Cello C42T71DVB-3D review

3DTVs have been on sale for over a year now, but they still carry a large price premium over standard sets. Cello’s new C42T71DVB-3D is an exception; the 42in passive 3DTV has a 1080p display, high quality IPS panel and four sets of 3D glasses for just £450. At this price, it could be the home entertainment bargain of the year, so we took a close look to see if it could hold up under scrutiny.

Although it won’t win any design awards, the C42T71DVB-3D looks moderately sleek from the front. Move to the side, however, and it’s clear to see its budget nature; at almost 11cm thick, it definitely won’t look striking if wall-mounted. The glossy black plastic stand is basic, but strong enough to support the TV and let it swivel when needed.

Around the back of the set, connectivity is fairly limited, with just two HDMI ports, component, composite, SCART and S-video analogue inputs, plus auxiliary audio inputs. There’s also a VGA input and 3.5mm audio jack for connecting a PC or laptop.

Finally, a USB port at the side of the set will let you attach a memory stick or portable hard disk. Unusually for a budget TV, the Cello has excellent file format support; almost all our test files were recognised, with the exception of .divx files. Audio file formats were just as well supported as video, although image display is limited to JPEGs only.

The USB port can also be used to turn the TV into a limited function PVR; plug in a flash drive and you can start recording immediately, without having to format first. Surprisingly, you can then connect the flash drive to a PC and copy off your recordings, which are saved as MPEG2 videos. Very few TVs can do this, as almost all require you to format your storage device to a proprietary format first.

The icon-based menu system is basic but responsive and easy to navigate, and the electronic programme guide (EPG) only covers half the screen, so you can continue to watch one channel while searching for another. The range of image settings is quite limiting; with control over brightness, contrast, colour saturation and sharpness, as well as noise reduction and colour temperature, you’ll struggle to tweak the picture to your exact preferences.

There aren’t online features such as catch-up TV or social networking channels, so you’ll need an additional set-top box if you want them. Without an integrated Freeview HD tuner, you’ll also need another unit to watch free-to-air high definition channels. This is a shame, as the C42T71DVB-3D struggles with standard definition broadcasts; even on the high-quality channels such as BBC One, images looked fuzzy and pixelated. Lower quality channels look even worse, with lots of noise artefacts and a real lack of detail.

That’s not to say that overall picture quality is poor; once we connected a Blu-ray player and tried some high definition video, things improved significantly. We were expecting a slightly better picture than the average budget TV because of the IPS panel, but were still pleasantly surprised at how good an image you can get for £450. Films looked crisp, although we noticed some definite blur in fast-moving scenes.

It wasn’t perfect; we spotted some bleed from the TV’s edges in darker scenes, although it was fairly evenly spread across the screen. Contrast was slightly lacking, with the dark opening scenes of Casino Royale suffering from a lack of detail, but tweaking the brightness setting helped even out the image. We also struggled to find an even colour setting; images either appeared too vivid or slightly muted, with very little middle ground.

3D image quality was equally mixed. Because the set uses passive, rather than active shutter 3D glasses, the vertical resolution of a 3D film is effectively halved by the TV’s polarising filter. This was clear to see in the opening scenes of Avatar, where jagged edges were prominent. Sat directly in front of the TV, there was a satisfying lack of crosstalk, but when we moved to the side the picture soon deteriorated. Depth effects were reasonable, but nowhere near as immersive as other sets we’ve seen.

The three sets of passive 3D glasses supplied with the TV aren’t particularly sturdy, but still feel comfortable. Cello has also catered for wearers of prescription glasses with a pair of polarised clip-ons, so no-one has to get left out of the 3D viewing experience.

Sound quality was reasonable, although we had to turn up the volume to its maximum to get an immersive effect from films. Unfortunately, once we had, there was some definite distortion from low-end notes. Mid-range and high-end notes were clear, but there was a definite lack of bass at medium volume. We would definitely recommend using a set of dedicated speakers rather than the ones built into the set.

On paper, it would appear the Cello has it all: an IPS panel, support for 3D video and a very reasonable price. However, it’s not without its faults; standard definition footage looks very poor, and without an integrated HD tuner, you’ll need to buy an extra set-top box for high definition broadcasts. Blu-ray content looks better, but still isn’t perfect, and 3D effects are functional but lacking the detail of an active shutter set. However, if you’re desperate for 3D on the cheap, this is certainly one of the most inexpensive sets around.