Full HD TVs seem to have made the journey from minor videophile concern to the mainstream in about a fortnight. Mirai’s DTL-742TE600 is at the vanguard of a wave of large affordable, flatscreens with 1080p panels that suddenly seem to have infiltrated the AV market and is among the cheapest sets of this size and specification we’ve seen.

There are plenty of euphemistic ways in which to describe sets such as this one. An optimistic marketeer or salesperson, for example, might opt for ‘inexpensive’ or ‘affordable’, while anyone who has seen the Mirai DTL-832E600 in action, however, might go straight for ‘cheap’.

Over the past months there's been a succession of low-cost bigscreen LCD and plasmas coming from major manufacturers. Mirai's 37in model marks the lowest price point these LCDs have reached.

There used to be a time when budget plasmas and LCDs were available, but to reach an affordable price point a lot of corners had to be cut. Times have moved on and now you're more likely to find budget LCDs with many more bells and whistles