Once you've tried networked multimedia, it's difficult to go back to anything else - as any rich AV enthusiast will tell you.
You might have read about dream kit like the Kaleidescape media system - yours for £25k. Kaleidescape stores 'ripped' DVDs and CDs on the massive hard-disk array of a central server.
This content can then be accessed from networked clients that drive the AV systems located in the various rooms. No more hunting high and low for discs - sure sounds tempting, doesn't it?
The good news is that you no longer need a Jean-Paul Getty-shaped bank account to join in this particular branch of electronic fun. Indeed, the humble PC - which can accommodate terabytes of affordable hard-disk storage nowadays - can be pressed into service as a media server.
Indeed, multiple PCs can be used; in addition some clients will also work with networked hard disks, known as networked-attached storage (NAS). The networking gear you'll need is a gateway-router, now found in thousands of broadbanded homes around the country.
Then there are the all-important multimedia players ('clients') themselves like Netgear' £200 EVA-8000 tested here. These boxes perform the same role as the more-expensive Kaleidescape clients.
The type of content that can be streamed to these boxes will, however, make Kaleidescape owners green with envy. In addition to DVDs and CDs, they'll typically cater for DiVX/XViD/WMV, digital photos, WMA/MP3 audio and digital TV recordings. Oh, and some boxes - the EVA-8000 included - will also play hi-def video.
Over a network connection (wired, as in the Kaleidescape, or wireless), they tell the PC acting as the server what content is being asked for. In return, the PC streams the selected content to the appropriate device across the network.
The multimedia client then decodes the audio and video, feeding it to the connected AV equipment. The PC has to run special server software - this is used to organise the content and talk to the clients. Some clients work to a standard known as uPnP, and run with software like Rhapsody (Mac), uShare (Linux) or Microsoft's free Windows Media Connect (WMC, for PCs).
Others - and the Netgear EVA-8000 falls into this camp - use software supplied with the unit. The EVA-8000 relies on the SMB (Server Message Block) protocol, which Netgear claims is superior to uPnP for this application.
