When you are passionate enough about audio and video to appreciate high-performance equipment, but do not want to devote all of your resources to acquiring it, you face a decision—and an anxiety that consumers on the ends of the purchasing spectrum do not suffer. After all, if performance is paramount and price is no object, you simply buy the best. And if your financial means are hopelessly far from meeting your desires, you have no choice but to settle for inexpensive components.

Marantz’s PD4240D is one of those rare products designed for the likes of you. It is an oxymoron: an entry-level, bare-bones, yet high-end plasma TV. It does cost $6,000—double the price of a Wal-Mart special—but is well below the $8,000 sticker of the best 42-inch plasma TVs. What you give up is resolution. Technically, the PD4240D qualifies as a high-definition television (HDTV) monitor, but it offers less resolution, and therefore a slightly less sharp picture, than more costly models.

The “HDTV” designation does indicate, though, that the panel has more than enough resolution to make the signals from our new digital broadcasting system look great. The “monitor” moniker—a hint of the set’s bare-bones nature—informs us that the PD4240D lacks an internal TV tuner. If you want to watch TV, you need to add a separate tuner, preferably a satellite receiver or digital cable box. But you were going to do that anyway.The panel is compatible with any such set-top box, thanks to a plethora of video inputs. Audio connections are more limited—only three—but because the panel lacks internal speakers, that is no great loss. We expect most PD4240D buyers will add a separate sound system. One legitimate drawback to the PD4240D’s jack panel, though, is that the audio and video connections are located on the side of the cabinet. The TV incorporates wire wraps on its back to help your installer keep the cable routing clean, but if you mount the plasma TV on a wall, expect to see some hanging wires. We suggest mounting this one within a cabinet or inside a recessed niche in the wall.

The TV’s ergonomics also lack finesse. The user menu, for example, offers knowledgeable enthusiasts and installers advanced performance adjustments to help optimize the picture. These controls carry an upside and a downside. They can be used to create a beautiful, accurate image, and you or your installer can set up each input with its own picture settings. The downside is that your in-laws can access these settings and undo everything your installer has painstakingly fine-tuned. I say hide the remote when the family comes over.

Besides, the remote looks rather clunky to accompany a $6,000 TV. Presumably you will incorporate a more fashionable universal remote or touchscreen into your system. And thankfully, any of these control options should be easy to set up and use, since the TV remote can provide direct access to at least some discrete functions like power on and power off. Most TVs relegate both functions to a single button, which can make operation of your universal remote or touchscreen less reliable. Other functions, like selecting video inputs, are not as direct, but they are manageable. An RS-232 computer interface on the back communicates with more-advanced touchscreen automation systems such as Crestron and AMX.But what you may give up in convenience you get in performance. Whether you watch HDTV images or just high-quality analog video from DVD and satellite, the PD4240D delivers. The picture is bright and it has great punch and contrast, yet the brightest portions of the image remain detailed. Black levels are dark, too, which helps give the image a three-dimensional appearance, and yet you can still see detail in the shadows.

One drawback with this and most other plasma sets is that dark scenes, particularly those from poor-quality sources (e.g., analog cable, videotape, lower-quality satellite channels), tend to exaggerate plasma’s inherent contouring effect. Instead of seeing a smooth gradation from bright areas of an image to the dark areas, you see a series of steps, which look extremely artificial.

Fortunately, other aspects of performance are good. The colors of the red, green and blue phosphors, for instance, are as accurate as one can expect from a plasma TV. And thanks to the advanced menu’s low color-temperature option, the color balance is neutral even before professional calibration. This makes the images rich and vibrant without looking cartoonish or exaggerated. Even the internal video processor, often a weak point for flat-panel TVs, is quite capable of upconverting low-resolution analog images to the panel’s high-resolution pixel count without inducing any jagged edges, moirés or other anomalies, regardless of whether the source material is film-based or shot on video.As flat-panel TVs’ appeal grows, so does consumer desire for feature-rich products. There are plasma HDTVs less pricey than the PD4240D that may satisfy this desire. But if picture quality is paramount to you, and you plan to have the panel installed as part of a larger system, this TV is easy to recommend.

DESCRIPTION
42-inch plasma HDTV monitor. Includes a tabletop stand but can be wall-mounted with an optional wall-mount bracket. Requires separate speakers and TV tuner, cable box or satellite receiver.

DISPLAY CAPABILITIES
Native 16:9 widescreen display. Accepts 720-line progressive and 1,080-line interlaced HDTV, computer signals up to 1,600 x 1,200 pixels, and 480-line progressive and interlaced signals. All signals displayed at the panel’s native resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels.

CONNECTIONS
Video: DVI-D digital video input with HDCP, five-BNC component/RGBHV for DVD/HDTV input, RCA-type component DVD/HDTV input, S-video input, two RCA-type composite video inputs (one back, one front), BNC-type composite video input, DB-15 input for computer input/RGB output, DB-15 input for RS-232 control, minijacks for IR sensor input/output.
Audio: Three stereo analog audio inputs.

DEMINSION/RESOLUTION
Dimensions: 24 x 40 x 3.5 inches (hwd)
Resolutions: 1,024 x 768 pixels

PRICE/CONTACT
PRICE: $5,999
CONTACT: 630.741.0300
www.marantz.com