A Powerchannel set top box just came across my desk. I have never heard of this before, and the website makes it looks like the service has not been launched in the US yet.

Since it seems to be a UK company, does anyone know what this box can do? I would be interested to know if it can work independent of the Powerchannel service. It seems like a WebTV sort-of thing.

This is the US version, although it came in a UK box. The model is PCTV 750/US. Someone in our factory paid $20 for it from someone selling them in New York (presumably on the street). It looks like it has a smart card slot, but the package did not come with one. Any ideas?

A first for me, but loads about it on the web, including press reports, it seems to be providing web pages for use on TV's, for those without PC's - but I could be wrong. The company's site doesn't tell you a great deal.

I imagine that the first problem would be that you have different line standards to the UK.

Same here. I've never ever seen or heard of one before. There was a big fad of WebTV style boxes a while back but I don't think it really caught on due to the limitations.

The content you get out of it for the UK anyway seems to be available on www.powerchannel.co.uk. So I'm assuming it's capable of viewing normal HTML. You may need to find a way of hacking it to dial up to your own ISP though.

- Trevor