3.7 StarsAverage
Range of features 4.2 StarsGood
Ease of use 4.2 StarsGood
Quality of EPG 3.8 StarsAverage
0 of 1 (0%) customers would recommend this product to a friend.

Customer reviews & ratings (18)
Product summary
Overall Rating 3.7 StarsAverage
Range of features 4.2 StarsGood
Ease of use 4.2 StarsGood
Quality of EPG 3.8 StarsAverage
0% would recommend to a friend (0 of 1)

another unreliable machine 10 November 2009
By MIKE from essex
Overall Rating 1 Star Poor
Range of features 4 StarsGood
Ease of use 4 StarsGood
Quality of EPG 4 StarsGood

Recommend to a friend? No
"this product appears to do all you require from such a recorder. HOWEVER, as with the previous 2 thomson products, it is totally unreliable, as it misses recordings at random, and despite ringing the help desk 3 times in the first week, I am just about to give up on this company and return the machine as 'not fit for purpose' . I have read other feedback sites, this appears to be a very common problem. Whilst I have given 4 stars for three areas, you do not include 'reliability/performance, which is so poor that I have to give an overall rating as poor."

thomson tv recorder 07 August 2009
By lilian from England
Overall Rating 5 StarsExcellent
Range of features 4 StarsGood
Ease of use 5 StarsExcellent
Quality of EPG 4 StarsGood

"brought for a birthday present told it was easy to set up and easy to use, however tends to freezed a lot during use, and on quite a few occasions unable to turn on or off therefore needing to be turned off at the main and on again before able to work. still happy with it as he is able to record his programmes without the fuss of finding tapes,or paying for sky + etc."

Can't do without it now! 04 August 2009
By KatL from Southampton
Overall Rating 5 StarsExcellent
Range of features 5 StarsExcellent
Ease of use 4 StarsGood
Quality of EPG 5 StarsExcellent

"I love this set top box. You have to read the manual completely because it's not the easiest machine to use at first, but once you get the hang of it it's great. I had a Humax before I got this and thought that was brilliant, but I like the Thompson machine a lot more. The series link is really handy, and I'm really impressed with Top-Up TV and Picture Box . The memory is massive - at the moment I've got saved 15 movies, 12 one hour shows and 7 hours of recording programmed in, plus the memory reserved for top-up tv, and I've still got 71% of the memory free so there's never any rush to watch things to clear the memory. This was really good value for money, and I'm really glad I decided on the Thompson."

Excellent product - Outstanding Technical Support 23 June 2009
By David from Scotland
Overall Rating 4 StarsGood
Range of features 5 StarsExcellent
Ease of use 4 StarsGood
Quality of EPG 4 StarsGood

"This is one of the best digital TV recorders available in the UK today.

The Argos description should state the following though:
Choose either 14 day electronic programme guide (EPG) OR 8 day Freeview Plus (EPG).
Can record 2 channels at the same time, as well as watching a previous recording.
Series record only works when using the 8 day Freeview Plus (EPG).

Good points about this box:
Excellent value for money.
Massive recording time capability.
When set to use the 8 day Freeview Plus (EPG), if a programme time changes, this box will automatically alter the start and end times of the recording where possible.
Excellent customer support. In fact, the best that I've ever encountered.
Once you get use to the remote control, it's very practical to use.
This box manages to maintain its temperature without being noisy at all. I have this box in a bedroom and I rarely notice any noise coming from it.
A time saving library button that takes you straight to your recordings.
Good-looking box.
You can enter a code into the remote to control your TV. An earlier post mentions that the mute a volume buttons don't work on the remote - these buttons control functions on your TV (not the box) !
Useful programme search facility. Allows you to search for a programmes name within the EPG or your library.

Bad points about this box:
You have to use your common sense a bit at initial set up, as there is a point where you have tuned your channels and you have to press "OK" or "back", but there is no on-screen prompt for this.
v2.03 or 2.05 software no longer has a Favourite channels feature. This means having to browse through channels that I hate or do not have a subscription to.
It occasionally has a small glitch (e.g. locked up twice now and required powering off and on), but what freeview recorder doesn't ?

Customer support:
Customer support are extremely efficient and they can personally answer 99% of your queries without having to put you through to someone else. I called support twice regarding general queries. There were two automated questions, then I was immediately put through to a real person.

Summary:
I strongly recommend the Thomson 500GB Top Up TV Digital TV Recorder. Don't pay £50 to £75 more for another box with the same recording time capability. If you want a quiet box, massive recording time capability, with a name that you can trust and outstanding technical support, then this is the box for you."

Page 1 2 3 4 next >>