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While a lot of manufacturers are making Freesat receiver boxes we managed to get an exclusive look at the first television to have a built-in receiver: Panasonic's TH-46PZ81B. This 46in (42in and 50in models will also be available), Full-HD (1080p) Plasma is a TV-lover's dream, with Freesat, Freeview and analogue TV tuners as standard.

One of its most impressive features is the ease of setup. Just plug it in and turn it on and the set automatically scans for stations on its three tuners. Impressively, scanning for Freesat channels is incredibly quick, taking a fraction of the time as for Freeview or analogue. Once the process is complete, you're asked to type in your postcode. This tells the TV where you're located, so that it can organise the Freesat channel list, putting the regional stations first.

Freesat has its own seven-day EPG, separate to the Freeview one, that can be accessed through the TV. The Freesat standard specifies how the EPG should work, but not its appearance, so Panasonic has created its own interface. First impressions were very good, with a clear, neatly-structured guide making it easy to find what you want to watch, plus you can set reminders for upcoming programmes. The Freesat EPG has categories of programmes, such as music and entertainment, so you can quickly find the kind of show that you're interested in watching.

The big advantage of Freesat over Freeview is the availability of HD channels. BBC HD uses the same feed as for Sky. The quality is far and away better than you get from regular TV and programmes like Planet Earth look stunning. ITV HD is launching soon, too. It will be exclusive to Freesat and will carry some Champion's League games. This won't be a dedicated

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channel, but some programmes will be available in HD when you push the Red Button. This feature will only work on Freesat-certified devices, so many PC satellite cards won't be able to view ITV HD programmes.

Regular TV channels are transmitted at the same bandwidth as Freeview, so quality is identical. It's a shame, as satellite has higher bandwidth, so quality could have been improved. A consolation is that you get more channels with Freesat, including extra music channels and some children's channels. The extra bandwidth can be put to use in different ways, though. For example, the EuroNews channel is broadcast in French, but you can select different audio tracks including English, Italian, Spanish and German: something you can't do with Freeview.

Panasonic's charging around £200 more for the Freesat enabled versions of its TVs, compared to the regular models. This may sound like a lot, but you're also getting a lot of extra technology, not just another receiver. For starters, to view HD channels the TV has to have an AVC HD video decoder. This means that there's a serious amount of processing capability inside the TV. Panasonic has also equipped it with the Viera Pro engine - used in the high-end TVs - which has the Intelligent Frame Creation (IFC) mode. This produces sub-fields between real video frames to produce smoother images, particularly with low frame-rate footage, such as 24fps movies. Image quality, therefore, is exceptional and theTH-46PZ81B image-quality stunning during the short time that we used it.

The AVC HD video decoder is also useful when combined with the SD card reader on the front. Just stick in a memory card with some HD video, such as recorded by Panasonic's HD camcorders, and you can watch your movies. You can also view digital photos. Unlike other TVs we've seen, which were slow to load images, the TH-46PZ81B was really quick.

Finally, there's an Ethernet network port in the back of the TV. This isn't currently enabled, but will be in November time with an update that will be sent along with the Freesat broadcast. This will enable new content. The content hasn't been decided yet, but BBC's iPlayer is a good possibility.

The TH-46PZ81B will be available from June and we'll bring you a full review once production models are available.