Enabling the freedom of choice without the restrictions..

How cool would it be to put your storage card into a recording unit, record your TV program, then put the card into your IPAQ and play your recording on your IPAQ? Well I was asked to review a product that did just this, and I jumped at the chance and I’m really glad that I did. Especially with the new season of Grey’s Anatomy around the corner.



The MPEG-4 Recorder 2 can connect up to most pieces of AV equipment and make a recording. If it plays on your TV, then you can record it. Cable Box, DVD Player, Satellite Receiver, VCR, Camcorder, etc. The recording is MPEG4 format.

So I received my package and then it struck me that I really didn’t know much about hooking up televisions, DVDs, Satellite receivers, TiVo boxes and the like. We do have quite an assortment in our house though. We have a really simple setup in one room with a satellite receiver connected directly to a television with a cable that had these three colored ends (red,white,yellow). Seemed like a safe place to start. It made sense to me that I had to take out the one cable that was connecting the Satellite Receiver and television directly, and then put in the two new cables, which came with the unit, with the Neuros Recorder in the middle.

And this is what I did - took just a few minutes - and to my amazement it worked!! I now had the Neuros menu appearing on the television. Now it was a bit shaky and it was in black and white, but the manual addressed this. It told me that the first thing you need to do is to set your correct TV output format. You do this from the first menu that appears. The choice being NTSC or PAL. I set it to NTSC and now the picture was stable and in color. Also from this menu, you need to set the correct date and time.

The next thing I did was insert a SD card. Again the manual explained that you inserted them upside down and the contacts go in first. It went in about half-way which was a bit disconcerting, but this was correct and the Neuros unit immediately recognized it and any picture or video files that were already on the card. I was now able to view my photos and videos on my TV from the card.

But my main aim was to record a TV show. Now the menu is similar to the menu on a video recorder, and these menus are never easy to follow. If I had to find a criticism with this unit, this would be it. The menu is not that intuitive, but after using it for just a few days- I have it mastered! So I chose my show from the satellite guide and tuned to that channel. I then set up a timed record with the Neuros unit. I also selected a recording resolution. I chose the 320x240-30fps format. This is recommended for the IPOD and keeps the recording compact, but is also suitable for other handhelds. There is a 640x480 format which provides the highest resolution, but is only recommended if you intend to playback on TV or PC rather than a handheld. There are other selections as well and the manual explains them all. With the 320x240-30fps format, a 1 hour show used 399MB of disk space on the SD card.

I then waited for the recording to start. At the set time, the red light on the Neuros unit turned on. It also displayed on the TV screen that recording had started and the estimated space that would be used on the card. The recording then ended at the set end time. I was excited to see if it would play on my IPAQ!

I pulled the SD card out of the unit and put it in my IPAQ 4700. Now the manual stated that you would need TCPMP to play the recorded file. I already had this installed on my IPAQ, so I thought I was set. I used File Explorer to find the recording and tapped on the file. It asked me to choose a program to play the file. I chose TCPMP. It played, but without sound and I received a message saying ‘Player: MPEG4 AAC Audio decoder not included! It was removed from the original install package because of intellectual property considerations’

Oh No ! - So close, but so far. I went to the Official TCPMP site and for sure there was no AAC plug-in. I Google'd the problem and found that you could still download this plug-in from the Rareware site

I went ahead and installed this plug-in. Now when I went to play the file – I got both video and audio. How cool was this !!! I was totally impressed.

Now if I had taken the time to look at what was on the CD that came with the unit – all this would have been explained, along with links to both the TCPMP site and the Rareware site.

My next test was to see if I could also play this file on my IPOD. Again the manual explained how to transfer the file to the PC (just drag and drop) and then fully explained how to add it to your iTunes library, and from there sync it to your IPOD. This was a simple process and I soon had it on my IPOD. The quality was as good as any show downloaded directly from the iTunes Store.

I also played the recording on my PC. This needed QuickTime, which I already had on my system. So this was just a question of double-clicking on the file.

The manual states that you can use the Neuros Recorder to record video for playback on the Sony PSP, Neuros 442 portable media player/recorder, IPOD Video, the Nintendo Gameboy Micro, and many handhelds. It then goes on to tell you what you need to do for each of these devices. Now I have an IPAQ 4700 (PPC2003SE), IPAQ 2795 (WM5) and an IPOD Video. So these were the only devices that I tested it with. It worked really well for all three devices. It also worked well on my PC.

At this stage, I thought it would be brave to try it with my DirecTV TiVo Unit. Now the cable connecting the TiVo Unit to the TV was different. The cable did not have the red, yellow, and white ends, but instead had a single end and was connected to the RF Out on the TiVo end.

Hmm, what was a girl to do? So I phoned Neuros Tech Support. The man on the other end was very polite and very helpful. He said that so long as the TV was connected to the TiVo box via a cable that had the three colored ends, then you could connect the Neuros box between them. So it was a question of removing the existing connection (RF out) and connecting it in the same way that I did for my first set up between a Satellite Receiver and TV. And then all I had to do was retune the TV to a different channel for this new hook-up. So I removed the cable from the RF out connection on back of the TiVo unit. Connected the Neuros box as before - one cable going from TiVo to Neuros, and the other cable going from Neuros to TV. I turned on the TV and went through the channels until I found one that displayed the Neuros menu. Once I found this, I had to again select NTSC and then I was up and running.

Now this TiVo Unit has two cables coming in from the satellite dish, such that you can record one channel while you watch another. The Neuros Recorder records whatever is being displayed on the TV. Now I have NO idea if you can connect this differently such that you can record what the TiVo is recording, rather than what the TV is showing. This is beyond my knowledge.

I did find out though, that the TV that is connected to the Neuros unit has to remain powered on for the recording to work properly.

So I am really excited about using the Neuros Unit. I recorded the season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy and then watched it (a second time!) the next morning, on my IPAQ while sat at the hairdresser’s. I even ordered two more 1GB SD cards such that I can easily pop these cards in and out. I stayed with the 1GB sized cards as my PC will only recognize 1GB, and it just keeps things simpler. If I didn’t have the unit already to test, I would certainly go out and buy one.



Whats in the box:

* Recorder – (4.5 x 3 x 0.5 inches)
* Power adapter
* RCA Video cables (x2) the ones with three colored ends red,white,yellow
* Remote control
* User Manual
* CD with manual in PDF format, and Expanded User’s Guide

PROS:

* The ability to record TV shows, and any other video from various sources onto a storage card which can then be played directly on Handheld devices , or transferred via PC to IPOD.

CONS:

* The menus were not intuitive
* The TV needs to stay on and tuned to the channel that you want to record.



COST: $129.99
via mobilitytoday