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While operating the iPlayer interface is a generally silky, if occasionally slow, experience, switching back into Freeview HD mode is troublesome; we found that the quickest way was to switch off the box and begin again, though its boots up with haste.
That said, the interface for Freeview HD – which maker ADB calls 'Carbo' – is yet again class leading. We're talking smooth, rounded and nuanced graphics and plenty of easy-to-use menus.
A simple, transparent channel list can be brought up to change channels (or to choose radio stations and interactive services), and by scanning downwards using the remote's central arrow buttons while watching live TV, it displays that evening's TV schedules.
The information you want is never far away, but kudos in particular goes to the i-CAN's eight-day EPG. Studded with the Freeview logo (though strangely not the Freeview HD logo), it presents nine channels and three hours of schedules simultaneously, with a programme synopsis box popping up over the channel you hover over.
It does lack a preview box; instead its transparent black/blue/red/white graphics float over whatever channel you're watching.
Freeview HD channels are sumptuously detailed, with plenty of subtle details in close-ups and a majestic depth to images, though the regular standard-def channels do disappoint – the i-CAN seems bereft of upscaling tech, which leaves the likes of BBC 1 and ITV sprinkled with blocking, digital noise and a low-resolution that causes jagged edges a-plenty.
It's the one lowlight on an otherwise comprehensive picture performance.
