Neuros Technology Forums

I'm not staunchly opposed to adding new sections and I certainly see your point here.  As you probably know, we just migrated from forums that were a complete mess and one of the big conclusions was that too many forum sections were one contributor.  Even in your post, an issue is revealed.  Power issues are pertinent to both the R2 and the OSD.  Which section does it go in?

Honestly, my first choice would be to add to the wiki FAQ (or some other pages) and link to them for a sticky post there.  Its totally permissible (encouraged even) for you guys to advertise products there or link to outside websites.  Can we try this first before creating a new category?

Don't forget to attend Thursday nights IRC meeting on hacking the OSD:  http://open.neurostechnology.com/node/554

you can attend simply by going to the website http://open.neurostechnology.com/cgiirc/

http://open.neurostechnology.com/node/552 for more information.

BTW, I'm going to put up a poll, are you all watching OdNT?  Do I need to cross post here?

What makes you think power consumption will be less with the OSD?  I'd assume it will be more.  It has a faster processor, more memory, etc.  Sean, can you chime in on power consumption.

Of course, we'll always be interested in hearing about features you want and trying to respond to our customers internally.  We don't view the community as a substitute for our own development work.

EDIT:

I should add that as far as a wish list, we actually have team members assigned to monitoring all the communications and making sure they make it into bugzilla (our central repository for bugs and enhancement requests).  At the same time, you are always free to enter and vote on bugs directly there:  bugzilla.neurostechnology.com this is the database that our internal and community developers share to prioritize work.

The OSD has plenty of features that would be of interest, I believe.  Serial can be used for a remote (or a variety of other things as well) as can USB Host.  Check out http://wiki.neurostechnology.com/index.php/OSD_Ideas for some general ideas.  It's an open platform in many ways, Linux, open application software, available schematics and hardware support, and obviously support from the manufacturer.

There's been considerable discussion of the 442v2 on the google mailing list: http://groups.google.com/group/Neuros-DM320Hardware/browse_thread/thread/6facf691f3425068/4b6bbf616ce93f50?lnk=raot#4b6bbf616ce93f50

with some calling the 442v2 "already obsolete" and others maintaining its the greatest thing since sliced bread.  The most recent in the latter category said the below.  Please vote, we'd love to know what you think.

"The 442v2 is one of the most exciting products I've ever seen.  I've
been waiting with unbridled anticipation since I first heard of it,
following the blog and the groups weekly.  Portable AV recording and
playback at DVD quality?  Burr-brown ADC/DACs?  USB Host?  And it runs
Linux!!??  I'm by no means a gadget junkie - I own maybe 10 electronic
devices less than two years old.  And that's because I didn't waste my
money on disposable, locked-down, worthless crap built on a business
model of planned obsolescence.  I waited for the cream to rise to the
top, the hype to die down, and spent my money on well-built,
well-designed products.  And I have been and will continue to wait for
the 442v2.  PLEASE DO NOT EVER THINK OF NOT CARRYING THIS PRODUCT TO
FRUITION!!!  I will weep blood.  There is nothing that I have seen
approaching the plans for the 442v2 either built or planned at any
price."

What I would suggest to anyone interested in this is that perhaps the easiest way to get started is for us to offer a student/faculty discount coupon.  It would give money to you, and also give a discount to anyone you turn on to Neuros.  It's also worth noting that we  already have an affiliate program setup, so anyone that wants to promote the Neuros on the web can do so with the following program that we've setup.  See http://www.neurosaudio.com/is/affiliate.asp

You are definately right on all accounts.  Bugzilla is confusing in that regard.  Firmware refers to N1&N2 firmware.  R2 Firmware is under MPEG-4 Rec >Firmware

And we're definately not resting on our Laurels, check out http://wiki.neurostechnology.com/index.php/Neuros_OSD

I think it's a great idea.  Universities and particuliarly those with significant technical programs are right in the bullseye of our target market.  Now the question is just how to implement.

What we need to do is find passionate students from a campus that we can support with the material you mention and then compensate them, per day or better give them a coupon code from which they get a comission or something like that.  Any volunteers?

When you get this to work, please post results here, I'm sure others will be interested in this too.

Hopefully someone will respond, but if not, we can certainly get you a sample file that you can try.  I doubt very seriously there's a store in Toronto that sells it, we are working on setting up a distributor there as we speak.

read the posting about learning embedded programming (http://open.neurostechnology.com/node/543) on OdNT.

From what I have been told, the only software fix is to use a different file wrapper (ie. avi or asf).  Let me get with the folks here to see what we can do about some kind of exchange or upgrade type program...

I now understand you don't have a good handle on when the 442v2 will actually be ready and don't want to make promises.
I would still like to know if you think it will be ready in
6 month
12 month
18 month
or a 24 month?

I believe we'll be releasing 50 pieces within 60 days, these will be primarily useful to hackers that want a headstart on getting things to work, May1937, the original N2 hackers, the Rockbox folks, etc.  I'm hopeful that we can have something useful by the year end, and do our pilot run then (200 peices).  It's really all up to the firmware development schedule though.  Obviously, we'll use a lot of OSD code, but power management and a comprehensive MP3 player interface/dbase are two big missing peices.

The hardware seems to be ready for a "beta run" of 50 peices now, but the internal resources for the firmware are lacking.  This is what makes the estimation of time so difficult, this is very much going to rely on the community.

We're motivated, just not able at this time.  Take a look at how dissapointed the 442 folks are now because of delays there...