Netgear EVA9150 Digital Entertainer Elite review

The EVA9150 is the successor to the EVA8000, which won a Best Buy award in our last group test.

The new model has some significant improvements, including an easily accessible 500GB hard disk and support for an even wider range of HD video formats and protected WMA-DRM10 files.

It’s larger than the other streamers here and is designed to match standard hi-fi components. It also provides more connectors than the others, with HDMI, SCART, S-video, component and composite video as well as analogue audio and optical S/PDIF.

Helpful setup screens guide you through the process of selecting your TV’s resolution and your location before prompting you to insert the installation CD into the networked PC that stores your files. You can skip this step, as the streamer can find network shares on any computer, but Netgear’s Digital Entertainer software adds extra features such as the ability to monitor BitTorrent downloads and transfer them to the EVA9150’s hard disk.

The interface is excellent and easy to use. The first time you browse your network, it scans and indexes your network shares. A basic web interface allows you to add RSS podcast feeds and internet radio stations without having to connect a keyboard or enter URLs using the remote control. Internet radio listings display stations by title, genre and quality.

We were impressed by its photo handling. Thumbnails help you to find what you want, and you can filter images by year, month and even the camera they were taken on. You can even view and filter photos from Flickr.

If money is no object, this is the streamer to buy. With a large hard disk, dual-band Draft-N WiFi, an excellent interface and the most comprehensive format support we’ve ever seen, it earns our Ultimate award.