Hitachi's LCD screens have been garnering plaudits in some amazing reviews of late by loyally sticking by its range of gas giants so that it can take a two-pronged approach towards the flatscreen TV market.

To this end, the 42-inch model you see before you here has retained Hitachi's clever blend of attractive styling with a more than useful selection of features. And the 42PD8700 is certainly a looker, albeit with a style that doesn't exactly leap out at you - more merging into the background than screaming out 'look at me'.

The unique selling point that makes this TV stand out from the vast majority of the other affordable plasma screens on the market is the panel: it's actually a 1024 x 1080 screen, rather than the more usual 768 horizontal line models.

Apart from that, the features on offer are pretty standard, with a single HDMI input on hand for connectivity, which will possibly cause issues for owners of both SkyHD boxes and upscaling HDMI equipped DVD players. And ifyou've got an Xbox 360 or plan on adding a PS3 to the mix, things could become very difficult indeed.

It also has a rather useful Freeview tuner, if that's what you are after. Apart from that, there's not too much to write home about.

You'd expect most manufacturers to be past masters when it comes to making a simple, user-friendly interface by now. However, reading through our reviews will tell you a different story, and so it's to Hitachi's credit that the Japanese company has really got the hang of designing a simple to use plasma screen.

The secret really involves no more than a combination of well placed sockets for when you are wiring it up, clear and easy to follow menu screens and a well-styled remote control where the feature you want seems to immediately be under your thumb without you having to think about it too much. It also helps if the instruction manual is clear and simple to follow, which this one is.