The Full HD nature of the Pioneer's pictures adds a fraction more subtlety to colour blends than I saw with the common-or-garden HD Ready Kuro set (though the difference is only marginal), and HD pictures look even crisper and more detailed. It will be interesting to see if we notice such Full HD advantages on Pioneer's smaller 1080p sets when they appear, but at 60in the improvements, though subtle, are certainly evident.

Another key strength of Pioneer's Kuro panels has been the exceptionally rich colour presentation. This trend also continues with the LX608D, as the extreme black level response helps the TV produce a uniquely wide colour spectrum.

The best results were achieved after a brief journey into the Pioneer's picture adjustment menus. I'd recommend that you ignore the preset picture modes Pioneer has programmed into the TV; choose the 'user' option and finetune things for yourself.

The results will be worth it. It's relatively easy to achieve a 6500K colour standard, and, handily, your settings are then remembered for each separate input.

When watching HD sources on this screen, the best thing to do is let them speak for themselves. So turn off all noise reduction systems, make sure you've selected the 'Dot by dot' aspect ratio, and only use the Advance mode for 1080p/24 sources.

One consequence of the two-million pixel panel is that it's visibly dimmer than the first-gen panels. This isn't much of an issue when the screen is deployed in a home theatre environment, but they could be found wanting in a more brightly lit environment.

The sheer scale of the image means that it is particularly demanding with source material. Naturally, HD looks great, from both Sky HD and hi-def disc players.

Tune into Prison Break on Sky One HD, dim the lights, and you'll feel like you're incarcerated alongside Michael Scofield. Standard-definition - perhaps inevitably - can look a little plasticky and soft. But all things considered decent SD can look surprisingly acceptable.

Audio performance improves over many flatpanel TVs, because the (detachable) speakers are on either side of the screen. The result is good stereo separation. As far as tonal balance is concerned, mid-range and treble are up to Pioneer's usual high standards.

The LX608D is a remarkable TV in so many ways. I could enthuse about the cinematic impact it delivers, and how it sets new flatscreen black levels.

I could even say that its performance is so good, it puts to rest any ghosts of Toshiba's now-dead SED technology that was supposed to be the successor to both PDP and LCD. But perhaps it's sufficient just to say that this is probably one of the most accomplished TVs in the world.