The living room is the new battleground for old and new entertainment companies. Patriot’s PBO Core is one of the latest devices battling for position next to your Blu-ray player and game console. The PBO Core has a wide variety of supported formats from the current king, H.264, all the way back to Real Video. We’ll take an in-depth look to see if the PBO Core can be your core multimedia playing device.
Special thanks to Patriot for providing us with the PBO Core HD Media Player to review.
Specifications
| Video Output | 1x Composite 1x HDMI 1.3 Resolutions: NTSC, PAL, 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p |
| Audio Output | 1x RCA 1x SPDIF (Optical) |
| USB | 2x USB 2.0 Ports 1x USB 4-pin mini port |
| Ethernet | 1x 10/100Mbps |
| Internal Hard Drive | 2.5″ SATA I/II 1TB (Max) (High Profile 2.5″ will also work) |
| External Hard Drive | 2TB max (Can be increased in future firmware updates) |
| USB Flash Drive | 256GB Max |
| File Systems | EXT3, NTFS, FAT 16/32 |
| WiFi Capable | Yes, with supported WiFi USB adapter |
| DRM Support | No |
| Dimensions | 5.7″ (L) x 5.5″ (W) x 1.5″ (H) |
Playback Support
| Video Decoding | MPEG-1* | MPG/MPEG/DAT |
| MPEG-2* | MPG/MPEG/VOB/ISO?IFO/TS/TP/M2TS | |
| MPEG-4* | MP4/AVI/MOV | |
| DivX 3/4/5/6/7, XViD* | AVI/MKV | |
| H.264, AVC* | TS/AVI/MKV/MOV/M2TS | |
| WMV9* | WMV | |
| Real Video 8/9/10** | RM/RMVB | |
| ISO | Blu-ray and HD-DVD | |
| Audio Decoding (For Videos) | Dolby Digital AC3, DTS | |
| MPEG-I Layer 1/2/3, MPEG-II Layer 1/2, Real Audio, AAC, WMA, LPCM | ||
| Audio Decoding (Music) | WMA, MP3, Real Audio (RA), WAV, OGG, AAC, FLAC | |
| Pictures | JPEG, BMP, PNG |
*Up to 1080p support
**Up to 720p support
Packaging
The PBO Core is nicely packaged with styrofoam inside a black and white box. The side of the box has lists of the supported file formats, product specifications and package contents. This side is also home to the comforting “2 Year Warranty” text.
What’s In The Box?
- PBO Core HD Multimedia Player
- Remote Control with batteries
- AC Power Adapter
- HDMI Cable
- Composite A/V Cable
- USB Data Cable (4pn to 6pin)
- Quick Start Guide
- User CD with Transcoding Software
I’ve been using the PBO for over a year now, and I love it. The fact that it doesn’t play FLV files is of no matter. Picture quality is great, and there’s a neat piece of software called “Thumbgen” that you can download for free to create custom thumbnails for your movie collection. This shows up in the same folder as your movies.
I’ve been using the PBO for over a year now, and I love it. The fact that it doesn’t play FLV files is of no matter. Picture quality is great, and there’s a neat piece of software called “Thumbgen” that you can download for free to create custom thumbnails for your movie collection. This shows up in the same folder as your movies.
I’ve been using the PBO for over a year now, and I love it. The fact that it doesn’t play FLV files is of no matter. Picture quality is great, and there’s a neat piece of software called “Thumbgen” that you can download for free to create custom thumbnails for your movie collection. This shows up in the same folder as your movies.
I’ve been using the PBO for over a year now, and I love it. The fact that it doesn’t play FLV files is of no matter. Picture quality is great, and there’s a neat piece of software called “Thumbgen” that you can download for free to create custom thumbnails for your movie collection. This shows up in the same folder as your movies.
I agree, the PBO is a good product. I was just surprised to see it have trouble playing FLV when it was able to play everything else. While I was reviewing the PBO, I was thinking of how it would stack up against an Xbox 360, PS3, or a HTPC with XBMC installed. Overall the PBO does a pretty good job, it has better native video support than the Xbox 360 and PS3. And for the PBO’s price, it offers great value compared to a HTPC with XBMC.
I agree, the PBO is a good product. I was just surprised to see it have trouble playing FLV when it was able to play everything else. While I was reviewing the PBO, I was thinking of how it would stack up against an Xbox 360, PS3, or a HTPC with XBMC installed. Overall the PBO does a pretty good job, it has better native video support than the Xbox 360 and PS3. And for the PBO’s price, it offers great value compared to a HTPC with XBMC.