reviewsTes Ted. Reviewed. veRdic Tized
84 MAXIMUMPC september 2007
T
he A/V-streamer market has matured
to a level where we’re no longer will-
ing to make allowances for missteps.
Can either of these products stand up to
that kind of scrutiny?
—Michael BrownMeDia GaTe MG-350hD
We found some innovative ideas inside the
MediaGate MG-350HD, but this streamer’s
shortcomings far outweigh its assets.
Designing the shell to accommodate an
optional 3.5-inch hard drive, for instance, is
brilliant; ditto for including logic enabling it to
operate as a USB 2.0 host. This means it can
not only behave as a NAS box but also copy
images off your digital camera without you
having to first fire up your PC. But we’re less
enthused about having to do a reach-around
to access the USB port, and the hard-drive
interface is old-school IDE.
The MG-350HD is capable of stream-
ing video at resolutions up to 1080p, but
it’s equipped with a DVI port, not HDMI.
While it’s no big deal to buy an adapter or a
special cable to connect it to your TV or A/Vreceiver’s HDMI port, you’ll need separate
cables to run audio.
It would be easy to overlook connec-
tor shortcomings if the device performed
flawlessly, but the ugly user interface is so
clumsy that it literally refers you to the user
manual to figure out how to stream Internet
radio. What’s worse is that you won’t find
any such coverage in the nearly incompre-
hensible documentation.
We streamed standard-definition video
over an 802.11g network without a hitch, but it
should surprise no one that the player chokes
on HD content unless it’s hardwired to the
network. The MG-350HD supports a variety of
audio codecs, including MP3, OGG, WAV, and
WMA, but the only way it can stream music
during a photo slide show is if the music is
stored on its local hard drive. Lame.neTGear DiGiTal
enTerTainer hD eVa8000
We like Netgear’s EVA8000—a lot. Its indus-
trial design fits in with the rest of our AV
gear, its user interface is as elegant and
polished as it is easy to use, it supports
resolutions up to 1080p with an HDMI
port, and that’s just the beginning.
But if you buy one, make sure it has the
latest firmware update before you do any-
thing else. We couldn’t configure our review
unit at all until we updated the software.With that housekeeping accomplished,
we were on our way to streaming bliss.
Although the EVA8000 has dual antennas,
it’s still limited to 802.11g speeds and can-
not reliably stream high-definition video
content without a wire, but it delivered
excellent image and audio quality.
Like MediaGate’s product, the
EVA8000 can act as a USB host, but its
port is conveniently located right up front.
And unlike the MG-350HD, Netgear’s box
can stream digital photos and digital music
at the same time (it loaded images much
faster, too). In addition to support for all
the usual audio, photo, and video formats,
the box can also stream and decode FLAC
and even audio encrypted with Windows
Media DRM (rendering it compatible with
subscription music services such as
Yahoo, Urge, and Napster). It won’t work
with Rhapsody, however, because that
service uses a DRM scheme all its own. It
doesn’t support WMA Lossless either.
The EVA8000’s excellent user inter-
face makes streaming content from the
Internet stupid-simple, with direct links to
(and great search tools for) movies and
TV shows on BitTorrent’s retail site, digi-
tal photo collections on Flickr, and every
video on YouTube. (But if you find low-res
videos hard to watch on a computer moni-
tor, wait until you see them scaled up to
1080p on a big-screen TV—not good.)Stream
Dreams
A/V streamers move up to 1080p
if you have more than one netgear eVa8000 in the house, you can pause video play-
back on one, go to another room, and pick up where you left off.add MediaGate’s MG-350hD to the
hordes of a/V streamers that look out of
place in the typical consumer’s entertain-
ment rack.$250, http://www.mediagateusa.commediagate mg-350Hdreefer MaDness
Accommodates an internal
hard drive (not included);
can act as a USB host.
she GoDs of shark reef^6
No HDMI, doesn’t support FLAC;
as configured, cannot stream
photos and music simultaneously.$350, http://www.netgear.comnetgear Hd eva8000The perfecT s TorM
Interface support for popular
Internet media; program guide
and PVR for PC TV tuners.poseiDon
No Rhapsody support;
crashed once during testing.9
MAXIMUM
PCKICKASS