Acer isn't the best-known name in televisions, so its AT4220 might not be the first choice for those looking for a sensibly priced 42-inch television. But with online prices as low as £850, you should certainly consider it.
The AT4220 is a great little performer for its price. High-definition picture quality is excellent, DVDs look reasonable and standard TV is okay, although one big problem is that there's no Freeview receiver, so unless you buy a Freeview box you're stuck with the five analogue stations.
One area that impressed us was how good the image was when we hooked up a PC via the VGA input, making this a solid choice to use with a Windows Media Center PC.
If you're on a tight budget, this gives you a reasonable performance at a low, low price.
Design
Looks-wise, you get what you pay for with the AT4220. It's not the ugliest set we've seen, but it certainly isn't a looker, with the thick bezel making the telly appear particularly cheap. But fortunately, the picture quality makes up for the deficiencies in styling.
The comprehensive set of controls are located on the right-hand side of the set, including buttons for increasing the volume, changing the channel, selecting an input source and entering the menu system. Expect them to come in handy if you lose the remote down the back of the sofa.
The remote control looks basic. It's longer than it strictly needs to be and slightly uncomfortable to hold, but the layout is simple, and the TV responds to button presses quickly.
The television is also wall mountable, although you'll need to pay extra for a wall mount bracket. Acer has thoughtfully positioned the inputs on the rear of the set so that they face downwards to help you out if you end up screwing it to your wall.
Features
The Acer AT4220 is a 720p screen, although it will happily downscale pictures to fit its 1,366x768-pixel panel.
The AT4220 also has a good range of sockets for hooking up your AV gear. Most notably, two HDMI sockets are present, allowing you to have, for instance, both SkyHD and either an HD DVD or Blu-ray player attached with no need to fumble around at the back of the set swapping them about.
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