| Patriot Memory PBO Alpine Media Player |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Notebook | Compact PC | |
| Written by Olin Coles | |
| Monday, 11 June 2012 | |
Patriot PBO Alpine Media Player Review
Manufacturer: Patriot Memory LLC Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Patriot. Watching streaming content or downloaded multimedia files have replaced television broadcasts and movies on disc, especially for college aged viewers who own a SmartPhone device. The drawback to watching anything on an Apple iPhone or Google Android device is that the screen is small and sound is flat. Patriot Memory has created the PBO Alpine Media Player, capable of playing just about every modern video format across HDMI onto an HDTV or monitor at 1080p using the familiar Android 2.2 interface. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests the Patriot Memory PBO Alpine High Definition Media Player, and evaluates how well it performs compared to the competition. The Patriot Box Office (PBO) Alpine media player is designed to deliver large-scale entertainment in a small package using a Fujitsu MB86M10 processor, and indeed it does. Perfect for the college dorm or start-up entertainment center, expect PBO Alpine to play practically every modern digital media file format without frame loss or stutter. If you're not big on downloading files for playback, PBO Alpine can also use its Android browser to stream shows directly from your favorite websites. Please join Benchmark Reviews as we test PBO Alpine against several high bit-rate video files and streaming multimedia.
PBO Alpine FeaturesThe Patriot Memory PBO Alpine is the perfect choice for those looking for ultimate flexibility and functionality in a media player solution. Powered by an ARM926 processor and Android OS, the PBO Alpine will support full 1080p playback and offer's a wide range of connectivity options including HDMI and Component. Providing out of the box entertainment, the Patriot Memory PBO Alpine will come preloaded with YouTube, iTV, iRadio, Picasa, and a mobile edition web browser. For enthusiast buyers, the PBO Alpine will offer support for user developed Apps that can be side-loaded for custom functionality. The PBO Alpine will deliver full support for M-JPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.263, H.264, VC-1, DivX, Xvid, RealVideo, VP6, .MKV and surround sound/stereo decoders for Dolby Digital Plus, and DTS 2.0. For easy connectivity to all your media files, the Patriot Memory PBO Alpine will include a wired connection and seamlessly integrate in to your home network.
Closer Look: Patriot PBO AlpinePatriot PBO Alpine is a $89.99 (Newegg) compact media player designed to play high-definition video at up to 1080p (1920x1080) resolution, as well as Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound audio. Patriot includes the following items inside the PCMPBOA kit: PBO Alpine media player, IR remote, 60" HDMI cable, 110/220V AC adapter with interchangeable North America socket attachment, and a mini-DVD with user manual and bundled Magix Video easy SE video editing software. Patriot's PBO Alpine ships with no technical information included with the unit, so users seeking compatibility support should contact Patriot Memory directly.
PBO Alpine measures only 4.55"L x 4.55"W x 1.27"H, and at 6.6 oz is light enough to be mounted beside a monitor/HDTV or nearby wall. Unlike disc players, PBO Alpine does not feature any integrated function buttons on the device and is controlled entirely through an included remote. The included infrared (IR) remote requires direct line of sight with PBO Alpine, which can be tricky if you or the device is positioned at an angle, yet offers plenty of range. PBO Alpine's ultra-slim remote measures a mere 3.38"L x 2.12"W x 0.28"H, operates on a single CR2025 3V lithium coin-cell battery (included), and features all of the basic buttons needed to control a media center. Tactile switch dome buttons do require above-average pressure to make selections, so it's difficult to make a mistake and press the wrong button.
Patriot Memory utilizes a Fujitsu MB86M10 High Definition Multi-Standard Digital Television Decoder inside PBO Alpine, which features an ARM926EJ-S processor. Fujitsu's MB86M10 decoder is capable of Ultra-HD resolutions up to 2048p, and the following audio CODECs: AAC-LC, HEAAC, HE-AAC Dolby AC3,DTS,WMA PRO,AMR-NB,MP3,OGG,RA_COOK,WMA,FLAC,LPCM,PCM,and ADPCM. The ARM926EJ-S processor is a member of the ARM9 family of general-purpose 32-bit RISC microprocessors, and supports 16-bit Thumb instruction sets as well as ARM Jazelle technology which enables the direct execution of Java bytecodes in hardware. Patriot Memory includes two 64MB Nanya Technology NT5TU64M16GG-AC 800MHz DDR2 ICs on PBO Alpine for Android O/S system memory, with a single Hynix HY27UF082G2B NAND Flash storage IC.
A low-output LED light shines red (power attached: turned off) or green (power on), positioned beside the IR remote sensor. The Patriot PBO Alpine Media Player offers several external storage interface options: High-Speed USB 2.0 ports located front and back, and a SD Card port located up front. At the back of PBO Alpine you'll find the power adapter input, RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI 1.3 digital output, and a 2.5mm audio mini-jack.
Because Fujitsu's MB86M10 design lacks an integrated wireless network adapter, users are relegated to using the built-in Ethernet port on the back of PBO Alpine or connect a compatible Wi-Fi adapter into one of the USB ports. I consider a poor decision by the engineering team to exclude Wi-Fi support for any product released in an age when wirelessly-connected devices are commonplace. Patriot has not yet published a compatibility list, yet the Patriot Memory Wireless-N USB adapters PCUSBW1150 (150MB/s) and PCBOWAU2-N (Wireless-N 300MB/s) are recognized with beta firmware "MB86M10.MpFirmware.2012-05-30.fw". Several other adapters were tested, but as of this writing they were not detected by the device: Gigafast WF741-UIC, Linksys WUSB54G, Linksys WUSB54GSC, Netgear WG111, and Microsoft MN-710. PBO Alpine Test ResultsFull disclosure: I'm overly critical of digital media players. Benchmark Reviews has tested several products designed for the Home Theater segment, from fancy HTPC enclosures to efficient compact computer systems. Of them all, very few have ever offered the level of multimedia performance found on desktop computer systems. For many years I've searched for the "perfect" digital media player for my home theater. My criteria has never been terribly strict, but a man's home theater is a trophy onto itself. The ideal system needs to offer wireless Internet access, comfortable web browsing, fast file transfers, and display multimedia content over HDMI without frame loss or stutter. The last time I found a product that could handle these tasks it was in the expensive ASRock Vision 3D Blu-ray Compact HTPC. When I first unwrapped the Patriot PBO Alpine Media Player and gazed at it's miniature design, my expectations were no bigger than the device itself. The Patriot PBO Alpine media player is solid at accomplishing its namesake tasks, and delivers lossless video from digital sources of all modern types. I'm a fan of MP4 and MKV file formats, and have a library of Blu-ray and DVD movies I've converted for playback on devices. Everything worked flawlessly, and I didn't come across a single unsupported audio or video file (although *.xvid file extensions must be renamed for the file system to discover and play them). While watching content, however, the default media player offers the ability stop playback and resume from that point at a later time, but lacks a playback timeline. The current firmware offers a very basic playback application that works, but lacks playback progress/timeline functionality and might be better replaced with another Android application. As of the current firmware, PBO Alpine is not an officially supported/listed Google device and therefore lacks the ability to install applications directly from Google Play Store. However, a USB flash drive or SD Card can be used to store downloaded Google Android .apk application files, which can then be installed directly onto PBO Alpine. To do this, simply enable "Unknown Sources" under Settings → Applications from the menu.
Since all of my file types played without issue I was curious if PBO Alpine could also play from optical disc media, such as DVD or Blu-ray Disc movies. This is an unsupported function on the device, but the Fujitsu MB86M10 inside PBO Alpine had already impressed me to the point of experimentation. It's unclear if the CODECs required are present, but there are applications that can be loaded to solve this (such as MX Player). What was obvious was that the optical driveneeded to be recognized and mounted before anything could be tested. Despite using USB optical disc drives from two separate manufacturers, neither was detected by device firmware. It was worth a try, and might be supported as firmware matures. The Patriot Box Office automatically recognized flash memory devices formatted with FAT or NTFS file systems (exFAT drive partitions were not detected), which were automatically mounted on the device. External storage devices such as a hard disk enclosure or compatible SmartPhone device could also be connected to PBO Alpine through the media player's USB interface, which mounts any available partitions. Additionally, network storage devices and multimedia servers can be mapped and configured as storage sources. Patriot Memory offers dozens of compact solutions, perfect for users who work between unconnected systems or networks.
Web-based multimedia services such as YouTube and Hulu worked perfectly on PBO Alpine. YouTube streamed 1080p content with only a moment of initial buffering, as did Hulu (Plus subscription required for mobile devices). Netflix required their Android application for playback, and manual .apk file installations were met with resistance. Since Netflix and Blockbuster are popular streaming movie sources, Patriot is likely working quickly towards compatibility. PBO Alpine is marketed as a media player, so I consider it a bonus that video games might also be played on the device. Obviously I don't expect Battlefield 3 or World of Tanks to install on PBO Alpine, as this is a Google Android device and not a Windows-based HTPC. Nevertheless there are still plenty of games available for Android, such as 2D hits like Angry Birds, Temple Run, or Jewels. Whether they'll run at a decent FPS is another concern. Additionally, since you can use a large variety of peripheral devices to control the action PBO Alpine offers plenty of untapped potential: from wireless Media Center keyboards to standard USB mouse/keyboard configurations.
One downside to the Fujitsu processor inside the PBO Alpine media player is that it lacks optimizations to produce the graphical frame rate performance necessary for modern video games like a Tegra 2 processor could. Even though Patriot's PBO Alpine media player isn't battery powered like Android SmartPhones are, the more demanding games such as Colosseum Heroes, Dead on Arrival, Max Payne Mobile, and even Angry Birds require more performance than this device presently offers.
Items are represented as thumbnail icons, which makes displaying long file names an issue by cutting the title short. Alternatively, it is also possible to browse files from the storage menu interface, which works similar to Windows Explorer but still displays shortened file names. This becomes a problem when multiple items share similar file names but are separated by differences at the end, such as "television show episode 1" which would be displayed as merely 'television show epis...'. Fortunately, PBO Alpine offers a full-motion video preview of the highlighted file. The default user interface on PBO Alpine is simple and straight-forward, similar yet more streamlined than most Android phones. When PBO Alpine first starts, there are five options to choose from: Video, Photo, Music, Bookmarks, Application, and Settings. As previously mentioned, the applications bundled to Alpine's firmware are fairly limited, so it might take some effort to dress the media player with application (APK files) downloaded from Google Play (and other sources). Media Player Final ThoughtsLong ago, it was HTPCs that enthusiasts looked to for their entertainment centers, but now that same level of functionality (or better) is available from portable computing devices. Advanced modern mobile processors have allowed portable devices to enjoy concentrated performance focused on the functions they're designed for, while newcomers such as NVIDIA's Tegra 2 processor are changing the landscape and closing the gap. Yet, somehow, there's still a void in the fully-functional media player market.
The Patriot Box Office certainly stands on its own, but it's not a complete solution. Once the industry can produce an affordable media player with the ability to play games and browse the web, we'll see a change in the way consumers value computers. I've spent a bit of time As manufacturers are able to add more features and functionality to their products, we as consumers will see our platform choices begin to narrow. My search will end when there's a powerful wireless device that exists on the market, capable of playing high-performance video games, high-definition multimedia playback, delivers speedy web browsing, and boasts a large application library. If this device already exists, it's managed to slip beneath my product radar.
Patriot PBO Alpine ConclusionIMPORTANT: Although the rating and final score mentioned in this conclusion are made to be as objective as possible, please be advised that every author perceives these factors differently at various points in time. While we each do our best to ensure that all aspects of the product are considered, there are often times unforeseen market conditions and manufacturer changes which occur after publication that could render our rating obsolete. Please do not base any purchase solely on our conclusion, as it represents our product rating specifically for the product tested which may differ from future versions. Benchmark Reviews begins our conclusion with a short summary for each of the areas that we rate. Considering the core purpose of Patriot's PBO Alpine media player, performance is measured by the device's ability to play back digital audio and video multimedia files. The Fujitsu MB86M10 processor is a very capable component, and allowed PBO Alpine to tackle nearly every file type with ease. Here's a recap of the file types PBO Alpine supports:
The Patriot PBO Alpine will easily play back practically any multimedia file you feed it, making it a solid choice among media players. High-definition 1080p streaming video from YouTube and Hulu Plus also played without issue. Conversely, device performance doesn't (currently) shine as bright when it comes to Google Android functionality. PBO Alpine has not yet received Google qualification, and thus remains unsupported by the Google Play Store (formerly Market) application library service. This makes Netflix and Blockbuster applications unavailable. The only other alternative is to allow installation from downloaded APK files, but they must be compatible releases. Even though many applications installed successfully, several would either fail to open or deliver extremely poor frame rate performance (as in Angry Birds). PBO Alpine is a dainty little device, occupying as much space as two decks of playing cards (and weighing about as much, too). The semi-gloss piano black finish looks great beside other home theater devices such as a HDTV, and the lightly textured surface helps to hide fingerprints when regularly handled. A subdued power LED shines dim enough to be unobtrusive, and helps maintain PBO Alpine's elegant appearance. This media player is based on Fujitsu's MB86M10 design, and then given Patriot's own branded enclosure. Utilizing a durable plastic shell with no moving parts, PBO Alpine offers solid-state construction that will survive most harsh environments. This product wasn't engineered in-house, so firmware support and functionality are really dependent on Fujitsu's developement team. As of this writing PBO Alpine's firmware updates have been somewhat immature, with only the most basic functionality officially supported and very little information available for wireless network adapter compatibility. As a media player, the Patriot PBO Alpine (model PCMPBOA) delivers plenty of value for $89.99 (Newegg). I suspect most shoppers will spend a few more dollars to purchase either compatible Patriot Memory Wireless-N USB adapter: PCUSBW1150 (150MB/s) or PCBOWAU2-N (Wireless-N 300MB/s). For under $100, there are scarce few product that can compete to the same level and deliver the same functionality. In summary, I'm pleased with the Patriot PBO Alpine Media Player and see a bright future for the device. I consider it very unfortunate that the device lacks an integrated wireless network adapter, but not everybody will need or want this function. Regardless, PBO Alpine is a robust media player that has thoroughly impressed me with an ability to play every multimedia file type I could throw at it. Once Google Play Store is supported by mature firmware, PBO Alpine will offer a lot more than media playback - and complete this device. I've seen the price fluctuate a bit recently, moving from $99 to $129 and then drop to $89. For under $100, the Patriot PBO Alpine gets my recommendation for anyone shopping high-definition media players and wants Android functionality. Pros:
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Comments
How about some gui screen shots or gui review section
It looks nice and works, but no netflix isnt a review.
No netflix is a 100% deal breaker
". . . I was curious if PBO Alpine could also play from optical disc media, such as DVD or Blu-ray Disc movies. This is an unsupported function on the device ... Despite using USB optical disc drives from two separate manufacturers, PBO Alpine was detected by device firmware. It was worth a try, and might be supported as firmware matures."
I'm not sure if there's a typo, but it reads like USB external DVD/BD drives do NOT work with this media player, the statement of "PBO Apline was detected by device firmware" that throws everything out of whack. So, does this media player support the use of external USB optical DVD/BD drives? If not, do ANY media players support external USB optical drives?
Thanks!
Since all of my file types played without issue I was curious if PBO Alpine could also play from optical disc media, such as DVD or Blu-ray Disc movies. This is an unsupported function on the device, but the Fujitsu MB86M10 inside PBO Alpine had already impressed me to the point of experimentation. It's unclear if the CODECs required are present, but there are applications that can be loaded to solve this (such as MX Player). What was obvious was that the optical driveneeded to be recognized and mounted before anything could be tested. Despite using USB optical disc drives from two separate manufacturers, neither was detected by device firmware. It was worth a try, and might be supported as firmware matures.