While HD media streamers are nothing new, the new NETGEAR EVA8000 has a feature set just about anyone can get excited about. While we wait to get our hands on one, this review will have to do. The biggest disappointment in the review is the lack of testing of HD video. The reviewer did mention that he expected his photos to look better in HD than they did, but this is hardly a conclusive result. The unit had no problems playing back everything he threw at it and was easy to connect to his rig, other than the odd HDMI issue he experienced. Some of the features require a PC like the Flickr and YouTube support, but most of the HD features work with any media on a network share. While this will be great for uber-geeks who understand such things, it doesn't appear as easy as simply clicking a check box in iTunes or installing Media Center Extender software for the Xbox360. The other features not reviewed were the follow me features which require multiple units to take advantage of. The reviewer overall liked the unit and was impressed by the snappy menus and easy setup.

Netgear threw down today with the Digital Entertainer HD EVA8000, a new digital media adapter specifically designed to stream HD content (not that it doesn't do lower res video as well as music and pictures) from multiple PCs across a home network and to your TV. This thing rocks the draft 802.11n WiFi, and has an HDMI port which outputs 1080p, composite and component video out, RCA, coaxial and optical digtal audio out, a USB port for streaming content off of an iPod or any USB mass storage drive, and support for playback of MP3, WAV, WMA, FLAC, M4A, AAC, AC3 audio files (including stuff purchased from the iTunes Music Store, but only if you're a Windows user) and MPEG1/2/4, WMV, XviD, H.264 video files. The Digital Entertainer HD will also stream internet radio, read RSS feeds, let you schedule programs to record and pause and rewind live TV if your PC has a TV tuner, and even has a "Follow Me" mode that allows you to pause content in one room and resume it in another (if you own more than one Digital Entertainer HD). Should be out in the first quarter of this year with a retail price of $349.