After the holidays and recently being hit by the power outages that slapped the west coast, I’m back and I’ve found a bit of news that may help out the media buffs in our readership. If you were thinking about buying an Apple TV you might want to look at this possibly lower cost option, it’s called the Neuros OSD (OSD stands for open source device). This is an open source recorder that can record your media, such as DVDs, to an external storage source and play it back on your TV, record shows off your DVR/TiVo, and playback the media you already own.

While it does require an external hard drive, memory card, portable device, or home computer be attached to it, you have the freedom to choose how much storage you want. That’s definitely a step above the 40 or 160GB options of the Apple TV. However, it only supports standard definition at the moment.

All you have to do is plug your external storage into one side of this device and plug your TV and DVD player, VCR, DVR, or cable box into the other side. Once that’s done you can record all your DVDs, VHS tapes, recorded shows, and even live TV to storage for use when you want to watch them.

One distinct advantage that the Neuros OSD has over its competitors is that its hardware and software are both open source. That means that anyone can modify it, expand on it, and show other users how to get more bang for their buck out of the same machine. Neuros Technologies even goes so far as to have contests with cash rewards for new applications that can run on the OSD. One winner designed a program that allows the user to watch videos from YouTube directly on their television.

While the cost is very close to that of a 40GB Apple TV I could see the expandability, lowered risk of bricking it with third party apps, and openness of the entire device as added bonuses that you just don’t get with competing products. We support the open source movement here at Way of the Geek, but it’s the value that I think attracts me more than anything else. I can live without the HD support for right now if it allows me to save my favorite shows from my DVR.

I hope to see a lot more devices with this kind of open platform in 2008. When the community can expand on something and get more value out of it, everyone wins.

If you liked that, try...

1. Open Source Alternatives to Your Software
2. Ubuntu Tweaks
3. Apple Open Source Still Alive
4. Microsoft’s Top 25 Open Source Projects
5. Apple Launches ‘iTunes Plus’

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