Millennius eMperor 40" Full HD LCD TV

The Millennius eMperor 40" is a 40in LCD television with a 10,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, a 1080p native resolution and 2 HDMI inputs. It fits squarely into the budget market with a $749 price tag that's neither particularly low nor excessively high. If you need an LCD TV and are primarily interested in a low price tag, the Millennius eMperor is worth some consideration.

With a slightly bulbous bezel and a glossy black finish, the Millennius eMperor 40" Full HD LCD TV looks largely the same as other generic, low-price televisions such as the Cornea 1080PRO. The LCD TV's buttons are arranged on the right-hand side, and a remote control is included. Two HDMI ports are the primary audio/video inputs, but VGA, S-Video, component and composite connectors are also built in.

We found the television did not register remote control inputs occasionally — although pointing the remote directly at the right side of the television guarantees input — and the lag between pressing a button and receiving a response was quite long. This can get annoying, especially during initial setup when several settings need to be altered and finetuned. Navigating the menu interface, which requires occasionally entering sub-menus, can be a painful experience if you accidentally hit the wrong button. Changing the channel was also a finicky process.

The Millennius eMperor uses a 40in Samsung panel that is a few generations old — this is evident from its low static and dynamic contrast ratings and its slow response time of 6ms. The eMperor' viewing angles are reasonably good, maintaining correct colour and contrast levels until severe off-axis angles are reached. This makes it a reasonable choice for watching with the rest of your family.

Picture quality from the Millennius eMperor 40" LCD television is unspectacular. It doesn't have any 100Hz image processing, so video can occasionally look jumpy.

When using a good quality 1080p source, such as the Blu-ray version of Terminator: Salvation, fine image detail is evident and the picture is sharp and crisp. The television's internal HD tuner doesn't fare as well, with broadcast television generally looking blocky and lacking detail in our tests; this was evident with both standard- and high-definition channels. For general television and DVD watching the Millenius eMperor is able to reproduce images with reasonable contrast and colour. More demanding high-definition content — the Blu-ray version of The Dark Knight comes to mind — the panel's low contrast leads to black crush and loss of detail in bright or dark areas of the screen.

The Millennius eMperor 40" is a competent television if you're not too concerned with image quality. At $749 it's not too expensive — it may make a good second television for a large bedroom or study.

Stay up to date with the latest reviews. Sign up to GoodGearGuide’s Gear Daily newsletters

Follow GoodGearGuide on Twitter: @Goodgearguide