Labs

Neuros's OSD is a sleek black box. It can't handle High Definition Video or files encoded in the H.264 format, but it supports almost every other format and is easy to use. It can read and write to memory cards and USB drives, as well as to SMB shares on a networked PC or network-attached storage device. It's the only streamer here without wireless, so you'll have to use a wireless bridge or a cable to connect

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to your network.

The OSD has 3.5mm A/V sockets for video input and output, and two composite and twin phono audio-to-SCART converter boxes. There is no manual. Instead, you are referred to comprehensive online documentation.

For recording, the OSD can control your digital TV box via an infrared transmitter, which can mimic a digital box's remote control. Programming it to do this is time-consuming, as you have to point your remote at the OSD and press each key when prompted. Once it's set up, the OSD can turn your TV receiver box on and off and change channel to record TV. Recordings can be up to 2GB in size. Our 640x480dpi MPEG4 recordings had reasonable picture quality.

The OSD uses an open-source operating system, and an active community means advice and new features are easily available. It isn't perfect, and won't suit those who want HDMI ports and support for HD video, but it did a better job of recording video and controlling our digital box than Archos's TV+.