Neuros ships HD-capable OSD 2.0 set-top-box

Was it really 2006 when Linux lovers were sinking their gums into Neuros Technology's OSD? Two years later, we're finally seeing shipment of the OSD 2.0, which diverts quite significantly from the original in terms of design and ups the ante by adding support for encoding high-definition video at 720p in MPEG-4 and D1 resolution in the H.264 format. It's built around a Texas Instruments Davinci-based CPU module and a mini-ITX motherboard / enclosure, but rather than just being a very hackable consumer product, this one is described as a "super-reference design" by CEO Joe Born. You'll likely remember the WhereverTV, which is of course based on the OSD 2.0, and the firm has already landed another partner for the box in Hupla. For the individuals who just want an undisturbed unit, you can latch on now for $250.

[dennis @ Sep 17th 2008 9:00AM]

Fascinating development. The only other easy option I've seen for something like this was the Hauppage USB composite-input 1080p encoder box.

[Wified @ Sep 17th 2008 9:24AM]

Anyone know if there is a standalone product like this that will encode with 5.1 audio? The Hauppage HD PVR will do this, but it has to be connected to a computer.

[konshuss @ Sep 17th 2008 10:39AM]

specs sound good, but that hauppauge you guys bring up sounds way, way better.

i want a truly open solution for my tv and hd-movie grabbing needs. even at 720p a box like this makes me laugh my ass off at dell's sad attempt with Qflix that can only grab drm-protected flicks from cinemanow(who?).. and not even in HD. that would be like buying bread that only allows peanut butter to be spread on it.

[baltwade @ Sep 17th 2008 10:39AM]

I think I read over the specs fairly carefully and I didn't see any mention of a cable card reader. I've been desperately looking for a HD DVR set top box to replace the stupid one my cable company is letting me use for $17 a month. TeVo's no good. It cost like $400 - $500 upfront then another $20 or so a month.

[Ian @ Sep 17th 2008 10:59AM]

If it's on sale now how come I can't find it on the Neuros website?

I think I need some more dtails as to what this is aimed at and what it can't do.
I see an HDMI output but see only component etc inputs. It won't be compatible with cablecards because it's NOT a TIVO licensed type device so this limits its usefulness immediately.
Basically this product sounds like it's not ready for prime time. Tell me whuy I am rong and where I can get top read much more. I can't even find discussions on the Neuros forums!

Rght now it looks like Neuros will offer it to consumers, but they are really hoping a cable company will pick it up. I doubt that Cable companies want to support such an OPEN piece of hardware/softrware. They all like to hate TIVO let alone an even more open product.

[nero @ Sep 17th 2008 1:45PM]

@Ian: it's aimed at developers for now. As the article say, it's not an end-user product from Neuros, but it's mainly for 2 categories of people:
- the hackers that want to build their own set top box
- the companies that want to create an end-user product based on it

[Jason @ Sep 17th 2008 12:48PM]

@Ian, it's at http://store.neurostechnology.com/for-developers-c-25.html?osCsid=t092osp5aopqqbdmeqmva13cv3

[Ian @ Sep 17th 2008 2:01PM]

Thanks for the link.

[Jason @ Sep 17th 2008 1:15PM]

Oh, and the Wherever.TV is based on the OSD1, not OSD2, from their website.

[primalogix @ Sep 17th 2008 2:00PM]

Speaking of Wherever.TV, has anyone tried it yet?

I was considering buying one but I've sent two emails to them asking some questions and never got a response...

[JoeBorn @ Sep 17th 2008 3:54PM]

There is a sign up to apply for beta testing the device as it becomes consumer ready:
http://phpl.neurostechnology.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=5

[OSD1 User @ Nov 28th 2008 1:56PM]

For those of you unfamiliar with the OSD line of products, this is NOT a cable tuner or a PVR requiring a computer. It basically sits b/w your dvd player (or cable box) and your tv, it streams the video through but also makes a digital copy which it stores on an external HD that would be directly connected to the OSD (again - no computer required). The neuros not only records, it can also play files found on the harddrive.

The previous OSD made DRM free files (in *.mp4 format) that they claimed [fn1] were standard definition - this may have been technically true but the picture quality, while acceptable on a normal tv, is noticably degraded (from for example a regular / non-HD cable signal) on my 42" TV; I've tried it also on a 32" TV & there was barely any noticeable difference in quality. All this is just to say: take the 720p spec w/ a grain of salt; I'm just hoping the OSD 2.0 will give a picture quality this is indistinguishable from normal cable (or regular DVDs) - because it really is a great / unique product. No DRM, no computer required, just takes a minute to run a video signal through it & connect a harddrive.

Buyers should also consider that the first OSD was *incredibly* buggy and most of the advertised features were useless; it was a great product, but not polished enough for mass consumption. If history repeats itself, . . . (fn 2)

They're still developing the software for this one - hence releasing the *developer* kit; this is NOT simply a buggy / beta release for people who liked the OSD and want a sneak peak at the HD capabilities of the OSD 2.0 - if you buy this developer kit you only get a box of circuits with no software, i.e. recording capability (I found this out the hard-way, to their credit they offered to let me return it, i'm holding onto it though as they assured me the software to make it functional will be downloadable in the future).

It doesn't support digital inputs b/c they're scared copy-protection will limit its functionality. Hence analog inputs with the option of digital / analog outputs. There was extensive discussion about this on _one_ of neuros forums.


Footnotes
------------------------------------------------
1. The Neuros support staff has a common response to the video quality criticism. It involves quoting technical specifications for standard definition, discussing how the OSD meets the spec, and then concluding w/ some tautology, e.g.: "I don't know what to tell you, standard definition is standard definition." So I dunno, there might be an IEEE or ISO standard about standard def. that the OSD complies w/ - but it is NOT of equal quality to a normal (non high-definition) cable signal, or even to the quality of a new VHS.

2. About the OSD not being ready for mass consumption, well it starts w/ hooking up external storage. It requires a FAT32 file system (or maybe I'm getting this backwards, any event it requires the least common of FAT32 or NTFS), and almost all the external harddrives you'll buy are NTFS. Big surprise, Win XP has no built in functionality to convert from NTFS to FAT32, so they link you to some freeware program that only works for half the people that use it, if that doesn't work they link you to another freeware program, then another. But okay, anyone that buys an OSD can do that, it would just be off-putting to a wider customer base.

More annoying, the OSD will freeze up randomly & have to be rebooted. It often begins a recording, and then stops after recording 3 or 4 seconds & the recording needs to be restarted - no big deal if you're copying a dvd - but if you had set it to record a program while you were out, you're screwed...

It's slow, sometimes during fastforwarding or rewinding it will become completely unresponsive to remote control input and you're forced to try again (after it reaches the beginning or end of the file).

The OSD user interface is dated / simple & relies on scrolling through text lists - again, not an issue for the people that did buy the OSD, but for mass consumption...

I use the OSD (original) a LOT, and this only happened once, but it glitched and made my harddrive unreadable - requiring a reformat - lost a couple hundred hours of dvds (yes I know I should have made a back up - maybe if the OSD had two USB ports & mimicked some RAID functionality . . .).

The features for picture slide shows or playing music were good ideas but not usable in practice. The picture viewer & slide shows often became unresponsive - and the music player was implemented as a list viewer that displayed something like 10 or 15 *.mp3's at a time on a scrollable list of whatever was in the folder.

And last, but not least, naming files was a pain. There was no hookup for a keyboard, you had to use the remote or move your harddrive from the OSD to your PC and use your OS to rename the files. That feature alone would make it unfit for a mass-consumption PVR.

Let's hope the OSD 2.0 is a little quicker / more responsive to input, a little more stable, supports NTFS, and if they stick w/ the file list interface they at least give us an option to adjust the text size so we can look at more than 10 or 15 files at a time, or maybe a search feature or auto scroll to files beginning with a certain letter. If they fixed that and made the video quality at least as good as normal cable - I would be in _love_ with the product. Actual support for high-def and being completely user friendly are probably unachievable goals at the moment.