Neuros MPEG-4 recorder reviewed
posted April 21st 2005 5:00AM
When we first took a look at the Neuros MPEG-4 recorder, we thought it looked like a pretty good way to transfer video from a TV, DVD player or other source to a portable video player, though we felt the $129 device was hobbled by the lack of a hard drive (it records on to flash memory cards). Now, the Register has tried the recorder out, and found that it's a useful tool for what it does, but that its audio codec (G.726) and output file format (ASF) limit its versatility. And given its maximum resolution of 352 x 240, you're not going to want to use the videos you rip with this on any screen bigger than a few inches — which should suffice if you plan on using this with a typical portable player or to watch clips in a small window on a computer monitor.
Uhhh... no hard drive, 352x240 video, and only the weird ASF format? Is there even a market for such a handicapped device? Who puts R&D money into this when you could be spending it on products that people might actually buy?
-Taylor
it might be useful for the gizmondo or psp... but other than that not much outside the realm of palms have that small of a screen that you would be caught dead watching anything on.
Would the output format that this uses work with the PSP? Have a great day everyone!!! ;-)
they did a launch of this product on woot.com a while back....everyone complained about the 352x240 resolution....but you have to realize that it's TV resolution not computer resolution as confirmed by a spokesman from the company that was on hand in the woot forums to answer questions....if you go there and look in the "community" and keep scrolling back pages of product you can see me make an ass out of myself by complaining that my axim is around that resolution.........it will fill a tv screen if you play it back through the tv.... not sure how it'll fill a computer screen though...they posted some examples in the forum and there was hardly any loss if you stretched it.....imho this is worth the money for a cheap dvr but I'd wait for woot to sell it again.....
#4 Deadlight:
i have one, unopened. woot price?
i think it's lame that they decided on the .asf and the goofy codec in mono.. that's a hell of alot of money for something that you can do on your pc with software and a TV Card..
i could live with the low resolution, that's fine.. but a MS file format?? and MONO??
what a letdown..
Actually I'm looking for something very similar to this to use for auto racing. I already have a Sony bullet cam mounted to the front of the car and now I'm looking for an inexpensive solid state video recorder. It needs to have RCA inputs for the camera & microphone and it also needs to record in a format that can be easily edited in Final Cut.
The Neuros is close but it would be better if it was battery powered and had a physical button to start/stop recording. Can any of you recommend another solid state recorder?
Sony came out with a recorder with a built-in tuner, but would only record to a Memory stick, and only to a format that would play on their Clie... Not my PocketPC.
I REALLY want something like that for an SD card. It wouldn't hurt if it were less expensive than the $300 or so the Sony went for.
This would seem like a reasonable alternative, if only they would make the audio stereo (what were they thinking?!?).