Tivo dominates so much of the digital video recorder market that sometimes products that are infinitely more innovative don’t get the attention they deserve. One of those products is the Neuros OSD, a device that lets you record from live TV, DVDs, VHS tapes, or any other device that you can hook up to a TV. It can save that video in a format suited for playback on your TV, your cell phone, an Ipod, or a PSP. And you have a choice of methods to store your video, including external USB hard drive, networked PC, SD card, Pro Duo, or Compact Flash. The Neuros can also play videos from the Internet (such as Youtube) and media that you have stored on your home network.
Basically, for those of us that like to watch our recorded videos on our portable devices, the Neuros eliminates the need for a PC to do this. They’ve basically taken out the step of getting the video on your PC and then converting it to the proper format. The device is also attractive for those looking for a quick and easy way to convert their VHS and DVD libraries to a digital format.
As it stands, the Neuros OSD is a device best suited to tech nerds, however, once they perfect the user interface, I see this device being mass-marketed to consumers as a way to record from commercial DVDs. There’s definitely something attractive about the idea of having your entire video library store on one small device and accessible with the click of a remote button. Not only that, as portable media players become a larger part of our daily routine, devices like this become a great time saver.
