Great in theory at least (The Box)

Member Name: JacintaZoo

Product:	The Box
Date:	04/12/00 (24 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You control what you want to hear; you get to be 'on TV'; the channel is very up-to-date

Disadvantages: Takes hours to hear your song, poor picture and sound quality

The Box is a music channel which is on Satellite/Cable. A list of songs is displayed on the screen as each music video plays. The same list can be accessed on Teletext (if your television has that facility). Every song has a corresponding 3 digit number which you make note of, and when you call up The Box (60p per minute) you type this number in.

Et voila! Interactive television! One of the things which they do to make you feel even more 'in control' is to have a small icon on the TV screen which let's viewers see what songs people are selecting. You can actually see the three digit number appearing on the screen as you are typing it in, which not only gives you a kick to think that you're on TV (well sort of!), it allows viewers to see what kind of songs will be played.

The main advantage of The Box as I see it is that they really are very up to date. Before I had access to this channel, I spent many lunchtimes sitting quietly whilst my friends discussed new songs which they had heard on The Box, which the rest of us had to wait up to a few weeks to hear through mainstream mediums.

So what was my experience when I finally did gain access to The Box?

Well, I ordered a song and my sister and I waited an hour before looking at each other laughing because we didn't expect it to take so long to be played. Then we waited another hour... And another..... Out of curiosity and rising anger we ended up waiting the whole night, only to have the song played some 9 hours after we had ordered it.

I am very glad that we did wait. Not because the song was so worth it, but because with all the slick advertising it is very easy to believe that you can actually influence the songs which are played in some meaningful way. So it was a learning excercise to find the contrary to be true.

Don't get me wrong, perhaps they just had a traffic jam of requests that night. Just be warned, because I have also found it
to be the experience of others that you will usually wait at least 2 hours before your song is played.

For some reason the picture quality of The Box is poor (a bit blurred), but it has been improving of late. You will also need to turn up the volume because the sound is not as loud as it is on other channels. These are technicalities which do need tweaking.

Overall I think that The Box is a great concept, to offer the viewers what they want to hear. However, the length of time that it takes to hear a song might just have you reaching for the TV control, swicthing to MTV. In all eventaulity you will hear your top tunes being played there too, if they are recent enough. And for that you will not have to pay either.

Summary: