Black Boxes: WebTV+ Reviewed
(317) 587-4450
www.rca.com
$199 (Plus service fee: $24.95/month)
WebTV is the natural new gadget for any self-respecting couch potato. If you're like us, you have a television right next to your computer and you watch TV while you surf the Net. WebTV puts television and the Web on the same screen and, in most cases, in the living room. In this issue of Smart TV we review the RCA RW2110 Internet receiver. You can read reviews of similar products (the Sony INT-W250 WebTV Plus Internet television receiver and the Philips Magnavox MAT976 WebTV Plus Internet receiver) online at www.smarttvmag.com.
Television with Style
The RW2110 is about the same size as a common VCR. With a sleek silver panel on the front where you'll find a Smart Card slot and several LEDs, the RW2110 is more aesthetically pleasing then the usual plain black box common to many other Web TV receivers. The LED displays information for power, connection (lights up when connected to the Internet) and message (to let you know when you have e-mail). The Smart Card slot is for future use; developers are designing cards with embedded computer chips that you can use to make purchases over the Internet.
On the back the RW2110 has the basic connections of most WebTV receivers, composite, S-Video, stereo audio and RF (cable TV) inputs and outputs. The RW2110 also has a 25-pin printer port, a microphone input, an IR Blaster output (so the RW2110 can control a cable box, VCR or satellite receiver) and a telephone (RJ-11) jack. The video, audio and microphone inputs are for capturing video still pictures and audio clips from videotape or a camcorder to attach to outgoing e-mail messages.
You can control the RW2110 with a hand-held remote or an optional wireless keyboard. Although we tried out the handheld remote, we quickly switched to the keyboard. The keyboards for most WebTV receivers have a number of standard WebTV keys in common. Most of these are shortcut keys for often-used destinations on the WebTV service.
Pop-up Video
While watching television with the WebTV receiver you can press the Option button and three choices (Today's Listings, Program Info and Go Interactive) will pop-up on the bottom of the screen. We found that Program Info was pretty handy. It gives the show's title, times, rating and a full description of the episode. If a program has an Internet companion site, WebTV will display a clickable link that automatically connects the receiver to the Internet and goes to that site. We noticed that several commercials had a small graphic at the bottom of the screen that would pop-up with a link to the advertiser's Web site. Pretty cool.
To test the interactive mode we tuned in to Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. The RW2110 worked flawlessly in the interactive mode and we found these interactive programs to be a lot of fun.
The TV Home option was very useful. WebTV receivers all call the WebTV service in the wee hours of the morning to download the latest television listings. The Listings option displays a grid of your local stations, program titles and times. If you click on a program that is currently airing, the receiver will switch to that channel. If you pick a future program, WebTV will remind you just before the program starts (with a graphic across the top of the screen) or automatically switch to the program. You can program an entire week of viewing if you want.
Navigating the Web
We found navigating through the WebTV interface easy and intuitive. We surfed to many sites and had few problems. Web sites that used Flash worked fine but we had problems with the sites that used Java software. Some sites said our browser was not current enough. We wondered how streaming video would look on WebTV and tried many sites. We discovered that RealVideo and QuickTime streaming videos do not work on WebTV, which is owned by Microsoft. So it wasn't a total surprise when we found only Windows Media Player streaming sites worked. We did get streaming news reports from MSNBC.com. It was the same slow, blotchy and distorted video you get on any other computer using a 56k modem.
On a whim we decided to see if the RW2110 would play MPEG files. We clicked on a link to a short MPEG video and the RW2110 immediately started downloading the video frame-by-frame. It took 30 minutes to download the entire file, but when it finished the RW2110 played the full-screen, full-speed video.
For its chat room WebTV uses TalkCity. The chat feature works fine and even includes a whisper function for private conversations. The only problem with chatting is using the picture-in-picture (PIP) window to watch TV at the same time. The television window covers the part of the screen where you type your message and read the chat room conversation. We had to turn PIP off to use the chat.
Be Your Own Webmaster
In addition to watching TV, surfing the Web, chatting and sending e-mail, WebTV let us make our own Web page. Although the Web page creation features are very basic, we found that it was easy to make a simple page. It took less than five minutes
to make a page using video still frames captured from the television show we were watching. We even included a link we found using WebTV's search
feature. You can see the Web page at community2.webtv.net/vmmaker/JimsWebTVCARTpage/index.html.
Our Final Answer
We found the RCA RW2110 WebTV receiver to be a handy unit that put all of our Web activities on one screen and made both Web surfing and TV watching more enjoyable. The ability to build your own Web page, watch streaming video on your TV and to interact with your favorite game shows make the latest version of WebTV a winner.
Inputs/Outputs
Video In S-Video, Composite Video RCA
Video Out S-Video, Composite Video RCA
Audio Line In Stereo L/R RCA (1 pair)
Audio Line Out Stereo L/R RCA (1 pair)
RF In Cable Ready F-Connector Female
RF Out F-Connector Female
Telephone RJ-11 female
Printer Port (DB25)
IR Blaster Out
Mike In
Dimensions 14 x 2 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches (w/h/d)
Weight 11.00 lbs
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