While most new HD TVs now come with Freeview HD tuners inside, there are thousands of big HD tellies out there with no means of watching HD content.

However, with free HD broadcasts available on both Freeview and Freesat, HD TV from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 is just a Freeview HD box away.

For all the excitement, Freeview HD won't be broadcast to absolutelyeveryoneuntil the end of 2011 and, due to bandwidth restrictions, consists of only four HD channels.

The whole of Britain will receive subscription-free access to BBC One HD, the BBC HD Channel and ITV 1 HD, while Scotland gets STV HD, Wales has S4C Clirlan and England also sees Channel 4 HD.

Of course that's on top of the other 50 or so standard-def Freeview channels.

What's more, the BBC will soon be replacing the BBC HD channel with the simulcast BBC Two HD.

So what makes the best Freeview HD box?

Although there have been some real winners in the Freeview HD box market, there's also the usual dross to trawl through. Boxes that freeze and with poor remote controls have been cast far from our top ten, though what suits you exactly will depend on your priorities.

In this round-up, we're dealing exclusively with standard Freeview HD boxes, rather than the HDD-encapsulatingFreeview HD PVR species. While many were hurried onto the market in order to cater for the increased appetite for HD before the 2010 World Cup, plenty have since gone end-of-line, and so here we have the current 7 best Freeview HD boxes.

Virtually all Freeview HD boxes indulge in some upscaling of SD channels to HD, though how successful they are varies wildy.

The electronic programme guide (EPG) is crucial, with speed and responsiveness a critical skill. Don't underestimate the importance of that, though you can treat the Dolby Digital Plus logo on the front of many boxes with a touch of cynicism; it means that the box could decode 7.1-channel soundtracks that could eventually be broadcast on Freeview HD channels.

Sadly, this is merely a future-proofing footnote for now, because although it's technically possible to broadcast Dolby Digital Plus across the new Freeview HD framework, it's not actually being used by any TV channels yet.

Dolby Digital Plus is basically a compressed version of Dolby Digital; Freeview HD currently uses a brand new audio format called HE-AAC, which can only provide stereo – some Freeview HD boxes can transcode HE-AAC to Dolby Digital, but this is often subject to a software upgrade.

Other features to look for in the best Freeview HD boxes include a Common Interface slot (for adding Top-Up TV viewing cards), DivX and MP3 playback from a USB stick, access to IPTV services like BBC iPlayer and Sky Player, and USB recording (to an attached USB pen drive or external hard drive), though finding exciting extras on this first generation of Freeview HD set-top boxes is hard work.