Reports of plasma's demise have been greatly exaggerated, particularly if LG has any say in it.

The Korean company's new, super-affordable 42PG6000 TV is a vision in rolled edges and piano black, and looks to claw back some flatscreen territory from liquid crystal.

Simple installation

There's no full HD resolution, but the LG offers just about everything else. There's a fabulous four HDMI inputs, for a start, not to mention USB connectivity and just about every other sort of AV hookup you could wish for. Pictures, meanwhile, are licked into shape by the company's brand new Dual XD Engine image processing and there are both digital and analogue tuners.

The LG 42PG6000 has one of the most pleasant operating experiences we've encountered in a long time. Installation is simply a matter of saying 'yes' to a couple of prompts and you'll be tuned into analogue and digital in moments.

After that, the graphical interface for tweaks and the rest is a set of huge, colourful and gloriously simple onscreen panels that a child could navigate without a second thought.

The video adjustments are almost limitless in scope in the 'Expert' menu and, once you've got everything set up to your liking, you can flick between the modes and filters effortlessly via the simplified 'Quick' version. A similarly thoughtfully designed remote completes an exemplary system.

Astounding black levels

Watching plasmas is becoming an increasingly rare pleasure these days and it's nice to be reminded why the technology is held so dear in some quarters, in spite of its being bulldozed into an increasingly tiny corner by the relentless liquid crystal.

The first, and most obvious advantage this screen has over its LCD rivals is the ability to deliver genuinely profound blacks. Having your unaccustomed eyes rediscover the kind of deep, rich tones plasma can produce is like going to the middle of the countryside having forgotten what 'dark' really means away from streetlights.

It's not just an impressive low bottom end, either: there are shades and subtle gradations of black that add depth and solidity to the picture way beyond the reach of even the very best LCD panels.

Colours are also extremely easy on the eye: plasma tends to exercise an admirable degree of restraint, ensuring that the picture, whether standard or hi-def, is always impressively lifelike and never garish or over-saturated. Detail is also extremely good, although only with DVDs or hi-def feeds.