Netgear EVA2000

Netgear EVA2000 Digital Entertainer Live Review

In our Netgear EVA2000 Digital Entertainer Live Review we see if the media-streamer's real life performance can live up to its promising set of features and low price. Media-streaming boxes like Netgear’s EVA2000 Digital Entertainer Live are the next best thing to having a home theater PC in your entertainment center. They’re smaller, quieter, and considerably cheaper, and can access media stored on computers and servers on your network as well as Internet content such as you’ll find on YouTube and Hulu. The EVA2000 can do all those things, as well as access media stored on a local USB storage device, and it boasts a low list price of $149.99. Still, we think Western Digital’s similar WD TV Live HD media player is a far better value.Here’s why: Both devices feature HDMI and analog standard-definition A/V outputs, both offer hardwired Ethernet connectivity and DLNA support, and both have two USB ports (so you can plug in an optional wireless media adapter as well as a USB storage device). But Netgear’s box delivers HD video at only 720p (Western Digital’s supports both 1080p over HDMI and 1080i over component video), and it supports a much shorter list of media containers, codecs, and file formats. It can’t play DTS movie soundtracks, for example.