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Setting the 42RV635D up reveals the same sort of impressive flexibility noted with the 37AV635D. Among the extensive tweaks on offer are a genuine colour management tool that allows you to fine tune all six of the key video colour components; the facility to adjust the backlight 'starting point' of the AutoView feature; and the option to turn separate MPEG and 3D noise reduction routines off.

People who like to know that all the fancy processing they've paid for is actually doing what it's supposed to will also appreciate the 42RV635D's 'Control Visualisation' menu. This presents on screen two real-time graphs, one dubbed Distribution which shows the Number of Pixels along one axis against the image brightness on the other, the other called Control Curve showing a much more static line plotting the relationship between the post-processing output and original input signals.

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It's quickly apparent, as you settle down to watch the 42RV635D, that its Eco panel doesn't seem to have hindered its picture quality at all. In fact, if anything its pictures look slightly better than those of the 37AV635D.

Easily the most striking benefit comes in the key area of HD sharpness. The screen's Full HD resolution seems to assist the TV in reproducing HD images with more sharpness and texture than the 'merely' HD Ready 37AV635D, especially if you do the sensible thing and ensure that you've set the screen's aspect ratio to Native when watching HD sources. This makes the screen map incoming HD video to its screen resolution on a straight pixel by pixel basis, removing the need for any rescaling processing to mess about with the picture.

I also felt that the 42RV635 produced dark scenes more successfully than its cheaper sibling. Or at least it seemed possible to reduce the greyness over parts of the picture that should be black to an acceptable level without reducing the image's brightness and punch quite as severely as I had to with the 37AV635D. There isn't the same slightly blue undertone to dark scenes on the 42RV635D either.

This ability to produce dark scenes that retain slightly more dynamism than they did on the 37AV635D also helps the 42RV635D produce more convincing and diverse colourscapes during dark scenes. Plus there seems a touch more of the subtle detailing in dark parts of a picture that helps make them feel as if they occupy the same visual 'space' as bright scenes.

Another picture strength the 42RV635D shares with its cheaper AV sibling, meanwhile, is some likeably natural colours during bright scenes - actually enhanced a little by the extra colour blend subtlety produced by the RV model's higher resolution. Motion is similarly well-handled, too, especially for a TV with no 100Hz processing, with only marginal motion blur to worry about. There's a touch of judder while watching 24p footage, but seldom enough to seriously distract, and no more than we'd expect to see on a TV in the 42RV635D's price bracket.

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