Forbidden Island is a fantastic family board game for a number of reasons:
* 1 – it’s a cooperative game. We love cooperative games in our family because we aren’t competing against each other, but rather working together as a team to beat the game. And we love that more designers and publishers are creating more cooperative games to play.
* 2 – it’s easy to learn and simple to play. Take it from Caleb’s video review. You simply set out the island tiles, draw your character card and follow the steps on the back of the card as to what to do on your turn. Pretty soon you won’t need to look at the cards during the game, but it’s great that the help is there if you need it.
* 3 – the re-playability. Since the game isn’t played on a set board, but rather by area tiles, every time you set up the island it gets set up differently. And with 6 characters that each have their unique special abilities, you only get to play with a team of 4. So each time you play, you’ll also have to deal with the characters you get (and you’ll long for the special abilities of one you’re missing). And on top of all that, you’re dealing with the luck of the draw in the card deck, so you don’t know which tiles will start flooding, then sinking away.
* 4 – it doesn’t take a long time. The turns play really quickly and everyone is engaged the whole time and the island is always changing with tiles flooding, so there’s a lot of discussion going on the whole game – which also makes it seem like it goes by fast.
* 5 – it’s fun! The first time we played it, we played over and over. Granted we kept losing so we had to keep trying again. But that’s what made it so fun. We would get so close and then just miss the win. So we’d quickly set it all up again for more.
Oh – and did I mention that Forbidden Island has fantastic artwork and great game components? We love the artwork and everything in the tin is high quality. The tiles are nice, thick and sturdy – which is a must because they will get flipped over a lot. And the treasure pieces are definitely treasures that you want to search out and get. The game components all help make it a fun game experience.
If you typically just read these board game reviews rather than watch the video, we’d suggest you take a look at the video to see the quality you’re going to get with Forbidden Island.
You can read more about this and other great family board games on TheBoardGameFamily.
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Plenty of people have done an admirable job of explaining the games in their reviews, so this is instead an attempt at a comparison between a number of games, the pros and cons of each and which may suit different people best. The games in question are: Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, Castle Panic, Smallworld, and Forbidden Island.
We have had Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne (with a number of expansion packs) for quite a few years now, and only recently added the other games above. We usually either play just as two adults, or with our two older children (age 9 and 8), and so our conclusions are based on how these games work in those settings. So here’s what we’ve found:
Settlers of Catan We got this around the same time as Carcassonne and initially just didn’t latch onto it. Partly it’s that it’s supposed to be 3 players or more, and we often play as just two of us. Once we found online some instructions for playing as 2 players it came out more often, and as time’s gone by it’s become fairly 50-50 whether we play Settlers or Carcassonne on a quiet night in. The choice will usually depend on how much we want to think. With Settlers, you’re always planning and calculating; with Carcassonne, you’re taking it a card at a time.
Who should get it: Settlers is well-known as one of the great modern games. I’m not as sold on it as some people, and it takes quite a while to learn and feel comfortable with, but once you get the hang of it, it is an entertaining and enjoyable addition to a games collection. There are several 2-player rule variations out there if you need them and they work well (we found one that worked for us and we’ve stuck to it). But this isn’t a game for kids; I would suspect not until they’re 16 or so. Amongst other things, I think they’ll find it too dull.
Carcassonne This has been a favorite for years now, and everyone we’ve played it with has gone off to get it themselves. We usually play without farms because it then becomes less directly competitive and more sociable. Kids can play it, adults can play it, it’s relaxed, it’s fun and it’s simple to learn. Here’s one nice thing about it: you don’t have to be constantly thinking and planning ahead. You don’t know what card you’re going to draw next time, so you just play one card at a time. You’re encouraged to discuss where to put a card, and since you don’t know what piece you’re getting next, your comments to another player are usually pretty unbiased.
Who should get it: In my experience, pretty much anyone, except those who want ultra-competitive games. The first few expansion packs are also well worth getting, but don’t bother with anything from Mayor onward.
Castle Panic The kids love this one, again it’s simple to learn and it has the added bonus of allowing them to get out their aggressive instincts and go postal on monsters! They don’t like the `master slayer’ option, but prefer just straight cooperative play. After the first few plays, I’ve found the basic game is too easy, and so we’re experimenting with making it more challenging, such as starting with no walls, or drawing 3 monster cards at a time instead of 2. I think Castle Panic will become a game that we get out pretty regularly to play.
Who should get it: People with kids, who want to play cooperative games. Could be fun as a party game too!
Smallworld While the kids have enjoyed playing this, I think their interest is starting to wane already. I suspect it will work better as a game with a group of adults, or when the kids are older. It has a lot going for it, especially the creative cards and board, but as others have noted – what’s with the box for the tokens? Very poorly designed and adds unnecessary annoyance. Most of the time when playing we’ve found it’s not too directly competitive, it’s easier to attack lost tribes or declining races, so generally it doesn’t get too personal!
Who should get it: I think this would make a fun addition to a games collection, but I don’t think it would be a go-to game, especially with kids. The rules are more complicated to learn and explain than the other games, and this makes it hard to just sit down with new players and get on with a game. Having said that, we’ve enjoyed playing it , and I think it’ll get pulled out every now and then over the years.
Forbidden Island Although the kids would prefer Castle Panic, when we’ve played Forbidden Island (at my insistence!) they’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. As the island starts to collapse in a heap toward the end of the game, the tension levels rise and people are on the edge of their seats! The game always ends with voices rising in pitch and tension as cards get turned over – it’s fun! It’s a pure cooperative game, and that works well for us as a family – no one feels bad, we’re all in it together. We’re still using the `Normal’ level of play, maybe we’ll…
Easy to learn, fast paced, and beautifully illustrated. A good balance of luck and strategy.
I’m new to cooperative gaming so its a breath of fresh air to play a game where you’re all working together instead of trying to beat each other. Definitely a great game for families.
The 24 tiles that make up the “board” ensure that no two games will be alike, so there is a lot of re-playability. Also when you loose, which happens a fair amount (its challenging!), it definitely leaves you with a “lets play again!” attitude.
Gameplay was about 30 min. The box and components were excellent quality and with a $14.99 price tag how can you go wrong? I highly recommend it!
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This review is from: NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Live (Black) (Personal Computers)
Traditionally known for their routers and network devices, Netgear offically entered the growing home media player market this September with the Digital Entertainer Live. After owning the superb but ethernet-less Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player, I was looking for a device that could play all the 720p/1080i/p MKV videos directly off my D-Link DNS-323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure – NAS server and D-Link DNS-321. I didn’t want to have to copy files off the network onto USB hard drives then walk them over to my media player just to play them on my TV. After testing this device for several hours, I am disappointed and can say that the EVA2000 is definitely not ready for prime time.
First is the question of what resolution this device actually supports. It is not listed here on Amazon, in Netgear’s press release, or on the product specifications page, and no mention is made on the box except the phrase “HD TV media player”. Netgear is perhaps deliberately vague on this point. If by “HD”, they mean being able to connect to an HDTV, then that is true. If they mean “HD” as in 720p/1080p, then it is not true.
Despite having HDMI out, this device does not output at 1080p at all. It also doesn’t play 720p files as far as I can tell. Every one of the hi-res MKV’s I tested off my external hard drive failed (18 random movie files @720p and 1080i, H.264 encodes), producing an “unable to display video of this resolution” error. Similarly, the AVI’s and WMV’s at 720p that I tested also failed. As far as I am able to determine, it can play only up to 480p. I tried a 720×400 .MKV that did play, so Matroska support is working, but I was unable to fast-forward or rewind the file. Other low resolution .AVI files, .MP4’s played without an issue.
The device did not recognize any MKV’s off my NAS through UPnP (Universal Plug and Play). MKV files on my other server, running Twonky (DLNA software) did show up, however, they could not play since they were 720p.
Next is the lack of subtitle support, or non-Western character sets. The supported system languages are German, English, and French. No Unicode support means filenames and folders will be illegible, showing up as empty squares instead (see picture in gallery).
For internet TV, this product works as described. YouTube and other streaming videos work flawlessly. You can watch videos from all over the world. There are literally hundreds of free internet channels listed, divided by world region. I tested a few CCTV channels (China), Aljezeera English, an Indian channel, Odoroku.tv (Japan), C-SPAN, some Spanish channels, as well as some random others. Almost all of them worked without a hitch, after a brief period of buffering (length depends on network conditions). A few sites couldn’t be reached, or failed to buffer and kicked me back to the channels menu. Again, because these are free sites streamed from the web, picture quality is very low, though watchable and a nice option for those who don’t want to watch them on their computers. You can bookmark them for fast retrieval. I found the variety of sites listed here to be a pleasant surprise. They represent a wide range of interests and are from all over the world. (These are all free sites you can access from your computer also.)
The picture quality is usually terrible, however, since most internet videos are low-res videos (320×240) that are heavily compressed. When blown up 5x or more to fullscreen on your HDTV, the compression artifacts will be much more apparent and you’ll see a lot of macroblocking and pixelation. On a smaller, non-LCD TV, this might be acceptable.
Because you’ll be spending a lot of time pushing buttons to navigate around, due to no keyboard or mouse, I’ve included a series of screenshots to give you a better idea of how the interface works. Remote control response time can be sluggish, so you’ll be seeing the revolving dial a lot. Worse is that you can’t hit “Back” on the remote to cancel a read command. You have to wait until it finishes trying to read the file or network. During web streamed videos, I couldn’t fast-forward. Searching for videos was easy through the onscreen keyboard, but overall I found the interface clunky and not all that attractive, made worse by that spinning dial that popped up with almost every command I pushed.
Lastly, is the lack of an optical output. For wireless, you will need to buy the dedicated Netgear wireless kit. A third party USB wireless dongle…
This review is from: NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Live (Black) (Personal Computers)
This product is great for my needs. I don’t require the “ultimate” in streaming power; rather, I watch a lot of stuff on the Internet. The Digital Entertainer Live is perfect for this. In all the time I have been using it, it hasn’t locked up or stalled even once (honestly) and streams equally well from my network and the Internet (admittedly, I have a super fast 15 mbps connection.) It detects all of my videos with no problem, I didn’t even have to “scan” my network for files, it just found them – I was sharing them from a few different NAS devices. So it was virtually plug and play, not something you find very often.
There’s a huge selection of Internet channels you can watch; I especially enjoy the Joost channels, as there are many full television shows available. I’ll admit I’ve wasted many hours poking around in YouTube, too! The search feature works better than I expected and quickly finds what I’m looking for. You can even hook up a USB drive if you don’t want to stream videos, a nice feature for those who don’t have a NAS. I didn’t spend a lot of time streaming radio or live television, but those features are available.
There are a few things that the Elite lacks, such as not being able to stream full DVD’s (such as an .ISO) and the fact that to stream Netflix or Hulu, a separate software suite (PlayOn) must be purchased. I was disappointed in this since Netflix is what I use the most, but the software isn’t too expensive. I’ve heard a few people say “well I could just get the Netflix box” but the Live does so much more… it’s easy to forget that is not only streams Internet content but is also a full featured network media streamer with a USB port also.
The remote and menu system leave a bit to be desired; sometimes the delay between button press and menu reaction is somewhat slow (and I am ultra impatient) but it isn’t too bad, just isn’t as “snappy” as I would like. I don’t think these are “downsides” though per se; the Elite is a great value at $150, just some things to be aware of.
So if you are looking for a low cost Internet “entertainment box” that’s small and easy to use, and don’t care about streaming DVD rips, this is a great choice. I love it so far!
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This review is from: NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Live (Black) (Personal Computers)
This unit does what it says: shows your media and some Internet content on your TV. So pretty much all of its “specifications” are its pros.
But I’d like to talk about its cons: Navigation/user interface is not much different than that of “flashback to the past” gaming console toys – that is, very primitive. It is usually just plain gray text over black background.
My initial disappointment was however, the poor quality of display. Unlike the menu screens of a DVD, the screens displayed by this unit are very blurry – the same way your laptop would look when attached to the TV through S-video connection. The video output of this device is not optimized for TV. I am very convinced that this story wouldn’t change when it is plugged into an HDTV through HDMI – previous reviews already mentioned how it is not really HD ready.
This box is pretty much the same thing as the VuNow box, offering various streaming Internet TV broadcasts. It does have a large number TV channels but you need to know at least 5 different languages to fully make use of this feature.
I am not crazy about HD yet and just wanted Internet content like Hulu and Netflix on my TV. Don’t forget that these services are not inherent to this device – PlayOn software is required, which works on many other similar products.
Internet radio is Shoutcast only.
It hangs and needs power cycling.
Video play staggers when there is fast panning of camera.
I initially went with this device because I didn’t really need HD media player and that I liked the idea of Inernet TV. However, overall, this device has been a disappointment, including these features that I’ve been looking forward to.
I now ordered WDTV Live – here are the benefits over this device:
– Future proof – supports 1080p, Dolby, DTS. – Works with many different wireless adapters, unlike Netgear. – Menu options look beautiful and sophisticated, instead of an Atari game. – Free services include Pandora and Live365 radio instead of useless Internet TV and random(bad) selection of Internet radio. – Works with PlayOn the same way as Netgear. – Same price as Netgear.
Consequently, you get a lot more for the same price. At the time of my purchase, Netgear + Netgear Wi-Fi adapter compared to WDTV Live + Wi-Fi adapter were the same price – except for a difference of few cents.
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Family cooperation is a blast,
Customer Video Review Length:: 6:45 Mins
Forbidden Island is a fantastic family board game for a number of reasons:
* 1 – it’s a cooperative game. We love cooperative games in our family because we aren’t competing against each other, but rather working together as a team to beat the game. And we love that more designers and publishers are creating more cooperative games to play.
* 2 – it’s easy to learn and simple to play. Take it from Caleb’s video review. You simply set out the island tiles, draw your character card and follow the steps on the back of the card as to what to do on your turn. Pretty soon you won’t need to look at the cards during the game, but it’s great that the help is there if you need it.
* 3 – the re-playability. Since the game isn’t played on a set board, but rather by area tiles, every time you set up the island it gets set up differently. And with 6 characters that each have their unique special abilities, you only get to play with a team of 4. So each time you play, you’ll also have to deal with the characters you get (and you’ll long for the special abilities of one you’re missing). And on top of all that, you’re dealing with the luck of the draw in the card deck, so you don’t know which tiles will start flooding, then sinking away.
* 4 – it doesn’t take a long time. The turns play really quickly and everyone is engaged the whole time and the island is always changing with tiles flooding, so there’s a lot of discussion going on the whole game – which also makes it seem like it goes by fast.
* 5 – it’s fun! The first time we played it, we played over and over. Granted we kept losing so we had to keep trying again. But that’s what made it so fun. We would get so close and then just miss the win. So we’d quickly set it all up again for more.
Oh – and did I mention that Forbidden Island has fantastic artwork and great game components? We love the artwork and everything in the tin is high quality. The tiles are nice, thick and sturdy – which is a must because they will get flipped over a lot. And the treasure pieces are definitely treasures that you want to search out and get. The game components all help make it a fun game experience.
If you typically just read these board game reviews rather than watch the video, we’d suggest you take a look at the video to see the quality you’re going to get with Forbidden Island.
You can read more about this and other great family board games on TheBoardGameFamily.
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A Multi-Game Comparison,
Plenty of people have done an admirable job of explaining the games in their reviews, so this is instead an attempt at a comparison between a number of games, the pros and cons of each and which may suit different people best. The games in question are: Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, Castle Panic, Smallworld, and Forbidden Island.
We have had Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne (with a number of expansion packs) for quite a few years now, and only recently added the other games above. We usually either play just as two adults, or with our two older children (age 9 and 8), and so our conclusions are based on how these games work in those settings. So here’s what we’ve found:
Settlers of Catan
We got this around the same time as Carcassonne and initially just didn’t latch onto it. Partly it’s that it’s supposed to be 3 players or more, and we often play as just two of us. Once we found online some instructions for playing as 2 players it came out more often, and as time’s gone by it’s become fairly 50-50 whether we play Settlers or Carcassonne on a quiet night in. The choice will usually depend on how much we want to think. With Settlers, you’re always planning and calculating; with Carcassonne, you’re taking it a card at a time.
Who should get it: Settlers is well-known as one of the great modern games. I’m not as sold on it as some people, and it takes quite a while to learn and feel comfortable with, but once you get the hang of it, it is an entertaining and enjoyable addition to a games collection. There are several 2-player rule variations out there if you need them and they work well (we found one that worked for us and we’ve stuck to it). But this isn’t a game for kids; I would suspect not until they’re 16 or so. Amongst other things, I think they’ll find it too dull.
Carcassonne
This has been a favorite for years now, and everyone we’ve played it with has gone off to get it themselves. We usually play without farms because it then becomes less directly competitive and more sociable. Kids can play it, adults can play it, it’s relaxed, it’s fun and it’s simple to learn. Here’s one nice thing about it: you don’t have to be constantly thinking and planning ahead. You don’t know what card you’re going to draw next time, so you just play one card at a time. You’re encouraged to discuss where to put a card, and since you don’t know what piece you’re getting next, your comments to another player are usually pretty unbiased.
Who should get it: In my experience, pretty much anyone, except those who want ultra-competitive games. The first few expansion packs are also well worth getting, but don’t bother with anything from Mayor onward.
Castle Panic
The kids love this one, again it’s simple to learn and it has the added bonus of allowing them to get out their aggressive instincts and go postal on monsters! They don’t like the `master slayer’ option, but prefer just straight cooperative play. After the first few plays, I’ve found the basic game is too easy, and so we’re experimenting with making it more challenging, such as starting with no walls, or drawing 3 monster cards at a time instead of 2. I think Castle Panic will become a game that we get out pretty regularly to play.
Who should get it: People with kids, who want to play cooperative games. Could be fun as a party game too!
Smallworld
While the kids have enjoyed playing this, I think their interest is starting to wane already. I suspect it will work better as a game with a group of adults, or when the kids are older. It has a lot going for it, especially the creative cards and board, but as others have noted – what’s with the box for the tokens? Very poorly designed and adds unnecessary annoyance. Most of the time when playing we’ve found it’s not too directly competitive, it’s easier to attack lost tribes or declining races, so generally it doesn’t get too personal!
Who should get it: I think this would make a fun addition to a games collection, but I don’t think it would be a go-to game, especially with kids. The rules are more complicated to learn and explain than the other games, and this makes it hard to just sit down with new players and get on with a game. Having said that, we’ve enjoyed playing it , and I think it’ll get pulled out every now and then over the years.
Forbidden Island
Although the kids would prefer Castle Panic, when we’ve played Forbidden Island (at my insistence!) they’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. As the island starts to collapse in a heap toward the end of the game, the tension levels rise and people are on the edge of their seats! The game always ends with voices rising in pitch and tension as cards get turned over – it’s fun! It’s a pure cooperative game, and that works well for us as a family – no one feels bad, we’re all in it together. We’re still using the `Normal’ level of play, maybe we’ll…
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Edge of your seat fun!,
Easy to learn, fast paced, and beautifully illustrated. A good balance of luck and strategy.
I’m new to cooperative gaming so its a breath of fresh air to play a game where you’re all working together instead of trying to beat each other. Definitely a great game for families.
The 24 tiles that make up the “board” ensure that no two games will be alike, so there is a lot of re-playability. Also when you loose, which happens a fair amount (its challenging!), it definitely leaves you with a “lets play again!” attitude.
Gameplay was about 30 min. The box and components were excellent quality and with a $14.99 price tag how can you go wrong? I highly recommend it!
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Internet streaming and standard def playback is fine, but users wanting hi-def playback should look elsewhere,
Traditionally known for their routers and network devices, Netgear offically entered the growing home media player market this September with the Digital Entertainer Live. After owning the superb but ethernet-less Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player, I was looking for a device that could play all the 720p/1080i/p MKV videos directly off my D-Link DNS-323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure – NAS server and D-Link DNS-321. I didn’t want to have to copy files off the network onto USB hard drives then walk them over to my media player just to play them on my TV. After testing this device for several hours, I am disappointed and can say that the EVA2000 is definitely not ready for prime time.
First is the question of what resolution this device actually supports. It is not listed here on Amazon, in Netgear’s press release, or on the product specifications page, and no mention is made on the box except the phrase “HD TV media player”. Netgear is perhaps deliberately vague on this point. If by “HD”, they mean being able to connect to an HDTV, then that is true. If they mean “HD” as in 720p/1080p, then it is not true.
Despite having HDMI out, this device does not output at 1080p at all. It also doesn’t play 720p files as far as I can tell. Every one of the hi-res MKV’s I tested off my external hard drive failed (18 random movie files @720p and 1080i, H.264 encodes), producing an “unable to display video of this resolution” error. Similarly, the AVI’s and WMV’s at 720p that I tested also failed. As far as I am able to determine, it can play only up to 480p. I tried a 720×400 .MKV that did play, so Matroska support is working, but I was unable to fast-forward or rewind the file. Other low resolution .AVI files, .MP4’s played without an issue.
The device did not recognize any MKV’s off my NAS through UPnP (Universal Plug and Play). MKV files on my other server, running Twonky (DLNA software) did show up, however, they could not play since they were 720p.
Next is the lack of subtitle support, or non-Western character sets. The supported system languages are German, English, and French. No Unicode support means filenames and folders will be illegible, showing up as empty squares instead (see picture in gallery).
For internet TV, this product works as described. YouTube and other streaming videos work flawlessly. You can watch videos from all over the world. There are literally hundreds of free internet channels listed, divided by world region. I tested a few CCTV channels (China), Aljezeera English, an Indian channel, Odoroku.tv (Japan), C-SPAN, some Spanish channels, as well as some random others. Almost all of them worked without a hitch, after a brief period of buffering (length depends on network conditions). A few sites couldn’t be reached, or failed to buffer and kicked me back to the channels menu. Again, because these are free sites streamed from the web, picture quality is very low, though watchable and a nice option for those who don’t want to watch them on their computers. You can bookmark them for fast retrieval. I found the variety of sites listed here to be a pleasant surprise. They represent a wide range of interests and are from all over the world. (These are all free sites you can access from your computer also.)
The picture quality is usually terrible, however, since most internet videos are low-res videos (320×240) that are heavily compressed. When blown up 5x or more to fullscreen on your HDTV, the compression artifacts will be much more apparent and you’ll see a lot of macroblocking and pixelation. On a smaller, non-LCD TV, this might be acceptable.
Because you’ll be spending a lot of time pushing buttons to navigate around, due to no keyboard or mouse, I’ve included a series of screenshots to give you a better idea of how the interface works. Remote control response time can be sluggish, so you’ll be seeing the revolving dial a lot. Worse is that you can’t hit “Back” on the remote to cancel a read command. You have to wait until it finishes trying to read the file or network. During web streamed videos, I couldn’t fast-forward. Searching for videos was easy through the onscreen keyboard, but overall I found the interface clunky and not all that attractive, made worse by that spinning dial that popped up with almost every command I pushed.
Lastly, is the lack of an optical output. For wireless, you will need to buy the dedicated Netgear wireless kit. A third party USB wireless dongle…
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Makes Internet streaming easy, lots of content,
This product is great for my needs. I don’t require the “ultimate” in streaming power; rather, I watch a lot of stuff on the Internet. The Digital Entertainer Live is perfect for this. In all the time I have been using it, it hasn’t locked up or stalled even once (honestly) and streams equally well from my network and the Internet (admittedly, I have a super fast 15 mbps connection.) It detects all of my videos with no problem, I didn’t even have to “scan” my network for files, it just found them – I was sharing them from a few different NAS devices. So it was virtually plug and play, not something you find very often.
There’s a huge selection of Internet channels you can watch; I especially enjoy the Joost channels, as there are many full television shows available. I’ll admit I’ve wasted many hours poking around in YouTube, too! The search feature works better than I expected and quickly finds what I’m looking for. You can even hook up a USB drive if you don’t want to stream videos, a nice feature for those who don’t have a NAS. I didn’t spend a lot of time streaming radio or live television, but those features are available.
There are a few things that the Elite lacks, such as not being able to stream full DVD’s (such as an .ISO) and the fact that to stream Netflix or Hulu, a separate software suite (PlayOn) must be purchased. I was disappointed in this since Netflix is what I use the most, but the software isn’t too expensive. I’ve heard a few people say “well I could just get the Netflix box” but the Live does so much more… it’s easy to forget that is not only streams Internet content but is also a full featured network media streamer with a USB port also.
The remote and menu system leave a bit to be desired; sometimes the delay between button press and menu reaction is somewhat slow (and I am ultra impatient) but it isn’t too bad, just isn’t as “snappy” as I would like. I don’t think these are “downsides” though per se; the Elite is a great value at $150, just some things to be aware of.
So if you are looking for a low cost Internet “entertainment box” that’s small and easy to use, and don’t care about streaming DVD rips, this is a great choice. I love it so far!
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Just ok.. it works..,
This unit does what it says: shows your media and some Internet content on your TV. So pretty much all of its “specifications” are its pros.
But I’d like to talk about its cons: Navigation/user interface is not much different than that of “flashback to the past” gaming console toys – that is, very primitive. It is usually just plain gray text over black background.
My initial disappointment was however, the poor quality of display. Unlike the menu screens of a DVD, the screens displayed by this unit are very blurry – the same way your laptop would look when attached to the TV through S-video connection. The video output of this device is not optimized for TV. I am very convinced that this story wouldn’t change when it is plugged into an HDTV through HDMI – previous reviews already mentioned how it is not really HD ready.
This box is pretty much the same thing as the VuNow box, offering various streaming Internet TV broadcasts. It does have a large number TV channels but you need to know at least 5 different languages to fully make use of this feature.
I am not crazy about HD yet and just wanted Internet content like Hulu and Netflix on my TV. Don’t forget that these services are not inherent to this device – PlayOn software is required, which works on many other similar products.
Internet radio is Shoutcast only.
It hangs and needs power cycling.
Video play staggers when there is fast panning of camera.
I initially went with this device because I didn’t really need HD media player and that I liked the idea of Inernet TV. However, overall, this device has been a disappointment, including these features that I’ve been looking forward to.
I now ordered WDTV Live – here are the benefits over this device:
– Future proof – supports 1080p, Dolby, DTS.
– Works with many different wireless adapters, unlike Netgear.
– Menu options look beautiful and sophisticated, instead of an Atari game.
– Free services include Pandora and Live365 radio instead of useless Internet TV and random(bad) selection of Internet radio.
– Works with PlayOn the same way as Netgear.
– Same price as Netgear.
Consequently, you get a lot more for the same price. At the time of my purchase, Netgear + Netgear Wi-Fi adapter compared to WDTV Live + Wi-Fi adapter were the same price – except for a difference of few cents.
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