Going beyond its Digital Entertainer HD media player, Netgear released its Digital Entertainer Elite media player at CES 2009. The Digital Entertainer Elite (Model EVA9150) has an integrated hard disk drive of 500 GB but is user-upgradeable to larger capacity disks. This feature alone has given the device the reputation of being the “world’s most powerful home video jukebox on the market.”

The player incorporates the latest video, audio, and wireless technologies to allow users to play TV Blue-Ray quality up to 1080p digital video, high-resolution digital photos, MP3s, and recorded television shows from their PCs or storage on their network. Internet content such as YouTube, Flickr, Internet radio, RSS feeds and podcasts can also be streamed on the device. The player also instantly finds all the digital media files on the home network and organizes them into an easily accessible library.

The player works simultaneously with Windows, Mac, and Linux computers as well as Network Attached Storage (NAS) such as Netgear’s ReadyNAS storage solutions. According to Netgear’s press release, it supports the following file formats:

- Video formats: AVI, DivX, Xvid WMV, MOV, M4V, MP4, VOB, MPG, MP1, MP2, MP4, ISO, IFO, MKV, TS and M2TS

- Audio formats: MP1, MP2, MP3, WMA, WMA-Pro, AAC, FLAC, AIFF, WAV, LPCM, Dolby AC3 5.1 stereo downmix, Dolby AC3 5.1 passthrough, DTS 5.1 passthrough, Dolby TrueHD Downmix, Dolby+ Passthrough and DTS-HD Master Audio passthrough

- Subtitle formats: SUB, SRT, SMI, SAMI, TXT and DVD Subpicture

- Video codecs: MP1, MP2, MP4, Xvid, VC-1/WMV-9, H.264 and OpenDivX

The Digital Entertainer Elite includes a HDMI port, wireless-N, and 2 USB ports for an iPod, flash drive, or other USB device. Several Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite units can work together in one household. Using a “Follow Me” option, users can pause a video in one room and continue playing it in another room.

The Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite is expected to be available in February for a retail price of $399.

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