Neuros Recorder 2 review

[Nxs]

Ever want to play your favorite t.v. shows on your PSP or ipod video in MP4 format? Now you can with the Neuros Recorder 2. This nifty little piece of hardware has all you need to take your favorite t.v. shows, movies, or pictures anywhere you go.

First let me say this, to use the Neuros Recorder 2 in its full capacity, you will need a few other things depending on what you are going to use it for. I purchased an MS duo card as well as a compact flash card and a card reader for the review. Out of the box, it comes with the unit itself, power supply, two miniplug composite cords and a remote.. The NR2 is very small. Hardly bigger than a game case and can be easily hidden if need be.

All that is needed to set it up, is to plug it in and plug the miniplug into the out on the NR2 and vga into your tv, dvd, or cable box. Once you are on the NR2's interface, it is pretty self explanitory. And while I am on the subject of the interface, my only complaint is that it is a little drab, other than that though, it is very simple to get to where you want to go.

Staying on the t.v. and dvd part, the NR2 works like Tivo. You are able to record movies and tv shows at will, as long as the card you have will hold it. It also has a time so you may set the NR2 to record your program when you are away or sleeping. You may also set the resolution from economy to superfine. Obviously, economy will not look as good as superfine but, does not take up a lot of space. To give you an idea, I recorded parts of a program on all settings for a minute and 2 seconds. All were recorded in tv vga mode.

Economy: Very pixalated. Very high compression ratio allows for small size and very long recording time. 5.34mbs to 1m and 2s
Normal: Still pixalated but still has a long recording time. 7.39mbs to 1m and 2s
Fine: Best bang for the buck so to speak. Looks good and gives you more recording time than superfine. 8.7mbs to 1m and 2s
Superfine: Sharper color than fine and you can see a little difference in picture, but almost double the file size of fine. 15.9mbs to 1m and 2s


As stated above, the preceding was recorded in tv vga mode, which I played back on the computer. Now, there are other resolutions than just the tv vga mode and they are wqvga and qvga. I must note this, wqvga and qvga can only be recorded in economic and normal mode. This is because they are made for the PSP and ipod video respectively.

Wqvga = 368 x 208. PSP
Qvga = 320 x 240. Ipod video
Tv vga = 640 x 480

As I have mentioned the ipod and PSP, it seems like a good place to talk about what the NR2 does with them. Although, at the time of this review, I did not have access to an ipod, I can tell you that because the ipod video does not have a flash card slot nor an ms duo slot, you will need to have the card reader hooked to your computer to get the videos and them send them to your ipod. Easy enough. So we will jump right to the PSP portion.

PSP Compatibility


PSP owners should be well aware of the fact that the .MP4 video file type is supported by all firmware versions, and luckily this recorder works flawlessly with Sony’s cute little handheld. Just like you would normally, you can place a PSP memory card in the MS DUO slot, where it will instantly be recognized. All of the programming features as before will be intact, such as the timer function and quality settings.

However, due to the PSP’s limited hardware capabilities, not all of the quality settings can be used. The problem is that it can only play video at a maximum bitrate of about 768kbps, which is equal to the recorder’s ‘normal’ quality setting. Because the fine and superfine options are unavailable, you won’t quite get that UMD quality video that is so highly coveted. In Neuros’s defense though, this is actually a problem with the PSP and not their hardware, so we really can’t hold it against them.

To combat this problem, the ‘TV’ mode can be selected if you still want to record high quality video onto your PSP. By doing this, a new folder will be created on your memory stick that will prevent the video from showing up within the PSP’s menu. If you do try to play a video that is of too high quality it will make your PSP crash, so this is mostly a safety feature.

The .MP4 file can easily be accessed via a USB cable and voila, your PSP can now record video straight off the television for your viewing pleasure on the PC. For those of you on the move a lot, you can use the timer feature to automatically record your favorite shows and then watch them anywhere if you don’t mind a minor loss in quality. The sound quality coming out o the PSP’s speaker isn’t too impressive again because of the hardware limitations, but if you have a pair of headphones or a docking station then the audile experience will be nothing short of satisfactory as well.


Now, my guess is the NR2 was made for taking videos with you on your portable devices, however, it can do so much more. What? You ask. Well, I will tell ya! The NR2 can get videos, pics, and music from almost any source you can hook it up to. It has a photo slide show so you can show your vaction pics to music than you can put on there. If you are a gamer like myself, you can hook it up to any console gaming system and take videos or screen shots. To me this is just great and any game reviewer would love to have this little piece of hardware.


As I come to the end of my review, I will take your through the pros and cons of the Neuros Recorder 2. I shall start with cons. The interface color is a little drab, to use it to its full potential, you might need to invest a little more money, albeit, if you already have the duo card, flash card, and reader, this is not a problem. Now for the pros. It is very small. It is so easy to use, I just can not get that point accross enough. The NR2 will do more than the manual states as long as you have the adapters to do so. Recording game moments from a console or the PSP is just a great inclusion to its ablillities. The fact that it can be used as a Tivo should be a big plus for some people as you don't have to pay for the Tivo service.

On a side note, my brother and I spent the better part of a day playing with all it can do. Both of us are impressed. As of now, my brother has it set up in his house so it can be switched to record tv, dvd, or game with the flip of a switch. In this reviewers opinion, this is a must have for any gamer or movie fan. Nothing I have have played with can do what this can and I would imagine that the next incarnation of it will do more.

[Fycus]

its great but a bit pricey at $150...

[Nxs]

It may be a bit pricey for your casual gamer but, if you are a reviewer, travel a lot, or do not want to invest in a tivo, this is perfect. I especially find it useful for a PSP reviewer. If you have ever seen Xplay, they do not take vids of psp games, they show the whole system when they review it. This eliminates that problem

[modock22]

the thing i love the most about it is that i'm going to be able to record tv shows and put them on my, soon to get here, can't wait for it, palm tx. Also i'll be able to show off my best game stuff to the monkey and rub his face in high scores! The neuros comes w/ a cd that contains tcpmp (the core pocket media player) and all the codecs you need! now that just makes things real easy!

[FunkyJ]

modock22-

The free TCPMP version currently included with the Recorder 2 does not support AAC anymore. Core Codec had to remove the AAC support from this free version due to licensing issues. There is a plugin for AAC, but based on the information I was given, it is illegal, so neither Core Codec nor Neuros can distribute it. We are about to launch a new bundle in a few weeks with a customized version of TCPMP with AAC support and a SD/MMC card adaptor for PDA. Pocket PC and Smartphone owners.

If you have any questions, email us at support@neurostechnology.com

FJ
Neuros

[Nxs]

Nice to see someone from Neuros posting. Thanks for the input.

[Fycus]

woah talk about community support, neuros send me one of those recorder 2's over my way. :thumbup:

[Vesper]

I also have one of those Neuros Recorders and I absolutely love it :francesco:

I'll admit the initial price is a little steep, but honestly I think it's well worth it. I have the timer set so it automatically records The Simpsons and Seinfeld for me every night so I can everything before I go to bed

It's a cool little device, and I think it works great after recording off of a 13" mono stereo tv lol. I heard it works for iPod videos too but I don't have those. It's a shame that the PSP doesn't support a higher bitrate because the quality isn't excellent, but it's still more than satisfactory for daily viewing :thumbup:

It also helps that I have a 1GB memory stick from SanDisk, obviously this would kind of be pointless if you only have a PSP with 32MB stick. Those 2GB sticks are going pretty cheap on Amazon now from what I hear though, so if you can afford to buy this then you can afford enough memory too

[FunkyJ]

Increasing the quality of the recording for the PSP is a popular request. As you guys know, the limitation for bit rate is on the PSP side, not the recorder side. The PSP will not playback something encoded at a higher rate than 768kbps from a memory stick. It might change if Sony abandons the UMD format, but that remains to be seen. Overall I think that the current encoding bit rate is a good compromise quality/file size if you want to put a few videos on a memory stick.

I have done enough testing to tell you that the quality of your source plays a big role on the quality of the file you will get. In general, if you record from a DVD player (remember, only DVD you own!), the noise is much lower than if you record from a TV channel. PVR/DVR give you a good quality as well. If you record a VHS tape from an old VCR, you will see what I mean about the importance about the quality of the source.

As Vesper mentioned, the price of the memory cards is really going down lately. I also saw a 4GB Hitachi Microdrive on sales at $110 at Best Buy 2 weeks ago, pretty good deal. (We just released a new firmware on Friday that will add support for Seagate 4GB and 8GB in addition to Hitachi microdrives).

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Cheers
FJ
Neuros

[modock22]

just to let you all know if you do a little research you can find a free open source acc codec. tis not really acc but decodes them just fine! and works w/ the core pocket media player!