3view plans to release the world’s first HD set-top box with internet access. Capabilities include Freeview HD, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

December 10, 2009 — According to an announcement this week by set-top box manufacturer 3view, the company plans to release a Freeview HD receiver with an internet connection in the next few months. This announcement — along with similar ones from other manufacturers — roughly coincides with the start of experimental Freeview HD broadcasts earlier this month.

As well as receiving Freeview HD when regular broadcasts commence next year, the boxes will provide users with access to numerous online video and social-networking portals, as well as providing an actual web browser; the latter will bring functionality normally reserved to PCs onto the living-room screen. 3view also plans to sell a mouse and keyboard for the device separately, further narrowing the gap between the PC and TV. 3view’s managing director, John Donovan, adds: “The 3view box also makes it even easier for people to access all the benefits of the internet through their television.”

3view’s new set-top box has a deceptively simple exterior.

But that’s not all — the box can also access multimedia files stored on a PC in your home network, and will provide a handy search function that lets you search your own stored videos as well as programme schedules and YouTube content. As if you could still ask for more, the 3view box unflinchingly delivers: A built-in 320-gigabyte hard disk can record hundreds of hours of broadcasts, as well as allowing you to pause and rewind live TV. And since the box has a double tuner, you’ll be able to record one programme while watching another.

Basically, there’s not a lot that 3view’s new set-top box can’t do. But if you’re hoping to enjoy a “whole range” of HD content via your aerial, as Donovan puts it, you might be disappointed with the selection available via Freeview HD — which will initially comprise just a handful of channels, including, for example, BBC HD and ITV HD. Anyone looking for a wider range of high-definition programming should probably consider Sky+HD, which — on the last count — offers 35 HD channels.

The new 3view set-top box is expected to reach the high street in March 2010.