A company by the name of Blackmagic Design does a fair amount of business in video editing products, converters and routers for the post-production and television broadcast industries. It is now crossing over to the consumer side with the introduction of the Blackmagic Video Recorder, priced at around $120.

The Blackmagic Video Recorder is a USB video capture product designed to take video from any analog video source, such as VHS or DVD, capture it and convert it to H.264 video files stored on your computer. This type of video file and can be used with products such as the iPod. Blackmagic says this product is thumb drive sized.

The idea behind the Neuros MPEG-4 Recorder is not a complicated one, and that is what makes this such handy gadget.

You can use this device just as you would a VCR, except that instead of recording onto tapes, your record onto digital media (MS Duo / ProDuo, CF and Microdrives) that will run in your mobile device. Normally any television shows or movies you want to watch are subject to what you can download from the internet. With the Neuros recorder you can set it, without subscription fees, to record any show you want from your cable, satellite or camcorder right onto your memory card. You can then play your video in off of the media card on your portable device, such as your PDA, laptop, PSP, iPOD or smartphone.

Simple idea, slick results.

Source [NeurosAudio]