Fujitsu P42XHA58EB review

Fujitsu is a serious producer of home cinema screens and that's what this 42in plasma is, down to its £2,700 price.

The omission of both a Scart and tuner of either analogue or digital variety are an indication of the snob appeal of this screen - the company is assuming that you are as serious about your home cinema as they are and you will therefore already have your digital sources taken care of elsewhere in your living room/ palacial reception quarters and wouldn't be so declassé as to buy your products 'all-in-one'.

What you do get is two HDMI inputs as well as component video and a PC and S-video input plus external outputs for the optional speakers.

It looks good on paper with a high-def 1024 x 768 resolution and claimed contrast rating of 3000:1 and brightness of 1000cd/m2. Its AVM II picture processing is four times more powerful than previously and it works pixel-by-pixel to better image scaling and deinterlacing.

HD viewing was an instant revelation and looked as good as anything we'd seen from the company.

Black levels during the twilight scenes of Kingdom of Heaven when Liam Leeson trains his new found son to be an expert swordsmen in three easy lessons revealed a range of shades of grey that gave depth to the gloom while the action here and elsewhere was plotted accurately across the screen without any difficulties following the movement of flashing swords and skidding feet. Colours were vibrant and impressively natural too.

Sadly, the performance of many HD models is fine-tuned for this higher pixel plain leaving SD a little neglected. Thus, we found the, (otherwise missing), grain here, as well as exaggerated-looking MPEG effects. Using the screen's Fine mode helped here, though to the detriment of colours, which became muted.