neuros osd media center (6011000)

Rating:
Date: 2008-06-28
Quite Happy WIth Perfromance Looking Forward to Improvements
I own a Neuros Technology MPEG 4 Recorder so I knew what to expect-- a product that is interesting, innovative and useful. I ordered this last March and received it about the time they were mailing out units with compact flash cards in anticipation of a firmware upgrade that was going to require a cf card in the slot permanently--Arizona, still in Beta. I set it up under Torfu. It is very important to upgrade the firmware to the latest release as soon as possible-- very easy over a network and you can even set it to check once a week or so to see if there is an upgrade available.

I have until the last year not dealt much with Linux so there is a learning curve for me-- but it is not unpleasant. (Raise your hand if you used to enjoy hunting down IRQ conflicts under Windows.)

So I have the unit set up. I have it attached to my router wirelessly now with NETGEAR HD/Gaming 5 GHz Wireless-N Networking Kit (WNHDEB111) and it does what I want-- I can stream video from one of several computers since I am currently out of the crowded 2.4 ghz range and watch Youtube if I want to. I am also transferring my DVD's to a 500 gig harddrive.

Because everything is going so well I think I'll try to break it by installing Arizona. Luckily they have very good tech support including a wiki and helpful forums.

Rating:
Date: 2008-06-22
Poor network performance
I wanted to love this device. It's open-source, it plays everything, and it even sports some sharp design. Under the hood, however, it's simply not that powerful.

Although the unit detected and connected itself to the network easily, streaming playback was simply unacceptable. The video never stuttered, but that apparently came at the expense of keeping the audio in sync.

Standard-def AVIs would go in and out of sync at random. HDTV-quality recordings would get progressively worse, until the audio was de-synced by several full seconds. Testing the network connection with a laptop showed no problems - full 100Mbps speed. Upgrading the OSD firmware - a pleasantly simple task - made no difference.

Streaming content from your home network is one of the advertised features of the OSD, so I don't feel I was asking anything above and beyond. I wanted a small, effective set-top box to stream media, but the OSD simply didn't deliver.

Rating:
Date: 2008-06-14
Neuros makes it easy
I have a ton of VHS tapes for my kid that I really would like to box up and put away for good. This device makes creating a VHS quality copy of the tapes a snap. Formerly this process meant getting a video-capture card for my PC, and lugging my PC out in the living room to hook up to the VCR. Then I had to convert the video from MPEG-2 down to AVI or MP4. What a pain.

Enter the Neuros. This device fits easily behind my TV set and is a bridge between the VCR and TV (something my PC capture card couldn't do) so my kid can watch while I record with the Neuros.

Simply insert a USB drive (or memory card) into the Neuros (I use a 2GB USB stick which gets me about 1hr 30mins at the best quality) and start running the VCR and hit 'record' on the Neuros remote. You have the option to setup recordings ahead of time, so you could have the Neuros act as a sort-of DVR. I haven't tried this yet but can't imagine it being a problem.

The device also comes with a small flash card to store firmware updates. As of this writing I haven't attempted a firmware upgrade.

The Neuros UI isn't all-that. But gets the job done. The remote is nice, but it only serves me to start and stop recordings (I rename files when transferred to my computer), so I wouldn't mind seeing some buttons on the Neuros for those specific functions. The Neuros stand feels brittle, but since you're not moving the thing around all the time, it's no biggie.

Overall a 5-star rating since the device does exactly what I need. That is making fast and easy recordings from my VCR so I can archive all the stuff on a DVD-R for playback (on my PS3 or computer) and thus allowing me to pack away all the VHS tapes and VCR for good!

Rating:
Date: 2008-06-09
Neuros OSD: Almost Ready for Prime Time
I love the concept, and the feature set, but a primary element is missing. The audio does not sync with the video after about 5 minutes. I have posted the problem on the support forum, and have been assured that it can be fixed with the next firmware update. Other than this major flaw, it is as advertised, and I look forward to the glitch being repaired--eventually.

Rating:
Date: 2008-06-02
lacking
too bad nice idea but not thought out very well clumbsy not high def video, i'm not very happy with it, not the quality it was advertised as.
look at this closely before you buy i didn't i got burned.

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