Colour gradation was also clumsily handled, with the grass getting crudely divided into patches of similar colour, rather than blending seamlessly into a realistic whole, a fault that also manifested itself in unconvincing flesh tones and a generally poorly blended palette with whatever else you might be watching on Freeview.

Hi-def performance

Switching to DVD doesn't improve things radically, although the superior quality of the source material at least proves more stable to watch and irons out the colour blending slightly.

Detail is also better, but improvements in these areas are undermined by weediness with blacks that suddenly become apparent with movies.

HD, meanwhile, is as superior to standard def as DVDs are to Freeview, which is to say noticeably, but not so sufficiently as to cause any undue excitement.

Detail, it must be allowed, jumps up several notches, but the shaky movement ensures that this is only really appreciated with static images.

Unappealing package

A solidly average audio experience caps off a generally uninspiring performance and is hardly likely to convince you to put up with the utterly average pictures.

It's cheap, but not very good and how you weigh up this equation will be dictated by your priorities. Suffice to say, hardcore videophiles should look elsewhere.