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| The Bush IBX-100 Internet Set-Top Box | |
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Bush brought internet access to the Great British masses in 1999 with the
introduction of their IBX-100 Internet Surf Box and television sets with
internet interfacing built in.
Targeted at people who wanted internet access, but didn't own or want a
Personal Computer, the Bush model for TV Internet was to sell their units
subscription free, while charging for lo-call ( 0845 ) access to the internet;
much like Freeserve and other "Free"
Internet Service Providers do. Despite some reasonable success at taping the market, Bush, and their
parent, Essex based Alba, suffered financially with a backlog of unsold units
building up, and finally threw in the towel at the end of 2001. Production was
stopped with an estimated loss of some 18 million GBP incurred during the
venture. Although no longer manufactured, the huge numbers of unsold units means that
they can still be purchased, at considerably low prices, from high street
stores. Initially selling for nearly 200 GBP, set top box units can now be
picked up for as low as 10 GBP during special 'clearance' promotions.
With such low prices, these units are attractive to say the least, even if they
are not used frequently. Setup and Configuration
Beyond the connection to the TV, which in most cases will simply be "plug and
play", there's a phone line connection to be made and the supplied batteries
need to be installed in the remote control.
Going online is then a simple matter of initialising the keyboard ( holding
down the bottom right three cursor keys and "1" at the same time for five
seconds or so ), and following the instructions in the very comprehensive user
manual. When the internet connection is first made, a sequence of configuration menus
are presented which will be familiar to most people who have signed up for
internet access before, but could be confusing to the complete novice - It is
recommended to read the manual, if for no other reason than to work out how to
hang up the modem ( Function plus R - "Hang Up" - from the Keyboard ), and to
save time having to read the Terms and Conditions online ( although it is
possible they could be different from what's printed in the back of the
manual ); when you're paying for online use, you'll want to keep everything
running as quick as possible, and fiddling around trying to work out which
button to push is time consuming, and costly, and is the penalty for having
not read the manual in advance. Surfing and E-Mail
If you have read the manual, surfing the web is easy, as is using the web-based
email services. Because the Internet Surf Set isn't a PC ( although it is very powerful and
comprehensive in what it does ), there are some limitations to what can be
displayed, and some pages just don't work, particularly those which use
JavaScript to achieve complex effects. Whilst common image formats ( GIF, JPEG
and PNG ) will be displayed well, Flash Animations, QuickTime any other formats
which normally requires a "Plug-In" for a PC browser, can't be displayed at
all. Most 'normal' pages display okay, and I was extremely impressed by the
satisfactory display of most pages from this and the
BBC News sites.
The visual rendering of my own site ( this one ), using the embedded Fresco
Browser from ANT, was not as good in some
places as is seen using Microsoft's Internet Explorer ( for which site is
primarily designed ), but it was certainly better than I've seen with other
browsers. The only pages which failed abysmally were those with complex
JavaScript, and one of these appeared to have hung the box, and required a
power supply unplugging re-boot to recover.
The screen display is very good, although there were some moire and herring bone
effects using a composite video connection in places.
The facility to enlarge the text, to allow comfortable page viewing when sat
far from the TV works well, although images are not enlarged, making those
which are intentionally small ( but clear on a PC ) unreadable.
Unfortunately, the text enlargement does not seem to work on text input areas,
which can make inputting of text, particularly for e-mail - one of the main uses
for the IBX - rather difficult. Reading them, on the other hand is fine.
The other problem with e-mail is that it is entirely web-based. This is not a
problem generally, but having no facility to compose e-mails off-line makes the
composition of long messages costly, as a connection must be made before one
can even start typing. The Remote Control
E-mail and other text entry is done using the keyboard which is an integral
part of the hand held Infra-Red Remote Control. This is a substantial unit,
like the IBX itself, and very easy to use, with only a few keys which will be
hard to find initially for a hardened PC user.
The range and directionality of the link seems good, but there are occasions
when duplicate character entry occurs. This can be a problem as its size makes
it necessary to keep ones eyes on the keyboard whilst typing. It is also
difficult to use in free-space; far better to put it on a knee or coffee
table for use. When the remote control cover is closed, it can be used in a similar manner as
a normal TV remote control, albeit a remote of incredible size and
proportions. Finding somewhere to put it when not in use may be difficult, but
you're unlikely to lose it. For those who send a lot of emails, there is a full sized Infra-Red keyboard
available, and I believe this comes as standard with the later IBX-200 range. Problems and Detractions
Overall, the IBX-100 is a very capable and impressive system, but it does have
its limitations and its problems. Those who are more used to using PC's to
access the internet and send e-mail may find the IBX limiting, and its use
frustrating, once the novelty wears off. The small size of text displayed during e-mail creation is particularly
annoying, as is the inability to compose e-mails off-line.
The limited JavaScript support, coupled with an inability to display Flash
Animations, means that a large number of sites will not perform as expected;
the inconvenience this will cause, of course depends upon which sites are
likely to be visited, and will vary from user to user. Sound is entirely
missing, which may be a blessing or an annoyance depending upon what your
surfing expectations are. The IBX has a tendency to dial-out when it thinks it needs to get something from
a web-site ( particularly counters and images ), when moving through the History
selections to pages already viewed, and the modem doesn't always seem to hang-up
when told to, before completing its connection and incurring a connection charge.
While testing ( with a connection to a PC based dial-in server rather than an
outside telephone line to Bush Internet ), it was quite easy to get the IBX to
stay online indefinitely, even with an idle timeout set, and it was shown that
the IBX could connect to the telephone line, even when the user thought it
wasn't; the green "online" light only coming on when a successful connection was
achieved. Although these fault conditions were deliberately induced, it doesn't inspire
confidence to know that should Bush Internet ( or any other ISP ) not respond
correctly to an incoming call, the IBX could remain connected, incurring huge
phone charges, without the user knowing about it until the bill arrived.
If Bush had offered free, unlimited access, on an 0800 number, for a fixed
monthly fee, these would be problems which I would not be concerned with; the
loss would be to Bush with tied-up, dead lines, not money out of my pocket.
Under the circumstances though, I am concerned at leaving the IBX connected to
the telephone line permanently, and would probably add a switch to the front of
the unit, to disconnect from the line, if I were to. The Verdict
If you don't have internet access, the Internet Surf Set is a cheap and easy
way to get it. With the current low retail prices around, it will appeal
to those who are already using 0845 dial-up ISP's, and those with PC's who
fancy the idea of surfing through their TV. There will be less appeal for those who have cable, broadband or other
high-speed access, and those enjoying free ( or more correctly, "unmetered" )
access using their PC's. With the IBX-100 cost so low, this may be a toy which many will find tempting
to try out, or hack to use in other ways ( see below ).
As Bush have a subscription-free connection model, the only costs incurred will
be the purchase of the IBX itself, and any online time actually used. If it
doesn't fit your requirements, then it can always be put back in its box and
given away as a present to someone who wants it ( email addresses and other
settings can be reset ), or donated to a local charity shop.
When I started to write this article ( after Alba reduced the price of the units
as sales flagged, but before production of the units stopped ), I prophetically
wrote that the only foreseeable risk in purchase was, that Bush Internet went
under, and the service was terminated; as had happened with
Ionica.
The situation took a turn for the worse when Alba pulled the plug on its
internet capers, but support for users was maintained, as control of the service
was passed on to ITVdigital. With ITVdigital
going down the pan as well, the service has been reigned in once again, however,
the dial-up servers are still running, surfing still works, and access to the
web based email services still exists.
Even if the Bush Internet Portal
closes, or the ISP dial-up is shut down, there is enough information available
on how to reconfigure the system to use other ISP's, that there shouldn't be any
problem in keeping the IBX online.
Despite the limitations, and lack of documentation available on the internal
workings of the IBX-100, a number of enterprising individuals have undertaken
a considerable amount of work analysing the hardware, the software and looking
into ways in which the units can be modified or improved.
Many software changes, such as running Risc OS or Linux, and hardware projects,
such as adding Sound, are beyond the capabilities of the casual hacker,
requiring a fairly good understanding of the processor used in the IBX-100,
and the hardware architecture. Many of these hacks are discussed on the
Bush Hackers Mail List
which is dedicated to these type of activities.
There are however, two relatively easy hacks which can be undertaken quite
easily - The following information is a synopsis of that available at
KentWebNet and other
sources. The Easy Way to Change ISP Settings This works with many units -
The TV screen should show the main introduction screen; "World Wide Web"
and "Options".
For the IBX-100 and IBX-101 ... For the IBX-200 ... For the IBX-250 ... For the IBX-260 ... For the ITV8401 ... One of these should bring up the ISP configuration menu.
The Alternative Way to Change ISP Settings
ispc_urc ispcapture:begin?end=file:/MAScr:connect&abort=file:/MAScr:connect
This should bring up the ISP configuration menu.
Restoring Factory Default ISP Settings
You will need to be quite skilled in wielding a soldering iron and used to
unsoldering as it is quite fiddly soldering to the correct locations without
creating solder bridges between adjacent pads, and the 'R80' resistor can be
stubborn to remove without damaging the tracks.
 Remove R80 and add a 4K7 resistor - Image © Vincent Sanders I carried out this modification in February 2002 and have had no trouble since, but it does rely upon an assumption: The 7500FE CPU used in the IBX-100 is marked as a 56MHz part, but these processors, capable of 64MHz operation, were so marked, as Cirrus erred on the side of caution. If the CPU in your unit is not suitable for 64MHz operation, there is a chance that it may overheat, or otherwise fail intermittently or permanently. There is no guarantee that overclocking will work with all chips, or may be done without causing damage. If you're in any doubt about overclocking; don't do it ! | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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First published on Monday the 27th of August, 2001 at 02:27:59
Last upload was on Wednesday the 7th of January, 2004 at 18:10:22 |
