Netgear EVA700 – Few Formats Supported

Netgear’s EVA-700 is the largest of our test candidates – you could almost mistake it for a very slim 19” rack-mounted computer. While its sober design won’t help it win any design awards, we are more interested in its inner values any way.

The front of the box sports two connectors – one for headphones, the other a USB jack. The power button is located on the very left. On the back of the enclosure we find a SCART interface as well as other audio and video connectors. Sadly, it seems Netgear forgot to include a HDMI connector as well – even though the remaining hardware inside the enclosure is practically identical to that in the Zyxel and FSC receivers.

The EVA700 is controlled by its small, handy remote control. The buttons are clearly arranged, making the remote very easy to use. Navigation within the menus is very logical and the reaction time between the press of a button and the reaction is acceptable. However, sometimes it felt as if a pressing a key wasn’t enough to select a function. This is due to the very limited range of the IR transmitter. A radio-based alternative would have been a better choice here.

In addition to playing back MP3/music files, videos and images, the set-top box can also receive Internet radio stations. The EVA700’s Internet radio receiver is independent of an A/V server and is able to find a multitude of radio stations as a standalone device.