Loewe Connect 42 Media Full-HD+ 100 DR+ review

All this, and we haven't even mentioned the Connect 42's optional, built-in 'DR+' hard-disk recorder with full Freeview+ specification. The capacity of this has gone up from 160GB to 250GB for 2009, and the Freeview recordings you can make via DR+ are of a very high quality.

The last nifty feature introduced on the latest Connect TVs is an iPhone app. It effectively lets you take any Internet radio 'favourite' lists you've set up on your Connect TV and listen to them on your phone.

Impressive performance
With the Connect 42 sporting a genuinely imperious feature set, it would be a real shame if the set fell at the AV-quality hurdle. But it clears it beautifully.

The Connect 42 delivers positively Olympian sound, making pretty much every other flat TV sound quite pathetic in comparison. The set's pictures aren't quite as awesome, relative to the competition. But they're still very good, and, in some ways, excellent. Colours, for instance, generally look richly saturated and impressively natural, notwithstanding the occasional peaky skin tone, as well as enjoying excellent, subtle tonal transitions.

Even more eye-catching is the set's motion-compensation processing. The Connect 42 features 100Hz processing and an Image+ Active engine that's an improvement on last year's system. The motion-compensation processing does an excellent job of removing judder and image blur from the Connect 42's pictures. The system is particularly effective with 1080p/24p Blu-ray playback.

The Image+ Active processing also does a good job of upscaling standard-definition pictures to the screen's 1080p resolution. But the screen really comes into its own with high-definition material, which it presents with unusual crispness.

The Connect 42 is prevented from achieving class-leading picture quality by a couple of flaws, though. Really dark scenes have a slightly cloudy look, and there's occasionally some noticeable shimmering noise around moving objects with the otherwise excellent motion-processing system engaged.

Conclusion
Not everyone will want or be able to cough up nearly £3,000 for a 42-inch TV. But we think the Connect 42 Media Full-HD+ 100 DR+ is talented enough to justify its steep price, particularly if you're also tempted by Loewe's other AV offerings.

Edited by Charles Kloet