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It's fairly straightforward to set up. All we had to do was connect the Neuros between our Freeview set-top box and our TV. Then plug a USB hard drive into it, which it immediately detected and was ready to record to. Video quality was excellent, although it's important to format your drive FAT32 rather that NTFS to ensure smooth recording.

The Neuros has an Ethernet port on the back, and can access the internet once you connect it to a router. This allows you to play videos directly from YouTube, which is a cool feature, although low resolution internet video doesn't look great on a large TV.

You can also use the receiver's network

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connection to access content on your PC that you've shared over your network. Although the receiver doesn't come with a detailed manual, information on doing this can be found on Neuros's website, which provides clear, simple, configuration instructions.

The OSD supports a wide range of video and audio formats, although it can't play High Definition video or H.264 encoded MP4 files. We also noticed problems with its playback of VOB files. It has fewer video outputs than most, but the European version comes with SCART converter plugs that you'll need to connect it to your television and digital box.

The receiver runs entirely on free open source software, and its users can play an active role in its development. This means that new features, bug fixes, and firmware updates could be released quicker, and third party applications can be created to run on it.

It's not perfect, but we've had a lot of fun using the Neuros OSD. It's a great device that's easy to use and has a lot of potential. For our final verdict, check out the forthcoming group test of streaming media receivers in Shopper 244. You can buy the Neuros OSD for a very reasonable £139 from Advanced MP3 Players.