I was recently contacted to ask if I wanted this Bush TV Internet thing for free. The owner said it had never been used and had been sat in her house for years and it was getting in the way
It was local to me so I went to pick it up
The Bush Internet TV was a range of devices that could give dial up internet access to people who didn't have, didn't want, or couldn't afford a home computer, it was designed and marketed as a one-click solution for people to access email and surf the internet at no more than a snail's pace. Not surprisingly it was a commercial failure
In the range were the set top boxes like this one and the follow up boxes which were mainly the same but with two SCART sockets for VCR passthrough, and some Bush televisions of various sizes with the box built in
Interestingly the box runs a modified version of NCOS from Acorn and can connect to a Iomega Zip Drive through the parallel port on the rear, and with a simple key combination users can get to a star prompt, and with a bit more fiddling (and some additional files on a ZIP Drive) users can get a RISC OS desk top on the device
We'll start with the box, it has badly faded likely because it was sat in a window for many years, the cardboard is also starting to peel apart, mostly around the top where the plastic handle is
The polystyrene is much bigger than it needs to be, there is a large empty chamber on the bottom
After removing the cardboard cover we are presented with the contents, which are still in their plastic bags
The three user guides are a quick start, user, and online set up
This is the cheapest type of SCART lead they could have included, there will be no screening for the video signals inside the cable, this will result in a floating image in the background of an RGB image, that is if the device outputs RGB of course
I would have thrown this away back in my TV servicing days
Batteries were included and thrown in the bin
A UK style telephone lead with passthrough is also included
The power supply is in a box as well as a bag
6.0 volts at 2.5 amps, centre positive, although the box itself claims to only need 1 amp
The remote control is a beast, it is quite large and has a fairly obvious party trick up its sleeve
It's powered by four AAA batteries, and it needs to be calibrated to the box when new or changing batteries. I remember setting up one of the Bush Internet TV's back in the day and it took me an hour
The remote opens up to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard, the remote is large enough to need both hands to hold it in this position. You'll notice the front buttons push through the cover pressing buttons on the internal keyboard, this is common on remotes that flip open. there is a little bit that pokes into a hole pressing a recessed button so the remote knows when it's been opened
The box itself in its plastic bag with the warranty information
The box is slightly larger than a Freeview/DTV box
It's likely a reused case as this is the perfect size slot for a smart card but it hasn't been cut out, and there are three LED's, for Power, Online and Internet which I would have thought was the same thing?
The top and bottom with model label and rubber feet which haven't turned to goo yet
On the rear is the power socket, SCART connector, I would assume it outputs RGB video, a 25 pin printer socket and the phone line connector
The sides are plain metal
This is the quick start guide, the other guides have many pages and pull outs
Any service this would have connected to is long gone now, but it would be interesting to plug this in and browse the menus and attempt to hack the device
More to come...
M - RAMTOP no good, 500:1