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Features
70cm widescreen
TV and DVD combination
Virtual Dolby surround sound
Dolby Digital and DTS compatible
SCART socket connectors
S-Video inputs/outputs
Auto format switching
16:9 aspect ratio control
Multi-speed DVD scanning
Pros
Convenience and simplicity.
Solid levels of performance.
Cons
What happens when one product breaks down?
Ratings
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Distributor
Thomson Electronics
TEL 03 - 9543 5299
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Thompson 28WT25U
Widescreen DVD Player and widescreen TV combo
Recommended retail price: $1999
(inc. GST)
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Reviewer: Richard Morgan
The really exciting part of being involved with the world of DVD at present is witnessing the creative ways in which designers come up with ideas to implement technology, make products and siphon more money from us. This Thomson Scenium-range product is a creative endeavour and while not entirely original is a useful concept.
 It (the model 28WT25U) is a television with a built-in DVD player and has been introduced to meet the needs of a variety of DVD market segments (well, those I can identify, anyway).
Those are people with space restrictions that don't allow myriad consume electronics products, people who need to upgrade the TV to handle DVD quality, non-technical types who don't want to fuss with connecting and setting up and people who simply want something that's quite sexy.
This unit looks quite smart in a conservative sort of way, and that's just fine by me - the last thing I want is the tellie to stand out even more than it already does. It has its neat, square lines and pleasing symmetry.
Viewed from the side it looks much larger than its front-on screen size would indicate, so make plenty of room on the sideboard. Installation is as you would expect a breeze. Not as easy as the maker would have you believe, but quite okay thanks to the automatic set-up (which is swift and accurate) and the on-screen menus are helpful and intuitive. The remote is groovy with well-placed buttons, but they are impossible to read in low light conditions and the buttons aren't all that positive to use.
In TV mode performance is generally very good. Since it's a 71cm screen size, zooming a TV picture to fill the widescreen means the image doesn't become so large that you can see every pixel from your seat. The result is pleasingly sharp and natural picture.
The automatic zoom is very effective and usually senses the right screen aspect for the image, but another advantage of the 'smaller' screen is that even if you stretch a 14:9 picture to 16:9, it still doesn't appear distorted. The only downer was how much it also emphasises the awfulness of VHS (but who rents VHS tapes anymore anyway?).
In the sound department there's Virtual Dolby Surround which makes a good fist of delivering pseudo dimensional sound for movies. There's enough bass to give it a bit of oomph, but not so much that the mid-range and top-end sound recessed. It's not full home theatre stuff by any means, but it'll get you by (and of course you can always upgrade via the facilities.
Where this particular Scenium product comes into its own, though, is when you pop open the DVD tray and invite the TV to play one of the latest hit movies for you. Being built-in, all the tedious setting up is handled for you and all you have to do is make sure the languages are all in English. The aforementioned remote serves the DVD player as well and it's all very easy to navigate.
Image quality is quite splendid and the player section is well stocked with all the useful DVD features including a very handy 60x fast forward to skip through at an alarming rate. The icons aren't exactly straightforward, but that's the problem with European things - in their attempts to make them intelligible to everyone, manufacturers manage to render them utterly incomprehensible to all and sundry instead.
As with most combination options this Thompson DVDTV concept has its limitations, the main being that you can't upgrade either of the elements without, in the long run, upgrading the other. So if you want a larger television you'll need to shell out for a new DVD player when you get tired of linking to existing player. Also if one product needs to be repaired or serviced the other goes with it. But you know all this don't you?
The up side to this piece of gear has much wider reaching and having everything integrated is incredibly convenient and space-saving and the product certainly performs well up to spec and beyond, so there's no compromise here at all. No matter which way you look at it this is a great performing combination and you don't need a degree in nuclear science to realise that it's great value too.
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