purchased a Thomson TV? If so I would really appreciate any feedback you can give me, as to what you think of them. Although the TV I am thinking about purchasing seems good value at 849€, compared to better known TVs, I don't want to waste my money on something that may not be up to the job. So if anybody has any thoughts on Thomson TVs, good or bad then please feel free to post them.

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As far as I know, Thomson/Bush/Goodmans/others? are part of the same group and the gear is just rebranding.  I had a Bush TV for a long while and while it worked, I never thought the picture or sound very good.  To my mind, the best mainstream TVs these days are Samsung, Sony and Panasonic.  I read a report (can't find it now)  saying that there are only 2 or 3 screen manufactures in the world and the grade A screens go to the big 3 and everybody else gets the rest.    I was all set to get a Samsung but in fact got a Panasonic which shared many of the same components and was on offer at the time for a lot less.   Never regretted it for a moment, excellent TV.  As with most TVs, the sound is rubbish but not a problem as the sound all goes through my surround system anyway

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It seems that the Thomson consumer products brand was sold to a company called Audiovox in 2007. Pierre's advice to just trust the main brands is sound (I would add LG to his list). I believe that many other brands are produced in a factory in Turkey owned by Her Majesty's guest, Asil Nadir - that doesn't necessarily make them bad - but it is possible that that quality control processes may not be as stringent as for the main brands, largely producing TVs in their own factories.

Also (I may be wrong) - isn't 3D virtually dead in the water? I know that it had an enthusiast (now departed) on this forum but marketing effort on the part of manufacturers and sellers appears to be very low. I would suggest that the OP go for a 1080p LED smart TV from one of the main brands and forget 3D.

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Thank you both for your replies. I take onboard what you are both saying regarding buying a lesser known make, and as I said in my opening post I have always stuck to Sony for TVs in the past. That said the picture quality of the Thomson looked pretty impressive in the shop, and certainly compared to the other TVs on display.  I know the shop can tweak certain TVs to make one look better than the other, but the Thomson certainly held its own for picture quality.

Really not sure what to do now, Panasonic do a 50 inch plasma for around £800, which has good customer reviews on Amazon UK, but I was under the impression that LEDs were preferable to plasmas, I know plasma screens use a lot more electricity than LEDs. One drawback with the Panasonic is that it only has 2 HDMI ports, I know that you can buy a splitter box, but that seems a backward step when buying a new TV. Likewise with Samsung TVs only have 2 HDMI ports. Regarding LG TVs, I have had 2 bad experiences with LG products, so I am not considering a LG TV. As for going for a 3D TV, whilst not desperate to watch anything in 3D at the moment, things may change in the future, so I thought I might as well have a 3D TV as not. The plasma Panasonic TV supposedly has a facility to convert 2D to 3D, obviously you would have to wear the glasses. Also I think the Thomson has this facility as well, if I understood the review correctly I read on a French site I visited. I had pretty much made my mind up to purchase the 47 inch Panasonic LED, but having seen the 47 and 50 inch TVs side by side in But, I want the 50 inch now as I think size really does matter.[:P]

Taking this thread a little further has anybody any advice as to which type of TV is best, plasma, LED or LCD. It seems the LEDs are a lot more expensive than plasmas, and plasmas use more electricity than LEDs. Totally confused.

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Whilst looking around to see who made the screens for Plasma and LCD I discovered there are only 5 makers of Plasma screens in the world but it is more difficult to find out who makes LCD screens. I did notice, so you can add it to your list, that Philips make their own screens, both Plasma and LCD. Indeed the hold the patent of 'ambi light' LCD screens. I have had a Philips 36" 'tube' telly for  nearly 20 years now and am still very happy with the picture. As I said when 'debating' with an ex member I don't see any need to replace it until it goes bang. I use Amazon UK a lot when buying things for the reviews. You sometimes get a manufacturer's review thrown in amongst them but they are so obvious to spot.
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Haven't had a Thomson TV but have had 2 of their set-top-boxes. The first was just a receiver and was total rubbish in every way possible. The second included a hard drive and has been surprisingly good - until last week when it just about gave up the ghost (but as it cost peanuts in Aldi and has been running for a few years, largely without problem, I have no complaints.)

Our current TVs are a 42" Panasonic plasma and a 22" Toshiba LCD. Pleased with both, apart from the sound of course - but you are never going to get decent sound out of small speakers squeezed into a thin plastic panel so both run through external sound systems.

I still have to get rid of our old Philips 37" CRT TV in UK house. Still works perfectly and has a marvellous sound system but it is massive and I have always feared that it would drop through the floor one day. Let me know if interested - but will need at least 2 burly characters to lift it and a van or Jeep with reinforced floor to transport it!

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Many thanks for your new input.

Great site you flagged there Danny, been on to it and found the Thomson 50 inch LED reviews, which average nearly 7/10, opinions ranging from absolutely brilliant picture quality, sound and 3D to poor sound and shaky 3D, although most people agreed the picture quality is good.One reviewer stated that they had bought the Thomson to replace a 2 and a half year old 50" plasma Panasonic that had packed up! So I guess it is a case of 'you pays your money, and takes your chance'.

Alan you can borrow my crane if you wish, to remove your 37" Philips CRT from your UK residence!

Sorry Quillan but the 32" has to go, I want to watch my Iron Maiden DVDs in full blown 50 inch home cinema, fed up now with a mere 32 inches.

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  • 1 year later...

We bought a 50 inch 3d Smart THOMSON in January 2013 from Auchan, we were going to buy a Samsung but saw the Thomson on offer for only 799e BIG MISTAKE!

The television did not pair with our Sony Bluray player, we dismissed this as we do not watch many films. In January of this year we treated ourselves to a 3d player. The first film we watched played half way then went blank. We contacted Thomson that advised us the TV needed an update. It still had the same problem. We were asked to take the TV back to Auchan. We did and the same happened. Off to Auchan again! Back came the TV, same problem. It would appear that there was a compatability problem with the 3d player (Even though we were told it would work by their sales staff).

Thomson then said they had the problem before. We needed to return the TV via courier to there Paris depot for an updated piece of hardware!

They rang and emailed us on the Tuesday to say the TV was repaired and would be with us by the Thursday latest Friday. Both days came and went, the Saturday as well...After waiting in 3 days it eventually arrived, no apology.

Hooray it worked!

Back to the TV:

Everytime you play a film, the sound is out of sync, you have to adjust the settings every time to sync up.

The wifi dongle is not built in, it attaches behind the TV in a USB, you have to enter your wifi code everytime you use it.....

Unlike all other makes of TV I have seen since, the Thomson does not have a scart socket, you are supplied an adapter, wich is very fiddly.

The picture quality is not the best, Blu rays tend to 'drag' when there is movement on the screen.

The aftersales service is appalling...........

 

 

 

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[quote user="Clarkkent"]

Also (I may be wrong) - isn't 3D virtually dead in the water? I know that it had an enthusiast (now departed) on this forum but marketing effort on the part of manufacturers and sellers appears to be very low. I would suggest that the OP go for a 1080p LED smart TV from one of the main brands and forget 3D.[/quote]

Said exponent of 3D has now shifted his enthusiasm to extolling the virtues of 4K technology (yawn) elsewhere. So I think we can safely assume officially, 3D is dead.[:D]

I'll second your suggestion for an LED Smart TV.

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3D screens seemed to give me a headache after a while and I kept 'losing' the 3 D effect.  Maybe my poor brain can't process the information quickly enough.

I've seen a few 4k big screens now and they are very, very pretty.

I don't think I will be an 'Early adopter' though unless I win big on the lotto

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Firstly I don't have an HD TV. I have however visited friends who have them and have tried watching a program in both SD and HD and to be honest I can't really see the difference. Perhaps if you have 20/20 vision you can but as you get older and your vision deteriorates to the point of wearing glasses like myself I think you will find it difficult to spot the difference. If 4K TV offers 4 x HD definition the question is for people like me is can you justify the cost.

The other issues with 4K TV is that hardly anyone is actually broadcasting it. In the UK there is a steering committee which is basically the BBC and Sky who are trying to decide a standard for broadcasting. The only two companies commercially producing stuff (from a quick look round the Internet) are Netflix and Sony. Sony are upscaling Blu Ray discs to 4K and Netflix are streaming films in 4K. The latter brings another question in that 4K TV needs more than double the bandwidth of HD TV i.e. it requires 15Mbit/s plus and when you consider that Ofcom in the UK now claim the average bandwidth in the UK is now 14.7Mbit/s  there are a lot of people out there that will never be able to stream 4K picture quality. Of course these 4K TV's can upscale HD to 4K but it is not the same as pure 4K.

TV's are also like HiFi systems, it is down to personal taste. I tell my friends that when they look at these TV's to get hold of the remote and do a factory reset of the colour, brightness and contrast. If you have a 'favorite' Blu Ray disk take that with you and ask to see it played on each of the TV's you like so you can compare and see the difference. I also like looking through readers comments on Amazon. You can spot the stupid negative ones a mile off and it gives a reasonable idea as to reliability etc. It is also a good idea to find somebody who has a Which account and get them to print off their results as well. One last thing, if you get a Smart TV, as somebody I believe has already said, the French and UK ones are different because of programing defaults (TV Channels) although both will work in each others country a French one will not have BBC IPlayer etc and you won't be able to go backwards in the program planner.

So my current conclusion for myself is to go for the best none 3D LED TV I can get when my current TV finally goes bang! I don't know about Philips flat screen TV's but our current 'tube' TV just keeps going on and one and on. I do also like the 'look' of the Samsung TV's and if their build is as good as their phones then they should be pretty good.

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I too have a Panasonic 42" Plasma which has been working for the past 12 years. It runs through a Bose surround system and is fantastic.

As for 3D, I was told by a sales assistant who gave me a demo that they recommend only watching up to 3 hours of 3D at a time. This was apparently due to affecting your eyes. I can't comment on that but maybe there is something in it.

Here is a link to a TV review forum for anyone techie out there; http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/

Good luck with whatever option you choose.

Les.

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