ADB i-Can Easy HD Freeview HD Box with BBC iPlayer and TopUpTV capabilities

ADB i-Can Easy HD Freeview HD Box Review

The i-Can Easy HD 2851t Freeview HD Box (made by ADB) seems to be one-of-a-kind – that is a Freeview HD Box with BBC iPlayer and a card slot compatible with TopUpTV (for subscribing to Sky Sports 1 & 2 and ESPN without a satellite dish/subscription). Physically, this sticks out from the crowd when placed with other Freeview boxes – it is white for a start, and can be compared to a small broadband router in size and appearance. You can read more below the price comparison.

ADB i-Can 2851t Stock Finder and Price Comparison

Our price comparison tool automatically checks online and high-street retailers (including Currys, Comet, Argos, Amazon, Dixons, BestBuy, Tesco and more) to help you find the cheapest place to buy the i-Can Freeview HD set top box.

ADB i-Can 2851t Review

Don’t get confused – this box is not a Freeview HD Recorder – it is simply a Freeview HD Receiver, with the added benefits of BBC iPlayer and TopUpTV compatibility. So what does that mean? Let’s brake it down bit by bit.

Freeview HD – a built in Freeview HD tuner means you can watch subscription-free HD channels such as BBC HD, ITV HD and more through your standard television aerial (providing you live in range of a Freeview HD enabled transmitter – which most will be by mid-2011)

BBC iPlayer – by connecting this i-Can box to your home broadband internet connection (sadly no WiFi – only via network cable) you can access the BBC’s award-winning streaming service. Note that any one can access iPlayer on their computer, but watching on your laptop just isn’t the same as watching on your living-room TV. Best of all, other than your broadband (and TV licence of course) there is nothing to pay for this.. it’s completely free.

TopUpTV - this is a pay-service that brings additional channels to your Freeview box. In this case, TopUpTV allows you to watch Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2 and ESPN using this box. You have to pay for these channels, and it’s not all that cheap, but if you can’t have a satellite dish for any reason (or you don’t want to commit to a lengthy Sky subscription – TopUpTV can be as little as 1 month at a time), then this is ideal. You simply by your i-Can box from one of the retailers in the price comparison above, and then call TopUpTV to pay your subscription fees and get your special TopUpTV card.

So the price of this box at just over £100 wouldn’t be all that attractive for a simple Freeview HD box – there are others available on this site for not far off £50 – but pack in the BBC iPlayer and TopUpTV capabilities and you have a very able box, and at good value. Visit one of the retailers’ websites below and read the customer reviews – see how they rate it.

i-Can Easy HD 2851t Freeview HD Box Best Price

Grundig GUD300HD DVB-T2 Freeview HD Box

Grundig and Goodmans have both launched similarly sounding and similarly looking Freeview HD boxes – which are in fact the same models only with a slightly different apppearance.

The finer details are a little sketchy right now, despite it being available to buy at Amazon and a host of other mail-order retailers (see the price comparison below for the cheapest price).

The device has two scart sockets, an HDMI socket required to link to your HD TV and an ethernet port which should be used to enable internet services like BBC’s iPlayer when it is made available on Freeview HD boxes later in the year. There is also a USB port for updating the firmware, although there is no indication whether this will allow playback of media files such as pictures, music or video files from removable USB storage.

As you would expect, the GUD300HD has an 8-day EPG and boasts the common ability to upscale standard definition Freeview signals in to high definition when used with a HD TV and HDMI cable. As with other devices, don’t expect these upscaled images to compare to the true HD channels provided by BBC and ITV.

Grundig GUD300HD Freeview HD box Price Comparison

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