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Neuros Audio Releases Its Hardware Schematics
iswm writes "Neuros Audio has released the schematics to their Neuros Digital Audio Computer. Now with open source firmware, hardware schematics, ogg support, tons of other cool features, and an amazing price tag, The Neuros is looking like an awesome competitor in the audio player market."
It can currently play Ogg, mp3, wma (non-DRM), and wav.
People are also working on other alternative codecs, including FLAC, musepac and a few others I've heard talk about in IRC.
I have both an iPod and a Neuros. I got an iPod through the freeipods.com thing, and I've had the Neuros for a little over a year now. The iPod was the shiny new toy for about a month, and hasn't been used since. The Neuros is just better. Better menu interface, better sound, better features.
I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
The problem, I believe, is space in the CPU's memory for the codecs. The thing has 64k (yes, k) of memory for running the firmware and decoding audio. Multiple codecs have to be loaded into the chip on a per-song basis.
Also, I don't know what FLAC would do to the battery life. Since the data rate is so high (compared to a lossy format) you'll be running the disk A LOT more.
Also on ThinkGeek, the product cannot be sold outside the US, unlike the iPod. Sigh.. I was looking very much forward to it!!
If anyone can hear me, slap some sense into me But you turn your head, and I end up talking to myself
I've NEVER hooked my Neuros up to a Windows machine.
I use a sync program called NDBM (neurosdbm.sourceforge.net). It's written in Java and runs perfectly on Linux.
There are other Sync managers, too, if you refuse to install Java. Sorune (http://www.sorune.tk/) is written in Perl-Tk.
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The iPod supports AIFF, WAV (always has) and now Apple Lossless formats... Granted it doesn't play Ogg or FLAC but if it is just lossless formats you want they are available.
You need to run the latest Open-Source firmware.
Garbage as immensely improved the UI, as has DI (the guys who make the Neuros).
The latest firmware has the 'Play Queue' - you can add songs to this on the fly, without interrupting playback. It is lost when you shut down the player, though.
And yes, this works on the Gen-1 devices (I have one, too)
With the QuickTime OGG Component installed, you can play and convert OGG-media with iTunes and just about any other QuickTime-enabled app.
Actually I would even disagree with this post. When I emailed DI about the problems I had with my device, I was shuffled around to a number of different departments with little attempt at a proper fix. Eventually I got tired of running up minutes on my cell phone and decided to bag the whole thing and go with the (wince) iPod.
Thank goodness I ordered through their website and got the 30-day moneyback guarantee. I would absolutely recommend this to ANYone buying a Neuros. Getting it from a cheapy store could mean you're stuck with a $300 link to Neuros' Customer Service department with no other options.
Upon returning my Neuros, I had to wait for nearly five weeks for the credit to be posted to my card. At this point, I was calling them semi-daily trying to get the matter closed. Frankly, I was very displeased with the whole affair.
I own six original Neuros USB 1.1 devices. Five of them are 128MB Flash units. One is the 20GB HDD unit.
One of these does have a problem...apparently with the flash memory. I've updated firmwares in the rest of them and they work well. I am quite fond of my Neuros units.
It may be you got a bad unit. It does happen.
On another note, I just realized that since I have multiple of them, I really ought to figure out what the plural of Neuros is...
your friends need to get a clue and ignore the "hard drive" recorders.
portable DAT recorder works perfectly, and with the right computer DAT drive you can quickly extract the audio files off the tape and into uncompressed 44.1 or 48KHZ wav files.
I do this all the time, the deck cost me less than $450.00 new and with the Sure pocket field mixer and a pair of high end electret microphones hidden on my lapels I can get extremely good live concert recordings without anyone knowing.
it records better than any pro-sumer digital recording system made and I certianly have the storage that makes the best products look silly. a pair of T-180 DAT tapes can not be beat.
I get about 4 hours of recording time per set of AA batteries, and has manual recording capability.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
i bought a Neuros probly a year and a half ago, i use the battery quite a bit, and can still get an easy 5 hours of play time between charges (2 2 hour trips in the car plus some other running around). and that includes a fair amount of skipping around between tracks. i have had buggy firmware, but i was using a beta so thats expected
Bluetooth is 100 times slower than USB 1.1, which in of itself is considered too slow for HD-based players. Bluetooth would need a hell of a speed bump to be useful for HD-based players.
The hard disk-based iRiver players do what you describe, including recording direct to uncompressed WAV or optionally to MP3 at configurable bit rates. The line in is both analog and optical -- they have optical in and out, both.
The only problem is that they're buggy. Some people have reported recording glitches when the player goes to store the captured data to disk, i.e. periodic hiccups in the recording. I haven't really noticed it myself, but I normally record voice. A friend has recorded live music without seeing the problem, either, but enough people have reported it to raise my doubts. Also, there seem to be arbitrary recording length constraints in hardware. I believe they are dependent on the bit rate at which you're trying to record to some extent, but 2 hours seems to be the outside limit for a single file.
In the past, I might have said to hang on and iRiver would fix these problems with a firmware upgrade. I won't make that mistake again. iRiver's support for this product has been very poor since it was released, promising various firmware fixes and then never delivering, only to move on to whole new product lines while they leave the old customers with buggy hardware that doesn't do what they were told it would do.
So, proceed with caution. But I have had some decent results recording with the iRiver.
Breakfast served all day!