I suspected that sooner or later entertainment delivered by my cable modem, initially for the computer screen, would displace the time and premium dollars I'd be spending on conventional cable channels. That day has arrived at the point in the chain where cable companies are most vulnerable — on the TV itself. I wouldn't yet call the Netgear EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD a universal Internet media player for your TV, but as media receivers go, it comes pretty close. And unlike the walled garden of Apple TV, which restricts itself almost exclusively to iTunes-distributed content, the EVA8000 embraces a much larger world of Internet-based content, and does so with gusto. Sure, the EVA8000 is more complicated to use, thanks largely to its many, many capabilities. But, as you'll read, the payoff is access to millions of sights and sounds that are simply unavailable in the cloistered world of Apple TV.
The Digital Entertainer for Windows software seemed to run without a glitch, and it was soon scanning the computer for music, photos, and videos. The application loads each time you turn on the computer so that the PC is ready to serve up content to the EVA8000. The software, incidentally, was originally developed for Skipjam, an advanced A/V distribution system I reviewed back in the September 2005 issue (see here) and that was discontinued when Netgear bought the company.
Back at the TV, the EVA8000 informed me that configuration was complete and I now had access to nearly 3,000 photos, 1,800 videos, and ... only 15 songs? Using the EVA8000's onscreen menus, I rescanned for music, and this time it found the more than 1,200 tunes I actually had on my computer hard drive.
VIDEO PERFORMANCE Having lived for a while with the excellent but ultimately content-restricted Apple TV (see review), I was pleased by the EVA8000's ability to play an amazing variety of formats that coexist in the larger world of Internet entertainment. Like most media receivers, which I like to call place shifters, the EVA8000 has no internal storage for content. (The exceptions are Apple TV and the Xbox 360 with its Windows Media Center Extender.) So everything must be streamed in real time from a networked computer or from the Internet — there's no "synching" option as there is with Apple TV. Unlike Apple TV, however, the EVA8000 can aggregate content from multiple computers, saving the pointers so you don't have to rescan your network the next time you turn it on. Netgear claims that one network can support as many as 255 EVA8000s and 4,000 PCs, but I imagine that even Bill Gates doesn't have that many rooms in his home.
From the computer in my home office, on which I had stored many flavors of video, the EVA8000 was able stream virtually every unprotected file format, including MPEG-1/2/4, WMV, DivX, and MOV; trick plays included three slow-motion speeds and unlimited zoom. Using an Ethernet connection, it was able to stream high-def video, but a high-def clip failed to play via an 802.11g wireless connection, and (unlike Apple TV) the EVA8000 can't take advantage of higher wireless speeds afforded by the newer 802.11n standard. Video quality was as good as on my computer, though I have to admit that I've downloaded an awful lot of crappy-looking video. The important thing to know is that video played at 30 frames per second without additional artifacts.
Not surprisingly, the EVA8000 cannot play digital rights management (DRM) protected video bought through the iTunes Music Store. Also, unless you know how to set up media sharing through Windows Media Player 11 on your computer, movies downloaded from such services as Movielink and CinemaNow or music downloaded from Yahoo or Napster or others that use a Microsoft DRM scheme will show a "protected content" message when you try playing them on your TV using the EVA8000. A Netgear spokesman said the company hoped to automate the sharing process in a future release so that users won't have to be Windows wonks to get this up and running.
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The Short Form |
| Price $399 / netgear.com / 888-638-4327 |
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Snapshot
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| It's not without its quirks, but the Netgear EVA8000 is the ultimate dream box for moving video, music, and photos from your computers and the Web to your TV. |
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Plus
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| •Compatible with a wide variety of media formats •Streams protected music bought from iTunes (Windows users only), as well as movies and music protected by most Microsoft DRM schemes |
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Minus
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| •Involved setup for playing Microsoft DRM-protected movies and music •Not compatible with iTunes-purchased video or TV shows recorded by Windows Media Center software •High-def video not supported in wireless mode •Aspect ratio for 4:3 videos must be reset for each clip |
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Key Features
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| •Streams MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV and other music formats; MPEG-1/2/4, AVI, DivX, Xvid, WMV, MOV, and other video formats; JPG, BMP, TIFF, and other photo formats •Plays unprotected files directly from Apple's iPod •Streams YouTube, Internet radio, the Flickr photo sharing site, RSS news and blog feeds, and weather •Optional TV program guide and DVR control of tuner card-equipped PCs •39-button IR remote •Inputs Ethernet, 802.11g wireless via two fold-up antennas, 2 USB •Outputs HDMI, component-video, S-Video, composite video, SCART, coaxial and optical digital audio, stereo, headphone jack •17 x 10 x 1.5 in; 4.4 lbs |
PHOTO PERFORMANCE Streaming photos from one or more computers demonstrates what's both great and infuriating about the EVA8000. You can zoom down to the pixel level (Apple TV doesn't zoom at all), but you'll be scratching your head about how to zoom, or how to return images full screen, after you've started music streaming, too. Hitting the Page + or – controls the zoom level, and the Menu button makes photos full-screen, but none of these controls is labeled on the remote or indicated in the manual. A technically knowledgeable spokesman at the company told me what to do. I expect a learning curve with any piece of sophisticated gear, but this kind of clunky user interface can drive you crazy. At least the photo quality was excellent (if you're zooming into images, however, it helps if they were shot with a better than 6-megapixel camera), though the EVA8000 doesn't provide the variety of flamboyant transitions available on an Apple TV.
ALL THAT STUFF As I've implied, among the best things about the EVA8000, and the characteristic that most distinguishes it from Apple TV, is the way it opens up the wide world of the World Wide Web. Content stored on your computer is just the beginning of what the EVA8000 can play. It also streams millions of YouTube videos from the Internet (a capability that Apple TV has announced it will add), thousands of Internet radio stations, and Flickr photos, all subscription-free. If the TV networks are wondering where their viewers are going, one place to look is YouTube. Though I haven't been much of a user at my desk, I spend hours of primetime browsing the YouTube universe on my big TV. (Luckily, my dual-tuner high-def DVR saves any network shows I do want for commercial-free viewing later.) Unfortunately, searching isn't as easy using the EVA8000's remote as it is from a keyboard. For example, when I heard about Noah Kalina's YouTube smash "Everyday" (six years' worth of self portraits in less than 6 minutes), just spelling the word "Everyday" took me 18 strokes on the remote; as with a mobile-phone keypad, you press the number keys multiple times to enter letters of the alphabet. Once I got through that, however, the video loomed large on my 50-inch plasma, which provided added impact to the series of split-second photos that might be lost in a small computer window.
Then it was on to searching for dogs, wire-hair, dachshunds, the Numa dude who did that hilarious lip-sync to a Balkan pop song a few years ago, fights, stop-action animations, and so forth. If you don't want to type in search terms, you can go with the 25 preset categories. Suddenly, it's 11 pm and you've barely scratched the surface. But I do have one main gripe: The EVA doesn't retain its aspect-ratio setting from one video to the next for 4:3 programs, which on a widescreen TV should have side panels buttressing the 4:3 frame. Each new stream requires you to cycle through the EVA's aspect ratios to keep the YouTube videos (which are overwhelmingly 4:3) from being stretched. I can live with YouTube's not-ready-for-HDTV resolution in exchange for the amazing variety of content; I can't watch billiard tricks when balls look like eggs. Netgear says it hopes to fix the problem in a future upgrade.
The EVA8000's ability to play Internet radio in my home theater allows me to hear some local AM stations that my receiver's lousy AM tuner can't get. In addition, I'm able to listen to Harry Shearer's Le Show and Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz streaming in from a radio station in Albany that's well out of my New York City broadcast area. I can add my own stations to the EVA8000's Internet radio menu or sort through hundreds of preset ones by genre or bit rate (I usually restrict music listening to stations streaming at 160 kilobits per second or more).
Browsing strangers' family photo albums isn't exactly something I'm going to give up The Sopranos for, but the Flickr service is yet another way to kill time with the EVA8000. I'm sure it's a lot more compelling when you have a personal connection to the images. But other EVA8000 amenities include RSS feeds, news, and the ability to communicate to someone on a networked computer by spelling out messages on the remote or picking from a menu of canned phrases. (I clicked "Dinner!" off the menu and "broadcast" it over the network to my wife playing Solitaire in the computer room.) You can also use the browser software on your computer to control the EVA8000 from another room.
Another thing the EVA8000 offers is a TV program guide and DVR software. If you have a networked computer with a TV tuner card, you can use these to set up recordings and play them back from the computer's hard drive. It's a $5 option to download and activate the program-guide software. Unfortunately, despite the myriad of formats that the EVA8000 recognizes, one it doesn't is the DVR-MS format that Media Center PCs use for recording TV shows. That means the EVA8000 won't be able to stream pre-existing TV shows saved on your Windows Media Center PC. Also, the program guide and navigation software included with Windows Media Centers are a tough act to beat, so the Netgear option is better suited for owners of generic computers with tuners, but not necessarily those bundled with Media Center software.
BOTTOM LINE The near-simultaneous release of the Netgear EVA8000 and Apple TV gives people a real choice: Stay within Apple's restrictive iTunes-centric world or, if you have the confidence, patience, and technical know-how, explore a much larger world of content and formats. Mac and PC users with deep iTunes libraries may find themselves quite content in that universe, and there's no question Apple has succeeded in creating a product that offers uncommon elegance and ease of use.
On the other hand, Windows users will find that the Netgear EVA8000 does everything that an Apple TV can except play DRM-protected video purchased through iTunes. Considering that video available via iTunes represents a tiny fraction of entertainment available on the Internet, the EVA8000 can ultimately offer a much richer experience. And because it works with so many Web services, it's also a more flexible platform when it comes to acquiring content through rentals and subscriptions (something iTunes doesn't accommodate). As place-shifting devices go, the Netgear EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD media receiver may prove difficult on first encounter. But once you get to know it, there's almost no limits on the pleasure it can stream to you.
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