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Posting anon:

A Silent HTPC
Tue, 04/06/2010 - 22:13 -- Joe

We've just released a practically silent Neuros LINK v1.2 (codenamed "Phantom") and figured some of you would be interested in the process.

Of course, there are easier ways to create a silent computer, the easiest being a net-top solution, with an Atom processor or the like. We've decided not to go that route with the LINK simply because we didn't want to make the sacrifice on CPU horsepower. Sadly, as we all know, there are still plenty of web apps and inefficient video streams that require CPU cycles. Instead, we architected a full power PC to be silent (or silent to an excellent approximation anyway) Click more to see what it took, or if you just want to buy, go here: we're good with that too.

1. Low power components: (45W CPU, no optical drive or HDD, nothing extra) less power means less heat generated in the first place, thus less for fans to need to remove. Although its a 2.7GHz CPU, the Sempron 140 still only consumes 45W, so we felt that was a nice tradeoff between performance and a manageable amount of heat.

2. Better Fans: We employed large, expensive, 120mm fluid dynamic bearing fans that are about as quiet as computer fans get. In fact they are pretty much silent save for the air they move.

3. vibration dampening neoprene mounts dampen any vibration before it causes noise. Vibrating sheet metal is a great source of very annoying noise and strategically placed vibration dampeners are very important.

4. Intelligent Fan control: We implemented the PWM (pulse width modulation) scheme to control fan speed throughout the system so that the fans would spin down (in a coordinated way) under normal use and only spin up when needed under heavy load (or in a closed cabinet where airflow is limited).

5. Elimination of most moving parts in addition to reducing power (and heat), the elimination of optical drives and harddrives means the elimination of the noise they generate. The flash drive used on the LINK is obviously silent (certainly to the unaided ear anyway)

6. Intelligent fluid dynamics of the entire system. One of the obvious benefits of controlling the whole system is that we have access to architect all the assembled parts when together, not just individual pieces. Thus we were able to replace the 70mm CPU fan with a larger, quieter 120mm fan that generates enough excess airflow that it can be used, in conjunction with a well placed power supply fan, to draw air to cool the north and south bridge chipsets of the motherboard well. If you open the case of the LINK, you'll find the components form a carefully developed airflow channel that covers the CPU, GPU, memory and power supply. Although the power supply is capable of running passively without a fan at all (it only operates at maximum ~40% of capacity in the LINK) we placed another fluid dynamic bearing fan to draw air into the power supply because it aided in creating the airflow channel needed. It also gives more headroom in case you do want to expand the LINK.

Although not obvious at first glance, there are a host of important details that were necessary to reduce noise levels to the level you'll find in the LINK. As one example, open the LINK case and you may notice there are standoffs that separate the main fan from the case by 10.5mm This distance was arrived at through careful research and testing. Place the fan too close to the case vents and turbulence is created that generates audible noise, too close to the heat sink or other components and you disrupt the airflow channel and not only generate noise, but also adversely affect the cooling.

So how quiet is the Phantom? 20 dB or less typically, but if that means

Posting anon:

A Silent HTPC
Tue, 04/06/2010 - 22:13 -- Joe

We've just released a practically silent Neuros LINK v1.2 (codenamed "Phantom") and figured some of you would be interested in the process.

Of course, there are easier ways to create a silent computer, the easiest being a net-top solution, with an Atom processor or the like. We've decided not to go that route with the LINK simply because we didn't want to make the sacrifice on CPU horsepower. Sadly, as we all know, there are still plenty of web apps and inefficient video streams that require CPU cycles. Instead, we architected a full power PC to be silent (or silent to an excellent approximation anyway) Click more to see what it took, or if you just want to buy, go here: we're good with that too.

1. Low power components: (45W CPU, no optical drive or HDD, nothing extra) less power means less heat generated in the first place, thus less for fans to need to remove. Although its a 2.7GHz CPU, the Sempron 140 still only consumes 45W, so we felt that was a nice tradeoff between performance and a manageable amount of heat.

2. Better Fans: We employed large, expensive, 120mm fluid dynamic bearing fans that are about as quiet as computer fans get. In fact they are pretty much silent save for the air they move.

3. vibration dampening neoprene mounts dampen any vibration before it causes noise. Vibrating sheet metal is a great source of very annoying noise and strategically placed vibration dampeners are very important.

4. Intelligent Fan control: We implemented the PWM (pulse width modulation) scheme to control fan speed throughout the system so that the fans would spin down (in a coordinated way) under normal use and only spin up when needed under heavy load (or in a closed cabinet where airflow is limited).

5. Elimination of most moving parts in addition to reducing power (and heat), the elimination of optical drives and harddrives means the elimination of the noise they generate. The flash drive used on the LINK is obviously silent (certainly to the unaided ear anyway)

6. Intelligent fluid dynamics of the entire system. One of the obvious benefits of controlling the whole system is that we have access to architect all the assembled parts when together, not just individual pieces. Thus we were able to replace the 70mm CPU fan with a larger, quieter 120mm fan that generates enough excess airflow that it can be used, in conjunction with a well placed power supply fan, to draw air to cool the north and south bridge chipsets of the motherboard well. If you open the case of the LINK, you'll find the components form a carefully developed airflow channel that covers the CPU, GPU, memory and power supply. Although the power supply is capable of running passively without a fan at all (it only operates at maximum ~40% of capacity in the LINK) we placed another fluid dynamic bearing fan to draw air into the power supply because it aided in creating the airflow channel needed. It also gives more headroom in case you do want to expand the LINK.

Although not obvious at first glance, there are a host of important details that were necessary to reduce noise levels to the level you'll find in the LINK. As one example, open the LINK case and you may notice there are standoffs that separate the main fan from the case by 10.5mm This distance was arrived at through careful research and testing. Place the fan too close to the case vents and turbulence is created that generates audible noise, too close to the heat sink or other components and you disrupt the airflow channel and not only generate noise, but also adversely affect the cooling.

So how quiet is the Phantom? 20 dB or less typically, but if that means

We've just released a practically silent Neuros LINK v1.2 (codenamed "Phantom") and figured some of you would be interested in the process.

Of course, there are easier ways to create a silent computer, the easiest being a net-top solution, with an Atom processor or the like. We've decided not to go that route with the LINK simply because we didn't want to make the sacrifice on CPU horsepower. Sadly, as we all know, there are still plenty of web apps and inefficient video streams that require CPU cycles. Instead, we architected a full power PC to be silent (or silent to an excellent approximation anyway) Click more to see what it took, or if you just want to buy, go here: we're good with that too.

1. Low power components: (45W CPU, no optical drive or HDD, nothing extra) less power means less heat generated in the first place, thus less for fans to need to remove. Although its a 2.7GHz CPU, the Sempron 140 still only consumes 45W, so we felt that was a nice tradeoff between performance and a manageable amount of heat.

2. Better Fans: We employed large, expensive, 120mm fluid dynamic bearing fans that are about as quiet as computer fans get. In fact they are pretty much silent save for the air they move.

3. vibration dampening neoprene mounts dampen any vibration before it causes noise. Vibrating sheet metal is a great source of very annoying noise and strategically placed vibration dampeners are very important.

4. Intelligent Fan control: We implemented the PWM (pulse width modulation) scheme to control fan speed throughout the system so that the fans would spin down (in a coordinated way) under normal use and only spin up when needed under heavy load (or in a closed cabinet where airflow is limited).

5. Elimination of most moving parts in addition to reducing power (and heat), the elimination of optical drives and harddrives means the elimination of the noise they generate. The flash drive used on the LINK is obviously silent (certainly to the unaided ear anyway)

6. Intelligent fluid dynamics of the entire system. One of the obvious benefits of controlling the whole system is that we have access to architect all the assembled parts when together, not just individual pieces. Thus we were able to replace the 70mm CPU fan with a larger, quieter 120mm fan that generates enough excess airflow that it can be used, in conjunction with a well placed power supply fan, to draw air to cool the north and south bridge chipsets of the motherboard well. If you open the case of the LINK, you'll find the components form a carefully developed airflow channel that covers the CPU, GPU, memory and power supply. Although the power supply is capable of running passively without a fan at all (it only operates at maximum ~40% of capacity in the LINK) we placed another fluid dynamic bearing fan to draw air into the power supply because it aided in creating the airflow channel needed. It also gives more headroom in case you do want to expand the LINK.

Although not obvious at first glance, there are a host of important details that were necessary to reduce noise levels to the level you'll find in the LINK. As one example, open the LINK case and you may notice there are standoffs that separate the main fan from the case by 10.5mm This distance was arrived at through careful research and testing. Place the fan too close to the case vents and turbulence is created that generates audible noise, too close to the heat sink or other components and you disrupt the airflow channel and not only generate noise, but also adversely affect the cooling.

So how quiet is the Phantom? 20 dB or less typically, but if that means nothing to you, put a different way, sitting on the couch 6 feet away, its probably less

We've just released a practically silent Neuros LINK v1.2 (codenamed "Phantom") and figured some of you would be interested in the process.

Of course, there are easier ways to create a silent computer, the easiest being a net-top solution, with an Atom processor or the like. We've decided not to go that route with the LINK simply because we didn't want to make the sacrifice on CPU horsepower. Sadly, as we all know, there are still plenty of web apps and inefficient video streams that require CPU cycles. Instead, we architected a full power PC to be silent (or silent to an excellent approximation anyway) Click more to see what it took, or if you just want to buy, go here: we're good with that too.

1. Low power components: (45W CPU, no optical drive or HDD, nothing extra) less power means less heat generated in the first place, thus less for fans to need to remove. Although its a 2.7GHz CPU, the Sempron 140 still only consumes 45W, so we felt that was a nice tradeoff between performance and a manageable amount of heat.

2. Better Fans: We employed large, expensive, 120mm fluid dynamic bearing fans that are about as quiet as computer fans get. In fact they are pretty much silent save for the air they move.

3. vibration dampening neoprene mounts dampen any vibration before it causes noise. Vibrating sheet metal is a great source of very annoying noise and strategically placed vibration dampeners are very important.

4. Intelligent Fan control: We implemented the PWM (pulse width modulation) scheme to control fan speed throughout the system so that the fans would spin down (in a coordinated way) under normal use and only spin up when needed under heavy load (or in a closed cabinet where airflow is limited).

5. Elimination of most moving parts in addition to reducing power (and heat), the elimination of optical drives and harddrives means the elimination of the noise they generate. The flash drive used on the LINK is obviously silent (certainly to the unaided ear anyway)

6. Intelligent fluid dynamics of the entire system. One of the obvious benefits of controlling the whole system is that we have access to architect all the assembled parts when together, not just individual pieces. Thus we were able to replace the 70mm CPU fan with a larger, quieter 120mm fan that generates enough excess airflow that it can be used, in conjunction with a well placed power supply fan, to draw air to cool the north and south bridge chipsets of the motherboard well. If you open the case of the LINK, you'll find the components form a carefully developed airflow channel that covers the CPU, GPU, memory and power supply. Although the power supply is capable of running passively without a fan at all (it only operates at maximum ~40% of capacity in the LINK) we placed another fluid dynamic bearing fan to draw air into the power supply because it aided in creating the airflow channel needed. It also gives more headroom in case you do want to expand the LINK.

Although not obvious at first glance, there are a host of important details that were necessary to reduce noise levels to the level you'll find in the LINK. As one example, open the LINK case and you may notice there are standoffs that separate the main fan from the case by 10.5mm This distance was arrived at through careful research and testing. Place the fan too close to the case vents and turbulence is created that generates audible noise, too close to the heat sink or other components and you disrupt the airflow channel and not only generate noise, but also adversely affect the cooling.

So how quiet is the Phantom? 20 dB or less typically, but if that means nothing to you, put a different way, sitting on the couch 6 feet away, its probably less

According to this link, Hulu worked as of February 20.

I've been using the Neuros OSD for a couple of years, and while it's kinda slow, it's hard to beat in terms of features/dollar. It's also very small, runs linux, and draws less than 10 watts. They also have a newer one called the LINK.

Link: Neuros website

Gamma is a term we coined to refer to production white box hardware with early software (alpha level integration in this case). See the Neuros Gamma Wiki Page

The Neuros LINK is essentially a $299 thin TVPC,discless (runs off flash storage) designed for playback (including running Boxee) comes with ubuntu 8.10, wifi, already tweaked and running with wireless controller, expandable with PCI, SATA, etc. http://www.neurostechnology.com/neuros-link

Did you download a distro a day? Watch one movie every day at DVD compression?

Glossing over the fact that it doesn't matter because they agreed to sell us the bandwidth to use as we see fit (barring illegal activities, etc.), there are also uploads to factor in. We watch a lot of streaming video, and we're about to watch more. But I also regularly send large files to my friends and coworkers, and my job will soon require that I send them more often (Citrix FTW). What YOU do with YOUR bandwidth may differ.

Speaking of greedy bastards, what about all the loser subscribers that want 100 Mbps of dedicated content for 1/10th what it actually costs the providers to buy it themselves?

I won't stoop to feces-flinging, but I will point out that if ISP's offer to sell a certain thing for a certain price, they are obligated to deliver that thing at that price. If it really costs them so much, then they can't really afford to sell it for so little, can they? I guess not. Of course, Charter is in financial trouble, isn't it? Another case of over-leveraging, trying to sell what you don't have.

I already do this with a Neuros OSD :-D.

-Ghostis

why would anyone purchase that to hack? that's the opposite of a hobbyist device--no keyboard/mouse input, no open hardware or software specifications, no tuner cards, no video encoding capabilities, no networking capabilities, and no hardware expansion slots to add those capabilities.

if you want a low-cost pre-built set-top box with just basic media capabilities, then sure that thing will probably do the job. but there are much better options out there IMO. the Neuros OSD for example is much more attractive to tinkerers and hobbyists. it's about $50 more than the WD TV, but its open source linux-based platform, video input & MPEG-4 encoding capabilities, networking capabilities, DSP hardware-acceleration, and support for PMPs like the PSP and iPod are worth it IMO.

plus, the hardware specs are publicly available, which is very helpful when hacking/modifying a device. i can't even find a shred of info on what kind of processor or hardware platform the WD TV is built on. that's hardly a hacker-friendly product.

why would anyone purchase that to hack? that's the opposite of a hobbyist device--no keyboard/mouse input, no open hardware or software specifications, no tuner cards, no video encoding capabilities, no networking capabilities, and no hardware expansion slots to add those capabilities.

if you want a low-cost pre-built set-top box with just basic media capabilities, then sure that thing will probably do the job. but there are much better options out there IMO. the Neuros OSD for example is much more attractive to tinkerers and hobbyists. it's about $50 more than the WD TV, but its open source linux-based platform, video input & MPEG-4 encoding capabilities, networking capabilities, DSP hardware-acceleration, and support for PMPs like the PSP and iPod are worth it IMO.

plus, the hardware specs are publicly available, which is very helpful when hacking/modifying a device. i can't even find a shred of info on what kind of processor or hardware platform the WD TV is built on. that's hardly a hacker-friendly product.

http://www.neurostechnology.com/neuros-link-technical-specs The above seems to be exactly what the OP is looking for, in a $300 package, complete with 2.8Ghz x86 CPU and supposedly running a respin of Ubuntu 8.10. It's a bit large, though.

But darn it; when will someone finally offer a reasonably-priced, open-platform STB that serves as an A/V gateway to multiple Internet-based services â" one consumer-friendly, environmentally-designed, low-power gadget 'to rule them all,' if you will.

http://www.neurostechnology.com/neuros-link

Also runs Linux and a Web browser with Flash so it can access all the TV sites like Hulu.

Is this article a clever plant?

There is Neuros, whose products fit the description pined for in TFS fairly well. The basic problem, though, is that the various internet video on demand pushers all want DRM which means that, at best, any box they produce will be "open box + big hostile blob" and will more likely be "closed box" or "closed box with API, if we feel generous". Because these guys seem to be shooting for the give them the razor, bleed them for the blades model, I wouldn't expect them to support multiple competing services, and the DRM wrapper will be enough to foil an legal multiservice boxes(and, in practice, make any illicit ones a pain in the ass to keep working).

For the immediately forseeable future, if you want an open, multiple service setup, you want a PC(in the broad sense, including mythTV, WMC, and aTV with Boxee).

The Neuros OSD network video player unit uses it in a way that does that. The proprietary codecs are loaded onto the DSP, while the OS itself sits on an ARM core and handles the rest of the stuff.
It may be that it is more convenient as you say, but it is probably easier to get hold of a codec for a specific DSP and just treat the entire thing as a black box.

Neuros and TI are putting a lot of money to fund this and other open source development. see http://bounties.neurostechnology.com/

Maybe you should try to document a bit:

http://open.neurostechnology.com/content/vlc-porting-neuros-open-internet-television-hdplatform

http://mailman.videolan.org/pipermail/vlc-devel/2008-April/041720.html

"As 'open' itself states, all VLC source code files, new or modified during the porting, will be submitted to the central source code repository of the VideoLAN team, under the same license GPLV2 as the rest of the VLC source code."

You can help - and make cash - Bounties! for bootie!

I took a look at the schematics for this box http://open.neurostechnology.com/files/r3_rev-b_2006-07-02-0713-1.pdf and realise that this isn't what I would consider "open source hardware". These are all asic's and the hardware itself is not really adaptable (as far as I can see). It's a shame they didnt put down a decent low-cost FPGA, like a Spartan 3aDSP. Then the user would have been able to adapt the hardware, adding video acceleration, custom coprocessors etc. THEN it could have been open source hardware.

The Neuros OSD FAQ mentions that there is no tuner in the device, and portrays the workarounds for this omission as not working smoothly:

Can I use the OSD to record live TV?

Yes you can. All you need to do is connect your Neuros OSD to a video source (DVR, Cable or Satellite receiver box, VCR, etc...) using the RCA cables provided. Get your video source on the channel you want to record (the Neuros OSD does not have a built-in tuner), and you are all set. You can even use the IR blaster included in the accessories to schedule recordings on different channels at different times. The IR blaster will emulate the IR signal used by your remote to set the tuner of your video source to the channel of your choice at the time of the recording. (you can also use the serial cable which has the potential for interfacing with devices such as TiVo directly). None of these solutions (IR blaster and serial cable) are in 100% working order as of 3/20/07, but they are being actively pursued. Stay tuned for updates.

How is this insightful? Did you even spend 10 seconds looking at the article or the device?

sounds like a worse combo as the software is windows only.

No, the product is Linux based, as in:

The world's first open source Linux-based embedded media center

Why dont they stop the silly special software crap and simply make the dang things play from a SMB share

Here's the awesome thing about open source. You want it to play from an SMB share? Go ahead and write it or ask someone to! I know, I know. Linux is obviously "silly special software crap" to you. Fair enough.

And... guess what? Someone did.

Now, why would you not want it to only play from SMB shares? Other people may want to be able to plug in their iPods, or FAT32-flash cards, or whatever. Personally, having to dump all my holiday photos to a remote server in some other room to have a slideshow is annoying for me; I'd much rather just plug in my camera or its memory card.

Indeed, other people may want to hook up to youtube without requiring other specialized hardware in the house.

I am so tired of this media appliances that require "special" software or use the stupid Upnp protocols that simply suck to high heaven.

OK. You're tired of open source linux, because that's "silly special software". Fair enough. You're tired of any custom firmware in general. If I'm to take you at your word, you're tired of media PC's, ApplesTVs, iPods, MP-3 players, TV's (they have firmware too), PVR's, modern stereos. Sorry about "special software". Again, if you're really being sincere, I suggest you try an old TV from the 1970's; it might not have any software in it. Add an 8-track player and a sweet 60's solid-state amp, and you'll have no "silly special software" to worry about.

As for UPnP protocols, I can cheerfully agree with you there.

Is SMB that fricking hard?

For you? I'd have to say yes, based on the above.

Now, to other readers (and sorry, perhaps I should have ignored the guy, but when someone was modding him insightful and others were replying in the same tone... well, it made the discussion worse than useless)... He was saying stuff that was flatly false and being applauded for it.

Back to the general concept: does this device actually make sense? A $249 embedded Linux device with some nice features that is upgradeable and open-sourced (on the software side)?

Maybe. It probably doesn't make sense if you have a MythTV device hooked up. Or a Tivo/really good PVR. Or, as others have mentioned, an XBMC (Xbox Media Center). Or are HD.

Personally, I'm intrigued, but a potential deal breaker for me is the presumed lack of upscaling in the device. It's doubtful it has the spare cpu capacity to process that in software. Apart from that, with the network connectivity, and extendability, it's tempting.

I just have to admit I'm a bit dismayed. We all talk about Open Source here and slam MS (often rightly so). When a company comes out that is Open Source and is doing something rather unique and interesting -- not just letting its users hack the hardware, but inviting them to, guys like this jump up and down about "silly special software" and get modded insightful.

According to their Wiki http://wiki.neurostechnology.com/index.php/Neuros_ OSD The Neuros product doesn't support ATSC or any of the High Definition formats.

I would be extremely interested in a set top box that can play files directly from my network drive in any format that WinDVD is capable of playing, and output video in 1080i, 720p, 480i, and other popular TV line rates. I don't want to have to download the file to the STB's local drive or have to run special video streaming software. I just want to mount the network drive to the STB and point to the file to play. Fancy menus and play lists are optional.

Hardware outputs should include the latest version of HDMI, DVI-D/I, VGA, Component and Y/C (S-Video). I want it to work with any monitor or TV that I have laying around. Optionally, an ATSC tuner can be added for digital recording / PVR capability. And of course, there should be no trace of DRM.

Apple-TV isn't there. The hacks are a start, but there's a long way to go.

There's a big market out there for this type of equipment waiting to be tapped.

http://wiki.neurostechnology.com/index.php/Neuros_ OSD

The ethernet port is only 10/100, and I highly doubt that it is upgradable via firmware.

I agree that it's an insult to include Tivo as a hackable platform. Tivo gave rise to the term Tivoization and Tivo is *the* main reason for GPLv3. In comparison, Neuros is a much better example of a hackable platform than Tivo.

I'd like to know other slashdotters bought Neuros Audio and want to share their experience. I consider bying one and look for experiences like the parent post. Anyone?

Also, Neuros Audio III is in design, maybe I should wait?

Speaking for Neuros, we are folding back bug fixes, and feature additions into the open source software we're using. In fact, the applications we've written ourselves are GPL too. There's a little more here than standard corporate schtick: http://wiki.neurostechnology.com/theneuros/index.p hp/Developer_Welcome

Detailed specifications can be found here http://wiki.neurostechnology.com/index.php/Neuros_ OSD

I'm in the market for a High Defintiton media recorder / player. I want to be able to capture an ATSC broadcast stream and record it to hard drive and later to DVD in MPEG 2 or MPEG 4 format and play it back to my high definition monitor.

This product is about 10 years behind the marketplace because it only supports NTSC and PAL.

Maybe not as sexy as an iPod, but surely more surely more open. It does support OGG Vorbis! You can download new firmware or do it yourself, you got the spec.
Hack your devices people, ask for openness!

I think there's more to it than that. Mossberg's logic is flawed for a few reasons. The iPod's success might stem partly from its integration with iTunes, but I think it's primarily just due to the job Apple did on the device itself. Apple really beat Archos and Creative. Then Microsoft was in the position of playing catch-up (where they primarily targeted the video player space) and on the mp3 player, the device firmware is still primarily done by the Mp3 manufacturers. It's really not appropriate to say that Apple beat Microsoft, since Microsoft was never in that game. Suggesting that openness and choice are not as important in the "Post PC Era" is not right. What choice and openness have users had? 3rd party software is not supported on an iPod and it's not supported on a windows portable media device either really. Even the stuff that runs Linux is not really open since it runs so much proprietary stuff that you can add 3rd party applications with "hacking it" and breaking the warranty. That's hardly open. The most significant part of the "component model" as Mossberg calls it is the fact that devices you buy under the "component model," which has only been PCs to date, can evolve. They are not static, like most CE devices. I've had computers I kept for many years and I continue to upgrade them and customize them to my purposes. As a result, they have a lot more value. Not so with the "device model" devices, ie everything else. if my DVD burner is missing a feature or has some annoying bug, it's very likely it will never get fixed. In theory, it's true that a company like Apple could take on that entire evolution of products themselves, but is it realistic for one company to take on that entire investment? The benefit of 3rd party applications is clear even on Apple's systems. Actually I think the next era will belong to linux on devices where there is no entrenched party and the playing field is more level: http://open.neurostechnology.com/node/241

Well the article was a little misleading, it won't really outlaw all analog to digital conversion, it will just make it so that the hardware manufacturers have to recognize a signal in the analog stream that dictates what can and can't be done with the stream. In effect this will likely make those devices useless since no media will allow recording, just like virtually no DVDs allow copying today. Yes, you can expect the INDEPENDENT hardware manufacturers to fight this, but there aren't very many of them around anymore. Sony has studios, Apple is the 7th largest music retailer in the US with ITMS, and TiVo is already largely beholden to the content providers. Microsoft is aggressively courting Hollywood to adopt its DRM and codec standards, so it's not clear they'll fight it. It really is scary:

http://www.neurostechnology.com/press/freedom.asp

According to Specs, this device records to 704x240 asf. If this is as powerful as they claim it is, why not use XviD or another open source codec?
The 40GB HDD, USB2.0 and other features all look nice, but I still think it's supported formats aren't fantastic. It has no mention of supporting things like ogg or ac3.
Despite their claims of being open source, this device is still being marketed to Windows' users, and designed for them.