Thomson 32LB120S4U review

Other features include the now-mandatory (but still useless) Picture-in-Picture facility, as well as Virtual Dolby Surround. The latter will also be of little use to anyone, but it's another offering for Thomson to boast about in the product brochure. If only a DVI input had been included to allow users to upgrade to Sky's high-definition service, which is due in early 2006. The announcement that a HDCP-compliant input would be needed for the service is still relatively recent, but the ringing it made in manufacturer's ears should have filtered through to its finished products by now, especially on a model as large as 32-inch. And with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD on the way, it's enough to make us strongly suggest you hold off buying the display, regardless of its performance.

Performance
Picture performance is a mixed bag with the 32LB120S4U. Across all the sources, colour reproduction is generally good, although skin tones can err too much towards the red end of the spectrum. However, there's next to no contrast on offer, so distinguishing fine detail in darker areas of the screen is an impossible task. There is also too much noise and blocking present on pictures from FreeView -- again, where Samsung's DNIe sorts these problems out, HiPix doesn't seem to be up to the job. Having said that, the brightness is very good, especially when set to the highest level in the on-screen menu.

The aural performance is also good, especially in terms of detail. The speakers might not offer a massive amount of depth but they can go up to maximum without distorting, and during everyday use they perform adequately. You wouldn't want to use Virtual Dolby when watching EastEnders, but you can output straight to a receiver and let it handle the more realistic Dolby Pro Logic II processing.

Edited by Mary Lojkine
Additional editing by Tom Espiner