Netgear EVA700 Digital Entertainer Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Before I bought this unit, I tried the D-Link DSM-520 for about a month before giving up. This unit is identical to the DSM in function with one BIG difference-- it is stable! My advise to those not wanting to tinker- skip this technology for a year or so, others read on...
Install
~~~~
I hooked it up to a wireless router and PC with a few external hard drives and it works (almost) flawlessly. First of all, like others said, do NOT install the software that it comes with and also forget Intel Viv technology installs. Just install one of the free (or almost free) software like TVersity (my fav.), Wizd or Twonkyvision. However, except for Wizd, you can't search for a particular album/artist/genre. You have to scroll through menu after menu to find a movie/song/photo.
Media
~~~~~
I am currently streaming a few hundred CDs in FLAC (lossless format) which is noticeably better than the very best MP3 format. For DVDs, I simply have the server software pointed to the Folders that have the DVD (VOB) files. The player does a very good job of picking up subtitles automatically too. I have NOT installed the photo folder as I find the usage completely useless for my needs. I shoot 6MP raw format images. I can't see myself browsing through tens of thousands of images and then waiting for 1 minute for an image to load up!
Conclusion
~~~~~~~~~
All in all, a good system for those that are not intimidated by network setups and server programs but want an uncluttered music system and (almost) instant access to movies, music and photos.


Click Here to see more reviews about: Netgear EVA700 Digital Entertainer

The NETGEAR EVA700 Digital Entertainer connects your TV and home entertainment system to your computer network, letting you enjoy the movies, videos, radio, and photos that reside on your your PC on a larger screen and better speakers.
Easy Setup and Strong Security The EVA700 plugs into your home theater system with a variety of outputs including RCA, S-Video, Digital Coaxial/SPDIF audio, and HD component video. The Digital Entertainer has both 802.11g wireless for up to 54 Mbps speeds, and a wired 10/100 Mbps RJ-45 jack in order to connect the device to your home network. Support for Intel Hub Connect Technology makes the connection easy to set up.
In addition to the hard drive of your PC, the EVA700 also works seamlessly with the NETGEAR SC101 storage device. There is also a USB port on the front of the device, letting you play files saved on an iPod, USB thumb drive, USB disk, or digital camera.
The Digital Entertainer boasts hardware-based WEP 40/64-bit and 128-bit encryption, as well as WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK encryption for enhanced security.
Support for Many File Formats The Digital Entertainer can handle a large variety of file formats. Compatible audio formats include MP3 (up to 320 Kbps or VBR), WAV, WMA (up to 192 Kbps or VBR), M3U, and AAC. Compatible video formats include: MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, WMV (up to 1080p down-converted), and Xvid. Compatible photo formats include: JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF, and GIF.
An included remote control lets you control all the media files on your home network--as well as from popular internet sites--from the comfort of your couch. The NETGEAR EVA700 Digital Entertainer is backed by a 1-year warranty.
What's in the Box EVA700 Digital Entertainer, infrared remote control (2 AA batteries included), power cable, Ethernet cable, RCA stereo-audio/composite-video cable, installation guide, resource CD, and warranty/support information card.

Click here for more information about Netgear EVA700 Digital Entertainer

Read More...

Synology DiskStation 2-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage DS211J (White) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This thing is fast/scalable/reliable/configurable/expandable/bulletproof and worth ten times what it costs. For the money you get a full function NAS with two drive bays, Linux OS with plenty of really top shelf apps, support for raid arrays and JBOD, thru-the-internet accessability, dlna media server, audio and video apps, excellent disk management apps, solid group/user creation and mgmt, a web server app, ddns with 'no-ip' support and a host of other very useful file/data sharing utilities. Call Synology tech spt and you won't get a tier-1 zombie - rather you get a very knowledgeable competent tech who knows the product inside and out - very impressed! I've used most of the network apps and so far they work perfectly.
Cons: This is not a con but be advised: if you're populating the NAS with large drives (I populated my NAS with two, 2TB drives for a max capacity of 4TB), initial drive preperation will take 8-10 hours to complete - for each drive! I called Synology tech spt to find out if there might be a problem and they explained that the NAS drive prep utility goes thru an excruciatingly detailed surface scan at the outset thereby eliminating issues with bad sectors and other related problems once the drive is placed into operation. THere is a less time consuming drive prep offering but they recommended the full scan - and so do I. Find something else to do while the scan is running. Also; I bought my NAS to use primarily as a DLNA media streamer. It does that flawlessly - this thing is bulletproof, I have purposely tried to add and delete shares/folders/users/etc etc to try and confuse this box. It continues to operate flawlessly - I'm amazed and impressed! The Synology folks surely did their homework.
Other Thoughts: There is one anomaly I found with the DLNA function that I find rather annoying; Once the DLNA server is activated in the command interface, it creates three separate media folders (Audio and Video and Photo) and places them at the root level of Volume 1 (ie disk 1). The DLNA server will only look into these folders to find media to serve up. So, unless you Raid-0 your two drives and create one large volume, you will be stuck storing all your media files on only one drive - OR WILL YOU. There are several workarounds for this, and they work (although a little cumbersome). Once the three media folders have been placed on your vol 1, you can manually move one or more of them to vol2 and the op sys will work just as effectively with the folder on vol 2. You can also use a 'root' login to access the linux opsys and mount pointers to other shares you've created on vol2. Both techniques are explained on the Synology website. Maybe an update to DLNA file structure and searching is due Synology(hint hint).
Network streaming speed is more than ample. I have the NAS attached to a gig switch which is then attached (gig enet uplink) to a Linksys 3000 gateway. As a network bandwidth and NAS performance test I have run the following: one HD video stream to Samsung dlna enabled TV -and- one HD video stream to second TV using HP DLNA-enabled client -and- one audio stream to my Iphone (Wireless) -and- a second audio stream to my dlna-enabled V-Tech radio (also Wireless), all streams were running concurrently without any hesitation, skipping, pauses or any other anomalies. THis, plus all the other very useful functions make this box a real keeper!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Synology DiskStation 2-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage DS211J (White)

Synology DiskStation DS211j is designed to provide a cost-effective file storage and backup solution with RAID protection for your home environments. The operating system, Synology DiskStation Manager, delivers rich features for multimedia enjoyments, worry-free backup, Internet sharing, and energy-saving options.

Get 12% OFF

Click here for more information about Synology DiskStation 2-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage DS211J (White)

Read More...