Neuros Audio LLC sent us in for a spin their latest versions of their two main products, the Neuros 442 Digital Media Player/Recorder and the Neuros MPEG-4 Recorder 1. UPDATE: Firmware upgrade adds timer recording, pause recording and a shuffle option for audio files.1. Neurus 442
The Neurus 442 is a portable media player and recorder. Much like the Archos, iRiver, Creative (and other Windows Media-based PVRs) and RCA Lyra devices, it can playback both music and video/pictures. And it’s among the few that can also record video from external sources.
The device can playback mp3, WMA (not all kbps ranges are supported) and AAC-LC on its 40 GB hard drive. The video player is able to playback MPEG4/DivX 3.11/4.0/5.0/WMV v9. Older versions of WMV do not work. The internal photo viewer supports JPEG/GIF/BMP on either the 3.6″ internal screen or on an NTSC/PAL TV.
The Neuros 442 has a similar size to the iRiver PMP-120 and the RCA-Lyra RD2780. It feels very solid in one’s hands and the weight feels right too. The device has an on/off button, two volume buttons (-/+), a headphone-out, a mini-usb jack that makes the hard drive look like an external drive under any operating system, a line-in, a line-out, a lock button, a 5-way joystick, a “back” button and a menu button. Under the device one can find an SD/MMC slot for easy copy of media back and forth. In the package you will find headphones, a USB cable, a owner’s manual, two composite video input/output cables, the installation CD, an AC adapter and a leather carrying case.
The Neurus 442 loads pretty quickly, about 4 seconds after you press the ON/OFF button. The user is then presented with a horizontally scrolling interface with options of audio, video playback, photos, microphone recording, files management and PVR.
One peculiar thing was the fact that the device only came with folders called DSC, PVR and VOICE. I had to manually create the “video”, “music” and “pictures” folder and throw my media files in them as I don’t like putting files on the root of a given filesystem. The device was able to read all my mp3s, jpegs and bmps I threw at it, but it had problems with a 20 kHz WMA file. Additionally, I found the volume level pretty low compared to my iPod, as I like listening to my dance music pretty loud. The 442 played my DivX and mp4 videos (not .3gp though) without a problem, even at resolutions higher than its suggested QVGA one. The “War of the Worlds” mp4 trailer was 656×352 for example, and its dual-cpu setup played back the trailer without dropping any frames. This XVid video crashed the device though. The screen is very bright but it has a low viewing angle and it’s “slow” (you can see the interlacing lines when playing back video).
Each of the video and audio screens look like the file manager’s view. By navigating to their respective folders you can start playing the files sequentially. The device came with a generic .m3u playlist file, but the audio application can’t “see” it, so I am not sure how well these playlists are supported…
The settings display allow you to change the automatic power off timer, the LCD brightness, date and time and it also gives you information about the firmware version. You are also given a DivX registration code that you can use with vod.divx.com to download protected content. The current 1.2.2 firmware supports 7 languages. The interface is really spiffy and battery life is very good (it lasted about 4.2 hours with video-only and LCD on, which is good for video harddrive-based devices).
There are a few problems with the device though: I have a huge beef with the lack of a built-in “stand” like the one in the RCA Lyra that let’s you tilt the device on a flat surface, and the lack of an external speaker. Then, there is the fact that you need external hardware to use the voice recording as there is no built-in microphone, making the feature kind of useless. Picture viewing is not great either, as the only menu options for it are the same generic ones as for the audio and video ones, there is not a way to rotate or zoom a picture for example.
The PVR can not be set to schedule recordings in the future and its HVGA (640×240) recording resolution is not compatible with many media players because the 442 does not document that the file format does not use square pixels and so Windows Media Player for PocketPC or TCPMP for PPC/PalmOS render the video as a long stretch (unwatchable). VLC, Real and WMP think that the file is 320×240 instead, and only WinAMP is able to playback the file correctly (in a VGA-sized window). The 442 is able to playback its own recording file fine though. To avoid such problems with other players though, always record in QVGA instead of HVGA. Additionally, the user must install on Windows an audio codec if he wants to playback his recordings on a PC, otherwise there is no sound. On PDAs, only TCPMP supports that audio codec, Pocket Windows Media Player does not have sound at all and there are no available audio codecs for it.
However, many of the above software disadvantages will go away with the upcoming version of the 442 which will be based on Linux. The Neuros 442 is not a product that you buy once and it stays still. It is an evolutionary product. Neuros Audio LLC has put up a blog discussing the new, Linux-based firmware that is coming soon and it’s to replace the current proprietary firmware. Current customers will be able to upgrade their device easily and additional hardware tweaking can be done for a nominal fee. The Neuros Audio folks are asking your help to give them feedback and help out with the firmware’s development. Slashdot, Wired and Newsforge had recently an article detailing the whole process behind this switch to open source.
Recording sample (normal QVGA)
Recording sample (skewed, HVGA)
Recording sample (skewed, HVGA)
Overall: 7.5/10
2. Neuros MPEG-4 Recorder 1
Here is a great PVR product with a twist! It can record from any video-output device, like a cable box, DVD, camcorder, etc. It is no bigger than a PDA in size, and less heavy than one! The device has no internal storage and it records directly to your CF or SD card in .ASF mpeg-4 format using the G.726 audio codec, same audio codec as the 442 uses.
The device came with a remote control, a pair of I/O cables, a power supply, a USB cable and a descriptive & very visual user’s manual. The CD includes a Ulead application that allows you to export the .asf files to other formats/resolutions.
Setup was very easy, and the menus are easy to navigate through with the remote control through your TV. The main screen includes 4 big icons, one for mp3 play back, one for video playback (ASF and DivX), one for video recording and one for picture viewing. Each of these four actions has its own options (e.g. rotate or zoom for the picture viewing), while on the main settings menu you can set up the recording resolution (352/388×240 at 30/25 fps respectively or phone resolution at 176×144), date and time, recording quality, NTSC or PAL, etc.
The newly released firmware for the MPEG-4 Recorder 1 also includes new options for scheduling recording (e.g. once, every week, daily at the same time) in addition to the manual date/time scheduling. Quality of the ASF in “normal” mode is very good and it looks fabulous on the 3.5″ screens of PDAs or the 442. It looks like VCR quality on big TV screens, like on my 55″ SHARP widescreen HDTV.
The device comes with a USB cable that you can then connect it to a PC like a flash storage reader and use a file manager to manage the files in the attached SD or CF cards. What’s great about the Neuros Recorder 1 is that you don’t have to take the middle step of re-encoding your DVDs or your VCR/DVD-R recordings for small devices or your phone.
I will have to seriously nitpick about the fact that it only encodes videos in .ASF format instead of DivX or .mp4 though, because a 2-hour movie requires about 750 MBs of space with *mono* sound. A similar quality/resolution DivX recording with stereo sound it would weigh below 260 MBs and an h.264 recording below 180 MBs. So the device got cheaper by using a less powerful CPU, but the customer pays later for it by having to use larger SD/CF cards. Another problem is that the device is not “clever” enough to not encode line 21 of the TV stream, which is only used for closed caption, resulting in annoying playback on that line.
The new version of the Recorder, the Recorder 2, is expected at the end of this month, for $149. It records in higher resolution and directly in the PSP movie format. It also includes a memory stick slot instead of an SD one.
Recording sample (NTSC recording, normal quality)
Overall: 9/10
The black mp3 (shown on the left) at the link is VERY ugly; imho of course. It makes me appreciate my ipod more.
Neuros 442:
What about support for USB charging?
audio-only battery life?
audio equalizer?
(it’s linux based and don’t support Ogg Vorbis? [I know it’s hard to support somethings because of the DSP, but most of advanced players can support the format these days…)
>What about support for USB charging?
No
>audio-only battery life?
About 7 hours. Not great. The device is primarily a video one.
>audio equalizer?
Yes.
>it’s linux based and don’t support Ogg Vorbis?
You misunderstood. The Linux ROM is not released yet.
Thanks for clearing up!
The screen is very bright but it has a low viewing angle and it’s “slow” (you can see the interlacing lines when playing back video).
It’s not slow, it is displaying interlace video on a progressive display with no ability to deinterlace the video. Either it has no deinterlacing capability, or your video material was encoded without deinterlacing it.
I highly dispute the fact that ALL the videos I tried (coming from many different sources and encoders) are to blame.
Can’t say anything for these products, but I own a 20GB Neuros II, and I must say that thing is fantastic, supports just about EVERY audio format you can think of, open source firmware, built in Line In, built in RF port, built in FM Transmitter/Reciver. It’s just fantastic.
Is this the only device of its kind that’s (going to be) Linux-based?
No, there is one more. And I am going to review it next week. 🙂
That device is based on uClinux and that is not a broadly known fact (LinuxDevices.com never reported on it for example). I found out about it myself when snooping around in its firmware files after I used a hex editor with them (hehe…). I contacted its manufacturer to ask about it, and indeed, last night they replied, it’s based on uClinux with kernel 2.4.19.
If you can’t wait until Monday for the details, email me.
Neuros are currently working on their next generation developer hardware, which will be the basis for a later hardware revision of the 442 and also the Neuros III. It’s notable for being designed to provide _much_ higher audio quality than most DAPs, using high-end Burr Brown ADC and DAC and providing a true line-level output (as well as an amplified headphone output) and also SP/DIF digital out. Nice stuff. The 442 doesn’t excite me much (even in the second version), but I can’t wait to replace my Neuros I with a III…
I’m looking to replace my Neuros I with something too. Will the Neuros III have the same form factor as Neuros I?
AFAIK, no – it’s planned to be rather smaller and won’t be modular (it’ll be all one unit, no ‘brain’ and ‘backpack’).
Yep. Found their developers wiki. Seems like it will be a sweet device. Thanks.
> I found out about it myself when snooping around in its
> firmware files after I used a hex editor with them
> (hehe…).
Heh. Nice.
Open source, community friendly, geek oriented, but… Why is there always so little support for Ogg-Vorbis?
The Rio Karma plays them quite nicely. iriver has a couple of players that support Ogg, but that’s about it. I almost bought the old Neuros but ended up ppicking up the Karma, because Ogg support was not very clear.
A shame, really. I think Neuros are doing a great job, and with Rio recently gone… Tsk.
I believe JetAudio makes a number of ogg players as well.
Neuros would do well to heed this criteria: Linux-based or not, I would never consider their products unless they support open codecs.
>>I almost bought the old Neuros but ended up ppicking up the Karma, because Ogg support was not very clear.
That’s very odd to hear you say that. Ogg Vorbis has been fully supported by the Neuros I and Neuros II for more than 2 years.
That puts ogg support just after I bought the Karma, I guess.
i just wished those things had support for flac and musepack and so on.
or at least as plugin.
Format support is just a question of the firmware; the newer firmware will support many open formats, I think they’ve said. It’s certainly a goal of the project.
I bought a Neuros 2 audio player from them about a year ago. It shipped late by a week or two, and they sent my shipping notice to me via e-mail about a week after it arrived at my door. Nice.
I figured it would be a great audio player since you could buy expandable hard drives for it. Now go to their web site. The audio computer is hardly mentioned at all! And forget about buying upgraded storage. This month they apparently completely discontinued sales! I found my unit to have far less battery life than claimed. The damn unit crashes while going through the menus quite often. I can honestly say that the Neuros audio computer is expensive crap.
I have had nothing but disappointment from my Neuros purchase. I think anyone would be crazy to buy any of their products. They’ll probably sell you a marginal piece of hardware (the Neuros audio computer feels cheap) that crashes constantly, then drop support, or more likely go out of business, a little more than a year later.
Did you try calling for support? Neuros has a great tech support department who are good about fixing units with problems. What firmware version does it have? Early versions were a little unstable but I’ve never seen it crash in normal operation with a 2.1x or later firmware, so if you got a unit with earlier, you could try upgrading (the firmware updates are on the website). You can upgrade the storage yourself – you only need a Torx screwdriver to open it, and it takes a perfectly standard 2.5″ IDE hard disk (that’s why it’s so big). I upgraded mine from 20GB to 30GB, it was easy and works fine. Just open it up, disconnect the ribbon cable, connect it to the new drive, and close up again. Easy as pie. You can also buy upgraded backpacks and stuff from this site which specialises in Neuros updates: http://www.cool4u2view.com/Neuros.html . Finally, not to sound churlish, but if you’d done a little research before purchasing one you would surely have found out they were near end of life; it’s been widely discussed on the Neuros forums. I knew they were stopping selling the original Neuros two or three months ago, it was hardly a secret. It’s been around several years now and is badly outdated, they want to focus on the recorder, 442 and the Neuros III (when it comes out) now.
Johan Abadie ([email protected]) to Neuros-beta
All-
We just received a firmware upgrade for the 442 (1.2.4). It will add a Timer Recording feature, Pause Recording and has a shuffle option. I tested it last night and it worked fine, but we want to make sure you guys test it too before we release it.