Here's a curveball entrant in the 32in LCD sector, the JVC 32DE1. Not content with being a 32in HD Ready LCD television, the JVC is hiding a secret that makes it unique here – a 160GB hard-disk-drive recorder.
Boasting Freeview+ certification, the inclusion of a PVR goes some way to justifying the price difference of this TV.
Substance over styling
Our initial intrigue at the performance of everything inside the set is slightly dissipated by the outside appearance, which leaves us a little more indifferent.
It's a glossy black finished unit (is it just us who think this is a little dated?) complete with a swivel pedestal stand.
JVC doesn't see fit to enamour this model with a Full HD resolution, settling instead for 1366 x 768 – although this isn't automatically a problem in a TV of this size.
There are three HDMI inputs, digital and analogue TV tuners, and of course that PVR.
The twin tuner recorder's Freeview+ certification means the specification includes the ability to record one programme while watching another, as well as set series recording and automatic adjustments according to any schedule changes.
TV tuner is merely average
All of these features make it slightly disappointing that the JVC's TV tuner isn't a little better.
It sits somewhere in the middle in terms of performance in this class, but considering the emphasis is placed on TV watching and recording, some sharper edges and a little more solidity would be welcome, as would less noise.
Recordings are easy enough, as is accessing your library (though the menus are a little ugly) and the quality of the picture remains faithful.
Send in some video content and we're more impressed. Watching the DVD of Shooter, while colours seem a little washed-out no matter what adjustments we make, there's a good level of detail, clear sound and decent contrast levels and smooth handling of motion.
Step up to the Blu-ray of Australia and colours are again a little pale, but overall insight is good, edges are fairly sharply drawn and picture noise is kept to a minimum.
You pay a premium for the PVR functionality, but if this and a solid video performance appeal to you, this highly capable JVC television is well worth investigating.
