Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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55 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Phillips Receiver & WebTV Service Reviewed, January 8, 2000
Phillips sells what they refer to as a receiver. You buy either their box or Sony's, hook it up to your VCR, dish, and TV and then subscribe to the WebTV service. Its a bit like buying the cable box and then paying for cable. The receiver is quiet and easy to setup. I have had problems with it using my Sony VCR and no longer use it to record. In particular, twice during the first couple of weeks that I owned it, I programmed the box to record programs a week in advance. During both times, it recorded some programs and then it seemed that the box reset and all the additional programming was lost. Further, it did not change the VCR channel. I verified that I had set it up correctly several times. I am an engineer and have no problems with these matters. I reported this problem to the WebTV service and a week later, they informed me that I should contact Phillips. I have not done so.Regarding the software, if you want to listen to real audio or run java programs you will have problems. They currently do not support the latest real audio version so most internet radio stations are not available. In addition, the box automatically discounts after 10 minutes if there is no keyboard or remote input. This cannot be disabled. Thus, tunning your box to an internet radio station and then working in the house is essentially impossible. With those limitations aside, I say this is a great product. It allows you to surf the web, buy products, etc while watching TV. A nice feature when watching TV is that as your surf TV channels, you see the name of each program currently playing. Most programs have a synopsis quickly available to find out about the shows. WebTV says that they have concentrated most of their efforts on the TV integration and it shows. Very nice product in spite of the negatives mentioned above.
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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Time saving device.., August 4, 2002
By A Customer
You can spend your time integrating different components of a pc and troubleshooting it them when the crash or you can own and use a webtv (plus). The plus has the ability to capture photos from your video camera or from the television channel you are watching! See something on the local news and want to send it to your relative in another country , no problem!It has call waiting , and several mailboxes you can set up. I tried computers time and again and allways came home to webtv. My back would ache sitting at a computer and my eyes would strain. A television has a much quicker refresh rate than a computer monitor , so you can compute indefinetly. With a computer you have limits because of eye strain which has displaced carpal tunnel syndrome as the leading health woe related to computers..The sony model is more responsive to input from the wireless keyboard. The sony models are more expensive for a reason. There is a slight delay between the keyboard and the receiver on the phillips. This can at times cause unnessary retyping. We own both models and love them. I once tried to set up a computer to do all the things web tv can do and I could not do it. I could not read the print on the system from my couch they way I can with webtv ..One problem is webtv plus is very hard to find now because they are not making them anymore..If you can get one buy it .
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61 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tremendous benefits of WebTV Plus., January 2, 2000
By A Customer
WebTV Plus not only allows going to Internet sites (saving on file your many favorites), it allows searching for info when you do not already know what site to access. I use secure Online Banking to send e-checks to pay all my bills without postage cost. I did all my Christmas shopping this year online without leaving my house. UPS and FedEx carried all my purchases to my home. I will continue to use secure online ordering via WebTV as my first choice for everything that does not melt (unless they also promise cold shipment for food, flowers, etc.). Send e-mail to friends, take part in chat rooms, write your own Congressman, and visit manufacturer sites to check product specs. E-mail problems to companies you have business with, getting their advice. Avoid having to use 800-numbers and endless voice mail options. Shop in the middle of the night, Sundays, holidays, and hours when retail stores are closed. Order from home when the weather is rainy or cold. Ladies feel safer shopping online than in mall parking lots. Visit eFax.com and sign up for their free incoming fax service, which allow you to also receive faxes at home at no cost to you. You can forward copies of those faxes to anyone else as an attachment to your own e-mail. You can attach most Canon or Hewlett Packard brands color printers (using a printer cable) to WebTV Plus and print out whateveryou wish online that you see. Many credit account files can be accessed online (like American Express, MasterCard, VISA) so you can see your bill before you receive it. Online banking lets you monitor every transaction on your checking or savings each day as it develops, compared to only a monthly summary mailed to you. WebTV Plus also allows you to watch TV programs (using picture-in-picture even if your TV set does not already have PIP) while you web surf, order goods online, write e-letters, or pay bills by e-check (they get a bank money order in the mail, with the bank paying the postage). WebTV sends out regular upgrades online to improve your system. You also get a free guide onscreen to TV programs, local news and weather, movies showing in your city, and access to NBC News bulletins with photos as soon as you go online everyday. WebTVchecks twice daily to seeif you have incoming e-mail. It checks daily at 3am by itself and you choose the other time (I picked 5pm, so it would have checked just before Iget home; if the red message light is not on,I eat supper before going online). You are always immediately notified by the red light and a chirp sound if e-mail arrives while you are already online doing something else. WebTV Plus allows up to 6 e-mail users/names in your home, and allows the parent to limit children access to G or PG-13 level web sites free of charge, all done with passwords you set; parents know the children's passwords, but kids do not know their parent's access unlimited passwords. Parents can review e-mailsent and received by the kids to protect them, as well as favorite web sitesthey are visiting.You can set up your own free personal web page.You can visit web sites ofnew movies released, and learn more about the moviesbefore you go to see them.WebTV (add the optional under-$50 wireless keyboard) is much cheaper than a computer, with automatic upgrades from WebTV at no cost. I use WebTV to help in every part of my life, from business matters, to personal shopping, to look at charge accounts, to pay bills via online banking, and to send personal e-mail letters and to make new friends. WebTV has made my life a better place to live.
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