The TC-L42D30 received an unexceptional score of 81 in our image-quality tests, doing particularly poorly in color and skin tones. One judge strongly disliked the color, finding it greenish and murky. Other judges objected to flat and muted hues.

In my own capacity as a judge, I found this HDTV at its most disappointing with Blu-ray discs, perhaps because of the more complicated images it had to process. In a bright daylight scene from Mission: Impossible III (chapter 7), the contrast was so extreme that faces looked as if they had been photographed at night, while the sky blazed white hot.

Motion also caused some problems. The judges noted in our football test, in a brick wall that the camera panned across in Mission: Impossible III (chapter 7), and in our diagonal-panning test movie.

Whatever faults the picture had didn't extend to the sound. Television audio has its compromises, and I always recommend that people who want the full home theater experience invest in a separate receiver and external speakers. But the TC-L42D30's sound system is good enough to help you delay that purchase. In our tests the sound was deep and rich, and I noticed subtle effects from our Phantom of the Opera Blu-ray disc (chapters 1 and 2) that I hadn't caught before. Even with the volume turned all the way up, I heard distortion only once, and that was during a very loud organ blast. The simulated surround won't fool you into thinking that speakers are situated behind you, but it will help you feel immersed.

This is a reasonably easy HDTV to set up and use. The main on-screen menu is legible and attractive, and it includes some short but useful descriptions. It isn't always intuitive, however. For instance, pressing the right-arrow button won't take you to the next submenu; you have to press the OK button for that.