Hitachi 42PD7500 Plasma Tv 110CM

Hitachi is as proud as a dad holding the latest addition to his family, as he looks at his new born, admiring the beauty of what he’s created.

And why shouldn't it be.  While they’re no new-comes to creating televisions this is the first plasma they've produced that has a built-in Freeview tuner rather than the usual external box.  And they’re rightly proud of it.

The Hitachi 42PD7500 is a beautiful looking plasma that will sit proud in any corner of the room, not shy of being shown off when visitors pop around to admire your new addition.

And if ever there was a model that is the ideal companion for the attractive Sky HD box, this is.  When joined in union they produce some amazing images, the clarity and detail in the pictures are absolutely stunning and the colours leap out of the screen.

However, at a time when Sky HD boxes are rarer than a fight-free day in Walford, the quality of image when using a regular feed such as an aerial does lose some of its shine.  While there is a high pixel resolution of 1024x1024, the image has a tendency of being slightly pixelated and the colours aren’t as sharp as the more expensive range of plasmas.

Going around the back of the set is like stumbling into Aladdin’s cave.  Hitachi has included an HDMI interface, two Scart inputs and component connectors.

Slotted in well with all this is a seven-day programme guide that fits the screen well, an easy set-up and fairly easy tuner controls.

This is a handsome telly which looks stylish and performs well for the price.

Picture quality is superb whatever the input selected and the sound is acceptable through the standard speakers. Best mated with a decent home cinema system. Nice quality feel to the remote control. Screen looks attractive and expensive. Amaze your friends with the auto-screen swivel feature. Built in Freeview tuner is very good and a wise bit of futureproofing. My only gripes are that the remote cannot be programmed to run a Sky Plus digibox (a standard problem affecting most current major manufacturers) and that there are only two SCART sockets. I could have done with four.