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Patriot Box Office Media Player |
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Written by Daniel "Nicao" Guenter
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Tuesday, 09 March 2010 |
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Page 1 of 6
Introduction:
 We all remember the day when
if you wanted to play a movie you used a VCR or a DVD player. If you
wanted to listen to music you tuned your radio or popped a cassette or
CD into your player. For the majority of consumers that day is far
behind them. There is now a dizzying array of media formats containing
video, pictures, and music. To complement this buffet we also have a
nausea inducing array of players. These players are separated into
three major categories with various shades of Grey filling in the
spaces between. At the top of the food chain we have home theater PCs
running software in the form of Windows Media Center, Xbox Media
Center, or perhaps Boxee. These devices are usually larger, consume a
bit more power but have the flexibility that can only be realized when
you are using a general purpose processor and a full operating system.
On the opposite end of the spectrum we find highly specialized devices
embedded into TVs and set-top DVD/Blu-ray players. While sounding good
as a marketing gimmick, these systems usually fall down when faced with
higher resolution videos or obscure formats. After looking at the high
and low end options we find ourselves in the creamy center containing a
veritable buffet of devices promising to play all your videos and toast
your bread at the same time. These devices are usually small and
unobtrusive, sip from your power line, and have a wide range of output
options.
Positioned squarely among these devices is
the Patriot Box Office. While we usually associate Patriot with
memory, they are intent on worming their way into your living room now
as well with a rich list of features and an attractive price.
Specifications:
Let's
take a look at the specifications.
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Supports Full HD-video playback up to 1080p
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Supports Dolby® Digital and DTS™ surround sound
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Expandable internal storage via 2.5” SATA SSD/HDD
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Supports video playback via UPnP network streaming
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Browse for shared videos, photos and music from networks and USB Flash Drives and USB external storage
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Supports file transfer between HDD, USB, Network PC and NAS
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Built in P2P file download management
- File formats supported:
Audio Decoding - WMA, MP3, Real Audio (RA)
Image Decoding - JPEG, BMP, PNG
Video Decoding - *[MPEG-1] MPG/MPEG/DAT
*[MPEG-2] MPG/MPEG/VOB/ISO /IFO/TS/TP/M2TS
*[MPEG-4] MP4/AVI/MOV
*[H.264/AVC] MKV/TS/AVI/MOV/M2TS
*[DviX 3/4/5/6, Xvid] AVI/MKV
*[WMV9] WMV
*[FLV] FLV
[Real Video 8/9/10] RM/RMVB support up to 720p
Subtitle - SRT, MicroDVD SUB, SSA, SUB/IDX
If you didn't bother to read the above list I'll break down the major features for you.
- Plays videos, music, and views pictures
- Supports all common video formats
- Has a built in BitTorrent client for P2P downloading
- You can put a 2.5in HDD for internal storage
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