A TiVo upgrade/repair specialist and a vendor of tiny Linux-based DVRs (digital video recorders) have partnered on a coding contest. DRVupgrade and Neuros will pay $3,500 for hacks enabling Neuros's gadget DVR to track TiVo selections, recording the same content for playback on mobile devices.

If successful, the “TiVo and Neuros OSD Integration Bounty” would enable owners of the Neuros OSD to configure the device to “record what your TiVo records, and possibly be able to do so selectively.” Users could then choose to watch TiVo'd content either on their TV or portable device, the idea goes.

In announcing the hack, Lou Jacob of DVRupgrade wrote, “People love TiVo for its robust program guide and related features, and people love the OSD for the portability of its recordings. So, we've come up with a bounty for a project that combines the best of both devices.”

The solution could work by enabling the OSD to interact with Yahoo's TiVo service, although that is not a requirement. An ancillary goal appears to be enabling TiVo subscribers to use the TiVo Central web tools and EPG (electronic programming guide) to easily schedule content recordings via the OSD.

The Neuros OSD is a small media adapter based on a dual-core (RISC/DSP) Texas Instruments processor. It is designed to let users record MPEG-4 video from cable or broadcast TV, DVDs, etc., and then transfer it to portable media players via removable flash cards or USB.

Neuros OSD, front and back

The OSD has a completely open architecture — including both an open source Linux application environment and recently, a free-to-use DSP toolchain. Neuros encourages creative hacks for the device by publishing specifications and software development kits, and maintaining development communities.

The contest was announced on Neuros's blog, here. Contest rules and particulars can be found on DVRupgrade's website, here.

Additionally, Neuros is offering a $30 discount to users purchasing the device for purposes of entering the contest, it said.

 
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