In terms of sheer value for money, this baby certainly delivers. In some retail outlets it comes in at a full two grand cheaper than Panasonic's Full HD 65in TH-65PX600, and nearly £4K cheaper than Fujitsu's 63in P63XHA51ES (and that's not even Full HD!).

Despite its aggressive price, there's not too much evidence of cut corners. It makes its Full HD status count when it comes to image clarity.

With a top HD source like the HD DVD release of Peter Jackson's King Kong, every leaf and branch within the jungles of Skull Island seems tangibly real. I felt as if I could step inside the action and take on the mighty ape myself.

To make the most of the set's two-million-plus pixel count I'd advise buyers to manually set the screen's aspect ratio to Just Scan, which removes all overscanning from the picture to enable direct pixel-for-pixel HD image rendering.

Toggling between this and the standard 16:9 option (which the TV annoyingly defaults to) clearly reveals extra sharpness and cleanliness in the image with the mode selected, providing an instant demonstration of just what a Full HD resolution can bring to the table with a television as vast as this.

The screen is kind to challenging colour reproduction. There was no sign of colour banding during the entire test period. I did note that there's a gentle orange hue when there should be rich reds and occasionally, some blacks look fractionally green. But once calibrated I felt happy with the balance.

Also undeniably impressive is the Samsung's black level response. The darkness of the Berlin Warehouse assault on the HD DVD of Mission: Impossible: III looks rich and three-dimensional; it's genuinely cinematic.

The Samsung easily outguns its rival Fujitsu 63in model in this area.

It's very difficult to make a self-emitting technology like plasma look bright on such a large screen.

While LCD utilises intense backlighting, a big plasma such as this can only rely on its gas-charged pixels. And I think it does a great job. In a brightly-lit room, I suspect the image would look a little dull, but lower the ambient light and the contrast and peak whites punch through.

Motion resolution can be considered good, although perhaps not quite as accomplished as Pioneer and Panasonic rivals.

If I had to find any fault with the 63P76's pictures, I'd say that really bright picture elements can cause a little image retention (though this will reduce over time).

One bonus of a screen this big is that there's a good stereophonic spread to the audio, which also manages some decent mid-bass.

Bigger is better

Those looking for high-impact Full HD are well advised to audition this Samsung. It's a strong performer with no weak suite.

It is possible to get better performance from some of its rivals, but then you'll almost certainly pay more for the privilege. As a home cinema monitor I'd rate it above average and capable of an often thrilling performance.