Review: Neuros OSD media streaming device

The Neuros OSD is a media streaming device that offers a range of ways to view, stream and distribute music and video around the home.

It device is designed to sit between a television and a source device such as a Sky or cable box, video recorder or Freeview box, using the two cables supplied. This allows it to act as a 'pass-through' so you can enjoy uninterrupted television when it's not in use.

Click a button on the supplied remote control, though, and the OSD's [www.neurostechnology.com] screen is overlaid onto the television picture. To view digital music, video or photos through the television you can connect a USB storage device or a memory card directly into the OSD's sockets, or connect it to a wired network to stream directly from the computer's hard disk.

Perhaps the most useful weapon in the OSD's arsenal is its ability to record content either directly to a storage device or across the network to a hard disk. Innovatively, it allows the user to record directly in a format suitable for an iPod or Sony PSP, as well as being able to manually configure settings for other devices.

An IR Blaster is also included the box, which can be placed alongside the infra-red receiver on any device to allow the user to remotely change channels and control the source from the computer to help schedule recordings.

This is an impressive array of capabilities, the potential of which makes the OSD one of the most versatile media streamers yet released. Unfortunately it isn't without its drawbacks.

Being open source, the Neuros is constantly being refined and improved with firmware updates and plug-ins to allow users to customise the interface or stream and view Youtube content on the fly, for instance. For this reason it's difficult to judge the potential of the product but in its current guise we came across some fairly major problems, something particularly serious for the less tech-savvy consumer.

To begin with it's not particularly easy to use, in large part down to the convoluted interface and an unresponsive remote control. We also had some issues when setting up the network access, although these were eventually cleared up, and we were disappointed by the lack of control the user has over media files during selection and playback.

Vista compatible: Yes