Netgear Showcases HD Digital Media Receiver

The new Digital Entertainer HD (EVA8000), shown off at CES, offers up HDMI support and wireless streaming of content.

Netgear announced at the Consumer Electronics Show a new set-top digital media receiver with HDMI connectivity and support for an array of local and Internet based content. The Digital Entertainer HD (EVA8000) is priced at $349 and should be available in the first quarter of this year.

The Digital Entertainer HD (EVA8000) is a wireless set-top digital media receiver designed to bring your PC-related entertainment content to your home entertainment system. It is optimized to to display media files and Internet content streamed from Windows as well as Mac computers, network storage devices and USB media devices on televisions which support HDMI input. It includes a remote and on-screen interface for navigating and selecting from a libary of HD movies, TV shows, music files and personal photos. Consumers can search their entire media library by multiple criteria including title, actor, date, genre or thumbnail images (from photos, album art or DVD covers).

"With so many households now with HDTVs and home theater systems, people are looking for new ways to enjoy HD quality entertainment," said Vivek Pathela, Netgear’s vice president of product marketing. "The Digital Entertainer HD enables consumers to watch high-definition videos and photos, Internet videos from popular sites like BitTorrent and YouTube, and digital video recordings on their HDTV streamed from PCs, as well as to listen to music in their iTunes libraries and iPods on their home theater system. This is a great addition to our growing family of innovative multimedia networking products as it offers consumers the ability to watch any content, in any room, at any time."