Dear Netgear,
You like me, you really like me! Your marketing department had a stroke of genius in naming the upcoming streaming media center DAVE 700.
I’m fairly pleased that the Digital Audio Video Entertainer (DAVE) is living room-friendly, assuming a traditional set-top form factor in favor of the current MP101’s compact case. And I don’t mind that you’ve dropped the LCD after all, my TV makes for a great display. But what really impresses me is DAVE’s extensive format support: DivX, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, QuickTime, and the list goes on. You’ve also represented me well in terms of connectivity, supporting S-Video, Component, Composite, Wireless G, and USB. DVI or HDMI would have been nice, but I can live without given your $200 price point which includes the ability to directly connect an iPod or external drive. The ability to stream content from the Internet, through services such as vTuner, opens the door to many interesting possibilities (see Akimbo’s MCE integration.)
Before I can fully endorse DAVE, though, I’ll need to see your PC desktop client software in action. At the core of all streaming devices like these is the software that catalogs and serves media for streaming. Given your experiences with the MP101 and the newer MP115, I hope we’ll see a mature app with attractive and intuitive interface that quickly identifies then queues up my PC content with low overhead.
Thank you again for the homage,
DAVE