And the winner is… Netgear?
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Written by Atila on August 19, 2008 – 11:45 pm
PC World has awarded its prestigious “Best Buy” award in the category of “Entertainment Everywhere” to Netgear’s Digital Entertainer HD (EVA8000). It was chosen as the best of six devices, with Apple TV coming in second and D-Link’s DSM-520 Wireless HD Media player in third.
Netgear, here’s someone we haven’t heard much about. In checking our TV Mama tag cloud, I noticed that Netgear hasn’t come up at all.
So let me tell you a bit more about Netgear and its excellent product. It offers several unique features, including Flickr photo streaming and Apple and Windows Media DRM support. It also plays streamed radio and receives RSS news feeds and NOAA weather and can be used to browse the internet or check your email.
The Digital Entertainer HD also finds HD files across files and computers and places them all in a library on the TV making your HD materials that much easier to find, and for an extra five dollars, the device can be used as a DVR. Most significantly, this device supports almost any type of video file, unlike Apple TV.
So is the Digital Entertainer HD going to replace Apple TV as the industry leader?
I don’t think so. The Digital Entertainer HD sells for $350, while Apple TV sells for only $299. Apple TV is also a sleeker, more finished product. The Digital Entertainer is bulky, and even though it is the only device with 1080p support, it does so with difficulty. It sputters, and the audio frequently drops out. Netgear’s device is also not as easy to setup as Apple TV. Setup requires navigating many menus that are not as eye pleasing as Apple TV’s.
Netgear has created a great product, which could compete with Apple TV. I’d be interested to see if Apple TV gets taken down once Netgear works out all the quirks.
