Specifications
44 | august 2008 www.linuxjournal.com
The Neuros OSD is a very small and energy-efficient box
that can play digital video, photos and music from several
sources, including the Internet, on any TV or home theater
system. It also can do the opposite—convert analog video
in real time from RCA or S-Video inputs to MP4 format,
save it on memory cards, external USB drives or, thanks
to its Ethernet port, remote computers. For a Linux/free-
software fan, the OSD also is interesting because it runs
customizable, Linux-based firmware (OSD stands for
Open-Source Device).
Figure 1. Neuros OSD Box
Main Features
One of the main reasons for buying an OSD is backup and
consolidation of video archives. It’s one small box, much
cheaper than a normal computer, and it’s all you need to
migrate tens or hundreds of VCR tapes or DVDs onto one
hard drive—if you accept the unavoidable degradation that
comes from recording from an analog output. The user
interface also has specific settings to optimize recording
from a PlayStation. Additionally, a timed recording function
also makes the OSD into a bare-bones PVR.
Going the opposite direction, the OSD can play anything
it finds on memory cards, USB drives or remote devices on
its RCA or S-Video ports. Particularly interesting is the pres-
ence of a YouTube browser. Besides MP4, the list of sup-
ported formats available on the Neuros Web site includes
several variants of .avi, .asf, .mov and others. The firmware
upgrade procedure described later in this article can add
even more features to the OSD.
What You Get with the OSD
When I opened the box, I found several accessories: remote
control with batteries, two RCA cables, multivoltage power
supply, serial cable and an infrared blaster for controlling your
TV, cable box or satellite receiver through the OSD. I got the
non-US set, which also includes two RCA-to-SCART adapters.
As far as I can tell, that and the plug on the power supply are
the only differences between the European and US kits.
The remote comes with very detailed instructions for
controlling most TV sets. There also is a Learning Mode
with which it can learn the main functions of your TV or
VCR remote by directly “listening” while you use it.
Finally, the OSD has a plastic stand that holds it in a verti-
cal position, which I didn’t find particularly robust or useful.
All the plug-and-forget cables are on one side: power, RCA in
and out, S-Video input, IR blaster, serial and Ethernet inter-
faces. The “user” ports—two for memory cards and one for
USB—are on the opposite side. With this layout, the OSD is
more stable, which makes it easier to fit on the shelves of
ordinary home theatre furniture, as it is flat on the bottom
with the user ports facing the room.
I have tested the Neuros OSD on a standard analog PAL
TV with a 16:9 32" screen, a generic 1GB USB MP3 player
REVIEWS
The Neuros OSD Connects
Your TV to the Internet
Play digital video, view photos and listen to audio from memory cards or hard disks,
or browse YouTube and record TV shows in MP4 with this small Linux-based box. Oh,
and you can hack it too—it’s open source.
MARCO FIORETTI
Figure 2. YouTube in the Living Room, without a Computer
hardware