Patriot Box Office 1080p High-Definition Media Player PCMPBO25 (Black)

by Patriot

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 1.5 x 5.7 inches ; 1.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B002Q4U9PY
• Item model number: PCMPBO25
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #673 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

  #42 in

  Electronics > Computers & Accessories > Memory Cards & External Storage > External Hard Drives

• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 14, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The Patriot Box Office is an all-in-one media player that frees your digital media library and brings it to your living room. Box Office supports most media formats and offers numerous ways to connect to your media library: 3 USB ports, internal 2.5” hard drive (not included), UPnP streaming, 10/100 Ethernet connection and optional WiFi USB adapter.

Features at a glance Full HD-video playback up to 1080p Dolby® Digital and DTS™ surround sound Expandable internal storage via 2.5" SATA SSD/HDD Three USB ports HDMI 1.3 and composite video connection (HDMI cable & composite cable included) UPnP support

Simple and Compact. Easily connects and fits into your existing multimedia ceter.

Easy to navigate. Find your movies, photos and music with simplicity.

Connect to multiple sources both through USB storage devices, an internal SSD/HDD or your home network.

Works with any USB storage devices - Play content from most USB drives or any portable device that can be recognized as a mass storage device.

Expandable internal storage - Use the internal 2.5" SATA drive slot with any SSD/HDD to increase the storage capacity for your expanding media library.

Full HD video playback and navigation - Up to 1080p - Experience the highest quality HD video possible and crystal clear audio with Dolby® and DTS™ surround sound. Use the included remote control to navigate and control your media collection with ease.

Network Streaming - Stream media files through your wired or wireless (optional wifi adapter required) home network from desktop PCs.

File transfer - Copy or transfer files between connected USBs, the internal hard drive (not included), network PCs or other network attached storage (NAS) devices.

PC less download management - Download files via P2P sharing for easy access to media from the web.

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) - Support for UPnP streaming on UPnP cabable devices such as Sony Playstation® and Microsoft Xbox®.

Picture viewing - Create custom slide shows and add your own background music to create a truly unique experience. Zoom and pan on each image to view hard to see details.

Movie preview and playback - Quickly preview video files prior to playback. Once selected, control movies at your own pace... Fast forward, rewind, pause, zoom, and pan. Supports subtitles.

Music playback - Listen to your entire music library with fast forward, rewind, pause, repeat and shuffle options.

HDMI and composite video connections - The High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port lets you connect to the highest quality HDTV or home theater. Additional composite (RCA) outputs ensure compatibility with virtually all television sets.

File Formats Supported
Music - WMA, MP3, Real Audio (RA)
Graphics - JPEG, BMP, PNG
Video - [MPEG-1] MPG/MPEG/DAT, [MPEG-2] MPG/MPEG/VOB/ISO/TS/TP/M2TS, [MPEG-4] MP4/AVI/MOV, WMV9, FLA, [H.264/AVC] MKV/TS/AVI/MOV/M2TS, [DviX 3/4/5/6, Xvid] AVI/MKV, [Real Video 8/9/10] RM/RMVB

System Requirements: External USB storage device or internal 2.5" SATA SSD/HDD with supported video or audio content stored on it. Standard or high definition television with HDMI or composite video connections.

Package Contents: Box Office Media Player, remote with batteries, composite AV cable, HDMI 1.3 cable, AC adapter, Quick Install Guide, Software and CD Manual.

Product Description
The Patriot Box Office is a media player that frees your digital media library from the constraints of a PC and bridges digital media to your home entertainment system to bring your entire media library to the comfort of your living room. Box Office is optimized for full 1080P HD video playback, includes the latest in video processing technology, and a Dolby®/DTS™ encoder to create a stunning HD video and 5.1/7.1 channel surround sound experience on your home entertainment system. With support for the most popular media formats (H.264, ISO, VOB, DivX, xVid, MKV, MOV, MPEG and more) you can remove the limits of your media collection. Box Office offers a variety of ways to connect to your media library: 3 USB ports for any USB storage device, internal 2.5” hard drive (not included), UPnP streaming, 10/100 Ethernet connection and optional WiFi USB adapter. The Box Office is the all-in-one solution to bridge your digital media collection and your living room.

Product Description

Patriot Box Office High Definition Media Player is an All-In-One Media Player which supports 1080p playback from various files sources such as VOB, H. 264, ISO, WAV, etc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of the current crop, November 12, 2009

By	TGav (Boston) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Patriot Box Office 1080p High-Definition Media Player PCMPBO25 (Black) (Electronics)

The unit arrived today, and I tested it for several hours so far. It's hooked up to a secondary bedroom 32" Sony LCD via HDMI (cable included). Other included items are : remote w/batteries, wall wart adapter, cheap composite cables. The wireless LAN USB dongle came included as part of the promo in a separate package, inserted either in the front or back full sized USB port.

I have yet to RTFM which is found on a CD, so any missteps or errors on my part may have been avoided had I done so. It offers a ton of features with the price point just right.

Right then, my main use of this MP is to stream video from a networked media center separate from my home theater. I did test direct playback from a portable HD, in this case a WD Passport powered directly via USB. Playback proved flawless of any content I had. Mostly this consisted of mkv container files of 720 & 1080p content. Audio codecs included AC3 and DTS with no discernible difficulty. I was unable to play some archived .iso files, but playback of these were never confirmed on other machines.

The image quality almost rivals my dedicated HTPC (albeit its hooked to a much better TV). The Patriot defaults to an "Auto" noise reduction (NR)function which I left on. Fast panned and action shots displayed smoothly. On the setup screen you can specify TV resolution up to 1080p with or without 24HZ playback. As is the case with stand alone MPs, it does not recognize an attached CDROM.

Audio remained synced with video from mkv containers as well as other files. Pause/play response was quick.

After testing direct playback from USB drive I set up the wireless. It recognized my network, and prompts for ID/PW which you type in via a displayed virtual keyboard, after which it stores (if you so chose) the info. I had trouble logging on to a Windows 7 PC (would not accept info) but had no issues with an XP PC and separate networked drives, including shared CDROM drive. I had no trouble with UPNP setup. Streaming audio and all the usual video formats worked perfectly.

Toggling through the shared content on different PCs was quick and I had no difficulty in accessing the media. Note this is wireless G, not N, so connection speed varies. Best I could achieve in continuously smooth playback was 720p content. It struggled a bit with DTS audio but this mostly depended on the source material. At these times intermittent desync of audio became briefly noticible . 1080p playback proved inconsistent and not advised wirelessly. If this is important to you then running a CAT5 directly may do the trick- I haven't tested it on the Patriot.

Standard DVD play just fine via wireless. Just identify the .ifo and press play. All standard DVD functions including menu navigation work as normally would with any DVD remote.

The remote is decent with all commonly used functions readily available. The response however is inconsistent, sometimes it requires several presses to work a function especially during playback at which time lag is horrendous. Its range is semi decent and has little room for off axis recognition. I like the zoom function up to 8x as I recall-which really showcases the auto digital NR- really great quality. Comes in handy for some 4:3 or 2.35:1 formats if you prefer 16x9 viewing.

Maybe discrete codes are available to program into a universal remote. As far as the quality it's decent enough.

Other features: excellent subtitle handling (Unicode UTF8, and several languages). Adjustable font size, color and screen placement all easily accessible.Build quality is acceptable, light metal not plastic. The price imo is worth the quality and features it offers. Comparing it to the Seagate Theater which I returned to a box store recently, the Patriot's playback quality is noticibly superior which, in the end, is what matters.

So in conclusion, I can see myself using the bedroom TV more and more considering the versatility and quality of playback. The wireless capability does leave room for improvement- as time passes I may decide to extend a direct ethernet to the Patriot if it's worth it and I can't tweak my wireless setup to satisfaction. Also annoying was the occasional slow and inconsistent response of the remote during playback, including FF/Rew and other buttons. With the unit on, some may find the slightly audible hum distracting, but that's subjective. I also have to figure out accessing the Windows 7 PC.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome addition to my Home Theater System!, November 16, 2009

By	J. "premiumSOLE" (M-town, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Patriot Box Office 1080p High-Definition Media Player PCMPBO25 (Black) (Electronics)

I bought the Patriot Box Office and was very impressed as soon as I took it out of the box. This unit is equipped with a stylish brushed black anodized steel case, indicator lights with USB connector in the front and the back of the unit is complete with an 10/100 Ethernet port, USB port, HDMI port, optical (audio) port and composite ports (audio and video). I got even more excited when I discovered another box underneath the unit contained a complete set of accessories including:
- fully functional remote control (with batteries)
- 1 HDMI cable (SCORE!!!)
- AC adapter
- composite cable
- usb cable
- quick set up guide
- CD that contains the device manual

I immediately hooked the Box Office Unit up to my Samsung 46" 1080P LCD TV using the HDMI cable, connected the Ethernet cable and powered up the unit. The built in GUI looked pretty mediocre yet easy to use and navigate. I'd rather have a simple GUI that does the job rather than a fancy looking one that takes a rocket scientist to operate IMO.

Configuring the settings was seamless and was very user friendly and self explanatory. It took me only a few minutes to get the Box Office connected to my network and immediately identified my PC's media files under the UPnP menu. I was able to view the pictures, music and movies that were loaded on the Windows Media Player and was amazed how the Box Office played them without a single stutter or a "black cat deja vu" experience.

So far, I'm super impressed by the Box Office performance. The only thing that I was bummed about was when I was streaming my movies from my PC, the quality was sub-par and they came out slightly pixilated. That's only because I was playing compressed movie files (designed to view on a 17" notebook display) on a 46" LCD TV display. I was eager to test out how the Box Office handles HD movies so I decided to download the Modern Warfare 2 and Assassin's Creed 2 HD trailers from youtube and was I blown away!!! I am now fully convinced that my hard earned cash was not wasted on this product. *patting myself on the back*

I continued to test the Box Office and installed the wireless USB adapter (free during promo period) to the back of the unit but noticed that the USB plug would only go in half-way. The case of USB drive was hitting against the Box Office case preventing the USB from doing a full connection. So I decided to connect the wireless USB to the front of the Box Office instead and it fit fine. Again, set-up was super easy. The Box Office was wirelessly connected to my N-router in seconds after punching in the SSID and the WEP key. I began playing back the same movies from my PC and the video playback quality and performance were excellent as if it was streaming through a wired Ethernet cable.

There are several other features available on the Box Office including playback from a USB Drive, an internal 2.5" SATA hard drive or SSD (optional), and access to the "NET" feature on the menu. I haven't been able to figure out how to access through the NET because it kept asking me to enter my NET user ID and password which RTFM doesn't help me either. I decided to post this on Patriot Memory's forum and hope to get an answer from the members or from the technical support reps soon.

Here are the "pros and cons" summary of the Patriot Box Office

PROs
-High Audio and Video Quality streaming via wired and wireless connection
-Offers several ways to access your media files, physically and virtually
-Very User friendly GUI
-Super easy to configure and set up
-Fully Functional Remote Control (similar to most DVD remote controls)
-Stylish Design. A nice addition to your Media Center that won't look atrocious or out of place.
-Comes with an HDMI cable!! Saved me a trip to the liquor store to get one ;)
-Plays most or all media file formats including ISO (access to DVD menu screens)

Cons
-"NET" feature not compatible with Windows 7. Can't bypass the NET login name and password
-I need another one for the TV in my bedroom. Too bad they don't have a BOGO Free Sale.

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Patriot Box Office 1080P High Definition Media Player PCMPBO25 (Black), December 11, 2009

By	Mark Yoss - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Patriot Box Office 1080p High-Definition Media Player PCMPBO25 (Black) (Electronics)

I now own the Asus O!Play and the Patriot Box Office. They use the exact same Relatek chipset so there is virtually no difference in the picture quality.

The main reason I bought the Patriot was because it had the wireless feature which the O!Play does not and you can also add an internal hard drive.

I have tried to stream media wirelessly to the Box Office, but it is simply unwatchable due to all the flickering and pausing. It uses wireless g which is simply not adequate to stream movies. You can forget about streaming HD movies wirelessly because it is unable to adequately stream even regular resolution movies.

However, when wired up to a LAN cable it works great and is basically the same as the O!Play with the benefit of being able to add an internal drive. It is also the same price as the O!Play at $99 (after rebate) so it is definately worth ocnsideration. Just don't buy it if you want to stream wirelessly.Patriot Box Office 1080P High Definition Media Player PCMPBO25 (Black)