Netgear EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD

The NETGEAR EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD offers: An easy way to connect your home theater with your home network. Playback of video and music stored on your computer on your home theater. Support for 1080p HD video resolution. A built-in USB port for connecting iPods, digital cameras, and other devices. Support for 802.11g wireless networks.

The NETGEAR EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD connects your TV and home entertainment system to your computer network, letting you enjoy the HD videos, music, and photos from your PC on your HDTV and high-quality speakers.

The EVA8000 supports HD video up to 1080p. View larger. View Rear.

Easy Setup and Strong Security
The EVA8000 plugs into your home theater system with a variety of outputs including RCA, S-Video, Digital Coaxial/SPDIF audio, HD component video, and HDMI for resolution up to 1080p. The Digital Entertainer HD supports both 802.11g wireless for up to 54 Mbps speeds, as well as wired connections via an 10/100 Mbps RJ-45 jack. Note that in order to connect the device to your home network with sufficient bandwidth to stream your HD videos, you will need to use the wired connection. Dual 2 dBi antennas are built-in for better wireless reception.

In addition to the hard drive of your PC, the EVA8000 also works seamlessly with the NETGEAR SC101 storage device (sold separately). There is also a USB 2.0 port, letting you play files saved on an iPod, USB thumb drive, USB disk, or digital camera.

The Digital Entertainer boasts hardware-based WEP 40/64-bit and 128-bit encryption and WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK for enhanced security.

Support for Digital Media File Formats
The Digital Entertainer can handle a large variety of digital media file formats. Compatible audio formats include: MP3 (up to 320 Kbps or VBR), WAV, WMA (up to 192 Kbps or VBR), M3U, and AAC. Compatible video formats include: MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, WMV (up to 1080p), and Xvid. Compatible photo formats include: JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF, and GIF.

If you have a TV tuner card (not included) installed on your PC, the EVA8000 will let you schedule recordings and pause and rewind live TV, providing an easy interface to your DVR. If you purchase two or more Digital Entertainer HDs and have them in different rooms, you can synchronize music throughout the house for parties, and you can keep watching a video moving from one room to another by pausing it in one room and unpausing it in another.

An included remote control lets you control all the media files on your home network, as well as from popular internet sites, from the comfort of your couch. You can also access your desktop and some applications such as email. The NETGEAR EVA8000 Digital Entertainer is backed by a 1-year warranty.

What's in the Box
EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD, infrared remote control (2 AA batteries included), power cable, Ethernet cable, component video cable, installation guide, resource CD, and warranty/support information card.

Customer Review: EVA8000 After 1 Month - Good, not Great, but what is better?
It's really more of a 3.75, but definitely not a 4, so I had to rate it a 3. I have had my EVA for about 4 weeks. I have had pretty mixed results when watching video files. The device either locks up or reboots itself at 2-3 times per week, which I am not happy about. It seems to give me the best performance when I am watching a ripped DVD (using DVD Shrink with no compression). Watching a ripped DVD starts playing faster than other file types and also fast forwards, rewinds and skips to chapters faster. It seems as if it does not buffer the vobs - it starts so quickly and doesn't give the buffering message I get with other file types. Most of my non-dvd rips are avi files with xvid, but I also tried h.264 in avi and mkv with limited success. many times the h.264 video is "shaky", but I suspect it may be more due to my encoding capabilities than any fault of the eva. I have all my files on a Linksys NSLU2 NAS device. Two 1 TB drives are connected (mirrored). I have upgraded to the current beta EVA Firmware which I highly recommend. I installed the 1.8.0022 DEW originally, and it kept saying it could not be found when I try to watch YouTube video or control my PC. Then I installed DEW 1.8.0028 thinking that would solve my problem, but it did not. I finally got YouTube video to work after upgrading the firmware and selecting the play directly option so I do not need to have the PC running to play YouTube anymore. My pc is running Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1, Firewall turned off. I stream mostly video. I bought the eva to watch tv shows I download from Europe because they are not broadcast here in the USA. Mostly racing videos and racing tv shows. I also use it to watch DVD rips and movie files which are mostly avi files using Xvid. I have a Netgear Wireless G router, but I have the EVA connected via 100Mbps Ethernet. Only thing I did, was set up 5 different shares on my NAS for the EVA, only 1 of them is Read/Write which is used for the EVA to write its library to. Three others contain video or audio or pictures. The last one is the "adult" share which is password protected in the EVA settings so visitors do not accidentally stumble on things they should not. I really wish there was a comprehensive manual for the device explaining what all the settings do and when they should be used. Especially, since the manual was written many months before the latest firmware. There is a good one in Netgears forums, but still not all inclusive. Overall, I am disappointed in the stability of the device, but I feel stuck with it because I don't know of anything better that isn't a Windows Media Extender - I don't want to have to run a PC to get my video to the TV room. I just wish the device were more stable and the PC Control would work as advertised (PC Control has never worked for me because it can never find my PC on the network, even with the required software installed on the PC). Prepare to spend time searching through the Netgear forums and to join the beta forum to get the latest firmware updates - they are worth it. The Netgear EVA8000 forum is definitely a good source of help, and the Netgear moderators there are helpful and try to address your problems if you post according to the rules and give some detail. It's like being stuck in a dead end job, but you can't leave yet because you can't afford to. I feel stuck with a buggy product, but it's still the best I have researched, and the basic functionality does work, so I have to just shut up and take it. I really like Netgear products overall and have used their routers etc., but this product is not for the faint of heart when it comes to tech research and troubleshooting.
Customer Review: Beats the competition!
After struggling with a D-link DPG-1200 and the worthless tech support (hours wasted on the phone, pushed from one level tech to another, only to be told hours later to CALL BACK!) Then they wanted to charge me $49.00 for the support I would need to get the thing up and running! All this on the FIRST day I got it! So I quickly returned it and took a chance with the Netgear EVA-8000. The Netgear EVA-8000 was easy to hook up to my network running windows XP and wireless network with full encryption. The user interface was easy to use and everything hooked up and worked the first time out. Instructions were easy to follow and simple for a non-geek like me who wanted to bring multimedia from my pc to my widescreen using a wireless device. One of the best features I found with this item is the ability to use the included HDMI port and cable to make the hookup to my TV, therefore giving me excellent picture and sound quality in one cable. There are some other hookup choices also, if you don't have HDMI on your TV, but the picture quality might not be as good as with the HDMI. I am using 1080p, but the device lets you chose the quality of your set. Once everything is hooked up and running, which was fast, simple and easy to do, you can get the latest firmware and updates right from the TV screen menus. The actual dimensions of the device itself is larger in size than I would have thought (length and width), height is only a few inches, but for a unit that works so great, who cares! This type of unit does not actually bring your "desktop" itself to the TV screen, but rather the software uses has its own interface for use on your set, with a remote control, that lets you control just about every aspect of viewing. Kind of like my Tivo remote. The manual (available for download or hard copy in the box) is quit extensive, and that was my first hint that this product might actually work great, obviously a lot of time an effort went into the making of this device. You can do such things as watch recorded media, view photos, record TV, play music and more, all from your PC folders, and you can also watch and browse you tube from your TV! You chose the folders you want to share in the easy setup screens. I highly recommend the EVA-8000, especially if you have an HDMI port on your TV, and by the way, an HDMI cable IS included, even though they say it is not included.

5. The polarity of the output must be correct The inside of the plug can be either + or -. This can be reversed on all general purpose adaptors. It must be the same as the original.

They are needed because most electronic equipment works off low voltage (up to 12V) d.c., but mains supplies are higher voltage (110V in USA and 220 to 250V in most other countries) a.c. The adaptor converts the mains supply to that required to power the device. It usually plugs into the mains supply and a lead connects it to the device.

2. The plug on the end must fit the device it powers Many general purpose adaptors come with a selection of several plugs, which fit many devices, but some manufacturers are continually changing their plugs, to force customers to buy their own adaptors, which are usually much more expensive.

A final word about mains adaptors for digital cameras, as these run down normal alkaline batteries very quickly. If you are using your camera inside mainly, it would certainly pay to buy an adaptor for these. Most are 7V, 2500mA regulated. They cost about 20. If you are using the camera outside, it pays to use rechargeable batteries, which can be recharged at home.

6. The d.c. supply provided by the adaptor can be either regulated or unregulated Unregulated supplies have d.c. outputs which fluctuate. This is usually fine for adaptors which are only designed to recharge batteries. However if the adaptor powers the device directly, it often needs to be regulated (i.e. the supply fluctuates very little). Regulated adaptors are more expensive. They can be used in all cases, but not vice versa.

1. The mains (input) supply must be correct An adaptor bought, for example, in the USA and used in Europe (or vice versa) will not only fail to work, but could cause expensive damage to the equipment it is designed to power.

When replacing them the following things need to be taken into consideration:

3. The output voltage must be correct Many, but by no means all, adaptors deliver 12V. Many general purpose adaptors are switched, typically in steps of 1.5 or 3V up to 12V. Once the correct voltage has been set, it is a good idea to put some tape over the switch, so that it cannot be accidentally altered.

What are mains adaptors?

Many homes nowadays have several mains adaptors in them; some have over fifty. They are used for charging mobile phones, and other equipment which has rechargeable batteries, powering electronic equipment, from laptops and cordless phones to games consoles and printers.

7. A.c. adaptors These are only transformers, and are used if the device runs off a.c. This is almost exclusively used in low voltage lighting.

They should be switched off, or unplugged, when not in use, to prolong their life and save electricity.

4. The adaptor must deliver at least the current required by the device The cheapest general purpose adaptors typically deliver 300mA at 12V. If the device requires say 500mA, the adaptor will soon fail. The old adaptor will have written on it what current (or wattage) it delivers, and the replacement must deliver this current or more. If the adaptor is labelled in watts (or VA, which for the purposes of this article, is the same thing) divide the wattage by the output voltage to get the current. E.g. an adaptor labelled 12V, 6W delivers a current of 6/12 = 0.5A or 500mA.