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Introduction

The Neuros OSD promises a lot - it claims to be the first open source Linux-based embedded media center and it "records video and links your PC, portables and entertainment center". Bold claims, but can it live up to them?

Note: This review takes a look at the Neuros OSD from both a developer and users perspective.

Package Contents

Complete System Includes

• Standard A/V RCA interface Cables (European units contain SCART adapters)
• 110-240V AC/DC Power Supply
• Stand
• IR Blaster and Serial cable
• Remote Control
• User Manual

Technical Specs

Video Standard

• Compatible with NTSC, Pal and Secam standards

Video Recording

ISO Standard MPEG-4 SP encoding (MP4, ASF, AVI extensions) with AAC-LC/MP3/G.726 audio in following resolutions:

• QCIF settings (177x144) @ 15fps for most popular mobile phones.
• QVGA settings (320x240) @ 15fps for smart phones & PDAs and 30fps for PSP, iPod & PDA's.
• WQVGA setting (368x208) @ 30fps for PSP.
• VGA setting (640x480) @ 30fps for PC, TV playback.
• D1 setting (720x480) for PC, TV playback.

Video Player

• MPEG-2 & MPEG-4 SP with MPEG-1 Layer 3 (MP3) audio, 30fps up to D1 resolution (720x480)
• WMV, DivX, XviD
• Quicktime 6; MPEG-4 AAC-LC stereo, MP4 format at up to D1 resolution
• ASF, AVI, MP4 file extensions

Photo Viewer

• JPEG decoder (baseline), BMP, GIF (non animated) Resolution up to 16M pixels (4096x4096)
• Thumbnail view (with EXIF headers)
• Zoom in/out (2x, 4x)

Audio Player

• Stereo MP3/WMA @ 30-320kbps CBR & VBR Ogg Vorbis (up to Level 6)
• Stereo MPEG-4 AAC-LC
• G.726

Features

• Schedule (timer) recording
• Transfer files between cards
• Customizable slide shows
• One-click record

USB Host

• Record to and playback content from any USB mass storage device

Ethernet

• Connect to your network
• Download content from the internet
• IR Blaster/Serial Control your set-top box

Dimensions and Weight

• 14 x 14 x 3.2cm (5.5 x 5.5 x 1.25 inches)
• Weight 230g (8oz)

Upgradeability

• System updates and 3rd party applications available at www.neurostechnology.com/support/support_updates.asp

Storage Card Compatibility

• Memory Stick: Duo and Pro Duo
• Compact Flash: Type I and Type II
• Microdrives with CF type II interface
• USB thumbdrives
• External Hard Drives
• Secure Digital (SD)
• Multi Media Card (MMC)

First Impressions

The Neuros OSD is small. Very small. At only 14cm wide, 14cm deep and 3.2cm high, it fits comfortably in just about any hole you'd care to stow it.

As a Developer

It's a great concept - a completely open source set top box running Linux that can be programmed to do whatever you like. Except, it's not that straight forward. While almost all of the environment is open source there are some components that are closed source, such as several kernel modules. The modules in question are related to several of proprietry onboard chipsets such as A/V encoding and decoding. It isn't ideal but it's a necessary evil, otherwise the low-spec. CPU wouldn't be able to handle the decoding to play back video, never mind the encoding!

Source Code Access

The current source code tree is openly downloadable by all - either as a nightly tarball via a standard subversion checkout. That's right - subversion, not CVS. I'm not here to discuss the benefits of subversion over CVS, or vice-versa, so let's just continue.

The entire source code repository for the Neuro OSD is available via a Web Interface powered by WebSVN at http://svn.neurostechnology.com/ so if you're a curious developer and would like to take a look at the internals before committing yourself to a new gadget, then that's where you'll most likely want to head.

Tarballs, Get Your Tarballs!

Due to the size of the individual source code trees (my entire tree currently racks up 1.3GB), and the fact that you need several of them locally in order to develop for the OSD, but guys at Neuros kindly provide nightly tarballs of all the latest source code. These are automated nightly and extracted directly from the HEAD revision of the repositories, so they aren't guaranteed to compile, or work. However, there are also tarballs available for the various subversion tags that have been used to indicate version numbers. These generally compile fine, as they've been tested prior to release.

Check It Out!

As the entire repository is available for DAV at svn.neurostechnology.com, this URL can also be used for DAV based source code checkout. I won't go into the details here, but it was almost as simple as:

$ svn co svn://svn.neurotechnology.com/project/trunk project

Though of course, nothing is ever quite that simple, but don't fret as there are plenty of people online that are willing to help!

Setting Up The Build Environment

The build environment was fairly tricky to setup, but not for the usual reasons. I usually have issues with libraries, binaries, or some other software that for whatever reason just won't work. However, this time it was something different - my kingdom for a null-modem cable!

Compiling The Source Code

Compiling the source code for the Neuros OSD was a breeze as the thoughtful Neuros OSD developers have included just about everything you could need, in terms of software, to get it up and running in no time. There has even been talk of a Ubuntu based scratchbox system for development to occur within, to allow non-Linux users an easy ride too. That all worked fine, and I have no complaints about it, but...

If Only It Was That Simple...

That's right, there is a but. The current environment just doesn't work for me. I have everything setup as I've been told to, and the Neuros OSD does boot from tftp as it should, so the kernel's fine, but can I get it to actually work with the source tree that I've built? No siree.

People have tried to help me, but ultimitely I lost patience with it. If Neuros really want people improving their device and developing innovative new software for it then they need to make sure that the development environment is easy to setup. Otherwise, like myself, it's quite possible that developers will be put off by the amount of time they need to spend head scratching and pounding their fists trying to get it working.

I'm pinng my hopes on the new scratchbox to alleviate these issues.

Developer Support

As developers are (fortunately) only human, they sometimes make mistakes, or have trouble making sense of things. As such, it's good to have people and information to fall back on and as luck would have it we have some sources that can be (mostly) relied on to lead us through the darkness.

Wiki

Wikis are great, aren't they? Full of useful information, sometimes useful, at least. Lots of great HOW-TO guides and walk throughs for whatever you need ... that mostly work, until they're out of date. The OSD Wiki is a very helpful source of information, but I wouldn't count on it being up to date, or accurate. It's certainly a good start point for solving your issues, it's possible that somebody has had the same issue that you're experiencing and they then found a solution, which is documented on the Wiki.

Mailing List

As with all mailing lists, the Neuros OSD is full of people asking for help, or those providing the help. Those asking the questions are often new to the OSD looking for help setting up their build environment, or for information related to the API for the Neuros. The guys who know their stuff (lots of these folk are developers at Neuros) are able to help with just about every problem that people have thrown at them - even some of the truely bizarre!

IRC

When you absolutely need an immediate fix for something, or just don't want to wait for people to check their e-mail before finding out what to do then IRC is the place to go. #neuros on irc.freenode.net is a great hangout for other Neuros developers where I'm sure you'll find somebody to tell you what's wrong with your setup, or what you're doing wrong.