Anybody pulled the trigger on this new thing ? Im looking for info/feedback ... I've always like their GUI, I wonder what it looks like and if it's any good.
Thanks
Patrick S.

I was interested--until I read the specs (http://www.netgear.com/Products/Entertainment/DigitalMediaPlayers/EVA700.aspx?detail=Specifications).

No DVI or HDMI output? Are they kidding?

What does "WMV up to 1080p (down-converted)" mean?

Video format support claims MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, WMV and Xvid but provides no details about specific profiles. Maybe this is discussed elsewhere (http://kbserver.netgear.com/products/EVA700.asp).

Requires Windows 2000 or XP? If it supports UPnP (as claimed), this should not be necessary. Does it use proprietary server software?

No front-panel display? Fire up big screen just to play music?

Pass.

I agree, after looking around, I found their site and was really depressed at the lack of ports and the spartan documentation. This thing will crash and burn big time as it looks quite poor compared to other offerings.
Patrick S.

I know I'm a forum newb, but I got one of these in yesterday. I'll give a more detailed report this weekend, but as of now im pretty happy with the device.

After I finally got it connected to the wireless network (took me an hour or so), I immediatley had divx encoded files playing back. I was quite stunned how easy it was. Then I was very dissapointed at the interface; Its total crap. Also, it didnt really have (ripped) DVD playback.

But, I knew there were some 3rd party apps that might be able to change that. I installed Wizd ( URL link was here until the forum made me remove it) and that changed around the GUI of the player completely (new skin), and has nice DVD playback, it will list all the titles in a DVD.

Theres also TVersity out there that advertised software encoded on the server (when needed). Wouldnt h.264 playback be sweet! However it doesnt help with the terrible GUI, and it crashed when I tried to scan my entire media directory (I have a good 500 files).

I also tested out mpeg2 playback. 720p files played w/o a hitch, 1080i files stuttered. I guess my signal strength isnt quite high enough, Im going to try and move my AP.

Last problem with the player. It has aspect ratio controls (zoom on the remote), but I cant seem to get 4:3 content to scale correctly. Its stretched. As a work around I can set the TV output on the component cable to 480p or NTSC but thats a pain, as you have to flip thru several PAL/SECAM outputs.

Does this thing play JPEG photos in HD?

During a slideshow, how long does it take to load the next photo?

Does this thing play JPEG photos in HD?

During a slideshow, how long does it take to load the next photo?

It appears to display JPEG photos in HD. At least I have it set to 720P, component out, and the pictures look darn good. If you have some method of determing if the photos are "in HD" that you'd like me to try, let me know.

Mine is connected via ethernet to a Gig switch, pictures on an Infrant NV. 3 second timeout between pictures. Takes about 2 seconds to load the next photo.

Photos is one thing I'm happy with. It doesn't play ISOs, at least I can't get it to. It only does UPNP, doesn't see shared windows directories. Will play vob files I have, but you can't give it a directory (video_ts) and the top VOB and have it play the whole movie.

I'm sure there's more, I haven't tried the wireless, so I can't answer anything about that.

I know I'm a forum newb, but I got one of these in yesterday. I'll give a more detailed report this weekend, but as of now im pretty happy with the device.

After I finally got it connected to the wireless network (took me an hour or so), I immediatley had divx encoded files playing back. I was quite stunned how easy it was. Then I was very dissapointed at the interface; Its total crap. Also, it didnt really have (ripped) DVD playback.

But, I knew there were some 3rd party apps that might be able to change that. I installed Wizd ( URL link was here until the forum made me remove it) and that changed around the GUI of the player completely (new skin), and has nice DVD playback, it will list all the titles in a DVD.

Theres also TVersity out there that advertised software encoded on the server (when needed). Wouldnt h.264 playback be sweet! However it doesnt help with the terrible GUI, and it crashed when I tried to scan my entire media directory (I have a good 500 files).

I also tested out mpeg2 playback. 720p files played w/o a hitch, 1080i files stuttered. I guess my signal strength isnt quite high enough, Im going to try and move my AP.

Last problem with the player. It has aspect ratio controls (zoom on the remote), but I cant seem to get 4:3 content to scale correctly. Its stretched. As a work around I can set the TV output on the component cable to 480p or NTSC but thats a pain, as you have to flip thru several PAL/SECAM outputs.


Interface is the same as the Snazzi 1350, the Galaxy, and many others that use the Syabas software. Yes, not very friendly.

It's interesting what you say about wizd, as I thought that is what is integrated on the Infrant NV NAS, but I don't see titles or anything. Maybe I'll fiddle some more.

720p files played w/o a hitch, 1080i files stuttered. I guess my signal strength isnt quite high enough, Im going to try and move my AP.
Not surprising. Try a cable.

would this be comparable to the dlink dsm 520? or is the netgear better interfaced etc?

How can they advertise this as being "new technology ready" when it doesn't support h.264? My guess is that it it is based on the Sigma 8621. Does anyone know for sure?

Misko,

I have no way to tell if a photo is HD other than my eye. If it looks as sharp as it does on a PC monitor it must be better then 540P.

I was hoping they buffered the loading of the next photo during a slideshow (while the current one is being viewed) so there would be no pause when it is displayed.

Misko,

I have no way to tell if a photo is HD other than my eye. If it looks as sharp as it does on a PC monitor it must be better then 540P.

I was hoping they buffered the loading of the next photo during a slideshow (while the current one is being viewed) so there would be no pause when it is displayed.

No double buffering. It says "loading image" after the timeout period. You would think this would be a simple software fix.

Definitely better than 540P. It's connected to my computer monitor via component and looks great.

No double buffering. It says "loading image" after the timeout period. You would think this would be a simple software fix.

Only if there is enough memory in which to buffer the image.
These things all include slideshow capability but few execute it properly - not much better then DVD players.

How can they advertise this as being "new technology ready" when it doesn't support h.264? My guess is that it it is based on the Sigma 8621. Does anyone know for sure?

It can't be the 8621. 8621 doesn't support Macrovision which is a viiv verification requirement.

Has anyone tried Wizd on the EVA700?
With it, is the slideshow performance any better in terms of the pause between pictures?

I just received this unit the other day. I have it connected with wired ethernet to an HP MV2020.

I have not experienced any noticeable delay between slides. Although, it will flash a "Loading" display, that display disappears very quickly. What does happen that is pretty annoying is that it displays the file name with each photo as it is showing it in the slideshow, in large white script in the upper-left portion of the screen. The file name lingers for about 2 seconds before disappearing. Funny though, if you are playing a music file in the background it doesn't display the file name (or the "loading" display for that matter) like this. I have been looking through the sparse literature and doing, some trial and error to see if I can turn off this file display. So far the only success is to play a song first.

Thanks pdq2.
I just ordered an EVA700. Some folks on the Tversity forum said they got it to work with that server but didn't mention the "loading" display.

Somewhere, Hijack's Mpcclub I think, I read that the music faded out and in (instead of the pictures) when loading the next picture. Have you experienced this?

Other than that, the initial reviews seem pretty good.

Mike

pdq2,

If you haven't yet seen this thread, you may find it helpful.

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/network/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=22374&highlight=eva700

Mike

No, actually I think the slideshow runs better with the music, than it does without. The only display that comes up during a music/slideshow is a file/song name display when the songs change.

I'll check out the thread mentioned in your other post. Thanks

Pat Q.

I hooked up my EVA700 yesterday to an SD TV.

The wireless setup is really poor. Took 4 hours. Can't use wep shared key, must be open key. SSID and key entry are done differently. No instructions.

When I loaded the software, I mistakenly included Windows media connect - which I didn't need since I had already installed WMP 11. I thing something got overlaid since I was unable to configure WMP to share media.

So... I downloaded Tversity and it works fine. I configed it as a DSM-520 as recommended on their forum. Music and jpeg pictures play fine. There is a fade-in/out between slideshow pictures (with music) which lasts about 2 seconds total but seems longer. Without music there is no pause between pictures but the word "loading" flashes then the file name appears for 4 seconds. When using Tversity, you are still dealing with the same skins and firmware capabilities of the EVA700 so you don't see any thumbnails or album art.

Also, the EVA700 has no rotate or random play functions.
You have to create and shuffle a playlist to randomize your music.

I tried playing some digital camera videos. AVIs played but were jerkey via wireless.
MOVs had sound but no picture. I guess Tversity doesn't convert them otr the capability isn't included in the DSM-520 profile.

I also tried some of the default video and radio web sites included in Tversity. Some worked, some didn't. But the video was terrible. Others had audio dropouts.

I plan on trying HD and hardwiring the serving PC and the EVA700 (if I keep it) to my router but they are on different floor. Will do after the holidays.

Mike

Oops,

Playing around some more, discovered the following (don't know if it's in the manual - hate reading them. It's more fun this way):

You can rotate a picture with the Repeat Key. Rotation is instantanious - at least in SD.
After rotation, press play to get rid of the message.

The Zoom key works. Press it then < or > to zoom in and out. As always, press play to get rid of the message.

You can Pan on a zoomed picture by pressing Zoom then OK. A Zoom Pan message is presented. (press OK repeatedly toggles between zoom and pan.) Then press < or > to pan left or right. Unfortunately, you can't pan up or down (yet?).

When playing single pictures, you have to press stop which takes you back to the picture list. I can't get it to go to the next picture while the current one is displayed. Did anyone figure this out or do I have to look in the user guide? It's probably not there anyway.

Good news.

Contrary to what I wrote above, I played with the EVA700 a little more today and found that there is a random music play function.
To play a single selected file, press OK. To play all files from a selected file, press play.
While a file is playing, press the repeat button once you get "repeat-one" to repeat the current song. Press it again and you get "repeat all" (I assume that's the whole list). Press it again and you get repeat-random for random play.

Also, I tried Wizd and much to my surprise, was presented with much nicer skins and, who would have thought, thumbnails and album art!

This afternoon I'll be hooking it up to my HLP5674. If the HD looks good, the EVA700 may be a keeper.

Good news.

Contrary to what I wrote above, I played with the EVA700 a little more today and found that there is a random music play function.
To play a single selected file, press OK. To play all files from a selected file, press play.
While a file is playing, press the repeat button once you get "repeat-one" to repeat the current song. Press it again and you get "repeat all" (I assume that's the whole list). Press it again and you get repeat-random for random play.

Also, I tried Wizd and much to my surprise, was presented with much nicer skins and, who would have thought, thumbnails and album art!

This afternoon I'll be hooking it up to my HLP5674. If the HD looks good, the EVA700 may be a keeper.
mlm39, you have been more diligent at playing with the 700 than I. I am going to try some of the discoveries you mention in your most recent posts.

When you switch from wireless to wired, the EVA700 will tell you to power-off the unit. What it really means is to un-plug the unit from AC Power. My suggestion would be to disconnect the power cable before you plug in the RJ-45. Then reconnect the power cable.

I noticed you mentioned running the 700 with WMP11. When I set up the 700, I installed the Media Connect on one of the computers in the house. The 700 worked fine with that computer. Then we upgraded to WMP11 on that computer, along with the MC update. Now, all of the photographs (no matter what resolution of the photo) are displaying postage stamped sized in the middle of the screen when played by the 700. Fortunately, I have moved everything over to the HP Media Vault and everything is displaying fine. I have a tech support case in with Netgear about the postage stamp. So far, they don't have an answer.

It looks like the answer might be to try Wizd on that computer.

I connected the EVA700 to my HDTV and here's the results (Photo & Music only - Wireless). Since I don't know much about video, I'll leave that to someone else.

The colors and contrast appear oversaturated. There are no adjustments for this other than the TV itself.

The unit stalls when pressing certain key sequences on the remote. As I remember, during a slideshow, If I pressed pause then the back button(<-), it would stall.

Once in random mode, I couldn't get out of it without pulling the plug.

I don't think photos display in HD. They looked OK but I couldn't see a difference in the same photo at 640x480 or 1280x720. (Press the Information key to see the resolution of the photo displayed).

The EVA700 displays a photo to fill up a widescreen no matter what the photos dimensions,
so pictures from a digital camera always appear stretched making everyone look overweight. My bride hates it! I could make them proportionally correct by setting the TV to 4:3 - easily done on mine with the its remote button. (I tried 950X720 but it didn't make any difference).

Using Wizd:

The thumbnail display feature was much to slow with HD because of longer rendering times and the fact I was wireless.

I found that Wizd won't play music or photos if you have the "avoid illegal characters" box checked in it's configuration. I tore my hair out finding this one.

Wizd screws up the file list if, when going pack to a previous page, you press the back key. Instead you must select "Parent Folder" on the screens menu.

I couldn't play music with a slideshow. When I exited the music play screen to return to the main menu to start photos, the music stopped. Wizd may have its own way of doing slideshows with music. I didn't have time to research it.

Wizd presented photos to the EVA700 in the size I defined in the config setup. Although I set it at 1280 x 720, the photo wasn't cropped and was displayed as mentioned above.

The remote's page keys don't work with Wizd making the search through a long list more laborious.

The slideshow wraps. The only way out is to pull the plug.


Using Tversity:

Even though I set the parameters for HD images, photos were presented to the EVA700 in
a mystifying variety of dimensions (resolutions) from 640x480 on up beyond the 1280x720 I had entered.

I found that the random key function affects both music and photos during a slideshow.
I couldn't play random music and pictures in their original order.

Other than that, and the fact that it did not support thumbnails, Tversity worked better than Wizd.

Based on my findings, I'm returning the EVA700. It's not bad with Tversity but I'm not happy with it's photo play cabability.

Mike

After reading your posts I started playing with the Random mode. I didn't experience the issue you describe with having to pull the power. I found hitting the Repeat key one more time toggled right out of random mode.

The HP Media Vault does not support playlists. So I was anxious to try the Random mode to avoid hearing music in alphabetic order. On Christmas we did this with slideshows of photos on the Media Vault. I did not experience the EVA700 randomizing the photos. It simply played them in directory order. The way I set this up was to enter the Christmas genre I set up in the Music items. Once the first song started playing I pressed repeat until Random was selected. Then I exited the song list and entered Folders mode in Photographs. Selected the folder holding the photos for the slideshow and started the show.

I just started experimenting with Video. I'm using anyDVD and DVD Shrink 3.2 to backup my DVDs to the Media Vault. The EVA700 has a very annoying issue. It stutters and shows about 1 second of black screen as it switches between VOB files. I checked to see if this was an issue with the Media Vault by playing the same movie off the Media Vault using WMP11 on a laptop. There was no stutter or black screen on VOB transitions.

I'm using a SD TV, and this has been my first experiment with a Media Player. I will probably keep the 700 for now. But during the coming year I am planning on upgrading several components in my home theater (AV Receiver, TV, maybe speakers) and I will probably re-think the 700 then.

pdq2,

Glad to hear you solved some of the problems I ran into. They could have been caused by the server software I was using. Like I said a few days ago, I couldn't get Mediaplayer 11 setup for media sharing. It's supposed to have media-connect built in. When I checked "share my media" and clicked OK, it chugged away for about 30 seconds but never gave me the window to specify what to share. I reinstalled it (over itself) to no avail. Next time I'll delete it first.

Mike

Mike

I didn't have any issues with Media Sharing finding the 700. But as I mentioned before, now all the photographs (regardless of resolution) are displayed postage stamped size on the 700.

I'm pretty much using the 700 exclusively with content on the HP Media Vault. The one downside is that the MV does not support playlists, and therefore the 700 won't do playlists with music from the MV. But your insight on the Random play function, at least for me, is an acceptable work around. As for photos, no "loading" or name display when playing music, and for now that is an acceptable compromise.

Based upon the various reviews, user comments, etc. that I've read about Digital Media devices this one seems to be about par for the course. My research had led me to believe that I shouldn't hope for much. Hopefully in the next year or so this class of devices will get better and then the 700 can collect dust in a closet.

For now I'm going to begin experimenting with backing up DVDs and playing movies off the MV. The 700s pause and blank on VOB transitions is annoying, so I'm going to experiment with other video formats. It looks like both the MV and the 700 support xvid. So that will be my next experiment.

Pat Q.

I finally received a response from Netgear tech support about the postage stamp issue after upgrading to Windows Media Player 11.

To recap, I installed the version of Windows Media Connect that came with the EVA700, everything worked fine (I did have some issues, see posts above). Shortly thereafter I upgraded to Windows Media Player 11, which also upgraded Windows Media Connect. After the upgrade all my photographs appeared postage stamped size in the middle of the TV screen (I have an SD television). This occurred regardless of the resolution of the photographs (most of the photographs' native resolution is 2560x1920). The level 1 tech support at Netgear could not respond to the issue. Below is the response from Netgear's Level 2 Tech Support:

"Hello Patrick,

This is a known issue with the recent Windows Media Connect 2.0. At this time we are working on a firmware update, but do not have an ETA to correct this issue.

Alternative solutions in the mean time would be to uninstall windows Media Connect 2.0 and reinstall 1.0, if possible, and you may need to contact Microsoft about this. Also, there is a software that works similarly, TwonkyVision. However that software is not affiliated with Netgear, and is a charged software.

The easiest thing to do would be to downgrade or wait for the firmware update."

For now I have copied all my photographs to an HP Media Vault and they display fine from that device. We'll see how quickly a firmware update is forthcoming.

Pat Q.

pdq2,

I returned my EVA700.

The kids gave me an Xbox360 Core for Christmas and I'm now contemplating whether to try it (havent opened the box yet) or take it back and wait for the EVA8000. I'm concerned about the 360's noise and heat issues. And now it looks like there's a version 2 on horizon.

My son bought a PS3 and it does a super job with pictures and video.
I'm not into gaming although it would give the grand kids something to do.

Mike