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JVC’s current LCD range contains some of the most attractive TVs in town, with ultra-slender profiles, quality finishes and sumptuous retro styling. But the 37in LT-37DR7SJ is most definitely not one of those.

In fact, it’s hard to imagine how a TV could have been designed with less imagination. It really is just a flimsy, plasticky grey rectangle stuck unceremoniously around a common and garden bit of 37in LCD glass. No more, no less.

This can mean only one thing, of course: we’re in budget land. The 37DR7SJ is currently JVC’s most affordable 37in LCD TV, and so we guess we shouldn’t be too surprised to find build quality sacrificed in the name of cost-cutting. Having said that, companies like Samsung and LG seem able to produce similarly cheap LCD TVs that still manage to look cute, so maybe we shouldn’t be so forgiving of the 37DR7SJ’s blandness after all.

The extent to which JVC has compromised on this TV’s build quality immediately raises concerns about what other compromises it may have made to hit an entry-level price point. So it certainly comes as no shock to find just one HDMI input when we’re really starting these days to want – if not need - two. There are only two Scarts as well, though these can at least both handle RGB signals.

Thankfully JVC’s corner cutting exercises have not denied the 37DR7SJ a PC socket, though. Plus you get component jacks for your Xbox 360 along with, unexpectedly, a CI slot that immediately alerts you to the presence of a built-in digital tuner. It’s really pleasing to find that JVC has retained its penchant for a digital tuner even on its entry level 37in set – especially as it’s fully backed up by support for Freeview’s 7-day EPG. You can even use the EPG listings to directly set up to 10 recording events.

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