i-CAN Easy HD Freeview box

With World Cup fever about to engulf the land just as Freeview HD launches, you can expect a flood of devices that pump Freeview HD to your telly in the next few weeks. One of the first is the nice but clunkily named i-CAN Easy HD, a small white plastic box (wait, white? Isn't white a bit last-century?) that includes not only that Freeview HD tuner, but what is also for me its killer app: the BBC iPlayer. The Freeview stuff first: the HD picture seemed really not bad at all to my untrained eye on my 32in Full-HD Panasonic telly. At the moment, of course, HD content is limited to a couple of channels (BBC HD, Channel 4 HD and ITV 1 HD) and it's only available in some parts of the country. However, most of the time you'll be watching standard-def pictures, and I found those a bit soft and occasionally blocky. Sit far enough away from your telly, though, and that won't be a problem. There's a comprehensive EPG and the onscreen menus are clear, though I thought the graphics were rather cartoon-like. However, they walk you clearly through the set-up and the box is up and running quickly. I had one minor irritation which was that I couldn't find how to turn off the default setting for subtitles, which is that they are on, and had to turn them off every single time I changed the channel. Apparently that's easy to fix – a pity I didn't find that setting, though. Where this box really shines, though, is with the iPlayer, which feels as though it's been set free by being beamed straight to your telly rather than you having to watch EastEnders on your laptop. The interface is easy to navigate and – assuming your broadband connection can cope with it – it will also deliver high-def content. It stuttered a bit for me, which I put down to the flakiness of wireless streaming, but it was really very good overall. Mind you, you have to connect it to your router, and therein lies something I find infuriating. Why aren't devices like this equipped with Wi-Fi? This box, like every other piece of internet-capable TV equipment, comes with an Ethernet port. Now, I don't know about you, but my telly is nowhere near my router; and I do not want to sling great lengths of CAT-5 cable around my flat. Which means that you have to buy a wireless bridge – Belkin does one for about £35 – and set that up. I have a D-Link bridge with four ports but that is both expensive and surprisingly tricky to put on your network. The remote is a bit confusing as it has various buttons that don't yet have a function, suggesting further clever tricks to come. And it, like a couple of other things about this box (like turning off the subtitles), isn't very intuitive – you'll need to refer to the manual more times than you might like. The biggest niggle of this box is that isn't a PVR – if you want to record or archive material you'll need to add another piece of kit to the collection under your television. But if you want HD Freeview for a reasonable price (£129), then this is a very good option. And having the iPlayer on it is just sublime. Pros: HD content, the iPlayer, small and neat Cons: Not a PVR, cartoony graphics, annoying remote, no Wi-Fi, not always intuitive Advanced Digital Broadcast