I have to say that when I first heard about Sharp's new range of LCD TVs optimised for the UK PAL TV standard, I thought Sharp was taking the Michael. Turning an entry-level screen's usually low, non HD Ready native resolution into a perceived strength seems an act of spin-doctoring that any government would be proud of. But having spent some quality time with the 32in 'PAL-optimised' 32P50E, I'm starting to think the brand's claims might have some validity after all...

Aesthetically, the 32P50E looks very nice, combining a dominant metallic silver with rich black trim to good effect; the result is that the screen looks more slender and space-saving than most.

Connections are better than you might expect of a TV unable to wear the industry's official HD Ready logo. They include HD-capable HDMI and component video inputs. Elsewhere there are disappointments, with just two Scarts and no PC jack. But at least the HDMI and component options ensure the 32P50E's compatibility with all the current and next-generation digital and HD sources.

So just where does the screen sit in the increasingly complex hierarchy of screen resolutions and standards? With a native resolution of just 540 lines, this alone is sufficient to deny the set HD Ready status (EICTA's specification demands at least 720 lines).

However, Sharp's argument is that because this pixel structure is a near perfect match for 625 line PAL (the bulk of the surplus lines are not actually used for picture information and the remainder are simply ignored) it can show our regular TV pictures without any of the mess-inducing scaling required by panels of greater or lesser resolution. It just maps 540 lines of the PAL picture directly onto the 540 lines of the 32P50E's screen - no fuss, no scaling, no mess.

Of course, one might wonder why Sharp didn't make its PAL-optimised panel with 576 lines rather than 540. The answer is that 540 is exactly half of 1080, meaning panel production is rather more straightforward - and there's the mathematical benefit of scaling down a high-definition 1080i/720p image.

In other words, Sharp claims you can have your cake and eat it with the 32P50E. I'll come to how it tastes soon enough...