Thanks, all. Interesting info. I don't think the vertical dimming would be a problem because in the dining room where the set would be, we'd be sitting pretty much at eye level for viewing
Hodman: you mention plenty of adjustable picture settings. Do you mean sizing, because I've found with a lot of these cheaper combis that because many Freeview channels are broadcast in 4:3 you get black bars down each side, unless you select 'Wide' for full screen in which case everything's squashed and dumpy. (My 32" Panasonic in the lounge - a different quality league, I know - automatically compensates for this, giving a full-screen view without any format distortion.)
Incidentally, I wish the quality brands like, say, Sony and Toshiba, would do a 19"/20" combi. I tried a 20" Sony Freeview LCD recently and the sound quality against the DMTechs and Bushes of this world was like chalk and cheese. Much, much better. I'd be prepared to pay more, but combis seem to be frowned upon in more serious circles.
The reason I'm actively considering a combi is that at the moment in the dining room I have my LCD TV plus an outboard digibox and DVD player, and I simply want to get rid of the clutter and have one box do all three jobs. I don't even want to hook up to external audio - though I could - hence my priority on sound quality. Pic quality is, of course, important too.