The NETGEAR Digital Entertainer HD is a feature-rich device that allows you to watch all of your home media (videos, pictures, music) as well as Internet content directly on your TV. In order for it to pull this off, it needs to connect to your TV as well as your home network. I recently went through the process of setup and installation of the device and documented my experience here.

The installation and setup was fairly straightforward and not nearly as intimidating as I would have thought. Upon opening the box, I was pleased to notice that the contents were fairly simple and very easy to unpack.

The contents (at the top of the picture above) consisted of the following:

• Main Digital Entertainer box
• Remote Control
• User Manual & Quick Start Guide

The cords from left to right in the picture at the bottom are:

• Power Cord
• Component Cable (second best connection, but no audio)
• Composite Cable (least desirable connection)
  
• HDMI Cable (best connection)
• Ethernet Cable (for connection to your computer network)
  
• Installation CD
  

Connecting the Digital Entertainer

With the unpacking done quickly, it was on to connecting the device to my TV and home network as per the instructions in the Quick Start guide.

Since I don't have an HDMI connection on my TV, I connected my entertainer with the component cable, the second best video connection available. (I actually connected the cable to my component video switcher since I previously ran out of inputs on my TV). In the picture below, you can see that you plug in the component cable in the blue-shaded area, color coding the cables as shown - green, blue, and red.

Since the component connection is only for video, I needed to connect the composite cable to receive audio. I connected only the Red (R) and White (L) composite cable into the "Audio Out" connections right above the component inputs. (I would have had to do the same for audio if I had used the S-Video connection instead of component video.)

Next, I connected the Ethernet cable to my network. I happened to have an extra port in my router behind my TV available, so I was able to use that connection directly. If you don't have a connection available or the router is located elsewhere, I would recommend a powerline solution such as the Netgear Powerline Adapter. This provides an easy way to extend your network in your house using the existing powerlines.

Lastly, it was time to plug it in and turn it on.

Setting up the Digital Entertainer

I turned on the TV and immediately saw that it recognized the Digital Entertainer. I installed the batteries in the remote control (which were included!), and I was off and running.

The remote control is pretty intuitive and self-explanatory. There are two buttons that are pretty important and are worth mentioning as they're not completely obvious at first. These are the "return" and "home" buttons located just to the left and the right respectively of the directional arrows. They are extremely important when trying to navigate around the menus when you're using the Digital Entertainer.

The first prompt I was presented with on the TV concerned the TV mode (see picture below). The first option it gave me was 480i. Since this is the resolution of a standard non-HD TV, I tried to press the "TV Mode" button on the remote to get a better resolution. However, the screen went blank, so I was a little confused. Pressing it again returned me to this menu. It seemed apparent that the other modes weren't going to work for me at this point, so I continued with the setup selecting 480i and figuring I could adjust it later on.

Next, I was asked for my zip code to customize the interface for the weather. Couldn't wait to get that feature working! The next step asked me again to set my resolution, but this time it was a different screen than before. Curiously enough, this time it let me change the resolution to 1080i which is supported by my TV. I was in HD!

After that, it was off to the computer as I needed to put in the installation CD to detect media on my network. Installation was quick and painless, and it even discovered and downloaded a new version of the software before completing.

During installation, it's important to specify the directories that you want the Digital Entertainer to use when setting it up so that it will import all of your media files. One option is to select all. If you're weary of that and want to limit it to certain folders or drives (it does take a long time to analyze), you can always run the setup at a later time if you need to add other files.

Once installation was completed, it was back to my TV which prompted me to press the OK button to continue. The main menu was displayed, and I'm now up and running with my new Digital Entertainer!