Toshiba 32XV505DB
Price: £490
If our 42" and 37" contenders are just too big for you, Toshiba's 32" 32XV505DB could be just the ticket. For starters, the fact that the 32XV505DB manages to cram a full HD pixel count into its 32" frame while costing just £490 makes it outstandingly good value.

That full HD resolution naturally proves very handy in ensuring that the HD delights of PS3 and Xbox 360 games are reproduced with exceptional clarity - especially as we've found that Toshiba's proprietary Active Vision LCD video processing helps bring out detail exceptionally well without causing the dreaded lag problems.

Also great for gamers is another clever game mode, which in this case effectively opens up a 'direct line' between your console and the screen, cutting out as many intermediate processing stages as possible.

On the downside, the 32XV505DB isn't the best TV when it comes to showing dark scenes, leaving some of the subterranean levels of Gears of War 2 looking a bit greyed over and flat.

But this really doesn't seem too severe a price to pay considering how much good stuff you're getting for so little money.

JVC LT-26DE9BJ
Price: £470
Moving still further down the size ladder, we've selected JVC's 26" LT-26DE9BJ as the fourth TV of our list - though not necessarily for the sort of reasons you might be expecting.

The set isn't full HD - hardly surprising with such a small screen. But it is HD Ready, and it gets the absolute maximum HD gaming impact from its 1366x768 pixel count thanks to JVC's really excellent DynaPix image processing.

This set is also noteworthy for having some of the richest, brightest colours around - ideal for such colour rich games as Viva Pinata and Banjo Kazooie.

The main reason we've picked out the 26DE9BJ, though, is the fact that it has a built-in 160GB hard disk recording system. Obviously this doesn't impact your gaming directly - you can't even use the built-in PVR to record your own gaming heroics! But there's clearly huge appeal in being able to use the same TV you're playing a game on to record not just one but two different digital TV channels, all at the same time.

After all, any die-hard gamer will doubtless have had countless moments where they've missed treasured TV programmes because they've been obsessed with completing a current mission or level and haven't had a quick and easy TV recording facility available.

Basically, although it's a bit short of contrast, the 26DE9BJ allows us to indulge our first and second loves – gaming and TV watching – with a bare minimum of clutter and hassle. And for that we can only feel eternally grateful.

Sharp LC-19D1E
Price: £250
Although gaming on a really small screen isn't ideal, sometimes there just is no other option. So it's nice to know that there's a highly affordable 19" TV out there - Sharp's LC-19D1E, that seems to take gaming picture quality duties at least as seriously as your average big screen set.

For starters, despite its screen being so small it's got an HD Ready resolution of 1366x768. This means that today's HD console games look sharper and more detailed than you might have thought possible on such a small screen.

Another nice point about the 19D1E's resolution is that it works out to a proper 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio like that used by most console games, whereas many other small TVs go for 1440x900, which doesn’t resolve down to a true 16:9 aspect ratio, and so results in pictures that distractingly look stretched vertically.

The 19D1E also enjoys exceptionally rich colours that work superbly with your average console game, and even more impressive for this size of the market is the screen's black levels. These meant we could actually play The Darkness on it without having to constantly squint through the usual grey small LCD murk to try and see what's going on. Which is nice.

In an ideal world the 19D1E would have two HDMIs rather than one. Also its claimed 12ms response time could have been better, as this can leave camera pans looking a touch smeary. But the delay caused doesn't seem bad enough to actually damage your gaming skills, so it doesn't seriously affect our belief that the 19D1E is easily the finest 'portable' LCD TV for gaming you can currently buy.

Dec 11, 2008

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