MichaelMJD did an excellent video on WebTV, including a way to use it with special custom servers. Glad to see it get more attention.I only knew one family that had a WebTV and they had it right when it had just come out.

@jerseycowboyfilms

Жыл бұрын

Saw that vid. Actually still have my families WebTV from 1996 and was going to try this method to see if I can get it working one last time.

@gumbyx84

Жыл бұрын

Beat me to it. I'm surprised he get the equipment to actually test the device. He is usually very through in his research but he missed the info MDJ found. Link: kzread.info/dash/bejne/gJ6ox7OvZtK_l6Q.html

@benotsilent6703

Жыл бұрын

@@jerseycowboyfilms good luck!!

@midixiewrecked7011

6 ай бұрын

​@@jerseycowboyfilms well?

@emmasdad5426

6 ай бұрын

i had one. heard the name the other day and was like i remember that. well here i am.

Perfect timing with Michael MJD's videos

@nicksapien3745

Жыл бұрын

I watched that a few days ago and made me want to get one, but the people working on it haven't released there moded server publicly.

@SDRIFTERAbdlmounaim

Жыл бұрын

i was gonna reference mjd too but u beat me to it 😂

@justinedge5081

Жыл бұрын

He's better than mjds videos

@mutestingray

Жыл бұрын

Sus

@justinedge5081

Жыл бұрын

@@mutestingray he more polished and he does alot better and he explains the history about t that's why his videos are better

I remember WebTV, a coworker had one. This was back around 1999 or 2000. The guy was in his late-20's, but he wasn't really into computers; I remember one day at work he asked me, hey, why does it take so long to download stuff? I didn't know the service lasted all the way to 2013, talk about a good run for what it was.

I was a webtv teen as well. I had it for about a year before our family got a PC. Even after we had the PC it was still the only way to get online in my bedroom. I was able to stay up and chat with friends and people all around the world on my TV! it was like living in the future in 97.

@maroon9273

11 ай бұрын

Yes, then we had the streaming box's and still have the smart tv. Technical leap and feel were in the future in the 10s and 20s.

@IraQNid

10 ай бұрын

Chatting via Instant Messaging services was a blast in those days. Not as many dicks as there are today. Not so polarized over politics. The world wasn't so easily offended by stupid stuff either. We didn't have one but my mom was seriously looking into getting one when they were new. But after I showed her how to use my Windows PC and helped her get one for her bedroom she quickly saw the tremendous benefits of surfing the web for all kinds of things. And of course a quick shout of desperation mixed with frustration meant she'd done something she didn't know how to fix and I was the tech support.

Growing up in the 90's, my parents weren't tech savvy at all. We had a TV, a basic VCR, a stereo that played records and cassettes, and an NES. A real computer was always out of the question. We could never afford one, and even more so, mom and dad didn't know how use one. In the fall of 1997, my parents saw an infomercial for the WebTV and after they saw how easy it was to setup, use, and the low sub-$400 price, they were all in on getting one. When I was in high school, the need for a home PC was becoming a burden as I had to type papers for homework and the school library was only open so late. I tried typing my papers using a WebTV friendly, online word processor website. It worked, but it didn't quite produce the font or formatting required for my assignments and it was very finicky. That was when my mom gave in, and we got an E-machines in the fall of 2004. We kept the Webtv up and running for another 6-8 months after finally cancelling our WebTV service in the summer of 2005.

I worked for WebTV in its infancy before it was bought out by Microsoft. This brings back some nostalgia from those days. Their is a project to resurrect it using dream pi. And yes, it plays Doom. Thanks for the video Colin

@arjan1995

Жыл бұрын

... and with the keyboard it will be much more fun, as we saw MJD struggling really hard to play it with just the remote.

@jessihawkins9116

Жыл бұрын

*there not their

@danimayb

Жыл бұрын

@@jessihawkins9116 lol seriously?

@ladyofthecentury

Жыл бұрын

I worked for their competitor net channel. Technical Support

We kind of need webtv still, so that my dad can't get ransomware installed on it. Oh, as an aside, after you watch this watch Matt KC's video about the dreamcast version that was mentioned here. There's actually a service to provide some level of functionality even today.

@volvo09

Жыл бұрын

My grandmother was crushed when the service died... For the same reason, you can't get lost in it, you can't get a virus, and you can't click a wrong button and suddenly hide all your icons or screw something up.

@WhiteG60

Жыл бұрын

@@volvo09 My uncle was the same way. He LOVED his WebTV and even when offered a free PC by me, he said 'thanks but no thanks. I'm good.'

@vetrixfx9264

Жыл бұрын

Linux is the answer then i guess

@Sashazur

Жыл бұрын

Maybe your dad could get an iPad?

@Pandascams

Жыл бұрын

@@Sashazur yeah, the tablet interface is usually much more friendlier for older folks since it's much more straightforward to use.

Ahhh the nostalgia! I remember my mom buying the WebTV service for a good number of years! It was slow and watching videos or anything that required plugins like Shockwave or Flash were a no-go, but it had its charm and having my own email address for early high school was a godsend lol

@volvo09

Жыл бұрын

It was the greatest thing for my grandmother. Easy email, easy to use. No viruses and malware.

@vipvip-tf9rw

Жыл бұрын

@@volvo09 linux can do that now

@JaredConnell

Жыл бұрын

@@vipvip-tf9rw what, be easy? Maybe chrome os or something similar but most linus distros are far from easy for the every day user.

@vetrixfx9264

Жыл бұрын

@@JaredConnell Most Linux distros are actually easy to use, in some cases even easier than Windows (software center for example). The problem is that many people are just used to Windows, and are too stubborn to go out of their comfort zone

@plur90

Жыл бұрын

@@vetrixfx9264 and most people who haven't tried modern linux expect a cli instead of KDE or Gnome, they've heard horror stories that involve 'lspci | grep nvidia', etc. It's amazing just how far we've come.

I had no idea it kept going that long. I just assumed that webTV went away by the year 2000.

This video triggered a deep memory for me: In about 1997, I had an interview with a Canadian company looking to enter the Internet Appliance market. I applied to a marketing rather than a technology position. Sadly, I have long since forgotten the name of the firm (and any details about the product), so I have no idea how successful they were.

@dazednconfused31337

Жыл бұрын

CompuGlobal HyperMegaNet 🍩

@TadanoHitohito

Жыл бұрын

It was definitely Tim Horton's

I’m surprised that WebTV lasted as long as it did. Great video as always!

@BilisNegra

Жыл бұрын

Over a decade for the hardware and over 15 yr for the service. Yes, certainly a long time for something kinda niche.

I started building low powered SFF computers in the early 2000s, and one of them became the TV "set top" box in our living room --- I ran Windows Media Center on it. Now we use my XBox One as our media center (our WebTV if you will) to stream our entertainment media ever since we cut the cord. Oh, and I occasionally play games on it 🙂.

So sad that computer chronicles is no longer being made.

Man, my childhood friends family had a webtv setup. I loved it. Lots of time in the chat rooms

Back in the late 90s our family got BPL (broadband over power lines) for free through a trial rollout scheme by our municipality, and they also gave us a WebTV setup to go along with it. It looked neat but I think we only used it once or twice since there wasn't much point when we already had computers at home. Having broadband at home years before any of my friends did was neat though. Mostly used it to download pirated games off Hotline Connect.

@lawrencedoliveiro9104

Жыл бұрын

Power-line broadband was the Dumb Idea That Just Wouldn’t Die. It sounded appealing, being able to send signals over the existing power cabling, except the wires simply weren’t set up for that kind of use. Thankfully, ADSL came along in time to take the existing telephone copper network to the next level. And demonstrate the folly of letting that network get into private hands ...

@killerdeamonking

Жыл бұрын

@@lawrencedoliveiro9104 those power-lines sadly still exist xd. they are just used for Ethernet now with has the same issues xd.

I remembter when my mom and dad bought me the WebTV box... for that time period, it was really fun to use...

Oh man I had one of these, it was a great toy back in the day but had some annoying limits. Great video really sent me back.

I was in the military in 1998 and bought one. I was AMAZED as I never had much personal access to the internet. The TV that was provided in the military dorms wasn't that sharp, thus the text was really blurry. I blessing in disguise as I returned it as a result. I bought a 233mhz PC (I think 6 Gb hard drive) for $1776 (easy number to remember), which was alot more than the $300 I spent for the WebTV. I realized a PC was much more robust and never looked back.

WebTV brings me so many great memories. My dad bought us the device and I used it for school, entertainment and to chat with my now wife. It served its purpose and did it very well despite the obvious disadvantages over a computer. I just wished still had the box, never knew what happened to it.

I was employee number 47, Executive Assistant - I supported Phil Goldman and Bruce Leak part of the 3 co-founders of WebTV. This was a blast from the past. Thank you for doing a very nice job about the funnest company I have worked for, my bosses were the best I have EVER worked for as well. None have come close to the caliber of character and integrity. RIP Phil Goldman you are missed. ***Travis - did we overlap? I worked there right after moving from the home into Alma and up till the campus.

My older brother bought one of these and had a subscription for awhile. For me it was a neat (at the time) low cost way to internet at home. My two gripes were the lack of a floppy drive to migrate work to and from school (even a notepad that saved thigns as txt files would've been nice to have.) Though I do remember a simi workaround by emailing from my webtv to my yahoo account and then copying from there into word. Thing is, they could have had social media-like features at least with iterations after the first where they let you make your own page. Ditto having dedicated forums for web tv customers with geographic regioning. This had th capability of being very 'social' web during web 1.0. However I think much of the ambition was too grand for what the tech allowed, but by the time the tech advanced to allow what was originally envisioned, There'd be no market. While I want to buy one for the sake of gutting it, putting either a micro ITX or a single board computer of some sort in said box with a FLIRC dongle mounted behind the IR panel so the original remote and keyboard could be used with a kodi setup?? There is a modern attempt at recreating the webtv servers. Not everything is featured, but MJD has a good video for a sort of one stop on what is on offer.

@LonnieBruton

Жыл бұрын

For me I had a geocities or angelfire site I cant remember, I would use the editor and save the file to the web account and then cut and paste in class to word. I think there was a later version that had a basic word processor with the printer add on. I never had it.

Funny thing is, you can do everything it could do back then, now, but without the easy to use interface. Now if only someone would write the software to turn a Pi or even just a regular computer into a proper TV appliance, and no Android TV boxes don't count, we'd have the perfect setup. Most of the major networks let you watch a few of the semi-recent episodes without signing in, just need to figure out remote navigation.

I remember my mother buying a WebTV from Caldor's back in late August 1998 just months before that Co-Op City branch closed its doors. I was with her when she bought it for around $200. The box we had was from Philips Magnavox and it's a WebTV Classic. We used it from 1998 to September 2000 when mom decided to switch to Windows PCs. Not gonna lie, WebTV was ahead of its time. As primitive as it was, it foretold the DVR cable boxes that are out right now. I still have those fond memories of using it, even though I'm now 37 years old and using a CyberPower PC (with Windows 11).

I loved my Web TV. Living in Connecticut in the late 90s, cable TV and WiFi weren't available. Thank God for my WebTV.

I used it in 97' and hooked up with many other people who I still talk to today in 2024. I went to a PC in 2000 but am still loved my Web TV.

I loved WebTV and used it for a few years until I could save up $1200 for my first PC. Learned HTML, JavaScript and CSS on it. It was also fun to hack the device. Notable weaknesses were connection instability, slowness of media player upgrades and flimsy keyboards.

We were poor and couldnt afford a computer well into 2000, the local video store used to rent the WebTV as an alternative. It was the only way I could explore the web for $10 for the weekend, it wasn't bad. You couldn't do much multimedia on it, but after an update, it would play MIDI files. I used to listen to so many video game MIDI soundtracks from VGmusic which is still around to this day.

Oh geez, I remember this now! I never knew anyone who had it, but I remember the advertisements.

My mom loved this…So glad I got it for her…

Between you and Michael MJD we pretty much know everything about web TV now ty

Omg! I had WebTV! It was new and most people didn’t understand it’s purpose. I met a lot of great people online and am still great friends with one in particular! I started a home based business with this as well! I loved it! $9.99 per month. We were so excited when we could hear a website with sound! Imagine having a 25” monitor, which was not common at that time. Mine was Phillips. WebTV was the start of my love for IT. Eventually I outgrew it and purchased a PC. But it was a great device! ❤️ 🌍 📺

This channel always has the same comfy learning vibe as How it's Made

Yep, I remember doing school assignments on.. What started out as a simple need to do research for a school paper, little did I know would lead to much, MUCH more.. and what erupted goes beyond imagination...

Going back to 1997. I was so happy when I got my WebTV. I used it for almost a year. Until I got my first PC. RIP WebTV. ❤

@room616oc

5 ай бұрын

Actually I think it was 1996.

It was the ancestor of the smart TVs and streaming service set top boxes in existence today. Without WebTV, none of it would been possible, including the Internet as an immersive experience.

My dad's father had a Sony webtv plus. My dad's younger sister and her husband had a wrbtv with a wireless keyboard. Some of the buttons was glow in the dark. That was cool.

If you think about it, WebTV was the point in time when TVs became “Smart” TVs. I had one in ‘97. Mine was the Magnavox model rather than the Sony. Thankfully, I also got the wireless keyboard to go with it. Before that, I had access to the Internet only through going to the local university’s computer center and pretend I was a graduate student there. But thanks to WebTV, I was able to get access the Internet from home. I still used it a lot even after getting my own PC in ‘99. I stopped using it after it became MSN TV and I realized NetZero (remember that AOL rival?) charged far less to access the Internet than Microsoft did.

I remember seeing ads for these when I was about 14. It seemed really cool! I always wondered what became of it. Great video!

Oh wow! This is bringing me down memory lane 😢

The keyboards for these are often very nice compact little keyboards with a nice aesthetic. Shame I can't figure out how to use them with anything.

... both Mom and I had the latest WEB TV ... loved it even learnt how to screen capture the tv ... back in 2001 ... it was the best ...

Wow, this was way ahead of its time. This is like the Amazon Fire Stick of the 90s.

When I was around 20 years old in 1999. WebTV used to be my fun device. I didn’t have a computer at that time.

So basically this is the grandfather of the Chromecast, down to using a remote to navigate and processing the information on a remote server.

@Dave102693

Жыл бұрын

And Roku

You have such cool things, I hope I have such a brilliant collection one day, great video!

This makes me feel old, webtv was the way I used the Internet as a kid.

Beautiful as always!

I was thinking about WebTV maybe 2 days ago....I was thinking about how much I didn't like it. We had a pc so when my sister brought it over and we used it, I was excited to see the internet on our much larger screen. Only to quickly dislike it. 1) A TV screen is pretty poor compared to a CRT Monitor 2) we didn't have the keyboard so it was just annoying trying to type out websites. But I think about it from time to time because it was exciting to get on the internet and connect with people and now do it on our tv.

@LonnieBruton

Жыл бұрын

I had one, and a pc, I mostly played games and used the PC for school work and research. But it was a shared PC so when a parent or sibling needed to use the computer. I would retreat to my bedroom where I had a private phone line and a webtv. I would mostly use it for email/chat. for that it was amazing.

I don't think I've ever seen one of these before, I don't think they were on sale in Europe, or at least my corner of it. Seems like it would've been a great product for my dad back in the day.

@lawrencedoliveiro9104

Жыл бұрын

I guess abandoning international vendors like Sony and Philips in favour of RCA was an admission that the idea was never going to fly outside the US ...

Didn't know WebTV was around that long. Heard of it around the year 2000 first but never thought it was that long living in the US. And great video as always!

I had one of these as a kid, use to turn it on everyday and look up as much info about Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z as one tiny little soft brain kiddo could! It was a very smooth service iirc, and really served as an excellent beginners guide to what the internet was and how you went about using it, in a very non overwhelming way. Its only true folly imo was simply not being able to download any of the cool things youd find throughout your web browsing adventures. But In truth, dispite that, I really enjoyed my time with it and have very fond memories of it to this day 💖.

The Xbox is basically the new age WebTV. It has media streaming abilities, a built-in web browser (Edge) and you can get a media remote for it for easier navigation.

My uncle used WebTV Sony model for its DVR! He still has it in a storage, I recently went to his house and found that same old box, but it’s missing a remote, if there’s a way I can use a new remote for that box, it would be cool!

Bought one for a $129.99 special. It had a notebook motherboard. All you had to fo was solder a couple connectors, add a hard drive,, and flash the BIOS and voila.... mini PC!

I just saw one of these at a thrift store yesterday so its funny to see you upload this right now.

Great trip down memory lane. I liked how they kept coming o ut with an improved box....then they didn't and the writing was on the wall.

My elderly neighbour got one and asked me to help her set it up when I was an adolescent. I remember being fascinated with the interface

I looked into buying one of those in the late 90s. It seems ideal because there wasn't as much online back then and PCs were still pricey. I still held off and would be content with the computers at college for just occasional browsing. Then around 2001 eMachine started putting out $400 computers at Walmart so WebTV was pointless to me at that point. I was surprised to see it was still around in the late 2000s when I saw it offered in my parents hospital rooms.

My father has longterm cognative issues and say what you want about webtv but it was a godsend back in the day for him. It really sucked when it went away.

fun fact microsoft pushed really hard to get webtv into the original xbox they were originally going to have it be part of the entire xbox live package but it never went anywhere as the os devs lied and said yeah it will have webtv so the meetings would not be full of yelling so webtv never ended up on og xbox but the idea of a game console that's ahead of the game with internet streaming television or as it's called today IPTV was always interesting to me

My Dad had one of these around 2003 or so and I thought it was pretty cool 😎

Another great video... I love it when you cover things like this that folks may not have seen or used, but knew that they existed! You're preserving history! Thanks again!!

First time I ever used ebay was on my brothers WebTV that he had while I was on high school :) :) Thank you for your content sir and I hope you're having a great day God bless you and your family God bless you Jeremy Scruggs

Second comment! Quite a few channels have been covering this material. 'Twas a pleasure to meet you in person!

This was my first home connection to the internet, I remember fondly creating chat programs for IRC and hosting them on Geocities.

I loved mine. Used it all the time. You could lounge on the couch, surf the web all while having an adult beverage or three.

I remember using it at a Sears store in Appleton WI at Fox river mall in 1998 I was 14 and was on the run from silver crest group home in neenah WI and attended Horace mann middle school too I miss those days

We had this in 01-02 I believe it was so much fun sitting on the couch using it. I remember it having a game or a website we played games on though

This was way ahead of it's time. Essentially, it was one of the earliest versions of devices like Roku and Apple TV (they have crappy browsers too even I think). Oh, Msft tried so hard to make this stuff work. Almost miss Windows Media Center... XD Dang, 1GB in those days? Must've cost a fortune. Even had chip-based card reader? WAY WAY WAY ahead of that time, lol. Some gas stations still don't accept them. LOVE that it had a printer port tho. :D

I learned to program on a WebTV. We used to create our own chat clients for TalkCity. Good times

watching this with my laptop plugged into my tv with a tiny table to hold my wired keyboard and trackball mouse. I miss the 90s.

We had a PC as far back as I can remember (early 1990's) so we never had a need for WebTV but a friend of mine had it and I always thought it was pretty cool... though seemed limited compared to just using a computer.

My family didn't have one of these, but was thinking about it in the 90's. My dad already had a computer with windows 3.1, so we decided to wait on it. Never got one, but I wish we did. At the same time, we had internet on my dads windows 95 PC since he wanted to upgrade. The card feature seems really cool, even nowadays.

I got WebTv in 1997 and upgraded to the Plus model in 2000. I used it until my first laptop in 2003

My great grandmother had this back in the early 2000s...I wish I still had the emails she and I had sent each other as she's passed away since then.

Fun fact: WebTV had a version for Windows 98, 98SE, and ME, and it's TV function Would be the building blocks for Windows Media Center in 2002, before finally being discontinued in Windows 10.

I really enjoyed and miss the Jeopardy! Interface where you had seconds to pick between three answers. They kept national statistics. I did well. Lol. So awesome.

Oh my, I wanted one of these things so bad! Ultimately, I had to settle for campus labs and eventually discovered a 24 hour lab before getting my own PC in 2001. Those were such exciting and fun times! There was a long lull before I discovered cell phone internet then rooting/jailbreaking and it started all over again...now it's VR ;)

thanks colin!!!

Great video

nice video. thanks!

Had webtv in the 90's was pretty good at the time before finally got a PC. For what it was worth it was useful! Nice job here.

I remember using the WebTV. I bought one when it released and used it for about a 3-4 months and stopped as I got Packard Bell desktop.

Cathode Ray Dude has a video, and accompanying article on his website, about using cheap Cisco VoIP appliances to emulate a phone line without the need for expensive PBX hardware. I've found that guide, plus an old Windows Server (2000/2003), to be quite useful when trying to get dial-up only devices connected.

perfect timing

I remember seeing that in a friend's house. It was a neat gadget. Dialup was the king back then. Flash back.....

I had one. At the time, it did a great job of delivering the internet without the cost of a computer.

Here in the UK the web TV feature was briefly built into digital cable boxes, weirdly I'm wondering if those set top boxes were similar to the ones you show as they used to have a smart card slot on them too with a card used for your cable package subscription

@SKCro.

Жыл бұрын

Nah, the smart card slot on WebTV boxes wasn't for CableCARDs, so it couldn't _replace_ your existing box, hence why it has a passthrough for them. However, certain boxes like the DishPlayer and UltimateTV (from Dish and DirecTV respectively) were standard cable boxes but had WebTV service built in, just like what you're describing here.

Webtv, apple pippin (netscape internet kit, internet explorer web viewer and @worldview browsers), sega saturn netlink (planetweb browsers), sega dreamcast (webrowsers and broadband add-on) and the philips cdi's (CD online) pioneer bringing the internet to the living room.

My grandmother still has one of these... I wonder would it ever be worth some money one day???😮

I remember begging my mom for one of these, not the sony one, as a kid in a garage sale only to find out I couldn't use my parent's dial up connection and had to sign up for their specific service. Real bummer.

Didn't realise this actually lasted so long as a product!

Bk in those days our phone cable internet services in Canada had an internet cable box . We could hook up any plugin play keyboards

Supreme 90's ..awesome

There was a WebTV browser for Mac OS as well (mostly for dev purpose). Still have a screenshot saved on my computer. Pinged you on Twitter.

In the mid 90s, I worked for the UK's largest ISP. I remember one day that two guys from Microsoft had showed up in the office and were giving a demo of WebTV. I think they were looking to access our large customer base, but they also wanted us to produce WebTV formatted content for those users. I remember there being absolutely no interest at all. It seemed clunky, difficult to use, and ultimately pointless even then. I don't remember WebTV really going anywhere in the UK after that.

I imagine WebTV never had access to any 'Ahem! Frankie Vaughan', but PCs did? That would also help explain it losing popularity over PCs.

The platform being somewhat more popular with older customers made me think... Webtv is in a way something like a successor to Teletex maybe? I can imagine it being built in TV sets of the era. That would in turn have been an (admittedly proprietary) forerunner to modern Smart TVs.

Have you considered imaging the hard disk? It'd be interesting to try and scrape it for content.

I got one new from a clearance outlet after their heyday. Most of the servers were shut down, and I didn't have an account. I wanted to use the hardware for another project, but never did. Finally sent it to the thrift store.