As its exotic name implies, the Vivadi Saturn is anything but a normal TV. It's currently the last word in plushly-designed, extravagantlyfeatured plasma opulence - as you may vaguely remember if you read our review of this objet d'art back in February 2005.
Our feelings on the Vivadi back then were overwhelmingly positive except for one thing: the plasma TV at the core only had a native resolution of 852 x 480. In other words, it didn't natively support high-definition - a limitation that's naturally become more and more problematic in recent times as interest in HD has gone through the roof.
Appropriately, Vivadi has now sourced some HD glass and is in the process of relaunching its Saturn range. The new panel has a resolution of 1280 x 768. So we thought it was high time we revisited Vivadi and checked out the changes for ourselves.
Of course, this custom build doesn't come without a high price tag, but the package has gotten cheaper year on year. Although you can get a basic system comprising the screen, screen cabinet and built-in subwoofer for £7000, the key Vivadi system reviewed here - comprising the plasma TV, its console mount, a 'Media Gateway' component complete with built-in Microsoft Media Center PC, and surround sound audio decoding system complete with 70W x 6 amplification - is now down 25 per cent from £16K last time to £12K now.
Aesthetically things are no different, but that's hardly a bad thing. The main TV 'console' and huge, matching surround sound speaker system still look extraordinary; their combination of curved wood, eye-catching colour schemes, NXT flat-panel speaker design and sheer scale still generate a sense of awe as you behold them. The various colour combinations and schemes of these systems is immensely flexible, too, with Vivadi even offering a bespoke service if you wish.
The new Saturn's connectivity features the key introduction of not one but two HDMI inputs. Buyers who take the Saturn with the Media Gateway, as featured here, will probably use one of these HDMI inputs for the Gateway (which includes the DVD and hard drive recorder) and one for a Sky HD box. Surprisingly, though, while these two HDMI jacks are accompanied by a component video input, this isn't HD compatible, only taking 480p, 480i, 576p and 576i.
