Netgear unveils the Digital Entertainer HD

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Netgear has launched the Digital Entertainer HD, a device able to stream multimedia content to an HDMI-enable HDTV or SD television. The source for the Digital Entertainer HD, codenamed EVA8000, can be a PC or a Mac computer, a network storage or any USB device.

The Digital Entertainer HD is able to scan the network and look on the computers for multimedia files. Without the need to access a PC or a Mac the Digital Entertainer HD catalogs the content and organizes it in a library. Then all the user has to do is browse it on the TV and choose the audio or video file to reproduce. If one of the PCs on the network has a TV tuner, EVA8000 can stream the video content on the TV and also offers basic features like pause or rewind capabilities.

The Digital Entertainer HD also makes it possible to use the Internet connection of the computer. This way the user can read RSS feeds or is also able to watch video content from online sites like YouTube. The Digital Entertainer HD can also browser the online photo archive Flickr or play an Internet radio.

The list of codecs supported by this Apple TV rival is pretty impressive. The audio formats supported by the Digital Entertainer HD include AC3, FLAC, MP3, WMA. The list of video codecs readable includes MPEG1/2/4, WMV, XviD and H.264. To connect to the network Netgear included in the EVA8000 a 10/100Base-T Ethernet controller, the support for 802.11g plus two USB 2.0 ports.

The suggested retail price for the Digital Entertainer HD is set to $399 USD and it is available through selected e-commerce sites.