Neuros have shipped an amazing-sounding device that takes the video you’ve already paid for — DVDs, TV shows, and so on — and repackages it to play on your PSP, laptop, phone or any other device that can handle MPEG4 video and Memory Sticks or Compact Flash. It’s small enough to use as a portable VCR, slipping it into your pocket and taking it on holiday or to meetings.
It’s seems ridiculous that you can record a TV show to play back on your TV, but you have to buy it again if you want to watch it on your iPod, phone or PSP. Why do you need to buy a DVD and an iPod version? Why can’t you “home-tape” your media to something more convenient, the way you could with your old LPs?
Thank (or curse) the entertainment companies: they have threatened to sue any company that makes a better digital VCR (they put one manufacturer, ReplayTV, out of business, by sucking up all their dough with legal fees). They’ve even proposed legislation to close the “analog hole” that makes this recording without permission possible. That’s right, Hollywood’s media-savvy technophobes really think that they’ll be able to convince Congress to help them with something called the “A-Hole problem.” Hey, if the shoe fits.
But Neuros’s pocket-sized “Recorder 2” defects from the tacit agreement to withhold better technology from the market. Just in time for Christmas, Neuros is taking a stand, letting you home-record your stuff and watch it the way you want, the way the law allows. They’ve even written a stirring editorial explaining their commitment to their customers’ freedom, with such choice quotes as “But who will stand up for you today if you are to continue to have the right to enjoy your legally obtained media content wherever and whenever you want?” and “these proposed laws are about Big Media using piracy as an excuse to take away your right to control your own legally obtained content and thereby open up new revenue streams by forcing you to pay multiple times for the same content.”
* Record effortlessly from any video source (TV Cable box, Satellite Receiver Box, PVRs or DVRs Like TiVoTM, DVD players, VCR, Camcorders).
* Simple setup that works without a PC and operates like a VCR.
* MPEG-4 video format allows you to view content directly on your PSP(TM) or any other device that accepts standard Memory Stick or Compact Flash (CF) memory cards (not included).
* The MPEG-4 format is also compatible with most other portable media devices.
* A great way to digitize your home movies for archiving, emailing, or playback on portables and laptops.
* Can play back from Recorder 2 through TV’s and home theatres. Pocket-sized device is small enough to use as a portable VCR.
Bravo, Neuros. I hope you sell a million of these things. I’m buying one right now.
(Thanks, Kathryn!)