What's Your OSD Killer App?

[JoeBorn]

I'd rather the majority of the coders focused on improving the existing features, resolved more of the bugs, the playback 'quirks', the stabi ity issues and the performance problems [a.k.a. slow responsiveness or locking up of the unit] first. 

Maybe others have seen different, but my experience with the current firmware hasn't been that it's unstable or sluggish (at least in general).

Either way, I would suggest that the killer app is not so much about "adding another feature" than a focused approach, which I'd argue will get us a very mature set of features faster than trying to do everything.  Again, maybe others will respond differently, but I don't feel that current firmware is unstable or slow, but I do feel that we have to enhance functionality in some targeted areas.  We'll best be able to do that by picking a focus area and really hammering away at it, rather than slowly nibbling away on many different fronts.

How do others see it?  I'd be very curious to hear.

[jimharr]

My Killer App: an unencumbered-media PVR. this means: an EPG with integrated recording scheduling, a remote with more than 4ft of range, ability to encode/decode S-video quality (at least), 'skip commercial' or 'skip forward 30 sec' commands. If these things we're added to neuros, even if the price doubled, it'd rule the world! :-)

[budwzr]

Maybe others have seen different, but my experience with the current firmware hasn't been that it's unstable or sluggish (at least in general).

Either way, I would suggest that the killer app is not so much about "adding another feature" than a focused approach, which I'd argue will get us a very mature set of features faster than trying to do everything.  Again, maybe others will respond differently, but I don't feel that current firmware is unstable or slow, but I do feel that we have to enhance functionality in some targeted areas.  We'll best be able to do that by picking a focus area and really hammering away at it, rather than slowly nibbling away on many different fronts.

How do others see it?  I'd be very curious to hear.

Yeah, exactly! The Killer APP is hooking up the osd to your video source, recording to your NAS drive, and then editing as needed(commercials, start/stop times) from ANY computer on the network, then when the weekend comes. popping a cold one in the living room and watch your friends jaws drop as you navigate your own custom FREE "movies on demand" menu while they are paying $3.99 a pop for pay-per-view. THAT ALONE is worth the price of admission to the OSD world. The audio/pictures/YouTube are just a little more eye-candy to top it off.

[pedxing]

To me, the killer app for the OSD is as an HTPC replacement. I was an early adopter of HTPCs, building my first in 2000. I would love to permanently turn off my HTPC and replace it with the much lower energy draw of the OSD.

What the OSD is missing to make that happen, though, is I/O. Big time. Current inputs are a bare minimum, and outputs are actually far below what I consider acceptable. What I would like to see:

Inputs:
  Required (IMHO):
    - Composite audio and video
    - S-Video
    - SPDIF (coax and optical)
  Optional:
    - Component
    - HDMI (though probably without HDCP)
    - Coax if a TV Tuner was added
    - CableCard
    - Firewire

Outputs:
  Required:
    - Composite audio and video
    - S-Video
    - Component video
    - SPDIF (coax and optical)
  Optional:
    - DVI
    - VGA
    - HDMI (Again, HDCP seems unlikely)
    - Firewire

And a few miscellaneous thoughts:

1. Where is the support for all the USB device types out there? You could have Bluetooth support through USB, or DVD support. If these are available, they don't show up on the compatibility list. The biggest missing device, given the lack of wireless support in the OSD, is for USB Wireless adapters. Given their low price and the  support available through linux-wlan-ng, the lack is surprising.

2. Don't underestimate the power of selling the OSD as a "green" solution. It is the reason people want to put BitTorrent clients on this (and the NSLU2 and the WRT54G), so that their computers don't have to be on all the time.

3. The lists of required I/Os above are no more than is already easily available on an HTPC. Take a look at the AVS Forums for other ideas about what people are dying to see in a media client.

4. In this day of High Definition TVs being adopted by all and sundry, a media client that doesn't display at least 720p at 16x9 is a non-starter. Yes, this would likely require a significant bump in processor/DSP speed, but it would be worth it.

5. I am ambivalent about the need for a TV Tuner. I think most people have set-top boxes nowadays, and more are going to after the 2009 cutoff for the analog television channels. A tuner seems like a waste of time now.

6. With Firewire input, you could use the OSD to record from a Camcorder to a networked hard drive. Perhaps an  OSD could also support playing AVCHD files directly to a TV.

7. Other options for I/O:
  - a microphone jack for easy audio recording (saves getting a converter cable to composite audio).
  - RJ-ll connectors for one or more POTS telephones and possibly an outside line (FXS/FXO). This could be supported by integrating one of the many ATA chips out there. This would promote the convergence that is coming with Telephony 2.0.

8. The OSD can also function as a NAS, and so should look at supporting all the features that the "Slug" distributions support for the NSLU2.

Anyway, just a few thoughts. I just recently bought the OSD because of its open platform rather than its feature set. It sure would be cool if the feature set became the driving factor.

[budwzr]

Pedxing, That's the Yin/Yan beauty of the OSD, it's open environment (and possibilities) makes it attractive to geeks, but on the other hand the simple to use interface makes it attractive to regular consumers.

[jackflap]

It would definitely have to be the Miro app. Something like that could revolutionize television. My parents in greece have broadband, but really [chocolate ice cream]ty television channels, I would definietly buy one for them. Think of all the other countries in the world which have crap tv, not to mention, it's fully customizable to the needs of the person watching.

Although, you'd probably be slapped with a ton of lawsuits to remove that app by the media industries since it's a direct thread to their market share, but definitely my killer app.

Alex

[flatcurve]

Some kind of compatibility with the HDHomeRun would be awesome...

[luka]

A bit late but... better late than never.

Killer app for me would be IPTV set-top and PVR is a bonus. Unfortunately, current OSD can't play content of the
providers I'm after (wmv9@640x480). So here's my wish list of features I'd like to see added to OSD so it can
become OSD2 (in descending order of importance).

Codecs support:
- wmv9, h264 at up to 1920x1080p

I/O:
- 2xUSB 2.0 supporting multiple usb devices at once
- HDMI out
- keyboard/mouse (IR/RF-to-PS2/USB, BlueTooth)
- FireWire
- SPDIF out

Hardware support:
- HDTV TV encoder (1080p)
- upconverting to 1080p
- 802.11g/n (mini-PCI option, USB dongle?)
- SATA (for optional onboard HDD)
- raw DV capture via FireWire
- raw video capture via composite/S-video
- VCR-kind LCD (to run software w/o TV, like audio player, Skype)
- BlueTooth

Software:
- IPTV client
- FTA Satellite client (to control USB box like Twinhan VisionPlus)
- BitTorrent
- FTP client
- wget
- file transcoder (mpeg2->mp4, ...)
- DVD player (to control USB DVD drive)
- OTA HDTV client (to control USB/Ethernet tuner)
- Web browser
- Skype
- video editor, DVD authoring

To JoeBorn, I can't estimate wmv9 IPTV market, but browsing through their forums I saw quite a few requests for set-top boxes.
They come mostly from people who don't want to bother with PC but prefer easier to operate box with it's simple interface and remote control. Being open source, OSD would be relatively easy to customize for each particular provider and thus it has an edge
over proprietory boxes. If it would only support hi-res wmv9...

[albanetcsr]

Hi everyone and congratulations on the very promising product.

A year or two back, while browsing channels on TV one evening, I thought it'd be cool if there were "internet channels" in the cable box channel guide, with video content from all over the web.

Apparently this is pretty close to what Veoh has been doing on PC (http://www.last100.com/2007/06/20/veohtv-has-joost-in-its-sights/). I think that for most people, HTPC box to watch occasional online video is an overkill. In my mind, such a device would have to be an inexpensive ($100-200) box, compatible with lots of removable storage (USB, flash cards, ext HDs etc), having a recording or at least DVD-ripping capability, and controllable with a remote. In addition to the above - pretty basic PVR features - such a device would also have a channel guide for internet content. Needless to say, when I saw Youtube browser demo on Neuros OSD, I immediately ordered the box.

So - my first OSD killer app would be a TV-style channel guide for online content, functionally familiar to just about everyone. It's just so easy to use, and people love easy to use stuff. Think of an average Joe who gets most of his information from mainstream outlets like Fox/CNN/HBO - he hooks up a $200 box and gets dozens of online channels. Imagine the social/political impact that this exposure could have. It may be challenging to create linear TV-like programming from random-access online content, but Veoh is doing it somehow. Perhaps channels could simply be RSS feeds composed by publishers and/or aggregators, containing Youtube/Google/Metacafe/etc videos on a certain topic.

My second OSD killer app would be the capability to share content (photos, videos, movies, shows etc) with friends, without actually giving them the physical media. This would create a viral element, but features like movie sharing could be a legal vulnerability.

[illin_technology]

Killer app?

Well, for myself, I'd really like to see the LANcast idea as referenced here:

http://forums.neurostechnology.com/index.php?topic=8280.0

and here:

http://groups.google.com/group/Neuros-DM320Hardware/browse_thread/thread/9a8ad27f26d8cfed

and its bugzilla here:

http://bugzilla.neurostechnology.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2925

Easy, automatic OSD and iTunes/iPod integration. 

[haplopeart]

My killer App for the box is being able to use it as a fairly cheap MythTV front end only.