Introduced back at CES 2009, Netgear announced today the worldwide availability of the Digital Entertainer Elite digital media player. The Digital Entertainer Elite (model EVA9150) has a built-in 500GB HDD, supports streaming of multimedia content from networked PCs and storage devices, and supports a wide variety of media file formats and online video providers.

The Digital Entertainer Elite isn’t tied to one specific platform as it works well with Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs as well as Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices.  The media player is also fully compatible with Netgear’s RangeMax family of wireless-N routers, Powerline and MoCA networking kits, as well as ReadyNAS storage solutions. Major features include the following:

• Support playback of video, audio, and digital images from your networked computers and storage devices onto your HDTV set
• Stream online media content directly to your HDTV
• 500GB HDD for additional content
• Supports USB flash drive, digital cameras, iPods and other USB storage deviecs
• Up-convert videos and photos to full 1080p via HDMI output
• Plays back unprotected DVD images stored on network and preserves menus, subtitles, and special features (big win here)
• Supports Windows Media DRM
• “Follow Me” feature allows you to pause a song or video from one room and continue from that point on in another room (assuming you had a Digital Entertainer Elite in both rooms)
• Push N Connect for easy Draft N wireless setup

The specs include:

• Wired LAN: 10/100 Mbps Ethernet, RJ-45
• Wireless 802.11a/b/g/n dual-band (2.4 GHz or 5 GHz) at up to 300 Mbps‡
• Three internal dual-band meta-material antennas
• Hardware-based Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) 40/64-bit & 128-bit encryption
• Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA2-PSK, WPA-PSK)
• Windows Media Player 11 Media Sharing
• SMB networking (includes Macintosh)

Format support includes:

• MP3 up to 320 Kbps or variable bit rate (VBR)
• WMA8 and WMA9 files up to 192 Kbps or variable bit rate (VBR)
• WMV9 up to 1080p (to 40 Mbps)
• Internet radio (streaming MP3)
• Video codecs: MPEG 1/2/4 SD; MPEG-2 HD HP@HL to 40 Mbps; MPEG-4 Part 2 HP@HL to 10 Mbps (Xvid); H.264 HP@HL 4.1, VC1/WMV9HD to 1080p 40 Mbps
• Video file formats: AVI, DivX, Xvid, WMV9, MOV, M4V, VOB, MPG, MP1, MP2, MP4, ISO, IFO, MKV (with AC3 only), TS, M2TS, PS
• Audio formats: MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC, FLAC, WMA-Pro, M4A, M4P, AC3, DTS Passthrough, PCM, LPCM, AIFF
• Photo formats: JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF
• Playlist formats: WPL, ASX, WAX, WVX, PLS, M3U, RMP

Input/Output includes:

• HDMI for A/V output
• RCA connector for composite video output
• RCA connectors for component video output (high-definition support)
• Digital audio output S/PDIF (coaxial/optical)
• Stereo RCA audio ports
• USB 2.0 mass storage interface
• 2x USB 2.0 port
• Ethernet port
• S-Video port
• SCART composite and RGB for regions that require it

The ability to play back DVD ISOs stored on a network drive is perhaps the single largest selling point for me. I currently store hundreds of MPEG2 movie files on the network and stream the content to a Windows Media Center Extender. However, in doing so, I lose menus and chapters etc. Streaming DVD ISOs would thereby eliminate this problem altogether (and create a new problem – the need for many more terabytes of network disk space).

You can pre-order the Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite now at Netgear’s website for $399.99.

Make sure to also check out our original CES 2009 coverage on the Elite.

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