Netgear EVA700 Digital Entertainer

by Netgear

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 38 x 50 x 13.4 inches ; 4.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 8 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000GHWQ86
• Item model number: EVA700-100NAS
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 30, 2006

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The NETGEAR EVA700 Digital Entertainer offers: A simple way to connect your home theater with your home network. Streaming playback of video and music stored on your computer. A built-in USB port for connecting to iPods, digital cameras, and other devices. Support for 802.11g wireless networks.

The NETGEAR EVA700 Digital Entertainer connects your TV and home entertainment system to your computer network, letting you enjoy the movies, videos, radio, and photos that reside on your your PC on a larger screen and better speakers.

The Digital Entertainer's built-in wifi streams media from your home network. View larger. View rear.

Easy Setup and Strong Security
The EVA700 plugs into your home theater system with a variety of outputs including RCA, S-Video, Digital Coaxial/SPDIF audio, and HD component video. The Digital Entertainer has both 802.11g wireless for up to 54 Mbps speeds, and a wired 10/100 Mbps RJ-45 jack in order to connect the device to your home network. Support for Intel Hub Connect Technology makes the connection easy to set up.

In addition to the hard drive of your PC, the EVA700 also works seamlessly with the NETGEAR SC101 storage device. There is also a USB port on the front of the device, 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, as well as WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK encryption for enhanced security.

Support for Many File Formats
The Digital Entertainer can handle a large variety of 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 down-converted), and Xvid. Compatible photo formats include: JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF, and GIF.

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. The NETGEAR EVA700 Digital Entertainer is backed by a 1-year warranty.

What's in the Box
EVA700 Digital Entertainer, infrared remote control (2 AA batteries included), power cable, Ethernet cable, RCA stereo-audio/composite-video cable, installation guide, resource CD, and warranty/support information card.

Product Description

"NETGEAR’s EVA700 Digital Entertainer plays all of your digital videos, photos and music directly from your PC, NETGEAR’s Storage Central (SC101) or streaming from the Internet, right to your TV and home stereo system. You can play files saved on a USB storage device such as a USB thumb drive, USB disk, iPOD™ or digital camera with a USB interface. EVA700 is compliant with Intel® Viiv™ 1.5 and up, and supports seamless access to content, applications and services available on Intel Viiv PCs. EVA700 also supports access to content residing in Microsoft® Windows® Media Center PCs and other UPnP AV media servers such as Rhapsody® and TwonkyVision. "

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best of the (mediocre) lot!, January 29, 2007

By 

Ajoy Prabhu ".com" (Columbia, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Netgear EVA700 Digital Entertainer (Personal Computers)

Before I bought this unit, I tried the D-Link DSM-520 for about a month before giving up. This unit is identical to the DSM in function with one BIG difference-- it is stable! My advise to those not wanting to tinker- skip this technology for a year or so, others read on...

Install

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I hooked it up to a wireless router and PC with a few external hard drives and it works (almost) flawlessly. First of all, like others said, do NOT install the software that it comes with and also forget Intel Viv technology installs. Just install one of the free (or almost free) software like TVersity (my fav.), Wizd or Twonkyvision. However, except for Wizd, you can't search for a particular album/artist/genre. You have to scroll through menu after menu to find a movie/song/photo.

Media

~~~~~

I am currently streaming a few hundred CDs in FLAC (lossless format) which is noticeably better than the very best MP3 format. For DVDs, I simply have the server software pointed to the Folders that have the DVD (VOB) files. The player does a very good job of picking up subtitles automatically too. I have NOT installed the photo folder as I find the usage completely useless for my needs. I shoot 6MP raw format images. I can't see myself browsing through tens of thousands of images and then waiting for 1 minute for an image to load up!

Conclusion

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All in all, a good system for those that are not intimidated by network setups and server programs but want an uncluttered music system and (almost) instant access to movies, music and photos.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It does what it claims to do, January 20, 2007

By 

Jack (Chicago, Il) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Netgear EVA700 Digital Entertainer (Personal Computers)

I see that many people have rated this product from Netgear pretty low but I must say I have been extremely happy with mine. I gave the item over a month to test it out to make sure that it would work right. It plays Divx media flawlessly and the MP3's work well also. Installation was so simple that I was surprised I was finished. Now for the things I wish they could improve on. I am not all that thrilled with the software it comes with. There should be easier menues to use. While it's not completely bad I find it a little lacking because my wife and son have problems with it when they are looking for media. Keep in mind that I set up the folders to share between my computer and the EVA700 so it makes it easier for me. Another thing I would like to see is the capability for HD. A Univeral Remote would be nice as well. Since other universal remotes don't work with the EVA700. As for performace of the product the only only complaint I would have is that when rewinding or fast forwarding movies it does this annoying scan that takes 10-15 seconds before it begins the desired selection.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars POOR PRODUCT, January 15, 2007

By 

Craig (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Netgear EVA700 Digital Entertainer (Personal Computers)

I bought this hoping it would work well with a new Intel VIIV certified media computer. Unfortunately, it does not work well. I had hoped it would integrate with the media center software, but it does not. It cannot access programs on the computer as easily as an xbox 360 which can also be used as a media center extender. While it is great for music, it freezes occasionally while watching video. I could not get it to play video reliably wirelessly with the wireless access point right next to it. Also with a LAN line it also would freeze up on video. I just changed the ethernet cable from CAT 5 to CAT 6 cable and the video has now been playing fine, at least for the moment. The device still does freeze for no reason when using the remote control and the fast forward buttons do not work on the remote. I would steer clear of this product for the moment. My xbox 360 works incredibly well as a media extender, but unfortunately it is a very noisy solution.