![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , December 29, 2009
- Author:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Patriot Memory's Box Office Media Player Review
Looking for the perfect "enthusiast" media box for your living room? The Box Office from Patriot Memory may be about as close as it gets. The only thing not included is an eye patch and a Jolly Roger.
What I Do Like
1. Abilities - As I stated on the previous pages, the Patriot Box Office (PBO) will play just about any video file you might come across with the exception of WMV files (WMV9 is supported). Most of you reading this could care less about WMV files. The PBO is damn near flawless when it comes to playing .MKV and .AVI supporting a myriad of codecs. Currently the PBO will mount DVD .ISO files as well and it is promised that the PBO will soon mount Blu-ray .ISO files too, giving the user full DVD/Blu-ray functionality as if you had the DVD or Blu-ray disk in a legacy player.
This all gives me the ability to back up my personal DVD and Blu-ray disks and allows me a system where I can play those files on demand with the click of a few buttons. The Patriot Box Office represents the best "video jukebox" at the price.
2. Image Quality - The picture quality I have seen on my personal PBO is excellent. Obviously the picture is only as good as the content you feed the PBO. 1080P and 720P video content looks exactly like you expect it to look; beautiful.
3. Connectivity - The PBO has great connectivity. If you cannot get content to your PBO then it is very likely that you would not be in a situation to ever use one anyway. The fact of the matter is that a big spectrum is covered, from having a lowly USB flash drive, to setting up a standalone NAS server for the unit.
4. Moving Content - Copy functions are built into the GUI in order to move content to the PBO, or simply drag and drop on your desktop once you get the PBO recognized on your network.
5. Remote Control - It has a real remote control that is very functional; please just give me backlit buttons one day.
6. Internet Streaming - PBO will easily stream internet content using TVersity the likes of Hulu.com and Youtube.com. Beware the GUI gets tremendously unresponsive when doing this though, but it is still doable.
7. BitTorrent - BitTorrent on the unit is something I do like, but I think those that will be using BitTorrent will go ahead and handle BitTorrent from their main PC like they normally do. It does however work although it does make the box run a bit hot, which is likely something you don’t want to do if you have disconnected your fan to make the unit silent.
8. Expandability - I like that Patriot makes it easy for me to throw in my own hard drive. If you are concerned about heat and the unit’s sound profile, this is the way to go. With a SSD installed, you are quickly on your way to a device that is SILENT while serving up your media content.
The Bottom Line
The Patriot Box Office is a marvelous little device that is perfect for the computer hardware enthusiast that is not afraid to get his hands a bit dirty. The PBO is not a consumer device; don’t expect "Plug and Play" to make it all work for you. Grab the somewhat anemic manual here.
At $99 after MIR, the Patriot Box Office proves to be a great value. Do remember that you will need to purchase the $19 Patriot Wireless G USB Adapter as well if you plan on putting the PBO on your wireless network as the device is somewhat proprietary.
There are some other media playback boxes out there that do use the same Realtek RTD1073DD chipset that we find inside the PBO, but none that I am aware of have such a robust feature list at the relatively low price point. The Patriot Box Office offers a deeper feature set than any others when you start factoring in the entire package of expandability, connectivity, inputs, and outputs.
Patriot has said that Wireless N connectivity will be coming to the Box Office soon and I would guess that USB 3.0 is not too far away either. Hopefully we will see USB 3.0 inside the PBO before Q3.
Last but certainly not least, Patriot itself has shown to be 100% behind the Box Office as can be witnessed in its Media Players forum community. Patriot is actively listening to the end users of its Box Office and pushing forward some of the ideas that are feasible for future improvements to the unit. Some of those improvements may be a simple as a firmware upgrade which Patriot is making available in BETA form as well. Patriot and its community are also very helpful in getting Box Office issues solved. Do remember, the Patriot Box Office is not a consumer-level product, but rather a product more directly aimed at the computer hardware enthusiast. As long as you go into the PBO experience with that in mind, you will likely be very happy with your Box Office purchase.
