Sep. 16, 2008
Neuros Technology has started shipping its second open set-top box, which targets both consumers and product companies. The high-definition capable "Open Source Device 2.0" (OSD 2.0) runs several open Linux stacks on a tiny TI Davinci-based CPU module delivered with a mini-ITX I/O board and enclosure.
Neuros launched its original OSD (pictured at right) in Sep. of 2006, in a release aimed at developers. That device eventually found favor with consumers, who used it as a tiny DVR (digital video recorder) capable of encoding analog broadcast and cable television streams and storing them on removable storage, for playback on mobile devices such as PMPs (portable media players). The OSD's open, hackable Linux operating system also resulted in its adaptation as a UPnP music server by a Google "Summer of Code" participant, among other interesting uses. To encourage community involvement, Neuros offered cash bounties to developers willing to take on challenges such as TiVo integration.
Neuros announced the OSD 2 -- then dubbed the "Open Internet Television HDPlatform" -- in April of this year. Supplying early-release hardware to qualifying developers, it also launched at the time a "six month phased program" of development bounties aimed at getting the open source community to help "build and optimize" the new hardware design, and create software for it.
Compared to the original OSD, the OSD2 adds the ability to encode high-definition video at 720p in MPEG-4, and D1 resolution in the H.264 format. Neuros CEO Joe Born, in a phone interview, said, "What really makes this hardware compelling is its ability to encode from an analog input."
Neuros OSD2, front, open, and back
(Click any view to enlarge)
Supplied with free "as in beer" codecs from TI that take advantage of the device's DSP (digital signal processor) core, the OSD2 can encode H.264 D1 resolution (DVD quality) video from an analog source, then upscale it for output at 1080i, or transcode it for viewing on a PMP (portable media player). "It could be a great $250 MythTV, recording video that looks great on a TV or an iPhone," Born said.
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