Toshiba Regza DV556DB

In short, though you might consider the DV556DB as a secondary set for the bedroom, it's well equipped to sit in your living room, hooked up to video recorders, PS3s, Apple TVs and the like. Not bad for a screen at the DV556DB's price point - £230, since you ask.

Well connected for a £230 telly

Playback options are also a little above what might be expect, and include DivX 6, DVD, DVD+R, DVD+RW, CD, CD-RW and SV-CDs, Discs containing JPEG pictures and/or MP3 music tracks are accommodated too.

Toshiba bills the DV556DB as "HD Ready", which means it's capable of handling 1080i and 720p content and has an HDMI port. In fact, the screen has a native resolution of 1440 x 900, so sits between these two standard HD resolutions.

The mathematically astute among you - or those with a calculator handy - will not that the native resolution yields a 16:10 aspect ratio. That's slightly taller than the 16:9 widescreen TV standard. The DV556DB squares this circle with three modes: 16:9, full screen and Cinema. The first looks the best as in full-screen mode the picture can look a little stretched, and in Cinema things can feel a little pinched.

We checked out the DVD performance first and decided to set the little beastie a challenge by loading a copy of the special edition DVD version of Dark Knight.

There's even a slot for pay-TV channels

The remote is largely self-explanatory, with all the functions clearly labelled, but there are also side-mounted buttons to get things started. The DV556DB's side-loading DVD tray feels nice and positive when taking the DVD in and its spin up time, at a couple of seconds, is good - it's quicker than many a standalone player, in fact. DVD search is fast too, as is skipping between scenes. Returning to the top menu is the fastest we have seen on an integrated player.