NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Live (Black)

by Netgear

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 2.8 x 8.6 inches ; 1.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B002HWRJXU
• Item model number: EVA2000
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 14, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

With the power of NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Live you can enjoy some of the same entertainment you love on your computer, now on your big screen TV. From your own digital media stored on your computer or external USB drives, to YouTube, online videos, and streaming live Internet TV--NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Live turns your TV into a super hub for your favorite entertainment.

The Digital Entertainer Live lets you: Play movies, video, music and photos stored on USB drives, computers or NAS devices Browse and play popular movies and TV shows from HuluTM, NetflixTM, CBSTM, and more using PlayOnTM on your PC (free trial and special discount**) Enjoy YouTube on your TV, without a computer Supports streaming from many online sources, including:

Includes the ports you need to connect to your HDTV, router, external storage devices, and more. View connections.

Your Digital Media Collection on the Big Screen
The Digital Entertainer Live (DE Live) is a compact HD TV media player that connects directly to your TV and home media. Now you can access your digital media collection stored on your computer and storage devices, and enjoy it directly on your TV.

DE Live features two USB 2.0 ports that connect directly to external USB storage devices, and an Ethernet port that connects to your home network, so you can access the Internet, computers, and network attached storage devices, such as the NETGEAR^® ReadyNAS^TM Duo. The Digital Entertainer Live also features an HDMI port that connects directly to your HD TV or regular RCA jacks for connecting to older analog TVs.

Thanks to the NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Live, you can finally enjoy your digital media on the big-screen and big-sound glory of your home entertainment center.

YouTube and Internet Videos without a Computer
DE Live lets you enjoy YouTube on your television. Instead of huddling around a small computer screen to watch the latest funny video, now you can show it on your TV for everyone to enjoy. Browse "Top Rated" or "Feature" videos or login into your YouTube account to enjoy your favorite playlists all without a computer.

Finding other videos is just as simple: use the remote control to scroll through the menu or enter keywords and the NETGEAR Digital Entertainer live will automatically display matches dynamically as you key in letters. In seconds, another fun Internet video will be showing on your TV.

DE Live also includes a trial for a VuNow service* where you'll find interesting websites and live Internet TV channels. Featuring over 200 internet video sites and channels from the USA, Canada, Mexico, Europe, UK and Asia, VuNow brings even more of the internet to your TV. It even includes live internet radio stations.

An intuitive interface lets you easily watch YouTube videos on your HDTV. View larger.

On-Demand, Pay-for-View, Hulu, Netflix and More
NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Live gives you access to On-Demand and Pay-Per-View Movies, so you're a click away from all the newest releases. Browse movies and download them using your Roxio/CinemaNow account.

With DE Live you can also stream content from online sites like Hulu, CBS, CNN, ESPN or access streaming movies from Netflix, when you add PlayOn Software** to one of your PCs. You'll be enjoying their collections as well as many other online sites from the comfort of your couch.

NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Live puts Hollywood at your fingertips.

Easy Connection to the Internet and Home Network
Connect the DE Live directly to your router with a standard Ethernet cable (included). If you have a wireless network, use the NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Live Wireless USB Adapter (EVAW111) (sold separately). Or turn existing power outlets in your home into Internet or home network connections with the NETGEAR Home Theater Internet Connection Kit XAVB1004, giving you more wired connection options (sold separately)

The EVA2000 is backed by NETGEAR's one-year limited warranty.

What's in the Box
NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Live (EVA2000), infrared (IR) remote control, two AAA batteries, Ethernet cable, AV cable, quick install guide, resource CD, and power adapter. (Note: HDMI cable not included.)

*VuNow service will be free for trial period and thereafter subject to paid annual subscriptions. The term of the trial period may be found at the Digital Entertainer Live product site located within netgear.com/vunow. The VuNow service will be subject to acceptance of the terms of the VuNow service and license agreement.

**Free trial and special discount with Digital Entertainer Live purchase. The term of the trial period may be found at the Digital Entertainer Live product site located within netgear.com/playon. Support of online sites subject to PlayOn terms and conditions. Netflix support requires an existing subscription to the Netflix service.

Related NETGEAR Products to Enhance Your Digital Entertainer Live Experience
NETGEAR Wireless USB Adapter for EVA2000 (EVAW111) Wirelessly connects Digital Entertainer Live (EVA2000) to your home network Optimized for Wireless-N Networks; backwards compatible with Wireless-G Adds the convenience of wireless connectivity for streaming digital media and videos to your televition		NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Elite HD (EVA9150) Plays your digital media from your computer or network attached device to your HDTV Streams Internet content, such as YouTube, directly to your HDTV 500 GB hard drive for extra storage of your digital music, photos and video
NETGEAR Rangemax Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router (WNDR3700) Top-of-the line router, ideal for serious gamers, videophiles, and small businesses demanding high performance Dual-band Wireless-N operates simultaneously on 2.4 and 5.0 GHz frequencies for highest throughput speed and performance 600 Mbps speed, with real throughput of over 350 Mbps Push 'N' Connect feature for easy setup		NETGEAR Wireless-N Router (WNR2000) Wireless-N performance for ultra-fast speed and performance Ideal for streaming videos and other high-bandwidth multi-media files Backwards compatible with older Wireless-G devices Push 'N' Connect for easy set-up process
NETGEAR Home Theater Internet Connection Kit (XAVB1004) Converts your home wiring into a high-speed network Turns standard outlets into high-speed, entertainment-grade Internet connections for up to 4 devices Ideal for connecting HDTVs, Blu-ray players, and game consoles to your home network		NETGEAR ReadyNAS Duo 2-Bay 1TB (1 x 1000GB) Award-winning network attached server streams music, photos and video to network media players without a computer 1 TB of storage with GigaBit Ethernet for fast data transfer Allows multiple users share files simultaneously NETGEAR-exclusive X-RAID technology keeps your digital media and files protected

Product Description

Play your movies, music and photo collections stored on USB storage devices and computers right on your TV. Enjoy YouTube and other Internet video LIVE.n vao voas the loghsl geo Loreum ebspom thleo lakdyog alkdoeon vao voas the loghsl geo Play movies, video, music and photos stored on USB drives, computers or NAS Enjoy YouTube on your TV, without a computer Watch pay-per-view new release movies on-demand without a subscription Watch Live Internet TV from around the world via VuNow (1-year service included) Browse and play popular movies and shows from Hulu, Netflix, Amazon VOD, CBS, CNN, and ESPN and more using PlayOn on your PC. (free trial in box) Search for Internet video using key words Works with older TVs and new HDTVs Easy to use remote control Wirelessly connect to the Internet by using the Digital Entertainer Live Wireless USB Adapter

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Internet streaming and standard def playback is fine, but users wanting hi-def playback should look elsewhere, September 28, 2009

By 

buru buru piggu (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Live (Black) (Personal Computers)

Traditionally known for their routers and network devices, Netgear offically entered the growing home media player market this September with the Digital Entertainer Live. After owning the superb but ethernet-less Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player, I was looking for a device that could play all the 720p/1080i/p MKV videos directly off my D-Link DNS-323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure - NAS server and D-Link DNS-321. I didn't want to have to copy files off the network onto USB hard drives then walk them over to my media player just to play them on my TV. After testing this device for several hours, I am disappointed and can say that the EVA2000 is definitely not ready for prime time.

First is the question of what resolution this device actually supports. It is not listed here on Amazon, in Netgear's press release, or on the product specifications page, and no mention is made on the box except the phrase "HD TV media player". Netgear is perhaps deliberately vague on this point. If by "HD", they mean being able to connect to an HDTV, then that is true. If they mean "HD" as in 720p/1080p, then it is not true.

Despite having HDMI out, this device does not output at 1080p at all. It also doesn't play 720p files as far as I can tell. Every one of the hi-res MKV's I tested off my external hard drive failed (18 random movie files @720p and 1080i, H.264 encodes), producing an "unable to display video of this resolution" error. Similarly, the AVI's and WMV's at 720p that I tested also failed. As far as I am able to determine, it can play only up to 480p. I tried a 720x400 .MKV that did play, so Matroska support is working, but I was unable to fast-forward or rewind the file. Other low resolution .AVI files, .MP4's played without an issue.

The device did not recognize any MKV's off my NAS through UPnP (Universal Plug and Play). MKV files on my other server, running Twonky (DLNA software) did show up, however, they could not play since they were 720p.

Next is the lack of subtitle support, or non-Western character sets. The supported system languages are German, English, and French. No Unicode support means filenames and folders will be illegible, showing up as empty squares instead (see picture in gallery).

For internet TV, this product works as described. YouTube and other streaming videos work flawlessly. You can watch videos from all over the world. There are literally hundreds of free internet channels listed, divided by world region. I tested a few CCTV channels (China), Aljezeera English, an Indian channel, Odoroku.tv (Japan), C-SPAN, some Spanish channels, as well as some random others. Almost all of them worked without a hitch, after a brief period of buffering (length depends on network conditions). A few sites couldn't be reached, or failed to buffer and kicked me back to the channels menu. Again, because these are free sites streamed from the web, picture quality is very low, though watchable and a nice option for those who don't want to watch them on their computers. You can bookmark them for fast retrieval. I found the variety of sites listed here to be a pleasant surprise. They represent a wide range of interests and are from all over the world. (These are all free sites you can access from your computer also.)

The picture quality is usually terrible, however, since most internet videos are low-res videos (320x240) that are heavily compressed. When blown up 5x or more to fullscreen on your HDTV, the compression artifacts will be much more apparent and you'll see a lot of macroblocking and pixelation. On a smaller, non-LCD TV, this might be acceptable.

Because you'll be spending a lot of time pushing buttons to navigate around, due to no keyboard or mouse, I've included a series of screenshots to give you a better idea of how the interface works. Remote control response time can be sluggish, so you'll be seeing the revolving dial a lot. Worse is that you can't hit "Back" on the remote to cancel a read command. You have to wait until it finishes trying to read the file or network. During web streamed videos, I couldn't fast-forward. Searching for videos was easy through the onscreen keyboard, but overall I found the interface clunky and not all that attractive, made worse by that spinning dial that popped up with almost every command I pushed.

Lastly, is the lack of an optical output. For wireless, you will need to buy the dedicated Netgear wireless kit. A third party USB wireless dongle (AirLink 101 AWLL6070 150Mbps 802.11n Wireless LAN USB 2.0 Adapter) I tried did not work.

To sum up, this product fails to meet expectations and went back to Amazon Returns after 2 days. It is NOT capable of hi-def playback. It only plays back standard def video. If you enjoy watching blocky internet streams on your TV and don't care about hi-def, then maybe this device would be of value. There is no way to select stream quality from the sites that offer HD streams.

At $150, with no gigabit Ethernet, no optical out, and no hi-def, this product does not compete favorably against other devices already on the market or soon to be released, like the WD TV Live ($120), which adds network support to the already solid and popular WDTV; or the Seagate FreeAgent Theater+HD ($135) and ASUS O!Play - TV HD Media Player ($99), which, like the WDTV Live, is networked and plays 1080p.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Makes Internet streaming easy, lots of content, September 10, 2009

By 

Pete - See all my reviews

This review is from: NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Live (Black) (Personal Computers)

This product is great for my needs. I don't require the "ultimate" in streaming power; rather, I watch a lot of stuff on the Internet. The Digital Entertainer Live is perfect for this. In all the time I have been using it, it hasn't locked up or stalled even once (honestly) and streams equally well from my network and the Internet (admittedly, I have a super fast 15 mbps connection.) It detects all of my videos with no problem, I didn't even have to "scan" my network for files, it just found them - I was sharing them from a few different NAS devices. So it was virtually plug and play, not something you find very often.

There's a huge selection of Internet channels you can watch; I especially enjoy the Joost channels, as there are many full television shows available. I'll admit I've wasted many hours poking around in YouTube, too! The search feature works better than I expected and quickly finds what I'm looking for. You can even hook up a USB drive if you don't want to stream videos, a nice feature for those who don't have a NAS. I didn't spend a lot of time streaming radio or live television, but those features are available.

There are a few things that the Elite lacks, such as not being able to stream full DVD's (such as an .ISO) and the fact that to stream Netflix or Hulu, a separate software suite (PlayOn) must be purchased. I was disappointed in this since Netflix is what I use the most, but the software isn't too expensive. I've heard a few people say "well I could just get the Netflix box" but the Live does so much more... it's easy to forget that is not only streams Internet content but is also a full featured network media streamer with a USB port also.

The remote and menu system leave a bit to be desired; sometimes the delay between button press and menu reaction is somewhat slow (and I am ultra impatient) but it isn't too bad, just isn't as "snappy" as I would like. I don't think these are "downsides" though per se; the Elite is a great value at $150, just some things to be aware of.

So if you are looking for a low cost Internet "entertainment box" that's small and easy to use, and don't care about streaming DVD rips, this is a great choice. I love it so far!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Just ok.. it works.., December 24, 2009

By 

smart shopper - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Live (Black) (Personal Computers)

This unit does what it says: shows your media and some Internet content on your TV. So pretty much all of its "specifications" are its pros.

But I'd like to talk about its cons: Navigation/user interface is not much different than that of "flashback to the past" gaming console toys - that is, very primitive. It is usually just plain gray text over black background.

My initial disappointment was however, the poor quality of display. Unlike the menu screens of a DVD, the screens displayed by this unit are very blurry - the same way your laptop would look when attached to the TV through S-video connection. The video output of this device is not optimized for TV. I am very convinced that this story wouldn't change when it is plugged into an HDTV through HDMI - previous reviews already mentioned how it is not really HD ready.

This box is pretty much the same thing as the VuNow box, offering various streaming Internet TV broadcasts. It does have a large number TV channels but you need to know at least 5 different languages to fully make use of this feature.

I am not crazy about HD yet and just wanted Internet content like Hulu and Netflix on my TV. Don't forget that these services are not inherent to this device - PlayOn software is required, which works on many other similar products.

Internet radio is Shoutcast only.

It hangs and needs power cycling.

Video play staggers when there is fast panning of camera.

I initially went with this device because I didn't really need HD media player and that I liked the idea of Inernet TV. However, overall, this device has been a disappointment, including these features that I've been looking forward to.

I now ordered WDTV Live - here are the benefits over this device:

- Future proof - supports 1080p, Dolby, DTS.
- Works with many different wireless adapters, unlike Netgear.
- Menu options look beautiful and sophisticated, instead of an Atari game.
- Free services include Pandora and Live365 radio instead of useless Internet TV and random(bad) selection of Internet radio.
- Works with PlayOn the same way as Netgear.
- Same price as Netgear.

Consequently, you get a lot more for the same price. At the time of my purchase, Netgear + Netgear Wi-Fi adapter compared to WDTV Live + Wi-Fi adapter were the same price - except for a difference of few cents.