Philips Magnavox MAT965A1 Webtv Classic
It gets you online,but it's a lesson in frustration.
I've owned a web tv for a few years now,and it's nice to be able to go online,but after a while, you realize how limited this device really is,and how bad you want a PC. I owned an older model of Webtv classic,sold it,and ended up buying the model you see here for sale. You can send email, browse a lot of the web,chat,instant message people that have MSN,and build your own web page.What I dislike about the experience, is that webtv,or MSNtv as it's called now,is frequently incompatible with many web sites. No java compatibility, for example,which is popular with many websites,and allows you to view what they have on the website or allow you to chat on that particular website. People may wish to send you pictures or other files, and you discover that webtv has told you that \\"this is a type of information webtv cannot use\\" or a similar message. It's a rather frustrating experience, that happens way too often.Webtv has Real player and Windows media player. Real player allows you to hear music/voice/sound downloads or samples,while Windows Media player is supposed to allow you to view little movies with sound.  Both are out dated and nearly worthless,as newer versions have come and gone, but webtv gets no updates to those programs. The sound on the version of Real Player that web tv uses now is horribly choppy,and when,for example, I try and listen to audio samples of a CD at Amazon.com or anywhere else, the song skips and plays in small chunks,with loads of distortion. The only time I've had the thing work correctly, is when a website actually has the option for people that have a 28k modem,(like the Webtv classic has) and believe me, there aren't many. A needle in a haystack. The version of the Windows media player webtv uses is even worse! You simply cannot see whatever image is supposed to be there,and most of the time, no site will even let you view anything because this software is so very out dated. The sound when using this is even worse than when attempting touse Real Player.  Since webtv has a Keyboard,but no mouse,navigation on websites is a clumsy affair. You'll wish to click on an item,only to skip over it completely to something else by accident. You try to back track and the same thing happens in the opposite direction. You're forced to use the arrow buttons and Tab to move around websites,and there are scroll up and scroll down keys.  There is no option for use of a scanner for webtv,only a printer,and the very few printers compatible with webtv are not [affordable] when compared to printers available for PCs.I would recommend this product to people that cannot afford a PC,have no prospects of getting one any time soon,and need a way to use email and surf the web.This might be suitable for the elderly,as it has an easy interface and set up. I also don't believe people can send you viruses.  You will never get the full benefit of using the internet with this device.