When looking to buy a new TV set, most people would recommend one with the HD-Ready logo.

However, there currently isn’t a huge amount of real high definition material out there to watch. Most of us are stuck with standard-definition pictures from our DVD players, video recorders and Freeview programmes. And not all HD-Ready TVs are good at displaying SD material.

Sharp’s P70 series is a bold attempt by the manufacturer to fly in the face of the HD phenomenon, with a product that’s specifically designed to make SD source material look good on screen. And it does a fine job of it, too.

In our tests, the Sharp LC-32P70E gave an excellent picture on digital TV channels from its built-in Freeview tuner. Skin tones were natural and colours were rich but realistic.

DVDs, too, looked crisp and colourful over RGB Scart, and we detected virtually none of the motion blurring that occurs on some LCD screens. Even analogue TV looked good compared with other sets we’ve seen.

The LC-32P70E’s strong SD performance is largely down to the panel’s resolution. At just 960x540 pixels, the screen is able to produce a better SD picture without much scaling or stretching.

An HDCP-enabled HDMI socket is present, as is VGA and a component video-to-VGA adaptor. As such, the set is technically compatible with HD, although it downscales the HD image to fit the panel’s lower resolution.

Our tests prove that the LC-32P70E isn’t necessarily the best performer with HD input. When we fed the TV with 720p and 1080i footage, the results looked a bit harsh and grainy over HDMI.

Sadly, Sharp already appears to have started phasing out the P70 series in favour of an all HD-Ready lineup. This is a great shame, as it’s a genuinely good set, but you might be able to pick one up for song.