Customer Reviews

NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Live (Black)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

UPDATE 12/9/2010: After using this device wirelessly for over six months, I am tired of dealing with it's inability to work with my Netgear router. I am frequently told on screen, "Your broadband Internet connection is down" when in fact I have several devices connected to the Internet working perfectly. The only way to get my EVA2000 on the network is the restart the entire network, i.e. powering off and unplugging modem, powering off router and all three PCs, restarting modem, wait 2 minutes, restart router, wait 1 minute, restart all five attached devices throughout the house. More trouble than it's worth. I only wish I'd kept the box so I can return these to the store where I purchased them. I'll gladly pay the restocking fee and buy a Roku instead!

Netgear support is ineffective for this product. They do not directly offer refunds. At best, they will exchange your device for another if you go through the RMA process as outlined on their website.

We are a family of 7, and have all sorts of media overflow (just like the demo describes), so thought this would be an easy way to hook up viewing platforms. It does a really good job at that. What's even better though is the video on demand, and Hulu access. With so many family members - we can actually find things we're all interested in.

We live in an area that doesn't have easy access to many of the chain video stores, so we end up buying a lot of videos we'd prefer to rent. This download system makes it so very convenient.

Also, I agree with the previous user, that is was easy to set up. My husband & son had it working without any problems. I wasn't sure it would be as great as I heard - but it is.

Every house needs one of these. It's like Tivo, you don't realize you need it until after you HAVE it! 2 days & we're hooked.

This media player is awful!

PROS
- None

REGULAR
- Connects to internet
- Built like all media players. Not bad but not good either.

CONS
- Subtitles are displayed in a black box, and a lot of caracters are not supported. They also display with a lot of delay. The said box has a delay when loading.
- The unit responds really slow
- You cannot create playlists, nor play your files in sequence. If you select a file and press play, after it finishes it goes back to the menu (does not play the next video in the folder).
- Login in to youtube with your user so you can see your own favourites does not work.
- It displays hidden folders on the storage device you connect (including RECYCLED folders).
- In order to get wifi you have to buy their own usb adapter (40 dollars).
- Image quality is OK, but colors are way over saturated.

OVERALL
- Don't buy this. For the same money go for the Western Digital HD TV Media Player.

I bought this unit today thinking it had a lot of neat sounding features. Lets start.

First - Yes you can play lots of channels. About 80% of them are news channels. Some from other parts of the world. It is most unfortunate I have better things to do than watch news channels. So I have to say this device is useless from the channel angle.

Second - The device has an HDMI port but doesn't play true HDTV. As a matter of fact on my 52" screen half of the videos I played (not totally the fault of Netgear besides the hardware quality of the device perhaps) were choppy and grainy. Mostly because the majority of videos out there that are streamed are very low quality to begin with. So most of the channels and videos would be in my opinion unwatchable.

Third - The device would not syncronize with my PC correctly. It was a pain to setup. I lost my patience with it very quickly. I even tried the Playon program. It installed correctly and interfaced with the device from my PC. But of course Playon is a pay application that is VERY badly developed. When I tried to play anything on it 60% of the time it just kicked me back to the main menu or out of what I was trying to watch. The buffering abilities are nothing short of unacceptable. Also it was SLOOOOW to load ANYTHING on the Netgear device. Sure bandwidth etc could be to blame. But I would disagree because I stream Netflix all the time and RARELY have any connection problems. My latency is usually great. I play lots of online games with little to no lag. So I can't really point at that.

Fourth - I tried to stream my Netflix from this device using Playon and it was SLOOOOW... it was so slow it wouldn't load my instant Queue. After waiting about 3 or 4 minutes (It takes about 10 seconds or less on my XBOX 360 to load my instant queue) I gave up trying to use Netflix on it.

Fifth - Almost EVERYTHING this device can do my XBox can do. Especially since it interfaces with PlayOn. Which by the way the menu browsing and everything is significantly faster to browse and sort through on the XBox then this little device could ever handle.

Conclusion: Spend an extra 80 bucks or so and just buy an XBox 360. It is way faster. This device is not worth your time. I had it out of the box for a total of maybe 3 hours. It is now back in the box and going back to the store. I bought this device thinking the negative reviews on this site were probably unjustified. That maybe they didn't know what they were doing or something. They were right. Pass this one up believe me! I usually don't write a review unless something impresses me or really annoys me. I figured I would give Netgear another chance and they have yet failed me again. And believe me I have used and setup a LOT of networking gear. Netgear has definitely gone downhill with their products lately.

I was excited to see the price drop on this unit, thinking it worth the try. I already own an Iomega Screenplay HD (500GB) that must be at least two years old now. I got it for around $160 and bear in mind it is a 500GB USB HDD with built-in multimedia features. I've seen some similar enclosure knockoffs so Iomega probably just brands one for themselves. Much of this review will be from a comparison standpoint, what I hoped to get as advantages/improvements with the Netgear over the Iomega...

The Netgear EVA2000 itself is a slick little unit. Simple and easy to set up. It is packed well with the (minimal) needed connectivity and has a pretty decent GUI system. I tried it out of the box first and then performed the network firmware upgrade to 4.7.[whatever]. That was also very easy (prompted immediately at power up). I noted quite a few menu differences and some improvements.
Overall, given the near $100 price tag, I'd say the Netgear missed on these points:
* Not 1080P, HDMI yes but only supports 720P (IOM=1080i support)
* Not 'NAS' compatible, states support for NAS but really only their own ReadyNAS and uPNP A/V servers(stated, not tested). Does not support SMB shared folders or generic NAS devices.
* Did not recognize all WMP11 served content, no video files recognized at all? It did do very well playing music from the WMP11 server. Recognized play-lists, etc. It appeared ready to pull content from multiple PCs.
* USB HDD navigation menu a bit cumbersome and not much info about files provided (codecs, formats, etc.) (IOM=codec info, multiple views). It offered a ghastly delete function as the first choice when the remote 'menu' button was pressed!. No rename, move or other file management options.
* Too much gimmickry with the PC based services (WMP11, Play-On) and other pay-2-play added-value options. If I'm going to have a PC on all the time to really utilize this device, it is going to be a true HTPC which makes this unit superfluous.

For $50 and a 'fix' for true NAS support I'd buy one for every non-HTPC based TV in my house. That would make it an expansion device of my home video and audio content system. It did work well with WMP11 if you consider that an advantage ;-)

First the pluses. It is simple to setup and very easy to use. It also has a nice assortment of sources for streaming.

On the down side its output looks very soft on a HD TV. I have a PS3 and use PlayOn to stream a variety of sources like Hulu and Netflix. The output from this device is far worse than the PS3s using the same source (Playon). I even called netgear support to confirm that I had the latest firmware and that the device was setup optimally. Basically for SD output it is acceptable for HD output it is unacceptable.

I ended up buying the Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN. The output looks crisp and clean far superior to the EVA2000.

I wanted a player that gets Netflix and Hulu. To get these two sites on this device you need the Playon software running on a PC, but it works great with this player. (Playon Cost $30) And as a bonus I get all kinds of internet content straight from the player with no PC running (the Playon software). I also hooked up an external drive formated as NTFS and it plays content from that. Generally speaking it plays everything I have tried and is easy to use and setup. There are a few problems thou. Nothing is perfect! First, resolution is SD or less, depending on the source. Second the remote does not fast forward or reverse.
Overall. it plays /streams video well but the resolution is a problem. Western digital is supposed to upgrade their box to play Netflix and Hulu and Roku Netflix box is supposed to add content similar to Hulu. After a few days of use I'm leaning towards returning it and waiting for a hi def player.