Freedomland Internet TV review

Internet on your TV was supposed to be huge.

A year ago a bevy of set-top boxes was released onto the market, all promising e-mail and the Web on your telly for a fraction of the price of a PC. Back then we were reasonably impressed. The best boxes brought you enough of the Internet to justify their pocket-friendly price, and if you got the Net bug and decided to upgrade to a PC, they'd still come in handy if you wanted to dash off an e-mail without cranking up your computer.

So, a year down the line, what exciting developments have there been to set-top box technology? Well, in a word, none. This latest Internet TV service to hit these shores uses exactly the same Netgem hardware that ONDigital (now ITV Digital) has been flogging since September 2000.

Happily, this is actually rather good hardware. It incorporates a 56K modem for decent performance, and is a doddle to use. The infra-red keyboard allows easy text entry, and you can attach a voice message or a snapshot from your TV screen or camcorder to e-mail. Web pages are sensibly adapted to look OK on the fuzzy screen of the average TV. The box even doubles as an answerphone.

However, the big weaknesses remain. Complex Web sites that use Java, streaming video or Flash baffle a set-top box, which means many online banking and media Web sites have no-go areas. Neither is the TV able to fit chocka Web sites on screen - which makes for a lot of frustrating scrolling. And with no memory on board, you can't download anything for safe-keeping offline.

Freedomland's unique offering is its portal - a collection of Web sites designed to look good on a TV screen. But this is limited, as you can see for yourself at http://www.freedomland.co.uk/index.html. Worse, Freedomland's package is overpriced. ITV Digital's equivalent ITV Active package costs just £8 a month (£5 when purchased with TV channels). And, though Freedomland gives you its box after you've subscribed for 24 months, £240 is way over the odds for what you get.