BT Vision - TechRadar UK

Though BT hopes that its PVR will draw subscribers to its broadband service by the truckload, the silver V-box responsible for providing TV is basically a set-top box with 160GB hard drive and online capability.

Connected directly to BT's bulky HomeHub Wi-Fi router by Ethernet, the hardware is actually free, although it'll set you back £90 to have it installed by an engineer.

Manufactured by Thomson, the V-box is sleek with a minimalist design and little in the way of lights and buttons on its front fascia. It's around the back that most of the action can be found.

Accompanying the brace of Scarts is an HDMI 1.1 connection, which suggests that though there are no HD applications at present, it can only be a matter of time before there are. These are partnered by an optical digital audio output, S-video, stereo phonos and an aerial loop-through alongside the aforementioned Ethernet port.

The V-box needs a broadband connection in order to work, while the smoothness of video playback is dependent on connection speed. BT recommends a minimum 2MB connection or pictures won't be worth watching - and when HD material eventually becomes available you'll need to up this figure to around 8MB.

The EPG is a testament to simple, logical design with the main navigation controls positioned at the top of the screen and colourful thumbnails to make it easy to pick and choose from the ondemand material. And it's here that the first cracks start to appear.

With 'new' movies including Miss Potter, Clerks II and Vera Drake (all £2.99 each) and TV shows such as Babylon 5 and a selection of Louis Theroux documentaries, we were hardly going wild with excitement. Having said that, the recent addition of Premiership football may prove enticing for some

More annoying than the uninspiring content is the decidedly flaky nature of the EPG. Basic navigation regularly results in the system crashing or locking up entirely and the box seems to spend more time displaying error codes than it does TV shows.

The good news is that because the V-box is connected to the internet, BT can provide firmware upgrades with the minimum of fuss - hopefully consigning these frailties to the past.

Bizarrely, we found that after a few days to get used to its new home, the EPG's failings became less frequent, allowing the V-box to show exactly what it's capable of. Pictures reveal great clarity and stability and appear to be completely free from artefacts. VOD (video ondemand) material, which streams from a BT server, is also robust with plenty of detail and displays no signs of buffering.

Recordings are pretty much indistinguishable from the original. It's possible to record two channels simultaneously and deciding what you archive can be done at the push of a button or by tagging via the EPG. It's possible to set up a series link, while Chasing Playback allows for regular tea or toilet breaks. Also fun is the inclusion of games and phone services, which lets you store and look up numbers.

On the positive side, BT's V-box provides an enticing view of just what set-top boxes could be capable of in the future. While the operating system is frail and the VOD content isn't the best, these are problems that BT can address in the future. And once these issues have been tackled, it may well have a winner on its hands.