MSN TV 2 Internet & Media Player

We use affiliate links. If you buy something through the links on this page, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. Learn more.

A few years ago I suggested to my Dad that he purchase a WebTV box so that he could surf the Internet and send emails. Not being very computer literate, I thought this would be a good solution for him. It turns out that I was wrong. Mainly because the service was slow (dial up) and surfing wasn’t all that comfortable on the eyes using a small 27″ TV set. Fast forward 5 yrs or so to 2006. Now Microsoft has a new version of this product: the MSN TV 2 Internet & Media Player. We’ll see if this next generation unit is an improvement…

Hardware Specs

Model: RM 4100
Operating System: Windows CE
Processor: 733 MHz Intel Celeron
Memory: 128 MB RAM, 64 MB Flash memory
Dimensions: 11.75″ W x 9″ D x 2.375″ H
Weight: 4.45 lbs
Supported Image Formats: JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG
Supported Media Players: Windows Media Player for TV
Web Browser: Internet Explorer 6.0 technology

Package Contents

MSN TV 2 Internet & Media Player
Wireless keyboard (batteries included)
Remote control (batteries included)
6′ audio/video cable
25′ phone cord
Telephone-line T-splitter
Registration card
Power supply
Setup and User Guides

msntv2 27

The device itself is not overly large. The footprint is about the size of a standard sheet of typing paper. The face of the box is white, with 3 LEDs on the left side that report the status for Power, Internet connection and E-mail. When the box is powered on, the leftmost LED will glow Green. When connected to the internet, the middle LED will glow Red. The rightmost LED will glow Blue when you have unread E-mails.

msntv2 28

All of the necessary connections are made on the back of the unit. From left to right, you’ll find the Power jack, Audio / video jacks, S-Video jack, 2 USB ports, Ethernet jack and Phone jack. Everything but the USB jacks should be obvious. As for the USB jacks, I was surprised that this device allows for USB card readers and Printers to be connected. More on that later.

Connecting the box to your TV is a simple process. Just find a open set of audio / video inputs on the back of your television, and connect the included RCA cables. If you happen to have an open S-Video input, you can improve the picture quality by connecting it and unplugging the Yellow RCA connector. An S-Video cable is NOT included with the MSN TV 2 unit, but they are readily available at your local electronics store.

If you don’t happen to have any free inputs on your TV, you can also connect the unit to your VCR.

The next step requires you to decide how you want to connect the MSN TV 2 box to the internet. You have 3 ways to do this. You can connect the included phone cable to an open phone jack (a splitter is included) and use a local phone number to get access. This is easy to do, but will result in the slowest surfing experience. If you already have a computer with a broadband connection (DSL, Cable, Satellite), you can connect an Ethernet cable from your computer to the box and share your connection. This will also allow you to share music and pictures from your computer. The last method uses a WiFi connection. If you already have WiFi setup in your house, you can connect a WiFi USB adapter to one of the USB connections on the back of the MSN TV 2 box and connect wirelessly. I actually tried this method first as I had a USB Linksys WUSB54G vers 4. Unfortunately, this particular adapter was not compatible with the box. So I ended up connecting via Ethernet instead. The supported 802.11b and 802.11g WiFi adapters are:

Netgear WG111 (serial number must start with WG72 only)
Belkin F5D6050
Dlink DWL-G120 (revs B1 and B2)
Dlink DWL-G122 (revs A1 and A2)
Linksys WUSB11 (v2.6 – 3.0)
Linksys WUSB12
SMC 2662W

Once the unit is connected to your TV and phone (or Ethernet / WiFi), you can grab the included handheld remote and wireless IR keyboard, sit on your couch and commence with the registration process.

msntv2 29

The included wireless keyboard and remote both allow you to interact with the MSN TV 2 box from across the room. The handheld remote is more for quick surfing of the built in news pages, music, favorites, email etc. While the keyboard allows for input of web addresses, and emails.

Registration requires you to choose a name for an email address. If you already have an MSN or Hotmail address, you can just use that. This process also requires you to choose which monthly service plan you would like to pay for. If you intend to use the dial up method (through the phone line), you’ll pay $21.95 per month. If you want to use your existing cable or DSL broadband, you’ll pay $9.95 per month. Discounts are available if you prepay for 1yr, or if you just want an hourly access plan.

msntv2 30

After you select your service plan and give them your credit card info, you’ll be able to login and get to surfing.

msntv2 1

Once you login, you’ll be presented with the home screen. This screen changes to reflect the latest news headlines, local weather info and video clips that you can watch. Along the bottom of the screen are icons for all the main functions. I’m going to briefly go over each one.

msntv2 24

The MSN TV 2 unit has full email capability. It will interface with your MSN or Hotmail account, or any POP mail account. You can actually setup 5 different email accounts per user, and up to 11 users per unit. The primary user gets up to 2 GB of file storage, with each additional user getting up to 250 MB of storage per account.

msntv2 25

The mail application is pretty basic, but does allow for address book look up, filing of emails in folders, and spam filtering. You can even view attachments in the following formats: Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, JPG, GIF, BMP and PNG. You can send image attachments too.

msntv2 3

If you like to chat with your friends, the MSN TV 2 has an MSN instant messenger client built in. It’s very similar to the client on your desktop. If you are already an MSN user, your buddy list will automatically load.

msntv2 4

Emoticons are supported too. Above you can see what Judie fixed for dinner last night. ;o)

msntv2 5

If you’re not in the Messenger application and someone sends you an instant message, you’ll see it appear at the bottom of the screen. Pressing the Msgr button on the keyboard will automatically switch to the chat app.

msntv2 13

One of the main activities most people would want the MSN TV 2 for, would be for surfing the web. This unit utilizes Internet Explorer version 6 technology.

msntv2 6

Above you see The Gadgeteer. I found it easy to read and navigate. Keep in mind though that I have a 65in TV. That said, text size can be adjusted.

You can surf to secure pages like banking sites etc. I wasn’t able to login to my eBay account though. It gave me errors saying the address was bad.

msntv2 33

Favorites can be saved and organized into folders. Small thumbnails of the sites are shown when navigating through these favorites.

In addition to surfing the web and emailing, this device is also a media player. Media meaning photos, videos and music.

msntv2 22

The photo application is easy to use, with a simple feature set. You can view images one at a time, organize in albums, and view images attached to emails. You can also view slideshows. If you plug a USB card reader into one of the USB ports on the back of the box, you can view pictures from the media cards.

msntv2 23

When you plug in a card reader, a popup window will appear on the screen asking if you want to view photos, music or videos.

msntv2 31

Choosing photos will then display all the pictures as thumbnails. From there you can start a slideshow, pick images to print (if you plug a USB printer into the other USB connector on the back of the device), pick images to email and delete images.

msntv2 32

The MSN TV 2 unit can also play video files with the following formats: Windows Media Player for TV (Windows Media versions 7, 8 and 9), ASF, MPEG and Flash 6. If you have a broadband connection, you can watch a variety of streaming news videos, movie trailers, music videos, etc.

msntv2 10

Playback of the streaming videos is not full screen, but in a smaller window.

msntv2 9

If you have videos on a memory card connected by USB, you can view those videos too as long as they are in the correct format.

msntv2 34

One of my favorite features of the MSN TV 2 is the MSN Radio feature. You can browse through and tune into different radio stations and play their streaming content. MSN TV 2 supports MSN Radio and other Web-based Internet radio stations (that are Windows Media-compatible) and that do not require a client download of software.
Sound quality through the TV is pretty good.

msntv2 8

The best part about the streaming radio stations is the album art and artist information that is shown while a song is playing. You can also surf and do other things like emailing, or chatting while the music plays in the background. At anytime you can just press the Music button on the keyboard and the currently playing song info screen will pop up.

msntv2 2

Just like with photos and videos, if you have music files on a memory card, you can play them through the MSN TV 2 box. The file formats supported include AIFF, AU, WAV, WMA and MP3.

msntv2 7

If you want to stay up on current events, you can press the News button the keyboard. Doing so will take you to the top news stories from MSNBC. The stories are categorized by Business, Technology, Health, Travel, Opinion, Local and Lottery.

msntv2 11

Couch potatoes like myself can take advantage of the TV listings application. Although the listings application will not allow you to record shows, you can use it to see what shows will be on TV for that day.

msntv2 12

Brief descriptions for each show are included.

msntv2 14

There is a Games icon that takes you to a portal for Card, Board, Casino and Word / Trivia games. The thing is that these are web sites that appear to be maintained by people other than Microsoft. They have banners on the pages and options to pay for preferred access.

msntv2 15

I would have rather seen actual games made just for MSN TV 2 users. Maybe even the ability to link with other MSN TV 2 owners for head to head play.

msntv2 19

If you have some money burning a hole in your pocket, you can use the shopping portal to find items to purchase. The MSN TV 2 service supports Secure Socket Layer (SSL), the Internet encryption standard. This allows encryption-protected online banking and shopping to subscribers.

msntv2 20

Then once you spent all of your cash, you can read articles in the Money portal about how you should save your money.

msntv2 21

You can add your favorite companies to the stock quotes listing. Cummins stock is up 1.10. Yay!

msntv2 16

Parents will like the fact that their kids can browse the Encarta Encyclopedia portal.

msntv2 17

Searching on a subject (here I used “corgi”) will bring up articles on that topic.

msntv2 18

Last but not least is the settings application. This is where you can customize the applications. The MSN TV 2 Internet & Media Player also has special settings that allow parents to filter inappropriate content and help protect kids from accessing mature Web site content.

Using the MSN TV 2 service was more fun and useful than I thought it might be. Using broadband makes all the difference. I would not want to use this service with dial up. Streaming video through dial up would be really painful. Surfing might be ok. But just barely.

msntv2 26

Even with my satellite broadband connection, everytime I would back up to the Home screen or bring up a new webpage, I would be presented with the wait bar at the bottom of the screen.

The MSN TV 2 set top box is an easy way to bring the web into your living room. With rebates, it’s also pretty inexpensive. The only annoying part is the monthly subscription fee. That said, I would feel safe recommending this to someone that is afraid of, or has never used a real computer before. It’s easy to setup, easy to navigate and you don’t have to worry about viruses and other annoyances that desktop PC users do. Also, a first time user would not know that a dial up account is slow as they would have nothing to compare it to. MSN TV 2 would give users like these an easy way to get onto the web with as little frustration as possible.

 

Product Information

Price:199.95
Manufacturer:Microsoft
Requirements:
  • TV & Stereo Requirements:
  • TV (or VCR connected to a TV) with available audio/video input jacks or available antenna jack (if your TV only has an antenna jack, an RF modulator is required). S-video connection optional.
  • Stereo or AV player with available RCA audio input jacks.
  • Wired Broadband Network Requirements:
  • Ethernet network hub/router/gateway
  • Ethernet cable with RJ45 connectors
  • Wireless Broadband Network Requirements:
  • Compatible Wi-Fi/wireless Ethernet bridge (802.11b and 802.11g) for connecting to an existing wireless network
Pros:
  • Easy to setup
  • Full email application and web browser
  • Interfaces with USB card readers and printers
  • Up to 11 users per box
  • Up to 5 email accounts per user
Cons:
  • Monthly subscription fee
  • Sluggish
  • May be hard to read on small TVs

26 thoughts on “MSN TV 2 Internet & Media Player”




  1. Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
  2. “Cons:
    Monthly subscription fee. ”

    You can say that again..

    This nickel and diming crap is ridiculous. If I already have broadband (not cheap), paying for anything more than the hardware is the reason this unit will land in the trash bins of the internet.

    F.

  3. Great job on sharing the multi-dimensional advantages of having an MSN WebTV. I am a senior citizen and up until my purchasing a WebTV unit, I was computer illiterate. I was comfortable with watching a TV monitor and somehow felt more comfortable with the simplicity of WebTV than I did working on a PC. I am on my third editon of the product and have grown with it emerging techologies. I now also have a laptop and continue to use my WebTV as well as my laptop when the WebTV does not allow me access to some media and photo opportunities. MSN WebTV is an important resource for those who might be technologically challenged.

  4. Pretty good article on the wonders of MSN TV. I’ve had a WebTV unit (and it’s subsequent variations) since it’s introduction. Though I’m well indoctrinated in the “electronic arts”, including no less than three notebook computers, I’ve religiously maintained my WebTV/MSN TV accounts. I tell myself that I keep the account for backup access, to open questionable email, and to visit the occassional risky website (this thing gets NO viruses), but the truth is that I mainly hold on for sentimental reasons. This little box fueled my initial foray into the world wide web over 15 years ago (almost 20!), and I’m still stuck on it! I use it very rarely, but I still feel better with it than without it.

    One last thing……in my humble opinion, Microsoft has never managed to produce the product excitement or replicate the excellent customer support that the original WebTV team did.

  5. Hello, I am a senior,live in Hamilton Ontario Canada,as you see,I have web tv I am wondering,can I buy it in Canada, please let me know.Thank you.

  6. I have a question regarding Broadband connection for MSN Web TV2. I don’t know if it should should be set up with 1meg, 3meg or 7meg. Customer service representatives have given me different answers. Also, without benefit of a computer or other attachments what are the benefits using Broadband other than realizing better speed?

  7. I’m using 6Mbps connection from ATT . $35 per month. 3Mbps is good for msntv. I took higher speed because other computers also sharing the same broadband.

  8. I use a WEBTV box back in 1998-99. It was affordable, but I thought it was slow, then I used the MSNTV2 from 2000-2005. I thought that was a little better. It gets the job done and can do almost anything a computer can do, but seems kind of primitive compared to my Dell with Windows 7. Although, I’m glad to know that if I can’t afford a computer, I know I can count on Ole reliable MSNTV2.

  9. I’M LOOKING FOR A MSNTV2 I KNOW ALOT OF THESE E-MAILS ARE OLD AND IT’S LIKE 1-24-12 SO I JUST THOUGHT I’D TAKE A CHANCE A SEE IF ANYONE KNOWS WHERE I CAN GET A FAIR PRICE? AS I HAVE HAD MY CLASSIC FOR 17 YEARS AND I WANT THE BROADBAD AS MY OLD GIRL IS NOT ABLE TO GET INTO SOME SITES IT USE TOO..WELL THANKS FOR YUR TIME..LINDA

  10. I set my mother up with WEB TV when it first came out. She has continued to use the system while upgrading the hardware to the now current MSNTV2. In the last few years the quality of service has declined. For her birthday (her 90th) this fall I was hoping to help her upgrade to a more reliable system. But I can not find similar non-computer based systems. MSNTV (aka WEB TV) continues to stand unique. If anyone knows of a totally turnkey replacement or substitute I would appreciate an email.
    Tom
    z2639-mailyahoocom
    April 22, 2012

  11. Thank you everyone, for the detail of the original post and the comments/questions. My mom has a MSNTV2 unit that replaced an old one and I did not know that she could/should get an Svideo connector or that it’s feasible to go broadband affordably. If you want to buy an MSNTV2 unit and you have an old one MSN will send you a new one, at least they did for us. Thanks again!

  12. Hi Tina,
    How did you get MSN to send you the newer version, MSNTV2 and how much was it? I still have the old classic and it’s getting harder and harder every day to get “on” or to do anything….not like it was in the beginning…it was GREAT back then .
    Thanks,,,,, email me [email protected]

  13. Anyone in Canada wanting to access the MSNTV 2 service, boy, have I got news for you. Don’t attempt to purchase this product until you’ve read this vital mental health saving information, DON’T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I DID!!!!

  14. Anyone in Canada wanting to access the MSNTV 2 service, boy, have I got news for you. Don’t attempt to purchase this product until you’ve read this vital mental health saving information, DON’T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I DID!!!!

    I had a WebTV box for years, until it fell off it’s stand last June 2nd and broke beyond repair. I had been very stubborn about messing with my WebTV box, attempting to replace it, even upgrades made me nervous because I had a few specific reasons for sticking with what I had., writing and e-mailing were what mattered most and since those two requirements were being met I didn’t want to mess with a good thing. Ever heard “if it’s not broke don’t fix it”?. So I kept on keeping on until June when I had no choice. This was my oppurtunity to purchase a new MSNTV 2 unit and I have to admit I was excited because although WebTV was fine for my needs, it was still a nightmare where surfing was concerned. So I called MSN who informed me they had stopped making new machines about 4 years ago, but that I could probably find a used one on Amazon or EBay. (I’m going to finish this once I know it will post without a problem, I’m not going to type this long story out only to discover I can’t post it, been there done that TOO many times for comfort)

  15. Ok folks, it’s a go….

    SO, believe it or not I found a really nice guy on EBay who had a BRAND SPANKING NEW MSNTV 2 unit with everything from the wireless keyboard, remote etc, the whole package…it took about 3 weeks of nail biting before it finally arrived in Toronto. My roomie and I rushed to open it, getting everything hooked up in about an hour…now it was time for the last bit of business and I’d be up and running. I called them to assist me in registering my new system and transferring all my favorites/e-mail from my old box, when I was informed I needed an AMERICAN CREDIT CARD to proceed. Unless I had a friend in the States willing to use their CC# I was shit out of luck. Yep, you heard me right. After all the hell I’d been through there I was, in the home stretch staring down home base, FINALLY ready to go and BADA BING BADA BOOM, there was nothing I could do. After my justifiable meltdown they told me the only way around it was to cross the closest border, which for me was Buffalo, and buy a prepaid credit card then come home and get it registered that way. Fine. There was light at the end of the tunnel. I was almost dressed and out the door, when I forget why, I decided to give them another call. That’s when they informed me a prepaid credit card wouldn’t work because I needed a CC# registered to my name with a corresponding American address! Oy vey, lawd have mercy, I saw red before I launched into a tirade that culminated with me very maturly advising them that I had come very close to suicide, thanks to them. EVENTUALY I got a new RCA box because WebTV does still work with a Canadian CC#, and I still have this brand new, never used, in it’s original packaging MSNTV 2 unit and would be willing to part with it for $200, which is considerably less than what I payed for, especially after the shipping and customs charges are factored in. So if anyone wants it and they can meet the requirements I’ve outlined then by all means please contact me and we’ll figure something out.

    Cyrus in Toronto (College & Yonge area)

    [email protected]

  16. Is WebTV available still? I have the MSNTV2 unit I had purchased for my mother. Just wondering if I could sell it or is the service no longer available? Thanks!

  17. yes you guys and girls can still buy these units like on ebay,new and used.the service is still available also for i think $21.95 for dialup and $9.95 for high speed broardband.i myself still have the older models,webtv plus and new webtv classic but not the msntv2.would be nice to have it so i can checkout some irc scripts for my irc chat server i run.irc was so cool back in the day and still is today i think.alright

    Peace and Love,

    Bye!

  18. unsure what website u r asking for…i got an msntv2 package,brand new,in some hand me down junk from my sister n law…am just about to hook it up & try it out…any tips,helpful hints or suggestions? please! i welcome the help…fingers crossed…eyes closed…here goes nothing!!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *