Neuros Solicits Help From AppleTV Hackers 59
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."
is this better than an XBMC? (Score:3, Informative)
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
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The ethernet port is only 10/100, and I highly doubt that it is upgradable via firmware.
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Also, it only offers composite output. It doesn't even do S-video, let alone component or DVI/HDMI. Lame.
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Re:is this better than an XBMC? (Score:4, Funny)
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I realise my friends and family are mostly nerds, but most of them have HDTVs, and this is in the UK, where apparently our uptake of HD is lower than the US.
Re:is this better than an XBMC? YES (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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Downside of OSS (Score:1, Informative)
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.
Woah, blast from the past! (Score:2, Funny)
Now take your iSoma and chant your iMantras.
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what a sad world here there's people that actually beleive that
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Why? (Score:4, Informative)
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.
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No, the question people should be asking is why buy the AppleTV if it's just another PC? I don't know about everyone else but whenever I get a new PC, my old PC becomes the media hub. It costs nothing extra and has more power than AppleTV could ever hope for. This seems like a product in search of a need.
Re:Why? (Score:4, Informative)
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Just wait for your light bill (Score:2)
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You can enable full network access via SSH [awkwardtv.org], or boot another OS [hackint0sh.org], just by booting from a USB drive these days, without opening the AppleTV.
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Sorry, just a minor correction - Apple have actually provided a full PC which they will do everything within their power to stop you running Mac OSX, Linux & MythTV on.
The fact that Apple are shit at t
Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
Huh? Since when has Apple made even a token effort to stop people from running different software on their hardware? They do try to stop running OS X on foreign hardware (but they don't waste a lot of developer resources on it) but that's a very different thing.
Compare how easy it is to load a completely different OS on the AppleTV:
1) write new OS to drive.
2) Apple publicly says they won't do anything via updates to try and stop people from doing it
2) Done.
vs what it took to turn the XBox into a standalone media device:
1) Order potentially illegal mod kit
2) Solder delicate wires to tiny holes
3) Flash hacked firmware (pray you don't screw up, or goto 1)
4) Boot from illegal CD/DVD
6) Install illegal software.
7) Be sure never to load any dashboard updates from MS, since they will all try to brick the machine
8) Done!
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In the end I bought a PS2 instead, which has a pretty good built-in DVD player, and games that don't suck. I may buy an ATV in the future if the costs go down, because it really seems like the perfect hackable media center appliance
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*shrug* If you say so. Last time I modded a box, softmods were still notoriously unreliable
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if neuros had dvi, appletv would not be needed (Score:2)
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AVC because of it's underpowered CPU/GPU
HDTV output, hell the thing can't even do s-video out
Storage of media locally
Interaction with iTunes
and so much more
Different motivation (Score:5, Insightful)
HDMI hack (Score:3, Insightful)
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Yup.
Max Headroom future here we come! (Score:2)
Why does this statement make me think of Max Headroom [maxheadroom.com] re-runs?
The Neuros Technology Looks a Bit Outdated (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
additional outputs needed (Score:2)
Neuros does it again (sigh) (Score:2)
Apple TV - Why no conventional TV output?! (Score:2)
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Translation: [whining deleted] (Score:1)
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
Neuros: Love, Openness.. and IIS? (Score:1)
But what's this? http://www.neurosaudio.com/is/spreadtheneuroslove
Hmm, an open web server..
Neuros missing the point of AppleTV & Open Sou (Score:2)