bonzobanana
Well-known Member
I bought a Thomson 28WX411S from the clearance section of skybuy including a dvd/vcr unit for £250. Not got the dvd/vcr unit yet though.
Anyway its an older model probably 18 months out of date. Presumably stored up for a while and forgotten about. Definitely new and pristine when I opened the box.
I'm not normally a fan of 100hz sets and to be honest it was more or less a lottery as the skybuy description was so vague. I knew it was 28" had a totally flat screen and virtual surround and that was it. I was expecting it to be 50hz with 2 speakers and the near useless dolby virtual surround using just the 2 speakers.
Turns out this model has four forward facing speakers and a rear up facing subwoofer. The virtual surround actually works well. Its about 20 watts per channel plus the subwoofer. The tv features 3 scarts of which 2 are RGB compatible and 2 are s-video compatible. There are front av inputs too. If you plug something into AV3 and the front AV sockets they interfere with each other as they are electrically connected. So have to turn off the AV3 device when using the front av sockets. Not a problem.
Anyway compared to my old Sharp tv the difference between RGB, S-video and composite is less dramatic. The Thomson does a much better job with s-video and composite and I was surprised how much better this is. The sharp was pretty awful it has to be said in this regard. When it comes to RGB there is no doubt that the Sharp delivered slightly more picture detail. Not much but enough to notice. However the Thomson provides near perfect geometry, total ntsc compatibility and a flicker free image that is very watchable. The sharp was awful for ntsc and it was occasionally flickery, mainly on ntsc material.
One annoying thing about 100hz is it makes ntsc to pal dvd conversion more jerky. Only slightly but again noticable.
To be honest I would have prefered the set to be 50hz with everything else being equal but then thats not possible as I would lose the 2nd rgb scart socket, excellent geometry and numerous other little features they've added to this model over the more basic offerings.
I'm very happy with the set and have already enjoyed a few qames and films on it.
One things for sure I've never heard a tv set without satellite speakers sound better than this one. The subwoofer is capable of a some real impactful bass sounds.
time to ebay my saturn, playstation and dreamcast lightguns I suppose.
Anyway its an older model probably 18 months out of date. Presumably stored up for a while and forgotten about. Definitely new and pristine when I opened the box.
I'm not normally a fan of 100hz sets and to be honest it was more or less a lottery as the skybuy description was so vague. I knew it was 28" had a totally flat screen and virtual surround and that was it. I was expecting it to be 50hz with 2 speakers and the near useless dolby virtual surround using just the 2 speakers.
Turns out this model has four forward facing speakers and a rear up facing subwoofer. The virtual surround actually works well. Its about 20 watts per channel plus the subwoofer. The tv features 3 scarts of which 2 are RGB compatible and 2 are s-video compatible. There are front av inputs too. If you plug something into AV3 and the front AV sockets they interfere with each other as they are electrically connected. So have to turn off the AV3 device when using the front av sockets. Not a problem.
Anyway compared to my old Sharp tv the difference between RGB, S-video and composite is less dramatic. The Thomson does a much better job with s-video and composite and I was surprised how much better this is. The sharp was pretty awful it has to be said in this regard. When it comes to RGB there is no doubt that the Sharp delivered slightly more picture detail. Not much but enough to notice. However the Thomson provides near perfect geometry, total ntsc compatibility and a flicker free image that is very watchable. The sharp was awful for ntsc and it was occasionally flickery, mainly on ntsc material.
One annoying thing about 100hz is it makes ntsc to pal dvd conversion more jerky. Only slightly but again noticable.
To be honest I would have prefered the set to be 50hz with everything else being equal but then thats not possible as I would lose the 2nd rgb scart socket, excellent geometry and numerous other little features they've added to this model over the more basic offerings.
I'm very happy with the set and have already enjoyed a few qames and films on it.
One things for sure I've never heard a tv set without satellite speakers sound better than this one. The subwoofer is capable of a some real impactful bass sounds.
time to ebay my saturn, playstation and dreamcast lightguns I suppose.