Slashdot Mirror
Neuros Solicits Help From AppleTV Hackers
JoeBorn writes "Highlighting the fact that Neuros officially encourages contributions to its open source device (GPL), it has published an open letter soliciting the help of AppleTV hackers. 'The transition to IPTV creates a golden opportunity to ensure that the gateway to the TV set becomes open to all.' Neuros draws a connection between open source and free media, and attempts to articulate why an open box can extend the freedom of the internet to the TV set."
I've been debating for a while now whether i want to get an XBox 1 to stream videos etc off the lan at home. At it stands, neither cd changers, dvd changers or "media pcs" have really made me happier or content easier to access. We have far too many controls at home, far too many user interfaces, and stupidly crippled hardware (we've got a sony dvd/harddisc-based recorder that doesn't interface with any kind of tv catalogue - useless!)...
.isos, decompress rars and zip files. Amazing stuff. No software players I've seen yet can do this.
I've seen a modded xbox happily navigate windows' shares, ftps, even RSS feeds, and even download videos from the net on the fly. I've seen them transparently mount
Here's the crux tho: the Neuros OSD is ~ $200... I can get an xbox for £50 (~notalot) with games and a controller, then softmod it to my specs in a few hours. I know what the xbox does, ive seen it do it.
If the neuros had a 1gig ethernet port (im not sure it does?), i'd almost certainly invest simply to use it as a NAS (there's a mod for this on the OSD website) as I have 3 x 300Gb USB2 hdds lying around needing a gige link to justify disconnecting them from the PC.
I've seen other gige NASes around too, but they cost far too much. The xbox 1, of course, doesnt sport gige (does it?!). I suppose I could hard mod the xbox usb and plug in a usb gige adaptor, but does the xbox support usb2??
Nonetheless,
I personally think its fantastic seeing a product that wants to utilise OSS this way! I've long wondered why the proprietary vendors try to cut out modding if they're pricing their product to make money through sales (think wifi boxen etc - not xboxes, their business model needs you to buy games). Its weird when their product lines and life expectations usually fall far short of incorporating any "user inspired" features. I've yet to see "successive" versions of products actually take features from the unsupported mod market and sell in a new product. Clearly they're just trying to thawt innovation at home, because there's a very thin line between breading up a small SoC and selling it!
Matt
The AppleTV -is- a PC, it's got a 1.0GHz Pentium M-based based x86 processor, a GeForce Go 7300 GPU, a 40GB HDD, 256MB of RAM, USB, 100B-T Ethernet and 802.11b/g/n WiFi, with HDMI and component outputs...
Why should anyone interested in developing open solutions for set top boxes limit themselves to the OSD's closed embedded-style hardware, when Apple has provided a full PC that you can run whatever you want on (Mac OSX, linux, MythTV, etc...) in a nice neat package for almost the same price ($229 vs $299)? Especially when the AppleTV is sufficiently powerful to do HDTV divx/xvid decoding in software, whereas the Neuros OSD needs to use it's closed DSP core to handle even SDTV.
"The worst tyrannies were the ones where a governance required its own logic on every embedded node." - Vernor Vinge
the nueros has no digital video out AFAIK, so its worth is limited.
Or just an attempt to keep their company in business?
Looking around their web sites, I don't get the feeling these guys are F/OSS evangelists by choice. That said, I hope the OSD is a success for them.
Get the hell out of here, and go away. Please...thanks, I'm glad you are considering this offer. Get the hell out, Thanks.
It adds one significant feature: it can record.
Otherwise, there's nothing else on the market that is as good as Xbox Media Center.
Personally, I've bought a spare Xbox (on the £50 deal you're talking about) as a backup for my current XBMC box.
Apple TV hackers focus is legally running Cocoa applications on a $300 device. If you just want a Linux set top box, your best choice is probably a slightly used notebook. You get to customize hard drive space, gaming capabilities and so on according to your needs. Neuros attitude is golden, but does their hardware bring any additional value into the picture?
I really have a distrust of OSS projects in general, especially high profile ones. They always seem to turn out like Netscape, which throws the source out there and may as well say "our programmers suck, please fix our buggy product for us". And when someone is throwing out an open letter to "the community"... that's essentially what is written in any kind of open letter.
FOSS has it's place, but when zealots view it as some kind of realistic alternative to real products, it ends up being quite laughable. For example, Linux hasn't ever been ready for the desktop, and it probably never will. They are still chasing Windows 95's tail lights, and here MS went and released six operating systems since then.
Don't get me wrong, it's admirable that people are continuting to improve a free operating system, and some people have done impressive things. It's just that some people (most of whom are unable to program, and thus unable to contribute to improving Linux) turn into rabid anti-MS zealots, and delude themselves into thinking somehow this class project is going to turn into something world changing which will bring about some kind of utopian future, like Bill & Ted's music.
Not gonna happen. Get with the program, live in the real world: MS has thousands of advantages when it comes to making a business case for them, and tit for tat you can make comparisons to applications fulfilling a specialized need, MS has gone and put all of that in a single product, and made sure it all works. Free software isn't free, especially when you have hundreds or thousands of computers to support. Every piece of software you add brings with it a potential problem, so the secret of intelligent network management is to install as few pieces of software as possible... and Windows truly does let you do more with less.
Quick, someone hack HDMI into it.
Where the hell of you been? It's 2010, and everyone owns a Mac and prays daily to the Great Steve.
Now take your iSoma and chant your iMantras.
'The transition to IPTV creates a golden opportunity to ensure that the gateway to the TV set becomes open to all.'
Why does this statement make me think of Max Headroom re-runs?
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
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.
This looks really interesting. It's something who's time has come. The one obvious problem with this product, however, is the lack of additional outputs. Specifically, at a minimum, component and DVI are needed.
I don't know who this is supposed to appeal to. Hardcore hackers who don't care about hi-def and don't have even the slightest concern for audio/video quality? I went to the Archos OSD FAQ seriously looking for the "what the hell were you guys thinking?" question...
Compare this to the ATV, with built-in 802.11n, hi-def support (even if it's only 720p), digital audio, hdmi, totally buzzword-compliant. Sorry, but being open-source and even open-process can only get you so far, even with geeks.
-DA
I would buy the Apple TV today as a stationary, sync-able iPod with video control (never mind the videos from iTunes, I don't reallly care about those) if it had composite or S-Video output. WTF is Apple thinking limiting it to HD adopters?
sulli
RTFJ.
Translation: "Apple make money on DRM. DRM evil. Apple have closed code. Closed code evil. Us linux. Linux good. Pay us."
AppleTV is an awesome box that is built upon a ton of open source items, from the kernel upwards. Just check out the legalese page on it if you don't believe it. I think its popularity is just going to grow. The AppleTV doesn't have video in, but is definitely a superior box otherwise. I don't see any reason why it won't handle any 'iptv' thing that comes along in the future - oh, at HD quality also.
Thanks, but no thanks, Neuros.
Signed,
An AppleTV Hacker
Oh yea, and the Neuros website uses 'open' far too many times.
. asp = "Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0"
But what's this? http://www.neurosaudio.com/is/spreadtheneuroslove
Hmm, an open web server..
There are dozens of other small PCs that can do what the AppleTV or Neuros hardware can do, and which can run open source software, and are above all cheaper than either. People whose goal is running open source software above all else aren't generally going to be "Apple TV hackers", but for the ones who are... what is it that Neuros offers them? One thing that hardcore open source people are worried about is finding themselves locked in to a single source. Who else is making embedded set-top boxes with a dual-core ARM9 processors they can go to if Neuros goes casters-up?