Patriot Memory PBO Alpine Media Player Review @ [H]

The obvious competition for the PBO Alpine would be the Logitech Revue with Google TV, which is easy to get for under $100 now and also runs Android (Honeycomb now).

The Revue has a bunch of advantages:
- Official Netflix support
- Android market
- Faster CPU / better browser with Flash support
- RF keyboard with touchpad included

There are also some downsides to the Revue, though:
- It's power hungry for a media streamer (~14W and it never turns off)
- It has a fan that can sometimes be annoying
- Inferior support for video formats (although apps might help this)
- It's getting hard to find given that it has been discontinued
 
I didn't see it posted in here anywhere, but is the remote that comes with this thing IR or RF?
That would make a HUGE difference as to the cost of a replacement remote. . . Personally I am curious about it running something like XBMC. I * heart * XBMC - if it had DVR and Live TV functions like Windows Media Center, I'd NEVER load Windows Media Center :)
 
Steve, I have the original PBO and it's great for certain things. one area it fell flat was streaming content from my local network. As long as it was DVD quality it lower it was fine but once I tried streaming a blue ray over wifi things went south fast.

Can you confirm that the Alpine is able to stream high bitrate movies over wifi on the local network?

if it can do that ill gladly replace my PBO with this one.
 
The Gonz said:
Steve, I have the original PBO and it's great for certain things. one area it fell flat was streaming content from my local network. As long as it was DVD quality it lower it was fine but once I tried streaming a blue ray over wifi things went south fast.

Can you confirm that the Alpine is able to stream high bitrate movies over wifi on the local network?

if it can do that ill gladly replace my PBO with this one.
Click to expand...

i also am curious as to this as it's a big plus for me too being that i have 8GB mkvs...
 
I'm kinda on the fence about Android 2.2 being sold when ICS has been out for months.
 
The Gonz said:
Steve, I have the original PBO and it's great for certain things. one area it fell flat was streaming content from my local network. As long as it was DVD quality it lower it was fine but once I tried streaming a blue ray over wifi things went south fast.

Can you confirm that the Alpine is able to stream high bitrate movies over wifi on the local network?

if it can do that ill gladly replace my PBO with this one.
Click to expand...

Not that this necessarily applies to your situation, but I was having trouble streaming Super HD content (4-8GB mkv, typically) over to my HTPC, though SD and some HD seemed to work fine.

Had to go wireless n 300 all the way, which required replacing my card and router. Once I had done that, I had to find the perfect settings on the router and card to get the 300 throughput. (Pfff...sounds easy...but took a long time to find what was wrong, the solution, and then find the settings.)

Lastly, for the network hardware setup, the server had to be wired to the router, with the HTPC as wireless. Otherwise, even @ 300, all I would get is somewhere around 150 connectivity, and less if anything else in my network was doing anything.

However, for the Alpine...I would have my doubts that, even with the fastest connectivity, that it would be able to process 4-8GB video, even if directly connected. Would like to be wrong about that...but, for $89, I don't have a lot of hope.
 
You said you tested USB wireless adapters. Did you try both G and N adapters?

You mentioned that you can install/download apps from the store, but never brought it back up afterwards. Can you download the Netflix app and run that?
 
For Wiseoracle:

Steve said:
You can't download the official app because the Netflix doesn't recognize the PBO Alpine as a supported device (phone / tablet)

BUT...we tried out a half dozen Netflix apps (various versions) in .apk form, half of them work, half don't.
Click to expand...

They tried multiple Netflix APK's and some worked while others did not. You can find modified netflix apps for android via google. This allows android devices not yet supported to get Netflix. I did this with my phone before my phone had Netflix officially supported. Worked like a charm.

Also just a FYI for all. I could only find this device at NCIX for pre-order, although I dont see a release date anywhere on when it will be available. Searching most places turns up the original PBO and not the Alpine. Would be nice to know when it will be available to actually purchase.

EDIT: Ahh went back to the article. "the company is shooting for a March release date". Sorry I cant read at times. :)
 
Steve, when you get a chance, can you also test for .ASS subtitle file support?

Mostly used in Animes and allows for fancy pancy timing, color, font and placement of the subtitles. The WDTVs fail at displaying them properly.

Thanks!
 
One thing I find annoying on many of these media streamers is the slow file transfer speeds over LAN.

At one point in time or the other I've had a PopcornHour, PBO, and WDTV plugged into my entertainment rack, yet I find each lacking in some area. How difficult is it to put out a streamer that supports a wide variety of file formats(h.264, BR ISO, etc. etc.), with reasonable LAN performance, and support for Hulu, Netflix, and others???

Sigh.
 
It is listed for preorder on ncix Canada for $130. C$1=US$1.

Does the web browser work with sited like PBS.org?
 
I was going to purchase a PBO about 4 weeks ago but didn't get around to it.

I then decided to dig around a bit about competition last week to see what else was out there. I ran across the AIOS HD Media Player and saw that it's specs far surpassed the original PBO.

I called Patriot on Friday and asked them if they had a newer player coming out and if so, when. She said this week they released the PBO Alpine for pre-sales reviews and that it should be available from Am@zon by the middle of next month. She wouldn't verify the price but confirmed that the $90 price point I read about was the target.

So, I read through this whole review a couple of times. Here are my concerns at the moment that make me thing the PBO Alpine may not be the right fit for me:

1. The fact that this box May or May Not have Gigabit Ethernet. When streaming a 50GB Blu-Ray .ISO file I would think the bandwidth would be needed to ensure a flawless picture at 1080P.

2. The fact that it uses the older Android 2.2 is puzzling since there are other competing media players that are using Honeycomb. (Logitech Revue uses Honeycomb 3.1)

3. USB 3.0 - Some other players have it, but I haven't seen anything that says the PBO alpine has it. Streaming 50GB or larger video files directly from external HDD could benefit from this, but moving video files from one device to another would definitely benefit.

4. Blu-Ray Audio tracks (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD(MA)) don't appear to be supported while some other players do support them.

5. HTML5 browser support, Netflix, Hulu, DLNA, NAS ?

I guess I'm wondering if there is someplace that has compared the new units from various vendors. Going through this forum and some other online reviews I have come up with a list of players that may or may not be accurate.

How does the PBO Alpine fare when compared with these units ?

WD Live+
Micca EP950 (or better)
Logitech Revue w/Google TV
Netgear NeoTV 550
AIOS HD media Center
ASUS O!player
Media Live
Media Hub

I'm not sure if they are the latest versions or if newer versions are coming out shortly.
 
All I am looking for is a unit that plays back .ISO files from DVD and BD discs with full menu support, full audio support of the best tracks, and a flawless 1080P picture. I want to play from external HDD's, from the network CIFS shares, and it would be nice to have an internal 3.5" HDD but not absolutely necessary.

USB 3, Gigabit Ethernet, E-Sata, and built in wireless-N are other features I'd think they should all include.
 
Steve said:
The browser worked well but many places detect it as a mobile device and only offer you the mobile version of their site. It was rather speedy and rendered pages well though.
Click to expand...

Hi,

So it is essentially like the Android 3.1 Tablet Browser then? Most sites detect that as a mobile browser as well.
 
Hi All,

Does this player support DLNA streaming? Or failing that, can I browse windows shares and stream a video/music/pictures from a file server on the local network?

Thanks!
 
Patriot participated in discussion on AVS to improve their last player.

Based on the discussion in those threads there are two major things I see that Patriot took to heart:
1) Don't waste time and cost on remotes... most enthusiasts (and this *is* an enthusiast product) have their own remotes already.
2) Use android or other open platform because it is the community that will improve the UI and the features in the device on such a platform.
 
This thing is on the market now isn't it? I haven't seen any buzz about it though on any forums... or am I just not looking hard enough? I just want to read more opinions about it before I buy it.
 
So I bought one for $100 on Newegg and here are my thoughts.

I have the original Patriot Box Office. The very first model they put out.

Comparing the two I came away very disappointed. They can both play 1080p MKV rips from locally attached USB discs. The difference lies in the networking.

I picked up the Patriot N wireless adapter.
It worked better on the original PBO than the Alpine!

Also, when I plug each unit in with an Ethernet cable the Alpine is ALMOST able to stream my rip of Avatar at 32 mbs. The original plays with about 70% smoothness. Yes, a 100mbs connection can not fully stream a 32 mbs movie on these boxes.

Now before anyone jumps on board with arguments of overhead or variable bit-rate. I picked up a WD TV Live (The new, tiny one). It is able to PERFECTLY stream the same video and with a cleaner interface.

I even went down to best buy and picked up 3 wireless adapters to test on the new Alpine.
They were the
Linksys AE 2500
Belkin N750
Netgear N600

None of them worked. I had hoped switching to 5 ghz would make it easier but it was not meant to be.
I went to the forums for Patriot and they are no help at all! I asked which wireless adapters were compatible and have not received an answer.

Basically, this is what Patriot did when they released the first Box Office. It is an unfinished product sent out to collect revenue for the company while using the customers as beta testers.

As for using Android, their is no flash package that would install on the Alpine I tried 10 different packages of JUST Flash 10.1 for Android. Nothing. There goes watching any flash video websites. Later versions of Flash require a different version of Android.

In conclusion, I am very disappointed in both Patriot and myself. This is the second time I believed them and their promises. I should have listened to my own advice.

"By a product for what it is today, not for what is promised and you'll never be disappointed."

I bought the promises. I am RMAing my Alpine. Not worth the hassle.
 
Nice review gonz. I have a WD Live Hub myself, but I'm looking to upgrade... Sadly nothing is out that can compare unless I build a htpc for more than double what I paid for it.
 
I was eyeing this one up, and as far as I know XBMC has been released and fully supported as an android App.

Has anyone tried this out yet? see if it will display your cover art etc. nicely?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top