26-inch LCD. 2x HDMI. 1366x768. Panasonic is well known for its superb plasmas, but it's not too bad at LCD either, if the TX-26LXD60 is anything to go by. Not too much more than £500 buys you this 26-inch stunner, and in return you'll get incredibly rich, sharp and detailed HD pictures. This is backed up by decent connections. And while the design and sound performance are good rather than great, it's all about the picture. The best part: Stunning high-def picture quality.
3 Philips 32PF9641D - £630
32-inch LCD. 2x HDMI. 1366x768. The 32PF9641D is everything a modern LCD should represent. It looks great, is well connected, produces great pictures and sound, and is priced aggressively. It may not come with the latest version of the Philips' Pixel Plus processing, but version two still does a great job on high-def pictures. And the Ambilight pyrotechnics are always welcome. Standard-definition pictures aren't great, but just about everything else is. The best part: It has many strengths, but sheer value for money is probably the greatest one.
2 Pioneer PDP-427XD - £950
42-inch plasma. 2x HDMI. 1024x768. As the only plasma in this round-up, the first question is inevitably 'why is it so cheap'? And we haven't got an answer for you. The PDP-427XD looks great, and produces fantastic pictures. We're big fans of the seventh generation plasmas in bigger screen sizes. But this 42-inch beauty gives nothing away to its bigger brethren except price. The best part: Plasma's inherent black level advantage over LCD at an incredible price.
1 Sharp LC42XD1E - £880
42-inch LCD. 2x HDMI. 1920x1080. If you want to know why this is our number one, those specs you just read are a good start. But not only is this a Full HD 42-inch TV for under a grand, it's not like corners have been cut elsewhere. The XD1E range is well built and stylish, while connections are decent - although there's no component video input. Sharp's truD processing system does fantastic work on high-def images, boosting contrast ratio to an impressive 6000:1. Sound performance is a match, and even standard-def images haven't been forgotten. The best part: Full, glorious high definition.
Full reviews courtesy of Home Cinema Choice, What Video, What Home Cinema and What Plasma magazines.
Previous Top 10s: Digital SLRs ; High-def projectors ; The best of Blu-ray ; LCD TVs ; Smartphones ; Budget laptops ; High-definition TVs
