Thought Sky was too busy taking over UK broadcasting to get into anything else? Think again. We have on our test bench a 17in LCD TV/DVD combi very clearly embossed with the Sky logo.

And a very cute little number it is, too. In fact, with its glossy black screen frame and silver speaker section underneath, the SLCD1701 is very similar to the also desirable JVC 17in LCD TV. There's one very notable difference, though: a curved silver sliver jutting out from the right-hand side into which you slot your DVDs.

Connectivity is hit and miss. On the plus side, there's a standard D-Sub PC jack. But, on the downside, there's just a single Scart, and no video or audio output options for the DVD deck. This means you can't use the DVD player with a bigger screen or, more significantly, pipe out a digital soundtrack to an external home cinema system.

Day-to-day use of the SLCD1701 is rather a nightmarish process, sadly - thanks to its use of ridiculously small onscreen menus that you need a magnifying glass to use without straining your eyes. Some of the remote's buttons are too small for comfort, too.

At least you won't actually have to spend long with those retina-damaging menus, since they don't contain enough features to tempt you back into them very often! In fact, only the DVD deck's ability to play HDCD discs is worth mentioning - even though nobody in their right mind would want to play these better-than-normal-CD discs through this TV's built-in speakers.

The SLCD1701's performance contains one or two qualities that make us feel a touch happier. Particularly striking is the naturalism of the picture. For instance, colours look rich but not preternaturally so, and also boast one of the most authentic tones we've seen from an LCD set.

Also impressive is the screen's relative immunity to LCD's common smearing issues. We stumbled upon a re-run of England's 5-1 drubbing of Germany, and even the lightning-fast goal-scoring runs from Michael Owen look clean and pure.

Sharp pictures

It's sharp, too - even though this seems to be more down to the lack of smearing and impressively contained and noiseless edges than any particularly noteworthy fine detail response.