Sometimes a piece of hardware has an alternative use to the one the makers originally intended. Something that may have started off as an unintentional offshoot of its primary function, or was tacked on as a bit of an experiment, or even just happened because there was some space to fill up on the box. A bit like Viagra in fact, albeit hopefully nowhere near as dangerous for horny geriatrics.

That's not to say that horny geriatrics can't use the piece of TV hardware we're looking at here, just that it won't make any difference to their sex lives. For you see the PCTV Systems Broadway 2T is a handy piece of kit that allows you to play TV on your mobile, Mac or PC, as well as record or timeshifting TV programmes you can watch over the internet, not a treatment for erectile dysfunction.

Basically, the box plugs into your aerial and then acts as a TV tuner, streaming the signal over your network to a browser application that enables you to watch whatever you want  as well as change channel from your computer or iPad, iPhone or Android (version 2.2 and above with Adobe Flash capable browser) device.

As far as this primary function goes, the box is incredibly simple to set up and functions exceptionally well, albeit at a slightly pixelated resolution for a large computer monitor, but more than adequate for anything the size of an iPad or smaller. This can also be used with the packaged IR cable to control set-top boxes like Sky or Virgin V+.

Now, the other, and far more interesting function as far as we're concerned, is the ability to stream the signal from the box over the internet using the bundled TV Centre software. 

Unfortunately for Mac users this is only available for Windows based PCs, and as well as being able to watch TV in a different network location to that of the box (read: work/train/different country) it can also record and timeshift programmes to watch at a later date. How this works with TV licensing laws is uncertain, but all we know is that it works and its fantastic for anyone who wants to watch TV on holiday. Just take your laptop along with you, log on in the hotel bar and there you are. Amazing.

Understandably this method is a little more complex to set up and requires some knowledge of how to set up your home router but still, it remains in our minds the most intriguing use for the Broadway 2T. That's not to say the mobile option isn't superb if that's what you're looking for, but this was what really drew our attention, and it's this that we're sticking with.

Something also worth mentioning is that the box features three USB ports which are currently not in use, but in the future will be used for USB 2.0 mass storage (hard drives and flash memory stick) as well as full PVR functionality, so you will be able to schedule, record, pause and re-wind video from DVB-T or Set Top boxes without the IR cable.