NETGEAR® Ships Feature-Rich, Industry-Leading “Digital Entertainer HD” Media Receiver for Streaming Digital Content over Home Networks to HDTVs

NETGEAR®, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTGR), a worldwide provider of technologically advanced, branded networking products, today announced availability of the Digital Entertainer HD (EVA8000), unveiled to worldwide acclaim at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January. The Digital Entertainer HD is the most feature-rich media receiver on the market today for enabling consumers to seamlessly stream digital content over their home networks to their high-definition home entertainment systems. Using High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) technology, this must-have device supports open standards for streaming digital content from Windows® as well as Mac® computers, network storage devices, USB media devices, and from popular Internet sites including YouTube and Flickr™. Backed by a one-year warranty and 24/7 technical support, the Digital Entertainer HD is available now in North America through select e-commerce sites at an MSRP of $399. It will ship worldwide in the second quarter of 2007 through e-commerce sites, select retail stores and value-added resellers.

Named a “Best of CES” product by CNET, Laptop Magazine, the Chicago Tribune and a host of other media outlets, the Digital Entertainer HD was also included in a Forbes.com feature story on “The Hottest Technology of 2007.” Glenn Derene wrote, “Apple’s iTV has grabbed the most headlines, but NETGEAR’s Digital Entertainer HD is arguably the better box, streaming more video formats and even downloading video directly from YouTube.”

“Consumers have been waiting for the ultimate entertainment solution to bring PC and Internet multimedia content to their HDTV. Our Digital Entertainer HD is the most advanced digital media device to do so, offering robust capabilities, a user-friendly interface, and an elegant design,” said Vivek Pathela, NETGEAR’s vice president of product marketing. “We designed it to give consumers the freedom to experience their collection of digital multimedia files in a way that takes full advantage of the latest HDTV technology and home entertainment systems.”

The Digital Entertainer HD automatically discovers HD movies, TV shows, music files, and personal photos on a home network, across multiple computers, and organizes these into a single media library displayed on a TV without the need for media server software running on the computer. Users of the innovative Digital Entertainer HD can play HD movie downloads, including those from BitTorrent™’s new online marketplace, as well as stream HD movies and Internet videos to their TV from Web sites such as YouTube. The Digital Entertainer HD also accesses photos directly from Flickr™ without a computer. It enables music lovers to enjoy an improved audio experience by listening to their iTunes libraries and iPod®s on their home theater system. The Digital Entertainer HD even plays Internet radio directly and can access RSS news feeds and NOAA weather and maps.

The Digital Entertainer HD supports access to created, downloaded and purchased content on standard Windows® XP and Vista PCs through Windows Media Connect. The Digital Entertainer HD can also stream many unprotected file formats from Macs, Linux computers, the NETGEAR Storage Central Turbo (SC101T), many USB storage devices such as flash drives and the iPod®, and other portable music and video players.

Using the included remote, consumers can search their entire media library by multiple criteria including title, actor, date, genre or thumbnail images (from photos, album art or DVD covers). An HDMI port displays video resolution up to 1080p on big-screen TVs and optical digital audio output (TOSLINK) transmits full digital surround sound to the consumers’ digital audio receiver. When the PC has an optional TV tuner installed, consumers can schedule recordings and pause or rewind live broadcasts without the need for an additional DVR device. If there are multiple Digital Entertainer HDs in the home, the “Follow Me” feature enables consumers to pause a video in one room and resume it in another. While in “Party Mode,” they can synchronize music playback for whole-home listening.

The Digital Entertainer HD decodes many leading audio formats (MP3, WAV, WMA, WMA-Pro, FLAC, M4A, AAC, AC3), purchased music from iTunes on Windows (M4P), video formats (MPEG1/2/4, WMV, XviD, H.264) and image formats (JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF). It integrates a 10/100Base-T Ethernet controller, support for 802.11g wireless networking, and two USB 2.0 ports. It also supports multiple interoperability standards, including Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP AV), Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) and emerging digital rights management technologies such as Microsoft® Windows Media DRM 10 for Network Devices. It supports several wireless security standards including WEP, WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK.

“The number of U.S. digital home networks has mushroomed as consumers demand more interconnectivity among their electronic devices, especially personal computers, HDTVs and audio systems,” said Jonathan Gaw, research manager for home networking at IDC, a leading provider of global IT research and advice. “Set-top digital media receivers such as the NETGEAR Digital Entertainer HD target the growing demand for a device that is easy to use, supports multiple platforms, and provides smooth content streaming from popular Internet sites, in HD. Products that can meet these criteria should do very well"

Similar in size to a standard DVD player, the Digital Entertainer HD makes a stylish statement on top of a television and complements other components in an entertainment system. Consumers connect the Digital Entertainer HD to their home entertainment system and to a router, such as a NETGEAR RangeMax™ NEXT Wireless-N Router with draft 802.11n technology (WNR834M, WNR834B, WNR854T, DG834N). Smoothest HD video streaming is assured when using NETGEAR’s Powerline HD Ethernet Adapter (HDX101) to connect the Digital Entertainer HD to the home network.

High-resolution photos of the NETGEAR Digital Entertainer HD (EVA8000) can be downloaded at http://www.netgear.com/Products/Entertainment/DigitalMediaPlayers/EVA8000.aspx.