First Impressions of the Neuros Link

DeviceGuru writes "Having recently constructed the BoxeeBox, DeviceGuru blogger Rick Lehrbaum naturally was eager to check out Neuros Technology's somewhat similar IP-TV set-top box. Lehrbaum's first-impressions review of the Neuros Link describes the device's hardware and Ubuntu-based software, shows screenshots of its functionality, identifies a handful of weak spots, offers some specific suggestions for improvement, and shares a few hacks (including adding an HDD and Boxee). All in all, he concludes, the Link's hardware is more than worth its minimal $300 pricetag."

Comments

Sounds nice but

[drinkypoo]

I can't help but feel that a more integrated product (e.g. not based on 100% commodity hardware) could be a little cheaper. This doesn't seem like a great price for what it does. I also can't help but think from his dick-sucking link at the bottom of the article that it's a paid advertisement (on his site, if not this one.) What self-respecting geek wouldn't want to snag one? Puh-lease. This ain't no Quadrocopter. It's a dinky PC. It doesn't even have a slot-loading drive, which would have sexed it up considerably. Or if it does, this shitty adview doesn't say so. Regardless, why does a machine like this need a motherboard with expansion slots? If nothing else, it could be smaller.

Re:Sounds nice but

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

All about volume.

To really cut the price, you'd need to go with some non-x86 embedded setup. Trouble is, that would increase the software development costs and (much worse) would mean that you'd need to hassle a whole lot of "content providers" to get things working with their services. x86+flash, by contrast, is pretty broadly supported without special agreements.

If you have to use x86, how many of these things do you have to stamp out before your economies of scale can approach those of boring miniITX motherboards? 10,000? 100,000? I'm sure any mobo manufacturer would be happy to do a reduced price highly integrated version just for you, if your order is large enough; but Neuros probably can't hit that at present.

Re:Sounds nice but

[0100010001010011]

Mother board is $80
Processor is $50
4GB of ram is $50

Small cases aren't cheap. But the builder in me would rather build something out of a nice hardwood or plexi-glass. (Depending on the decor of the house).

I can't wait until XBMC supports full hardware decoding and HDMI Audio out.

Re:Sounds nice but

[Thelasko]

But the builder in me would rather build something out of a nice hardwood or plexi-glass. (Depending on the decor of the house).

I found some nice art deco examples here.

Re:Sounds nice but

[TrentTheThief]

I have a LINK, too.

If you want a small, cheap media center that has no future, you go right ahead on and buy that POS thing that HP is flogging.

I've had my LINK for two weeks. It rocks. It plays any file I throw at it. MKV, Dixv 3-6, DVDs.

Expansion slots? Yeah, it has slots. It also has an active hacking/mod community that's experimenting and enjoying the chance to contribute and have some fun with a cool toy.

If you prefer "appliances" to computers, that's fine. Buy what lets you sleep at night. I'll stick with something that lets me make it work the way I want it to, not the crap that HP and Dell are flogging, thank you very much.

When you get your new appliance, see if you can run Elisa, MythTV, and Boxee on it. Let me know if you can manage to add a SATA raid to it, too.

And get off my damn lawn, too. Damned kids.

Re:Sounds nice but

[JoeBorn]

I'm from Neuros for those that don't already know, I'll answer the x86 v embedded elsewhere. Regarding economies of scale, let's look at it a different way. As many of you know, Neuros history is in embedded systems from scratch. This is our first x86 project as well as the first using off the shelf components. We actually did it because of the economies of scale advantage. The PC industry has such an established supply chain, with such huge volumes that its creates a huge advantage. You have to live with x86 plusses and minuses, which, again I'll address separately. But if you favor x86, which obviously we do for this currently. Sticking with off the shelf makes sense (at least to start). As posted elsewhere, this MB *at retail* is $80 that's really quiet a value for that piece of hardware. Look at the GPU, and the host of peripherals and expansion. Firewire, tons of USB, s/pdif, 7.1 audio, HDMI, DVI, VGA, PCI, SATA, etc. Sure, much of that is worthless for a mainstream wal-mart product, but not for a Gamma launch to folks that want to experiment and play around. Likewise with the case, it's nice having size for a internal 3.5" drive, and/or an optical drive. The case could be smaller certainly, but today, it's the size of a TiVo, so it's not an unreasonable compromise IMHO. Of course, as the product matures, we'll cut out many peripherals, and put it in a smaller case, certainly there will be cost savings, but some not immaterial tradeoffs. It wouldn't surprise me if we continued to sell this unit along side it. I suspect many would continue to prefer it. Best guess is that the savings will be on the order of $50 for some of the customization above. Important no doubt, but not everyone would want those tradeoffs, particularly at a stage where we're specifically targeting hackers.

It is something for watching TV, apparently

[johannesg]

I thought I'd mention that since the summary can't be bothered...

Review misses important point

[horza]

The review misses one of the most important things in a home media device which is: is it fan-less and how noisy is it?

It also mentions MythTV but doesn't do any form of comparison to the main alternative.

Finally it mentions Hulu as the main media portal... and fails to mention this isn't accessible outside of the USA.

Phillip.

Re:It looks hideous

[JoeBorn]

I have a Xbox running XBMC and it's amazing for less than $100. Saying "XBMC is better" then going on to conclude that the $300 Link is "an exceptional value" doesn't make sense. His conclusion does not match his observations.

Well, this combines a HW and SW comparison. Wrt to HW, a modded second hand X Box is an unbeatable value for standard def, period. It was subsidized HW and can't be beat (particuliarly at $100). If you can get past the modding headaches and SD limitations, you won't find a better value. In fact, if you need component and composite connectors, the LINK doesn't support that at all.

That being said, the LINK is many years newer hardware. The processor is 2.8 GHz 64 bit v Xbox's 733 MHz (IIRC) etc. and the LINK has HDMI, HD GPU, etc.

Wrt to SW, the LINK is evolving from its starting point of basically stock Ubuntu with a collection of apps (including XBMC and Boxee) to a more seamless, integrated experience. The app software is all GPL, so parts of many apps will be integrated over time, there is still lots of experimentation ongoing (and getting community input during this period is precisely why we launched to users early)

Joe (from Neuros)