Panasonic Viera TH-46PZ85

It's fair to say we've been rather smitten with Panasonic plasma TVs recently, their relatively low price and high performance are very impressive and this model, the TH-46PZ85 is no exception. For a start, it's a full 1080p television, with 100hz picture mode. The Panny also boasts a feature called "intelligent frame creation", which, as the name suggests, generates extra frames with the intention of smoothing motion. In fact, it's one of the most impressive picture processing modes we've seen, but even so, it gives film a video-like quality which we think looks slightly unnatural. There are the usual sockets, including a pair of HDMI sockets at the back and one at the side. You get composite and s-video in too located where you can easily get to them to connect older games consoles and camcorders. There are the usual two Scarts and component at the rear to finish the smorgasbord of connectivity. In terms of picture quality, we're very impressed indeed, Freeview is decent, although we have seen TVs handle it better. Upscaled DVDs look fantastic, we've tested it with Blade and X-Men and found both to have startling levels of detail and good colour balance. Sound was also a bit of a surprise too, with good detail, admirable low-end bass and clear dialogue. We also found that engadging the virtual surround sound mode did sometimes throw sound effects around the room in quite a startling way. It's no substitute for a proper surround sound system but it does broaden the audio soundstage.