LG 42PC55 review

Performance
One problem we had with this television is the glass screen. This is standard on plasma screens, but it causes problems in well-lit rooms and means that unless you watch in total darkness you'll see a lot of reflections in the screen.

Watching high-definition video was a pleasant experience -- we thought the picture was decent, but not the best we've seen. The TV deserves a credit for producing very strong colours, which make watching Happy Gilmore very enjoyable. We did notice quite a lot of on-screen 'sparkles', especially on pictures that contained bright areas of solid colour. Our HD DVD of Serenity showed this up during a scene of a vast desert -- it's not the sort of effect that will bother you if you're sitting a couple of metres away from the screen but it's still far from ideal.

The side panel is basic, but enables you to hook up a camcorder

Sound from the 42PC55 was a disappointment, too. There was very little bass, which made both music and action scenes a little weak sounding -- we've heard far more dynamic sound from smaller 32-inch screens. The only saving grace is that the optical digital output does at least enable you to hook the TV up to an amplifier.

Standard-definition DVDs via an upscaling player looked pretty good. The speckling was present, but it seemed to be exacerbated by the comparatively low quality of DVD. Other than that the colour seemed reasonably vibrant, and there was plenty of detail in the picture.

Freeview performance on the LG is acceptable. There are some picture problems, some of which are made worse by the low quality of Freeview generally, however we have seen televisions deal with this problem better. The main issue was the general noise on the picture.

Another flaw was that shadows or areas that have subtle changes in shade could become 'graduated' rather than a smooth colour transition. For example, in a shadow where there was an area of black which faded to grey, we could see distinct bands of colour visible.

We also noticed some ghosting. This was at its worst where there was a distinct, sharp edge to something -- we could see a faint halo effect around it.

Conclusion
For a current street price of around £900, this plasma is pretty sensibly priced -- for your money you get a large screen with some pretty decent styling.

Both picture and sound quality are a bit of a let-down, though. The image quality on high-definition material suffered from speckles and noise in bright areas, and the sound lacked bass and felt decidedly lightweight while watching movies.

If you are on a budget this TV will appeal, but there are other TVs available for similar money if you are prepared to accept a smaller screen.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Kate Macefield