Video and audio podcasts (BBC, CBS, National Geographic, NPR, CNN) and RSS feeds (Reuters, New York Times, Yahoo) can also be accessed by the EVA8000 without use of an additional computer. And if you have the URL of your favorite RSS feed, the device can access it too.
I ended up using the EVA8000 routinely as an Internet radio. Even when the device is "turned off" it can still provide an audio stream from a previously tuned station. Of course, the stream can be stopped via the remote. I found this ability to deliver continuous sound very useful and to me was worth the price differential between it and other media display devices.
A Media Extender For The PC
Hardware: D-Link DSM-520 Wireless HD Media Player
There are more choices for the PC -- in this case, I settled on the D-Link DSM-520 Wireless HD Media Player. The DSM-520 looks like the Netgear box: long, low, and sleek. It has the HDMI cable interface along with component, S-video, and composite output, and a USB 2.0 port. It has a remote control, and text data can be entered during setup from an onscreen keyboard.
D-Link DSM-520 Wireless HD Media Player (Click image to enlarge.) |
To begin, I installed the server program that comes on the CD, and all seemed to proceed normally. I powered up the DSM-520, specified the wireless network it was to use (though, like the Netgear device, it can connect to LANs via Ethernet), set the media server to use, and got to the main screen. I selected the type of media to display, set all to display, and waited for the media that I knew was in the public folder to show up.
Nothing. Zip. Nada.
I retried everything. Still nothing. OK, I said to myself, time for that tech support call.
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