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Netgear Digital Entertainer Live: Internet TV arrives... sort of
I know January is hard to remember at this point, but Netgear is finally making good on that uber-media receiver it promised back at CES. The Digital Entertainer Live (new name) brings all sorts of Internet video to your TV set, including YouTube, CBS, Hulu, Netflix and a host of other sites. It'll also grab music, pics and videos off your PC. Not bad for $150.
The catches? To see any video from Netflix or Hulu, you'll need to leave your PC switched on while running PlayOn software. That costs extra (PlayOn sells for $40, but Netgear promises its customers a discount). Catch No. 2: The Digital Entertainer Live needs an adapter to do its tricks wirelessly, and that'll set you back $40 as well — unless stringing an Ethernet cable from your PC to your HDTV sounds like a fun prospect.
So while the content sounds amazing, the hardware on these media receivers still seems a little wobbly. Our vote: Just put a damn PC in your home theater already.
Via Netgear
By Old Man Dotes at 7:09 PM ON 09/08/09
Disappointing. I *have* a PC in my entertainment center (and would like to get rid of it). I have a Roku player on order. It looks like the Roku will do pretty much everything the Netgear box does for half the price (after figuring in PlayOn, which runs *very* poorly even on my best PC), except for handling DLNA files ("music, pics and videos off your PC"). I suspect DLNA will be added before long.
By Paul in NJ at 9:50 PM ON 10/05/09
That's fine if Netflix is all you watch, but there's a lot of video on the web that Roku can't stream. Also, Roku can't access NAS devices, or even a simple USB device!
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Paul in NJ:
That's fine if Netflix is all you watch, but there's a lot of video on the web that Roku can't stream. Also, Roku c...More »