Netgear EVA700 Digital Entertainer Review

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(More customer reviews)Before I bought this unit, I tried the D-Link DSM-520 for about a month before giving up. This unit is identical to the DSM in function with one BIG difference-- it is stable! My advise to those not wanting to tinker- skip this technology for a year or so, others read on...
Install
~~~~
I hooked it up to a wireless router and PC with a few external hard drives and it works (almost) flawlessly. First of all, like others said, do NOT install the software that it comes with and also forget Intel Viv technology installs. Just install one of the free (or almost free) software like TVersity (my fav.), Wizd or Twonkyvision. However, except for Wizd, you can't search for a particular album/artist/genre. You have to scroll through menu after menu to find a movie/song/photo.
Media
~~~~~
I am currently streaming a few hundred CDs in FLAC (lossless format) which is noticeably better than the very best MP3 format. For DVDs, I simply have the server software pointed to the Folders that have the DVD (VOB) files. The player does a very good job of picking up subtitles automatically too. I have NOT installed the photo folder as I find the usage completely useless for my needs. I shoot 6MP raw format images. I can't see myself browsing through tens of thousands of images and then waiting for 1 minute for an image to load up!
Conclusion
~~~~~~~~~
All in all, a good system for those that are not intimidated by network setups and server programs but want an uncluttered music system and (almost) instant access to movies, music and photos.


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The NETGEAR EVA700 Digital Entertainer connects your TV and home entertainment system to your computer network, letting you enjoy the movies, videos, radio, and photos that reside on your your PC on a larger screen and better speakers.
Easy Setup and Strong Security The EVA700 plugs into your home theater system with a variety of outputs including RCA, S-Video, Digital Coaxial/SPDIF audio, and HD component video. The Digital Entertainer has both 802.11g wireless for up to 54 Mbps speeds, and a wired 10/100 Mbps RJ-45 jack in order to connect the device to your home network. Support for Intel Hub Connect Technology makes the connection easy to set up.
In addition to the hard drive of your PC, the EVA700 also works seamlessly with the NETGEAR SC101 storage device. There is also a USB port on the front of the device, letting you play files saved on an iPod, USB thumb drive, USB disk, or digital camera.
The Digital Entertainer boasts hardware-based WEP 40/64-bit and 128-bit encryption, as well as WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK encryption for enhanced security.
Support for Many File Formats The Digital Entertainer can handle a large variety of file formats. Compatible audio formats include MP3 (up to 320 Kbps or VBR), WAV, WMA (up to 192 Kbps or VBR), M3U, and AAC. Compatible video formats include: MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, WMV (up to 1080p down-converted), and Xvid. Compatible photo formats include: JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF, and GIF.
An included remote control lets you control all the media files on your home network--as well as from popular internet sites--from the comfort of your couch. The NETGEAR EVA700 Digital Entertainer is backed by a 1-year warranty.
What's in the Box EVA700 Digital Entertainer, infrared remote control (2 AA batteries included), power cable, Ethernet cable, RCA stereo-audio/composite-video cable, installation guide, resource CD, and warranty/support information card.

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Cowon S9 16 GB Video MP3 Player with Touchscreen (Chrome/Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)The sound quality of this device is better than any mp3 player I've ever used before. Even with no equalizer changes the sound quality is better than most mp3 players out there.
But using a preset equalizer setting (BBE) I can notice a huge change in the sound quality of this device, the sound becomes clearer and warmer.
The user interface can be changed for a custom interface created by yourself or other users. I've been using a custom interface that really shows off the AMOLED screen.
The screen is incredible, I've compared it to that of the Ipod touch's screen and the Ipod doesn't even come close to the beauty of this screen.
As expected the screen is a fingerprint magnet, but you can clean it off with your shirt of a microfiber cloth. A screen protector is not needed unless you want to be extremely protective of the device, the Corning Gorilla glass on the screen that is used is scratch resistant, but a screen protector would help with fingerprints.
The biggest downside I had with this mp3 player was that it did not support Audible's audio format, but a few days ago a new firmware with Audible support was released.

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With its stylish, curved-back ergonomic design, the 16 GB Cowon S9 video MP3 player is quite the eye-catcher, and the perfect way to enjoy your favorite movies, TV shows, photos, and music on the go. With the S9 resting comfortably in your hand, you'll enjoy a vibrant 3.3-inch widescreen touchscreen display, Bluetooth support for wireless devices, a voice recorder with built-in microphone, FM radio/recorder, and plenty more, proving that the S9's beauty is way more than skin deep.

3.3-Inch AMOLED Display The S9 boasts a 16 million color, 3.3-inch AMOLED display with a 480 x 272 pixel resolution. Thanks to the low-power display technology, the screen is viewable from virtually any angle. It looks great in the dark and even in direct sunlight. AMOLED turns electric signals into video 1,000 times faster than the speed of conventional LCDs, leaving no ghost images while playing motion pictures.
Intuitive Touchscreen Interface Cowon S9's interface has been optimized for its durable anti-scratch touchscreen, with gesture recognition features like zoom-able album art, pictures, and text; TrueType fonts for clear visibility at any zoom level; and more.
Video Player The S9 will play AVI and WMV video files, with codec support for Xvid SP/ASP and WMV9 SP/MP. Enjoy all your favorite clips and shows, and just tilt the unit to switch to 16:9 widescreen viewing.
The S9 also makes browsing your content fun and easy. Preview thumbnail images of all your videos before choosing which one to watch. The "Quicklist" feature allows you to preview the files surrounding the one being played--check to see the next file in the queue, whether you're enjoying music or video.
Finally, the S9 features a composite video out for sending your signal to your television.
Music Player The S9 is a full-featured music player with support for MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, WAV, and APE formats so you can stick to the format you like.
Get detailed track info on the S9's screen with meta tag support, and view LDB 1.0 and 2.0 lyrics files while you listen.
The S9's track control buttons are conveniently placed on the top of the device for use while carrying in your pocket--perfect for use on the bus or subway.
JetEffect Music Enhancement Dial in the perfect sound no matter what you're listening to with Cowon's various enhancement tools:
BBE: clarifies music
Mach3Bass: enhances low-frequency bass spectrum
MP Enhance: restores distorted digital music
3D Surround: provides 3D sound effect
5-Band EQ: customizable equalizer with adjustable band and bandwidth filter

FM Radio and Recorder Enjoy your favorite FM radio programming using the S9's unique "jog shuttle" touchscreen control for selecting stations. Store your favorites in up to 24 user presets, and record live radio for later listening.
Photo and Document Viewer View or share slideshows of your favorite JPG images, and read your TXT text documents wherever you are.
Bluetooth Freedom The S9 features built-in Bluetooth 2.0 support (A2DP, AVRCP Profile) for use with various wireless devices. Get rid of those cables and enjoy the benefits.
Digital Clock with Alarm Set an alarm to play your music or FM radio, and use the sleep timer to drift off to your favorite songs. You also can use the clock to schedule FM recording for a particular time.
Voice Recording Record voice memos, lectures, meetings, or whatever else you need for later using the built-in microphone. The S9 also supports line-in recording, for grabbing audio from external devices like CD players.
Energy Efficient Entertainment The S9 will give you up to 55 hours of music playback, up to 11 hours of video playback, and up to 350 hours of stand-by sleep mode on a single charge.
Flash Player The pre-installed Adobe Flash Player lets you enjoy Flash games and other utilities, along with the Flash content present on many web sites.
What's in the Box Cowon C9, Earphones, USB 2.0 cable, Manual CD, Quick Start Guide

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COWON J3 8 GB Portable Media Player (White) Review

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(More customer reviews)I own both the Cowon S9 & The J3. For My perspectives, I also own three Sansa's (520, Clip & Fuze), three Ipods (Classic, Nano & Touch)! I have three pairs of Ultimate Ears ($100 pair); three so I always have a set in car, truck & for back up! The J3 screen has 1-7 brightness settings-a tad brighter than the S9 with 1-6 (otherwise their identical), As for sound quality, at full volume the J3 distorts a little more often where the S9 rarely does: (But this is Due To The J3 Playing A Little Louder at same vol numbers about 3% [0-40 vs Cowon S9 w/same eq settings]-might be good when using as external device on car stereo or powering large over head headphones)! Also, the J3 sounds just a tad harsher than the S9 - playing a little more highs than lows - almost like listening to an 80 watt amp car stereo vs a 100 watts (I'm Talking Very Subtle Difference For Those That Are Ultra Picky Audiophiles {Seems Like You Need To Turn The Treble Down Half A Point})! The J3 Does have all the EQ settings 5 bands/width of curve/and freq. with 4 user presets it saves!
It Does Play My AAC Itunes Files (Will Not Play APPLE LOSSLESS) - (Just Drag And Drop On The Music Folder Or Onto A Micro SD Card) it even played songs I purchased with Itunes! (The AAC and micro SD port are the only reasons I purchased the J3; besides being a Cowon!
The GUI (user interface) is nice, a drop down menu from above cover art reveals the EQ presets including 4 user and all the rest cowon is famous for plus in the top right corner is a M for home screen and top left back to list! I mostly listen to music but watch some music videos and view pictures so not commenting much on the video portion. I haven't seen a clearer/brighter screen IAMOLED (organic L.E.D. basically) but very nice!
My Only Complaints, Which Is Little, The Buttons! The Track Skip is high on the device right where your thumb naturally rests and the Volume is towards the bottom where it is awkward getting to (if you hold it with left hand your ring/little finger can control volume and index/middle track skip)! If a person skips tracks more than they play with the volume I suppose it's okay; however, track skip is also on the touchscreen but volume isn't, go figure I guess. And the speaker is all but a joke, my $100 straighttalk phone's speaker sounds twice as loud/clear. But you can tell what is playing when left in your shirt pocket (it does have Auto/On/Off setting for the speaker)
I'm keeping my S9 and giving the J3 to my Wife as long as I get to use it periodically for AAC files I don't want to tamper with & purchased (I might just burn to Disc then make them flac (Free Lossless Audio Codec) flac files are VERY LARGE roughly 50% of WAV file! I do like the micro SD feature)!
The J3 Sounds Excellent and is great at both video/music playing! However, My S9 32GB is just slightly better (I just wish the S9 played AAC & had a microSD slot like the J3(lol)!

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Cowon D3 Plenue 32 GB 3.7-Inch MP3 Player with Android (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)I own the D3, and have gone over it with a fine tooth comb. While the specs are great, the firmware is not quite ready. Mine freezes up randomly. There is a persistent flaw in the music application that makes the audio cut-out momentarily near the beginning of each new song being played. There is also no access to any app market on the U.S. firmware of the D3. Cowon has been releasing updates rapidly though. These flaws may eventually be fixed, but since this is their first venture using Android on one of their players it is clear they need more experience. It is also overpriced given that a reliable 4th gen 32gb iPod Touch is $299 or less. There is no camera or GPS, and so far no engish version of a User Manual available either. Bluetooth worked fine with headphones except for that audio cut-out flaw. Files transfers over bluetooth failed every time I tried. No Bluetooth keyboard or mouse support either.
At the time of this review my D3 had (Korean) firmware 1.27 on it. The latest North America version was 3.25.
Update 2/10/2011: Cowon updated the firmware today, and with version 3.27 on my D3 the audio cut-out seems to have been eliminated.
Update 2/16/2011: Cowon updated the firmware again, to 1.29 (Korean). I expect the U.S. version (3.29) in a day or two. Now up to 9 home pages. Updates to the Music app including album art support for FLAC files. Still no gapless playback. Still the occasional bug playing music.
Update 3/12/2011: Cowon updated the firmware again. I've got version 3.31 on mine now. The Music app seems to be fixed except for no gapless playback yet. The Video app has a new trick when the D3 is flipped (ff/rw buttons reverse). Still too expensive with no app store and no local network streaming (Home Sharing on the iPod Touch, and available on the Archos android players). The UI is much more fluid now, but still hesitates when the media database decides to update.
My full review: [Google search for 4dthinker]
4D

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COWON J3 32 GB Portable Media Player (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)My Creative Zen:M was getting old, and I had already replaced the battery once so doing it twice was too much for me so I decided to upgrade. That's where the Cowon J3 came in, after doing my research I decided to take a chance on a brand I'd never heard of before.PROS:
- Touchscreen is fast and accurate to the touch
- Beautiful AMOLED screen even when the brightness is toned down
- Plays AAC,MP3,FLAC,WAV,etc etc etc
- Video looks great and is smooth
- Plenty of options for video
- Plenty of options for music
- Recording, speaker, and mic are surprisingly decent
- Jet Effects 3.0 has tons of EQ presets and 4 customizable user options
- Alarm and Radio work great, you get tons of stations
- 3 ways to view everything on your screen, you can switch between them instantly
- Lock option on the side makes it easy to not accidentally turn on the player while it's in your pocket
- Play and volume buttons on other side of also make it practical when you don't want to turn on the player to change tracks
- Sound is amazing, especially with the BBE+ options as mentioned before
- Battery life is great so far, I get tons of hours before a quarter of the battery is even used
- Switches from horizontal to vertical back and forth with ease
- MicroSD slot
- Screen is very durable, it's gorilla glass just like the Cowon S9.
- Did i mentions there's tons of options for the user on this? well there's a ton, it does not disappoint in this reagardCONS:
- Album art does not show up when you change to horizontal view*
- screen is very prone to finger prints as well as back of player, essentially the whole thing
- when you're listening to the radio and want to change the dial up(numbers ascending) you have to press the back button instead of the forward**can be corrected with a nice firmware update.
One thing I do recommend is that you don't purchase this directly from jetmall. Well, that's unless you like multiple charges on your credit/debit card. Amazon is the best way to go, as usually is the case. Overall this product deserves the praise it's been recently getting, just for the sound alone. It's so easy to use the design is simply great. If you want the white version of this though, you're not going to find it on Amazon yet, but it looks just as great from what I can tell and I expect Amazon to make it available soon. About the only thing I could find wrong was how easy it is to smudge the screen, but that's expected with any touchscreen, I'd recommend an anti-glare screen for this problem. Any other problems can be corrected with a firmware update. I have the 2.21 version right now, but I'm sure more are in the works as is per usual with these things. I recommend this product to any music fan, good luck on your search though, it never hurts to keep looking although I'm personally sticking with this one.
EDIT:
JUST DOWNLOADED FIRMWARE UPDATE 2.2 AND THE ALBUM COVERS ARE NOW VIEWABLE THROUGH LANDSCAPE MODE(HORIZONTAL).

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This sleek media player from Cowon boasts a brilliant 3.3-inch touchscreen, playback of a serious list of a serious list of video and audio formats, FM radio and voice recording (or even line-in recording), and 32GB of space for all your favorite media. Not enough? Pop in an SD card for a little extra.

Just Plain Slick Too many media players forget about what's on the outside. The J3 is just 9.9mm thick and features a brushed metallic bezel that's ultra-stylish, and downright attractive.

3.3-Inch AMOLED Display The J3 boasts a 16 million color, 3.3-inch AMOLED display with a 480 x 272 pixel resolution. Thanks to the low-power display technology, the screen is viewable from virtually any angle. It looks great in the dark and even in direct sunlight. AMOLED turns electric signals into video 1,000 times faster than the speed of conventional LCDs, leaving no ghost images while playing video.

Intuitive Touchscreen Interface The COWON J3 boasts super-intuitive touch controls, with gesture recognition features like zoom-able album art, pictures, and text; TrueType fonts for clear visibility at any zoom level; and more. Get where you need fast directly from the durable anti-scratch touchscreen.

Video Playback The J3 plays AVI, WMV, and ASF video files, with codec support for DivX 3/4/5, Xvid SP/ASP, and WMV 7/8/9. That means less conversion on your end. Enjoy all your favorite clips and shows, and just tilt the unit to switch to 16:9 widescreen viewing.

Grab the optional video out composite cable, and you can send your signal to a television for some full-size viewing.

Enjoy Your Music The J3 is a full-featured music player, and it's definitely one for the afficionados. With support for MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, WAV, and APE formats, you can play back most any file. Get detailed track info on the J3's screen with meta tag support, and view LDB 1.0 and 2.0 lyrics files while you listen.

JetEffect Music Enhancement Dial in the perfect sound no matter what you're listening to with Cowon's various sound enhancement tools:

BBE: Refines sound quality
Mach3Bass: Provides deeper, tighter low-end
MP Enhance: Sonic restoration for compressed music formats
3D Surround: Provides 3D sound effect
5-Band EQ: Customizeable equalizer with adjustable band and bandwidth filter

FM Radio and Recorder Enjoy your favorite FM Radio programming using the J3's unique "jog shuttle" touchscreen control for selecting stations. Store your favorites in up to 39 user presets, and record live radio for later listening.

Photo and Document Viewer View or share slideshows of your favorite JPG images, and read your TXT text documents wherever you are.

Bluetooth Freedom The J3 features built-in Bluetooth 2.0 support (A2DP, AVRCP Profile) for use with various wireless devices. Get rid of those cables and enjoy the benefits.

Digital Clock With Alarm Set an alarm to play your music or FM radio, and use the sleep timer to drift off to your favorite songs. You can also use the clock to schedule FM recording for a particular time.

Voice Recording Record voice memos, lectures, meetings or whatever else you need for later using the built-in microphone. The J3 also supports line-in recording, for grabbing audio from external devices like CD players.

Energy Efficient Entertainment The J3 will give you a whopping 64 hours of music playback, and up to 11 hours of video playback, a single charge of its lithium-polymer battery.

Flash Player The pre-installed Adobe Flash Player lets you enjoy Flash games and other utilities, along with the Flash content present on many web sites.

What's in the Box
Cowon J3 32 GB (Black), Earphones, USB 2.0 Cable, Quick Start Guide, Manual CD

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Pioneer VSX-1021-K 7.1 Home Theater Receiver, Glossy Black Review

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(More customer reviews)My Thoughts on the VSX-1021
Up until now I've been living with a limping-along Kenwood Soverign VR-5090. It was definitely showing its age. The lack of HDMI was really getting to be a problem. About a week ago it started completely breaking down and stopped detecting audio properly; instead of detecting digital audio it would default to analog inputs and simply not play anything. Time for a new receiver. I am no audiophile but I can tell the difference between high quality audio and an undersampled MP3. That said, most of my comparisons will be with respect to my old VR-5090 as that's what I was coming from.
I settled on the VSX-1021 because the feature set was strong, the 1020 had some pretty impressive reviews, and because after getting burned by the Kenwood Soverign line I wanted some solid tech that didn't really represent being an early adopter again. Yes the 1021 is brand new, but it's very similar to the 1020 which is a fairly well-tested design.
Notes on my setup:
5.1 Home Theater + 2nd Stereo zone
HDMI Set Top Box that plays 720P and 1080i
HTPC with Blu Ray
Handful of video game systems, some HDMI, some Component
Audio
IMO the audio is solid. Certainly strong enough for my home theater system, stays smooth and gets as loud as the wife will let me make it. I wasn't thrilled with the results of MCAAC so I've tweaked calibration by hand... I'm still tweaking to find that perfect balance, but that's not an issue with the receiver.
I've put the system through its paces with a variety of DVDs, CDs, and digital music and I'm well satisfied with the results. Again, I'm no audiophile, but it's certainly on par with the 5090 paid quite a bit more for 10 years ago.
Video
Mixed results. Handles clean signals just fine, but I'm not thrilled with any of the video processing features it is capable of. Every option seems to insert a great deal of noise in solid color/muted or out of focus backgrounds. I've pretty much turned any video processing feature the unit provides off and let my television handle the signals it receives as it sees fit. Even then I swear there's more noise in the signal than my 5090 used to allow. I'm no expert but I'm not as satisfied as I'd like to be here.
Set Up
Let's get this out of the way early: Setup is a bear. The software included is extremely limited, didn't work in Chrome, and I wasn't satisfied with the results once I did have it running. The manual is terrible, not to mention incomplete (I found a separate page floating around in my box explaining Airplay, it wasn't in the manual at all).
The system assumes to know what kind of devices you will connect. Instead of having 'VIDEO 1' 'VIDEO 2' 'VIDEO 3' and 'AUDIO 1' 'AUDIO 2' 'AUDIO 3' inputs it has 'DVD', 'BD', 'DVR' etc. HTPCs and Video Game systems are not considered. This leads to the Navi software to being nearly completely useless as it asks "Do you have a DVD" - no. "Do you have a Blu Ray" - No. Do you have anything else? Yes. Everything I had fell into the 'anything else' category which it only had very generic instructions for.
So the HTPC became the DVD input and the Playstation became the Blu Ray, the Xbox the DVR. You can rename all these inputs in software, but when it comes time to program a Harmony remote you had better have taken notes.
Moreover, the inputs are linked. When you switch to DVD the system outputs video from the DVD inputs and audio from the DVD audio inputs. The Kenwood 5090 made no such connection. I could set it to run Video 3 and Audio 2 if I wanted. This made watching TV but playing the radio (something I enjoy for sports games) or playing a video game while listening to digital music much easier. I haven't yet found a way to get all the setups I had in the past to work.
Features
Airplay
Probably the big one most people are interested about. Airplay takes a little getting used to, but I'm convinced that's more Apple's doing than it is the receiver's fault. That said I like it quite a bit. Especially due to the 2 Zone limitations (More on that later). A little info on my setup. I have used DD-WRT to convert a router into a wireless bridge for my home theater setup. Basically this means that I have all of my home theater components wired to a network component that connects to a 2nd wireless router that connects to the cable modem.
The end result is that as far as the 1021 is concerned, it has a wired connection to the network.
With that setup, any computer on my network with the latest version of Itunes is capable of setting the 1021 as one of its speakers. The little airplay button appears in the bottom right corner of itunes. This happens as long as the 1021 is on. It does not have to be in HMG mode, however as soon as music starts the 1021 will switch to HMG mode. Where I have had difficulty is I can't seem to get my remote to control the receiver when it is running airplay. Normal play/pause are treated as receiver commands (Play acts as Phase control for example). If I put the remote in HMG mode commands push it OUT of airplay and to the HMG home screen. Music stops until I stop and restart airplay on the computer. There doesn't seem to be a 'Back to Airplay' function on the remote or HMG screen either. Frustrating but works great if you leave it alone.
iPod/iPad control
I've only played a bit with this as I don't own an iPhone or iPad and borrowed a friends to test the system with. Works very well. No hiccups like I've described elsewhere. I hope Pioneer releases an Android version but I kind of doubt they well. This device has an 'apple exclusive' feel to it.
Zone 2
The Zone 2 support is disappointing. This is primarily because there is no down-conversion from digital sources. Sound that enters the 1021 via HDMI or digital signals (Optical or Co-ax) can not be broadcast to Zone 2. This was something the 5090 did seamlessly and I assumed the 1021 wouldn't have a problem with it either. At minimum I'd expect a setup that reduces both zones to stereo play but at least allows sound to be sent. In effect this means that I can't stream sound from my HTPC to zone 2, unless I use airplay which limits me to only that which iTunes plays. VERY disappointing.
Beyond that, Zone 2 support is decent. The interface is intuitive (something I can NOT say about the 5090) and straight forward. One interesting hiccup though: If I want airplay in zone 2, but not in zone 1 I have to:
Initiate Airplay from a PC
This puts Zone 1 into HMG mode with music playing.
Start Zone 2 and shift it to HMG
If I want Zone 1 to be doing something different I can change it now, but it MUST be in HMG playing Airplay when I set zone 2 to HMG. If Zone 1 is not in HMG and I shift Zone 2 away from HMG, the receiver stops handling the airplay signal. Shifting zone 2 back to HMG will result in no sound. Shifting zone 1 to HMG will display the HMG home screen (which gives me the option of playing internet radio or files from USB).
In other words, if both zones go away from HMG, the receiver drops Airplay and won't pick it back up until you restart Airplay from the computer. The computer thinks it is sending airplay to the receiver, so you actually have to deactivate it, and reactivate it to get music playing again.
HMG
The HMG main screen allows you to listen to music off of connected devices and networked computers. I can't seem to get it to connect to my computers. It sees them, but gives me an 'not authorized' message for each. The manual does not indicate how you give authorization. Frustrating. The internet radio option is nice and well stocked, but I can't seem to add a particular station I'd like to add. Perhaps this is my fault, I could be doing something wrong. Still the Manual is unclear.
Odds and Ends
The system is slow. The receiver takes about 5 seconds to power up before it will respond to commands. Switching between HDMI components can take up to 5 seconds (usually less, but sometimes this long) while the screen is blank but audio plays. Shifting between signals of different resolutions suffers a similar delay. Be careful if your cable box is configured to deliver whatever the station is broadcast at because if you change channels from a 1080i to a 720p source the simple channel change could cost you several blank screen seconds.
Conclusion
So there's my review. I know it probably comes across as heavily negative, but I figure that most 'Reviews' supplied by groups like CNet and other AV web sites are really highly positive feature lists (read: Commercials). I'd like to make sure people know what to expect from both sides. In conclusion the 1021 is a good but not great piece of tech. It does the job nicely, but some of the features feel a bit half-baked and the manual is terrible. Fight through that and it's a good receiver at it's core. Just don't expect all of the wiz-bang features to be as well worked out as you'd like.

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The Pioneer VSX-1021 is a Home Network Ready AV Receiver featuring a Bluetooth wireless audio option, Apple Airplay, DLNA 1.5 certifications, and Internet Radio Access via vTuner. Other features include 770 watts of high powered 7.1 home theater audio playback, 5 HDMI 1.4a 3-D ready inputs, Audio Return Channel, Advanced Video Processing and Up-Conversion, iPad / iPhone AV Playback with battery charger.

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