JVC LT-42DA8BJ review

JVC LT-42DA8BJ Review

Reviewed by: Ian Morris

Reviewed on: 6 August 2007

When it comes to TVs, £800 is a magic number -- if you're planning to spend £1,000, it leaves some cash in the kitty for some speakers or an HD DVD or Blu-ray player to complement your new HD Ready TV. JVC is the latest company to venture into this price point with the LT-42DA8BJ (although you can find it cheaper online), but is a 42-inch LCD too much of a stretch for the money?

Design
The JVC is finished in a silver colour with a black bezel, which is a departure from the current fashion of piano-black screens.

The remote control does look a little cheap, and it isn't the most comfortable to hold either. On a more positive note, the buttons are all large, which means for those of us with less than delicate hands, hitting the right button isn't going to be much of a problem.

The rear inputs are basic, with just two HDMI and one component, but's enough to keep most people happy

The LT-42DA9BJ offers a pair of rear HDMI sockets and a single component video in, which is probably just about enough for most people. We'd always like to see three HDMI inputs on a large-screen TV, but we're also realists and understand, especially on budget televisions, that this isn't always possible. You can see a full list of the inputs and outputs on our specs page.

Features
The LT-42DA9BJ is a basic 720p screen, offering support for input material up to 1080i, which is downscaled to fit the screen. The newer, less common 1080p format is not supported. As you would expect, Freeview is built in, as is an analogue tuner, for those areas where digital isn't available, or for people who simply prefer analogue.

It's disappointing to see that JVC has opted not to include a VGA connector on this television. The manual suggests for connecting a computer you should obtain a DVI/VGA-to-HDMI conversion cable. While this is a workable solution if you have a computer with DVI, it's a little irritating if you want to hook up a media centre full-time, as you'll be reducing the number of useable HDMI sockets.

The JVCs Freeview tuner features an eight-day programme guide, so you can see what's going to be on during the next week. The handy 'genre search' feature allows you to only display a specific  type of programme. So, if you're in the mood for a movie, you can search the schedules for films. Sadly there isn't an 'avoid all programmes with Jade Goody' button.

The LT-42 should get some credit for having sensibly named inputs when you cycle through them onscreen -- we've noticed on some televisions inputs are simply labelled from 1 to 6, say. The JVC makes it clear onscreen that input 4 is HDMI 1.