Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite

Considering how integral digital media is to modern-day entertainment, it’s almost embarrassing to think that we can still count the number of truly capable media streamers on one hand.

A company that can lay fair claim to occupying one of these digits is undoubtedly Netgear which, while not exactly prolific, has released some pretty tidy products in the past.

The EVA 9150, or Digital Entertainer Elite, is its new model for 2009, and improves on previous devices by offering a 500GB built-in hard disk, integrated 802.11n wireless and plenty of support for modern media formats and codecs.

A range of connectivity includes HDMI, 10/100 Ethernet and two USB ports for attaching external storage, though the rather bulky design means that aesthetically it’s unlikely to win any awards.

Provided you can find room for the box amid the rest of your home-cinema equipment, setup is refreshingly straightforward, using install wizards on both the computer and TV side to configure the device correctly for your screen and set up network shares.

Netgear has decided against a UPnP server approach and instead uses straightforward folder sharing via your operating system. While this does mean it’s easy to browse by folder structure, the Elite encourages the use of ID3Tags for media access and, if this isn’t already set up on a collection of video files, the supplied Tagtool application makes these easy to create.

Performance is excellent for media playback, and at the top end we found 1080i resolution files streamed admirably across a wireless network, though depending on the signal strength, wired or locally stored playback may be a better option for 1080p.

Format support is similarly impressive with all the latest codecs and file types included, so those who like to share a library with portable devices, for example, should be able to avoid unnecessary conversion. One notable feature here is the ability to play back protected content and, provided the appropriate WMP/iTunes software is installed on the host computer, the EVA 9150 has access to this as well.

The Entertainer Elite also offers excellent control over playback of all media types via the four-in-one remote supplied. This is streets ahead of the cheap, unresponsive controllers that come with most other streamers and is intuitively laid out to offer fast access to the various features on offer.

Video playback allows for aspect-ratio adjustment, subtitle support, quick-searching using the directional keys or numeric keypad and auto resume. Audio can be compiled into playlists with repeat and randomise functions and slideshows can be created for photos with varying transitions and timings.

Aside from media playback, you can also access Youtube directly from the device, enabling you to do direct-text searches or a quick browse of featured and highly rated content. This is similarly responsive and, though there’s a slightly longer delay before playback starts, it rarely takes longer than 10 seconds and is there to ensure further buffering is not required.

Additional online access includes Flickr, internet radio, news and weather and the ability to add channels and RSS feeds, rounding off a comprehensive degree of support in this area.

After a very impressive showing, the biggest problem we have with the EVA 9150 is the price. At around £350 it’s one of the most expensive streamers on the market, so is certainly not a choice for the casual user. When you consider the fact that the previous model, the EVA 8000, is available for around half this price and that the only real improvements are the internal hard disk and a faster processor to streamline operation, this might seem like a better bet.