sjackson
12-05-2007, 12:35 PM
Editors note: Following is the Part I of what is planned to be a four part series of articles covering the Neuros OSD, and the variety of ways it can be used. The purpose of this series is to introduce you to an entirely different type of product, expose you to a variety of its uses, provide some basic instruction on how to get things going in your environment and help you to better understand its role in what already underway: a major shift in the way we deal with content, its portability and where and how we experience it.
If you are interested in purchase the Neuros OSD, more details and purchasing information can be found here on our main web site (http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/neuros_osd.cfm).
The Neuros OSD
(Part 1 of 4)
Part 1: Introduction to the Neuros OSD, Open Source & Applications
Part 2: Setup & Installation, Recording & Mobile Device Playback
Part 3: Playback on the OSD, Advanced Recording Techniques & Other Features
Part 4: Pros vs. Cons, Comparison to Other Products & Summary
The OSD (http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/neuros_osd.cfm), created by Neuros Technologies (http://www.neurostechnology.com/), is touted as being the first embedded linux based open-source media center. It is the newest product in their line of multimedia recorders, offering more interactivity and a host of new features over their previous MPEG-4 recorder (http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/neuros_mpeg4_recorder.cfm) models. In this series of articles I plan on taking an in depth and up close look at the OSD. This installment will just give you an overview of the product itself, the ideology surrounding it and the various applications it can be used for. Future articles will actually get down to the nitty gritty of using and integrating the OSD into your every day life. I've had an opportunity to really play around with this device for a good month now and I can certainly say that I've never seen anything like it. It bridges a gap between three distinct worlds: the home entertainment center, the mobile device and the PC.
For years now there have been ways to connect your PC to your entertainment center, or to record content and transfer it to your PC/mobile device. However, the catch has always been that it's not easy and it's not seamless. Any existing solutions only met you halfway, requiring you to either take extra steps in the process or buy more software and hardware. Most people aren't willing to jump through those hoops just to get video onto their phone or iPod. I think that's because there really hasn't been a device that takes all those extra steps out of the equation the way that the OSD does. It's a stand-alone unit that plugs in-line with your existing A/V gear and your TV. Recording a video to playback on your mobile device can be as simple as pushing a button on a remote, and popping out an SD card when it's done. That certainly beats recording with a capture card and wasting time transcoding any day. It's also not shy about playing back a wide variety of formats from an impressive amount of local or networked storage options. But to simply call it a recorder/player would neglect not only the other killer features this device has, but the enormous potential of it's open-source design.
Open Source
The OSD's open-source development has really been what's made this product special to me. It's basically a promise that the device will become more useful the longer you use it. That's because there's a huge community of developers (http://www.neurostechnology.com/neuros-developer-community) out there interested in squeezing as much out of it as they can. In an ideal world, all consumer electronics products would be developed to their maximum potential before going to market, but that's rarely the case. Under the normal process, a goal is set for a product that, when met, signals the end of its development. Not much consideration is taken into what can really be done with all that hardware that was put into the box, simply because of limits in both time and cost. By actually including the consumer in the development of the product, Neuros has managed to avoid those constraints and deliver a long-life product at the same time.
With the high performance demand that today's consumers put on electronics, the components inside these products are becoming more and more powerful in an effort to keep up. Occasionally this has the unintentional effect of giving the device more horsepower than it needs. Consumers themselves are recognizing this and in some cases are taking matters into their own hands in an attempt to unlock that potential. Just consider what enterprising hackers have been able to accomplish on the Xbox360 (http://www.free60.org/wiki/Main_Page) despite the efforts (http://www.geek.com/xbox-360-security-no-push-over/) of Microsoft's engineers to prevent those very things from happening. That is where Neuros is different than other companies, and that is why I love the OSD. They knew that the Texas Instruments DM320 platform (http://wiki.neurostechnology.com/index.php/DM320_Platform_development) they were putting in the OSD could do a lot more than just record and playback video, and they embraced it. Rather than building another closed box, they put an embedded linux operating system on it, and lifted the hood for anybody who wanted to take a peek. This bold approach has not only won them "street cred" from the geek crowd (http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2007/07/02/how-the-inquirer-helped-debug-osd-hardware), but it has helped the development of the OSD itself. The effect of that help is apparent to every OSD owner as soon as they open the box and are instructed to upgrade their firmware to take advantage of the latest revisions. Thanks to enterprising members of the OSD community, we can enjoy a bevy of features that would seem out of place on other devices with similar applications. For example, there's a YouTube browser, a music player, an image browser, an MP4 editor and even a linux console. If you're linux savvy and not afraid to poke around, there are even more things you could load onto the device yourself. The list of features under development (http://wiki.neurostechnology.com/index.php/OSD_Projects) is even longer and more impressive. The best part of this is that it only gets better. I wish I could say the same thing for half of the electronics that I buy.
Applications
First and foremost, the OSD is a recorder. I know I just went on a diatribe about how it is so much more than that, but I truly feel that if you're not utilizing the recording features of the OSD in some way then you are truly missing out. That is what the DM320 was designed for, and that is what it does the best. It's absolutely perfect for recording content and playing it back on a mobile device (such as an ipod, smart phone, Sony PSP, ARCHOS, etc...) with very minimal effort. It's also great for archiving your DVD/VHS/Home Movie collection. In my home, the plan is to use the OSD to rip our DVDs onto a NAS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage) and use it as a sort of video jukebox.
You can also use the OSD for timed recordings and, using the included IR blaster, have it tune another device (such as a cable box or VCR) to a specific channel at that time. Or, if you want to get fancy, you can piggy back the OSD onto another device that you've already got set up with a timer, such as a TiVo or cable DVR. In my home, we've got a Dish ViP522 DVR. The great thing about it is that there is an extra set of outputs for each tuner. Because I can specify which tuner I want my recurring timers to be recorded on, I can leave the OSD plugged into that tuner's output and make sure that it records at the same time as the DVR. This will give me an MP4 file of the show that's already on my DVR without having to watch it, and let me decide whether I want to view it on the TV, my video ipod or my computer. If you're a subway/bus commuter like I am, something like this could make your morning trip much more enjoyable.
The OSD is also a great way to tie your home network into your entertainment center. I've successfully recorded and played back videos over my network using SMB (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Message_Block). Any computer or device that supports SMB file sharing should work. It's also important to remember that this is a two way street. Any media files I've got on my computer have made their way into my shared directory. This makes the video accessible on my TV faster than I can walk over to it. It also saves me the time and cost of burning a DVD. In this respect, the OSD has really earned it's keep.
Of course, the potential uses for this thing don't just stop there. A lot of people have come up with some pretty interesting uses for the OSD. Several people in the community have turned their OSD into an "extreme sports recorder" by attaching a small camera and battery pack to it and strapping it to a helmet, sports car, bike or boat. Alternatively, the OSD could be used as a security or nanny camera recorder. I even read one post on the Neuros forums about someone wanting to use the OSD as a video on demand system in a small hotel. I think that the more this thing catches on, we'll be seeing even more creative uses for it. I for one can't wait.
Coming soon: Part II: Setting the Neuros OSD, Recording, and Playback on Mobile Devices
If you are interested in purchase the Neuros OSD, more details and purchasing information can be found here on our main web site (http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/neuros_osd.cfm).
The Neuros OSD
(Part 1 of 4)
Part 1: Introduction to the Neuros OSD, Open Source & Applications
Part 2: Setup & Installation, Recording & Mobile Device Playback
Part 3: Playback on the OSD, Advanced Recording Techniques & Other Features
Part 4: Pros vs. Cons, Comparison to Other Products & Summary
The OSD (http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/neuros_osd.cfm), created by Neuros Technologies (http://www.neurostechnology.com/), is touted as being the first embedded linux based open-source media center. It is the newest product in their line of multimedia recorders, offering more interactivity and a host of new features over their previous MPEG-4 recorder (http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/neuros_mpeg4_recorder.cfm) models. In this series of articles I plan on taking an in depth and up close look at the OSD. This installment will just give you an overview of the product itself, the ideology surrounding it and the various applications it can be used for. Future articles will actually get down to the nitty gritty of using and integrating the OSD into your every day life. I've had an opportunity to really play around with this device for a good month now and I can certainly say that I've never seen anything like it. It bridges a gap between three distinct worlds: the home entertainment center, the mobile device and the PC.
For years now there have been ways to connect your PC to your entertainment center, or to record content and transfer it to your PC/mobile device. However, the catch has always been that it's not easy and it's not seamless. Any existing solutions only met you halfway, requiring you to either take extra steps in the process or buy more software and hardware. Most people aren't willing to jump through those hoops just to get video onto their phone or iPod. I think that's because there really hasn't been a device that takes all those extra steps out of the equation the way that the OSD does. It's a stand-alone unit that plugs in-line with your existing A/V gear and your TV. Recording a video to playback on your mobile device can be as simple as pushing a button on a remote, and popping out an SD card when it's done. That certainly beats recording with a capture card and wasting time transcoding any day. It's also not shy about playing back a wide variety of formats from an impressive amount of local or networked storage options. But to simply call it a recorder/player would neglect not only the other killer features this device has, but the enormous potential of it's open-source design.
Open Source
The OSD's open-source development has really been what's made this product special to me. It's basically a promise that the device will become more useful the longer you use it. That's because there's a huge community of developers (http://www.neurostechnology.com/neuros-developer-community) out there interested in squeezing as much out of it as they can. In an ideal world, all consumer electronics products would be developed to their maximum potential before going to market, but that's rarely the case. Under the normal process, a goal is set for a product that, when met, signals the end of its development. Not much consideration is taken into what can really be done with all that hardware that was put into the box, simply because of limits in both time and cost. By actually including the consumer in the development of the product, Neuros has managed to avoid those constraints and deliver a long-life product at the same time.
With the high performance demand that today's consumers put on electronics, the components inside these products are becoming more and more powerful in an effort to keep up. Occasionally this has the unintentional effect of giving the device more horsepower than it needs. Consumers themselves are recognizing this and in some cases are taking matters into their own hands in an attempt to unlock that potential. Just consider what enterprising hackers have been able to accomplish on the Xbox360 (http://www.free60.org/wiki/Main_Page) despite the efforts (http://www.geek.com/xbox-360-security-no-push-over/) of Microsoft's engineers to prevent those very things from happening. That is where Neuros is different than other companies, and that is why I love the OSD. They knew that the Texas Instruments DM320 platform (http://wiki.neurostechnology.com/index.php/DM320_Platform_development) they were putting in the OSD could do a lot more than just record and playback video, and they embraced it. Rather than building another closed box, they put an embedded linux operating system on it, and lifted the hood for anybody who wanted to take a peek. This bold approach has not only won them "street cred" from the geek crowd (http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2007/07/02/how-the-inquirer-helped-debug-osd-hardware), but it has helped the development of the OSD itself. The effect of that help is apparent to every OSD owner as soon as they open the box and are instructed to upgrade their firmware to take advantage of the latest revisions. Thanks to enterprising members of the OSD community, we can enjoy a bevy of features that would seem out of place on other devices with similar applications. For example, there's a YouTube browser, a music player, an image browser, an MP4 editor and even a linux console. If you're linux savvy and not afraid to poke around, there are even more things you could load onto the device yourself. The list of features under development (http://wiki.neurostechnology.com/index.php/OSD_Projects) is even longer and more impressive. The best part of this is that it only gets better. I wish I could say the same thing for half of the electronics that I buy.
Applications
First and foremost, the OSD is a recorder. I know I just went on a diatribe about how it is so much more than that, but I truly feel that if you're not utilizing the recording features of the OSD in some way then you are truly missing out. That is what the DM320 was designed for, and that is what it does the best. It's absolutely perfect for recording content and playing it back on a mobile device (such as an ipod, smart phone, Sony PSP, ARCHOS, etc...) with very minimal effort. It's also great for archiving your DVD/VHS/Home Movie collection. In my home, the plan is to use the OSD to rip our DVDs onto a NAS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage) and use it as a sort of video jukebox.
You can also use the OSD for timed recordings and, using the included IR blaster, have it tune another device (such as a cable box or VCR) to a specific channel at that time. Or, if you want to get fancy, you can piggy back the OSD onto another device that you've already got set up with a timer, such as a TiVo or cable DVR. In my home, we've got a Dish ViP522 DVR. The great thing about it is that there is an extra set of outputs for each tuner. Because I can specify which tuner I want my recurring timers to be recorded on, I can leave the OSD plugged into that tuner's output and make sure that it records at the same time as the DVR. This will give me an MP4 file of the show that's already on my DVR without having to watch it, and let me decide whether I want to view it on the TV, my video ipod or my computer. If you're a subway/bus commuter like I am, something like this could make your morning trip much more enjoyable.
The OSD is also a great way to tie your home network into your entertainment center. I've successfully recorded and played back videos over my network using SMB (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Message_Block). Any computer or device that supports SMB file sharing should work. It's also important to remember that this is a two way street. Any media files I've got on my computer have made their way into my shared directory. This makes the video accessible on my TV faster than I can walk over to it. It also saves me the time and cost of burning a DVD. In this respect, the OSD has really earned it's keep.
Of course, the potential uses for this thing don't just stop there. A lot of people have come up with some pretty interesting uses for the OSD. Several people in the community have turned their OSD into an "extreme sports recorder" by attaching a small camera and battery pack to it and strapping it to a helmet, sports car, bike or boat. Alternatively, the OSD could be used as a security or nanny camera recorder. I even read one post on the Neuros forums about someone wanting to use the OSD as a video on demand system in a small hotel. I think that the more this thing catches on, we'll be seeing even more creative uses for it. I for one can't wait.
Coming soon: Part II: Setting the Neuros OSD, Recording, and Playback on Mobile Devices