GUIDE TO MEDIA CENTERS

Neuros OSD Media Center (6011000)

Manufacturer : Neuros Technology
In Stock : 23

List Price:	$321.77
Price:	$152.69
You Save:	$169.08 (53%)

Features

Digitally store any video content--DVDs, VHS tapes, home videos, and more
Get rid of bulky, disorganized cases and put your video at your fingertips
Enjoy at home or transfer to a portable device (laptop, iPod, iPod Touch, PSP, iPhone, Smartphones) for on-the-go entertainment
Digitize and share your home movies with your friends and family
Free downloadable upgrades

Product Description

The Neuros OSD connects to your TV or home theater system and allows you to archive all of your DVDs and video content.
Plug the Neuros OSD into your TV, connect your DVD Player or VCR, and hit play. Your movie will be safely and legally transferred into a digital library! It works with home movies too. Just plug your video camera into the OSD, push play, and your memories are digitized.
With the Neuros OSD, you can store hundreds of hours of video in one location (like an external hard drive), get rid of those bulky cases, put an end to DVD damage, and instantly access any of your videos with the push of a button on a remote. You can even transfer your video content to a portable device (video iPod, PSP, mobile phone, etc.) to watch on the go, or email your home movies to friends and family. Specifications MPEG4 Video Recording -. MP4 Record from any video source (TV Cable box, Satellite Receiver Box, PVR or DVR like TiVo, DVD, VCR, Camcorder, Video Game Consoles, etc. ) with RCA composite or S-Video cables (S-Video cable not included) Video Playback at up to DVD-resolution - MPEG-4, ASF, AVI, DivX, Xvid, MOV, FLV (YouTube Video) Audio Playback - MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis , FLAC , WAV , Stereo MPEG-4 AAC-LC , G.726 Photo Viewer - JPEG, BMP, GIF USB Host to use with USB Thumbdrives and external hard drives Flash Memory slots for Compact Flash (CF) , Secured Digital (SD), Multimedia Cards (MMC), Memory Stick Pro and Pro Duo Ethernet connection for Networking

Customer Reviews

Average Rating of 3.50 out of 45 reviews

Rating :
Flexible video recorder and player - dwf, Aug 07, 2008

The product arrived in a timely manner. I had some problems with it early on with it reliably recording. I received a replacement unit under warranty promptly from the manufacturer and now it is working very well. It is a little sensitive to the formatting USB flash drives, but once I got over that issue by formatting the drive as they suggested, it is working very well for me. I attached an ethernet Wi-Fi dongle to it and it sees my shared drives on my computer in another room. I can record to one of those drives or play any of the files on the computer. I haven't gotten MPEG-2 video to play well (perhaps the network bandwidth) but it plays all my DivX files quite easily. I don't find it useful for browsing photos on my network as it wants to generate thumbnails and these display very slowly. But overall, I'm very pleased with the product. It can let you view YouTube videos (and search for them) on your TV. It can do a lot more than I anticipated when I purchased it. Some familiarity (but not expertise) with Linux is helpful in using the unit.

Rating :
Very Cool! - Jeffery D. Staffon, Jul 18, 2008

Very easy to configure and use. The only drawback (not much of one either) is that the processor in the unit seems a bit under powered. When switching between certain functions with the remote, it can hang for a second or two making you think the remote isn't working. I have numerous DVRs from Tivos to a MythTV box. I've seen this same slow response in Tivos so it's not a big deal. I was amazed that it just worked on all of my different movie formats from AVI to MP4. Also works well with my network hosted mp3s and jpg digital pictures. Well worth it!

Rating :
Quite Happy WIth Perfromance Looking Forward to Improvements - Sires, Jun 28, 2008

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 :
Poor network performance - sph, Jun 22, 2008

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 :
Neuros makes it easy - Jason Sawtelle, Jun 14, 2008

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!

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