Netgear EVA8000 Network Media Player - EVA8000-100NAS
NETGEAR Digital Entertainer EVA8000

<i>Let me start out by saying that I'm a technical person and can figure out most things, especially netork-related, so I don't know that my opinion represents most people.</i><br><br> I did a good bit of research prior to buying the EVA8000, and I had my doubts going into it. My biggest beef with my existing situation was that I had to burn DVDs everytime I wanted to watch movies that I had ripped from my DVD collection or downloaded from the Internet; I was hoping to stream movies across my network. Music was not as important, but if movies worked fine, then music should definitely be smooth since they take up less space.<br><br> From the time I opened the box when the EVA8000 was delivered until the time I was watching AVIs on my TV in the living room, only 30 minutes elapsed. I was working from home that day and set it up during lunch, and I was watching episodes of <i>"Arrested Development"</i> while I ate.<br><br> Apparently Netgear has upgraded its firmware since some early reviews have come out; like I said, I had <b>no problems</b> whatsoever with any of those people's issues. Streaming hi-def videos across my network is very - surprisingly - smooth. Even action-packed AVIs of UFC bouts are smooth and clear.<br><br> I would <b>highly recommend</b> this appliance to anyone looking to rid themselves of DVDs and who would like to consolidate their entire video collection on a hard drive.<br><br> The <b>only</b> issue(s) I have are with the menu system and tag tool. I wish there was more flexibility as far as having the ability to view complete folder structures, not just bottom-level folders when browsing for folders. This was not a big enough reason for me to discount my review of the product. Netgear has done a wonderful job and they have a wonderful support forum on their web site.
 
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Disappointed with the product because it does not play the .avi files generated by my Canon Powershot camera (SD 800 IS). Tried to send technical support a sample file but they don't accept email from customers. Buggy software wiped out windows file sharing settings on my Windows 2003 server. Senior technical support excused the problem by saying the product is new. Is a substantial improvement of Roku HD1000 provided you don't plan on playing avi movies from Canon Powershot camera. Roku does not support these.
 
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I have a lot of experience with "media extender" products and either own or have used most on the market. The EVA8000 has good codec support and with the exception of pre WM9 files played everthing I threw at it. A unique feature that I havent seen on any other extender is the ability to playback DRM'd files purchased from the iTunes store. The EVA8000 was able to find media files stored on my multiple PC's and on my TerraStation with ease. If your media files are not tagged and not stored in seperate folders it's a tedious job to find the media you're looking for. It does come with a tagging tool that is adequate if you have a small collection to tag but a more automated tool would be a big help for users with lots of media. The playback quality is OK not great. The Buffalo Link Station appears to have a better video processor/scaler, however the Buffalo's interface is nowhere near as good as the EVA8000's. I noticed video playback to be very red when connected through HDMI however this was not an issue when connected via Component cables. In summary this is a product for early adopters, it has probably the best feature set of this class of products, however video quality and some rough edges keep it from being a great product.
 
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