Legit Mods and Ends Reviews
Patriot Box Office HD Media Player Review
| Manufacturer: | Patriot Memory |
| Product: | Patriot Box Office (PCMPB025) |
| Date: | Thu, Nov 19, 2009 - 12:00 AM |
| Written By: | Ken Brown - |
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Final Thoughts and Conclusions
We had to keep reminding ourselves that this is a player that retails at $129 ($99 After Rebate)– far cheaper than the Sony PS3 or Microsoft Xbox 360 solutions which start around $200+. The performance of the Box Office was incredible. High definition movies and lossless music played quickly and stutter-free. Even large-format images that we captured in JPG or TFF looked great on our TVs.
Even the software, while rudimentary and simplistic, did its job by helping the user navigate around with ease. My 5-year old was able to find the Transformers Animated DVD rip that I loaded and was able to pick out his selected episode mainly by using the “preview” browser.
Patriot has actually set the standard for affordable home theater appliances with the introduction of the Box Office. From the bundle that you get out of the box – including a full-sized remote and HDMI cable, to the ability of upgrading this device over the internet that “future-proofs” the device from falling behind in innovation, the sky is the limit. You can even pair the Box Office with Patriot's $15 USB Wireless WiFi dongle for wireless network connectivity!
The biggest downside to the Patriot we had, however, was its loud fan. Now, I say loud, because in my home theater environment it was the loudest piece of equipment I had. Even from 12 feet away where we sit to watch TV, I could hear the Box Office turn on and off. The effect was even more pronounced when we moved the box to a bedroom. We told Patriot about the loud fan and they informed us that we must have a defective fan as it is rated at just 20 dBA. Our sound meter was showing 52 dBA from about a foot away from the unit, so something obviously wasn't right. Patriot expedited a new unit to us and when we turned it on, it was like night and day. The sound from the new box was much quieter than the pre-production unit that we originally recieved.
Overall, we were very pleased with this device and would recommend it over others in this price range mainly because we can use a local hard drive. Unlike the Western Digital wWDTV Live which “partners” with a USB connected drive externally, the Patriot Box Office solution is sleeker and more functional.
With the holidays approaching fast, this might be a very good gift for you to get someone. It has built in expandability, a very small form factor, and functionality to compete with competitors more than twice its price. We hope that our pre-production unit's fan noise is a fluke, but if you are really worried, you could replace the original fan with a quieter one, or you might be able to get away with unplugging it - if you want to take that risk. If you are like most people, you will have the volume of the A/V system loud enough enjoying the surround sound goodness so any fan noise will not be a problem.
Right now, you can find the Patriot Box Office on sale for $99 at many online retailers like Newegg.com (after Mail-In Rebate here or here) - just in time for the holidays, and Patriot even stands by the Box Office with a year warranty!
With this price and its performance, we award the Patriot Box Office the Legit Reviews Value Award!
Legit Bottom Line:
The Patriot Box Office has the ability to play virtually every multimedia file known, stream HD, and support an internal 2.5” hard drive. Combine these features and its low price, we recommend this media player over all others.
Questions or Comments? View this thread in our forums!
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Page 1 - Patriot’s Box Office - A New Player in the Game
Page 2 - Patriot Box Office – A Look Inside Page 3 - Patriot Box Office – Setting Up Page 4 - Patriot Box Office – HD Performance Page 5 - Using an SSD with the Patriot Box Office Page 6 - Final Thoughts and Conclusions |
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