Philips Magnavox MAT976A1 Webtv Plus
Phillips Receiver &amp; WebTV Service Reviewed
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.