Digital Trends

Netgear EVA8000

September 5th, 2007 | by Marshal Rosenthal

Evaluation 

Going back to hands-on performance, the remote will let you handle everything with ease, including bringing up videos to watch and music to listen to as well as controlling key functions. 

Overall, content quality is as good as the original source material allows. For example, during testing, the 40th anniversary edition of The Graduate played clean and solid without artifacting or color blur an-noyances in DVD-quality resolution. The same goes for viewing a few high-resolution trailers of upcoming movies; there’s no stuttering, just a smooth playback experience throughout. 

Accessing Flickr for photos is no different than doing it on a PC, but for sure a big screen TV shows just how low-quality YouTube videos can be. (Then again, who cares, since there’s so much dumb, funny stuff to watch…) 

As for audio, quality also depends upon the source. For the most part, Internet radio stations come through without any hiss and play smoothly in the background. Playing music files through a stereo sys-tem definitely improves one’s perception of sound quality to boot. There’s also the expected use of playlists and cover art. But getting deeper involved with the integration between the Digital Entertainer and the PC allows you to do some unexpected things like use a Web browser and get email. Just have patience, because this process does involve a bit of a learning curve. However, fortunately, the manual includes a lot of useful reference material. 

One nice addition to the unit is the ability to save and watch prerecorded TV shows, provided your PC has a TV Tuner (mine doesn’t) and you’ve downloaded the optional electronic program guide. The Digital Entertainer can also play files off of a USB memory card or hard drive at full speed, upping its portability factor, since you can take it with you to places without the need for a network or PC. 

Conclusions 

The only real competitor to the Enterainer would seem to be the AppleTV, but this doesn't really do a service to either device as the technical differences are obvious but not deal-breakers in either case. On the hardware side, the AppleTV has faster wireless, a smaller form-factor with an internal drive but no USB external access and is limited to 720p video/1080i upscaling capabilities. On the software side, the Entertainer has more options for connecting and a stronger focus for those using Windows-based PCs. This enables the Entertainer to tame the PC so it can just work without the need for constant tech-support. That lets you watch and listen to your digital library the way it should be - on a big screen and with real speakers.

Pros 

• Provides for high-resolution viewing
• Easy integration into a home theater
• Aggregates all of your digital content 

Cons 

• Requires PC for digital content
• Wireless connection can drop HD signals