Netgear offers customers a new digital media player which is able to easily stream digital content from their home networks to their entertainment systems. The company unveils the Digital Entertainer Elite also known as EV A9150. This device possesses the latest audio, video and wireless technologies which offer users a spectacular overall experience.
The media player has a large capacity hard drive, which according to Netgear, is the world’s largest capacity home video jukebox in today’s market. It includes a 500GB hard drive which can be upgraded to larger capacity disks. Blu-ray quality digital video up to 1080p, MP3s and high-resolution digital photos can be played on this media player. TV shows recorded from the users PC or stored on their network can also be played. Internet content like Flickr, Internet radio, YouTube and RSS feeds can also be accessed from this device.
The EVA9150 is highly flexible in nature as it is able to work with Mac, Linux and Windows computers as well as Network Attached Storage devices. The media player supports two USB ports from which users can gain access to content in a digital camera, iPod, USB flash drive and other USB storage devices.
David Henry, Netgear’s senior director of Home/Consumer products explained, “As the amount of digital media content available to consumers increases exponentially, so does the demand for the ultimate entertainment solution to bring that content to HDTVs. People no longer want to be tied to their PCs to enjoy things like YouTube videos, Flickr photos or HD videos stored on their computers and storage devices. As the newest and most advanced solution in our family of Internet-connected set-top products, the Digital Entertainer Elite enables users to benefit from viewing the broadest spectrum of digital content on their HDTVs, in the comfort of their living rooms.â€
He further added, “For HD video streams, it’s critical to have a high performance link between the content and the television. That’s why Netgear also offers a full array of home networking solutions that complement the Digital Entertainer Elite, such as our RangeMax family of wireless-N routers, our Powerline and MoCA networking kits, and our award-winning family of ReadyNAS storage solutions.â€
Netgear’s latest offering does not need a UPNP server running on different machines. Searching and indexing is instead done on the device itself. Because of this, customers can easily navigate through content in many PCs and devices simultaneously. All the digital media files located on the home network are sorted and organized by the player itself. Various digital media file formats and codecs can be supported by the Elite player.
The device can easily be integrated with wireless networks through Netgear’s Push ‘N’ Connect feature without the need of a password. This media player is also dubbed as environmental-friendly as it incorporates energy-efficient power supply and auto-sleep mode. While in auto-sleep mode, the device consumes mere .01 watts of power.
Many Digital Entertainer Elite units are able to work in concrete and can connect throughout the whole house. The ‘Follow Me’ mode allows users to pause the video in one room and continue viewing it in another. The ‘Party Mode’ enables synchronization of music playback which can be heard throughout the home.
Netgear’s Digital Entertainer Elite media player is available at a retail price of $399 (approx. Rs.20,103). It is offered to customers with full technical support.
