Digital Entertainer Elite (EVA9150)

An ideal solution for serious media enthusiasts, NETGEAR’s Digital Entertainer Elite (EVA9150) is the
most powerful and flexible digital media player available, incorporating the latest video, audio and
wireless technologies to deliver an unparalleled living room experience. Its integrated 500GB hard drive,
easily user-upgradeable to larger capacity disks, makes the Digital Entertainer Elite the world’s most
powerful home video jukebox on the market. Consumers can play on their TVs Blu-Ray quality up to
1080p digital video, high-resolution digital photos, MP3s and recorded television shows from their PCs or
storage on their network. They can also enjoy Internet content, such as YouTube, Internet radio, Flickr™,
RSS feeds, and videos from popular websites. The Digital Entertainer Elite automatically finds all digital
media files on the home network and organizes them into an easily accessible library.

The Digital Entertainer Elite is exceptional in that it works simultaneously with Windows®, Mac® and
Linux computers, and Networked Attached Storage (NAS) devices, such as NETGEAR’s award-winning
family of ReadyNAS® storage solutions. It supports an unmatched list of file formats, including:

•Video formats: AVI, DivX, Xvid WMV, MOV, M4V, MP4, VOB, MPG, MP1, MP2, MP4, ISO,
IFO, MKV, TS and M2TS;

•Audio formats: MP1, MP2, MP3, WMA, WMA-Pro, AAC, FLAC, AIFF, WAV, LPCM, Dolby
AC3 5.1 stereo downmix, Dolby AC3 5.1 passthrough, DTS 5.1 passthrough, Dolby TrueHD
Downmix, Dolby+ Passthrough and DTS-HD Master Audio passthrough;

•Subtitle formats: SUB, SRT, SMI, SAMI, TXT and DVD Subpicture; and,

•Video codecs: MP1, MP2, MP4, Xvid, VC-1/WMV-9, H.264 and OpenDivX.

The Digital Entertainer Elite’s two USB ports also enable instant access to content on a USB flash drive,
digital camera, iPod® or other USB storage device. Three of NETGEAR’s exclusive RangeMax™ internal
metamaterial antennas and Dual-Band wireless 802.11n give the Digital Entertainer Elite the best wireless
performance of any digital media player on the market. More specifically, the Dual-Band wireless enables
the Digital Entertainer Elite to pick from not only three 2.4GHz channels, crowded by 802.11g wireless
networks in the neighborhood, but up to twenty clearer channels in the 5GHz band. Further, the Sigma
Designs 8635 chip ensures the most powerful and flexible audio and video performance.
Multiple NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Elite units can work in concert throughout a house. Using
“Follow Me,” consumers can pause a video in one room and resume it in another. While in “Party Mode,”
they can synchronize music playback for whole-home listening.

The Digital Entertainer Elite also features NETGEAR’s award-winning Push ‘N’ Connect to seamlessly
and securely connect wireless clients based on Wi-Fi Protected Set-up (WPS), eliminating the need to
remember or input password keys. Further, NETGEAR’s Digital Entertainer Elite includes
environmentally friendly features, such as an energy-efficient power supply and auto-sleep mode.
Backed by a one-year warranty and full 24/7 technical support, the NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Elite
(EVA9150) is expected to be available in February through leading retailers, e-commerce sites, and
value-added resellers at an MSRP in the U.S. of $399. More information can be found at
(http://www.netgear.com/Products/Entertainment/DigitalMediaPlayers/eva9150.aspx).

“NETGEAR’s product introductions take advantage of two major trends that we are seeing with
consumers — digital media and connectivity,” said Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst of
Parks Associates, which specializes in research and analysis for digital living technologies. “First, as
digital media collections grow, we anticipate that the average broadband household will require a
significant amount of additional storage and media centralization capabilities. Second, our Digital Media
Evolution study finds high demand for connected CE experiences that can deliver premium Web content
to the living room.”

Yes, that's a tad steep if you compare it to Apple TV, Roku, or Xbox 360, but not so bad if you compare it to the average HTPC.

The Netgear's biggest advantage is that it supports a wide variety of codecs and includes a 500GB SATA hard drive that's user-swappable.

The Netgear's biggest disadvantage is that it while it can browse YouTube, Flickr, content from your PC, and probably services like Hulu as well, there's no Netflix partnership to speak of. But for the Bittorrent fan who wants a place to toss media for an HDTV, it might not be a bad option when it's released at a yet unannounced time. [Wired]

The Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite, expected to be officially announced at CES, is a set top box that may lack a tuner but happens to stream every format you could want at encoding rates up to 40Mbps (Blu-ray territory) over ethernet or its integrated Wireless-N adapter.

Playing 1080P video over HDMI, plus packing component, optical and SCART outputs, the Digital Entertainer can also be expanded to move beyond streaming with any 3.5-inch internal SATA drive you like.

The catch, of course, could be the price. But we probably won't know about that point for another month. Until then, we'll admit that our interest is piqued. What would you pay for this sleek HTPC light? [FCC via DVICE]