They're here! More Muvipix.com Guides by Steve Grisetti!
The Muvipix.com Guides to Premiere & Photoshop Elements 2024
As well as The Muvipix.com Guide to CyberLink PowerDirector 21
Because there are stories to tell
muvipix.com

Patriot Box Purchase

Hardware, software, and methods for displaying & distributing your creations.

Patriot Box Purchase

Postby Bobby » Sun Feb 07, 2010 10:17 am

Continuing this from another thread...

Today I finally broke down and bought a Patriot Box Office unit. I had been agonizing over this, and entertained thoughts of another TV just to get some more HDMI inputs, but finally decided to keep the TV for now and so I bought the Patriot.

Why Patriot? Primarily excellent reviews, they seem to upgrade firmware as needed, and mostly because you can put a 2.5" hard drive inside it. My primary goal is to get all of my home DVD titles on the HD, and also all of my .mp3 music. Connect it up to the TV and receiver, and I should be able to access any of my stuff.

Secondly I wanted to be able to get HD content that I originate onto the TV without going through the expense of BluRay.

Amazon had it for $130 with free ship, with a $35 rebate offer. But I really, really hate rebates and Newegg had it for $110 plus $5 ship with instant rebate.

So, I bought the Patriot at Newegg, and also a 5:1 HDMI switchbox (MASSCOOL HS-MA105 - $44 +$5 ship). The Patriot comes with HDMI cable, but I needed two more and was able to get two 3' HDMI 1.3b cables from Cable Wholesale (saw this in another thread here) for $9.90 shipped.

Now the wait begins...
Bobby (Bob Seidel)
User avatar
Bobby
Super Contributor
Super Contributor
 
Posts: 3183
Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:41 pm
Location: At the beach in NC

Re: Patriot Box Purchase

Postby Ron » Sun Feb 07, 2010 10:27 am

Actually, this is a perfect topic for the new forum. Gonna move it there (Video/Photo/Music Viewing and Sharing), but keep the shadow link in HI-Def.

Here's a fairly detailed look at the PBO:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZYBrrlPZl0[/youtube]

This is a must have. I can finally get rid of the DVD player and I no longer will have to start music from the upstairs computer. It will also play iso files (including Blu-ray) which is unique. There's only been a few reports of not playing some odd formats (never heard of them myself, so no biggie). Also has a slideshow feature for images.
Regards,
-Ron

Dell, Win10 Pro, Intel Core i7-6700 CPU @3.4GhHz, 8GB ram. 64-bit
User avatar
Ron
Site Admin
Site Admin
 
Posts: 3219
Joined: Sat Oct 21, 2006 8:57 am
Location: Maine, USA

Re: Patriot Box Purchase

Postby Bobby » Sun Feb 07, 2010 10:36 am

Great Ron - thanks!

I agree, and apparently the proper handling of BD ISO files was a recent firmware upgrade.
Bobby (Bob Seidel)
User avatar
Bobby
Super Contributor
Super Contributor
 
Posts: 3183
Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:41 pm
Location: At the beach in NC

Re: Patriot Box Purchase

Postby Bobby » Sun Feb 07, 2010 11:07 am

Another issue I am going to have to work on is audio routing.

The Box has an optical Out, but I don't think I have a free optical In on my receiver. But none of the content I am going to play will be any more than stereo, so I think my plan is to just put one HDMI cable from the Box to the TV (actually to the new switch) and then use the TV analog audio OUT to cable to the receiver. I assume (hope) that the TV will send analog audio out from the HDMI digital audio signal.

That way, I can take the audio from either the Box or from the Roku Netflix player through the cable from the switch to the TV, and basically let the TV do the audio switching for me.

Will let you know...
Bobby (Bob Seidel)
User avatar
Bobby
Super Contributor
Super Contributor
 
Posts: 3183
Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:41 pm
Location: At the beach in NC

Re: Patriot Box Purchase

Postby Dave McElderry » Sun Feb 07, 2010 11:18 am

The handling of ISO files was what caught my attention. Does that mean that you can play a DVD ISO as if it were a DVD, with full use of menus? That would be a big plus.

Bobby, will you be able to get everything on an internal drive and still have plenty of room for future expansion, or will you need to be connecting external media storage?

Al-you-min-ee-um. Gotta love it. :)
Be yourself; everyone else is taken.

Asus X570-E motherboard; AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz; 64GB DDR4; GeForce RTX 2060 6GB; 1TB Samsung 970 Pro M.2 SSD
User avatar
Dave McElderry
Moderator
Moderator
 
Posts: 4757
Joined: Fri Feb 23, 2007 10:18 am
Location: Lost In Middle America

Re: Patriot Box Purchase

Postby Ron » Sun Feb 07, 2010 11:50 am

Dave McElderry wrote:The handling of ISO files was what caught my attention. Does that mean that you can play a DVD ISO as if it were a DVD, with full use of menus? That would be a big plus.

Yes.

Dave McElderry wrote:Bobby, will you be able to get everything on an internal drive and still have plenty of room for future expansion, or will you need to be connecting external media storage?

You can connect to your computer via wireless or Network cable (access to any and all drives). Or simply plug in a hard drive to the box via USB or flash drive. They thought of everything. You don't even have to have an internal drive and I may opt out of that as well because some say that, after a while, the fan makes some audible noise.
Regards,
-Ron

Dell, Win10 Pro, Intel Core i7-6700 CPU @3.4GhHz, 8GB ram. 64-bit
User avatar
Ron
Site Admin
Site Admin
 
Posts: 3219
Joined: Sat Oct 21, 2006 8:57 am
Location: Maine, USA

Re: Patriot Box Purchase

Postby Bobby » Sun Feb 07, 2010 11:59 am

Re: hard drive size:

Well, bigger is always better :-D

But I have about 60 DVDs now, at about 5GB each is 300GB, and another 40GB for my entire mp3 library - so a 500GB unit should do - or perhaps more when the price is right.

The only reason I am thinking about using the internal drive is that I don't have a 24x7 media server and there may be times when my personal PC is not on (i.e. when I am away and wife wants to use the Box). But I haven't bought the drive yet and haven't made that decision.
Bobby (Bob Seidel)
User avatar
Bobby
Super Contributor
Super Contributor
 
Posts: 3183
Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:41 pm
Location: At the beach in NC

Re: Patriot Box Purchase

Postby Dave McElderry » Sun Feb 07, 2010 12:06 pm

Hard wired to the network might work, but my experience with wireless says that you wouldn't be able to stream higher bandwidth material. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that would mean that although mpegs might work over wireless, HD would have to be connected directly. I just don't have an easy way to get a LAN cable to my TV viewing area.
Be yourself; everyone else is taken.

Asus X570-E motherboard; AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz; 64GB DDR4; GeForce RTX 2060 6GB; 1TB Samsung 970 Pro M.2 SSD
User avatar
Dave McElderry
Moderator
Moderator
 
Posts: 4757
Joined: Fri Feb 23, 2007 10:18 am
Location: Lost In Middle America

Re: Patriot Box Purchase

Postby John 'twosheds' McDonald » Sun Feb 07, 2010 12:11 pm

Dave McElderry wrote:I just don't have an easy way to get a LAN cable to my TV viewing area.


I have an HDX1000. Similar (in concept) device to the Patriot. I also don't have any easy way to get a LAN cable round the house so, a very small inconvenience, I take the HDX to my PC, connect it there, and copy as much as I need. The box is about the size of a book so it really isn't a great hardship.
AMD Ryzen 3900x 12C/24T, ASUS x570 mobo, Arctic Liquid Freezer ll 280, Win11 64 bit, 64GB RAM, Radeon RX 570 graphics, Samsung 500GB NVMe 980 PRO (C:), Samsung 970 Evo SSD (D:), Dell U2717D Monitor, Synology DS412+ 8TB NAS, Adobe CS6.
User avatar
John 'twosheds' McDonald
Moderator
Moderator
 
Posts: 4236
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:57 am
Location: Cheshire, UK

Re: Patriot Box Purchase

Postby Bobby » Sun Feb 07, 2010 12:29 pm

Yep, forgot to mention. I am running my Roku box on my wireless network now, but I can and will run a cat-5 cable over to the TV system ASAP. (Luckily I stock the cable and connectors back from when I used to actually work for a living.)

I will run a single line, and put a small switch at the TV setup so I can connect to both the Box and the Roku.
Bobby (Bob Seidel)
User avatar
Bobby
Super Contributor
Super Contributor
 
Posts: 3183
Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:41 pm
Location: At the beach in NC

Re: Patriot Box Purchase

Postby Ron » Sun Feb 07, 2010 12:50 pm

Dave McElderry wrote:Hard wired to the network might work, but my experience with wireless says that you wouldn't be able to stream higher bandwidth material. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that would mean that although mpegs might work over wireless, HD would have to be connected directly.

Another option it has is to copy the file (ie, via wireless) to the drive or USB device - then play the file.
Regards,
-Ron

Dell, Win10 Pro, Intel Core i7-6700 CPU @3.4GhHz, 8GB ram. 64-bit
User avatar
Ron
Site Admin
Site Admin
 
Posts: 3219
Joined: Sat Oct 21, 2006 8:57 am
Location: Maine, USA

Re: Patriot Box Purchase

Postby Dave McElderry » Sun Feb 07, 2010 12:53 pm

Ron wrote:Another option it has is to copy the file (ie, via wireless) to the drive or USB device - then play the file.


So you could copy either to the internal drive (if installed) or to an externally connected USB drive? That would be a good thing.
Be yourself; everyone else is taken.

Asus X570-E motherboard; AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz; 64GB DDR4; GeForce RTX 2060 6GB; 1TB Samsung 970 Pro M.2 SSD
User avatar
Dave McElderry
Moderator
Moderator
 
Posts: 4757
Joined: Fri Feb 23, 2007 10:18 am
Location: Lost In Middle America

Re: Patriot Box Purchase

Postby Bobby » Sun Feb 07, 2010 1:09 pm

Dave McElderry wrote:
Ron wrote:Another option it has is to copy the file (ie, via wireless) to the drive or USB device - then play the file.


So you could copy either to the internal drive (if installed) or to an externally connected USB drive? That would be a good thing.


Yes, I believe. I need to read up more on how the drive appears when you network connect the box, or when you connect it via local USB to your PC (if in fact you can do that). But I am quite sure that you can write an external HD (or flash drive) on your PC, take it to the Box, and then copy from the external HD to the internal HD if you want.
Bobby (Bob Seidel)
User avatar
Bobby
Super Contributor
Super Contributor
 
Posts: 3183
Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:41 pm
Location: At the beach in NC

Re: Patriot Box Purchase

Postby Ron » Sun Feb 07, 2010 1:14 pm

Bobby wrote:...take it to the Box, and then copy from the external HD to the internal HD if you want.

Or just play it from the external drive; this is the way I'm thinking of doing it. Got a 1TB with all my media already on it.
Regards,
-Ron

Dell, Win10 Pro, Intel Core i7-6700 CPU @3.4GhHz, 8GB ram. 64-bit
User avatar
Ron
Site Admin
Site Admin
 
Posts: 3219
Joined: Sat Oct 21, 2006 8:57 am
Location: Maine, USA

Re: Patriot Box Purchase

Postby Bob » Sun Feb 07, 2010 4:19 pm

That is very tempting.

The ISO play feature is particularly attractive. I've got a DVD collection in excess of 600 dvds many of which are multiple disc sets.

Could you please confirm that this is an upscaling converter.

If you can't run a cable, another alternative to wireless is a powerline ethernet adapter.
User avatar
Bob
Moderator
Moderator
 
Posts: 5925
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2007 4:49 am
Location: Southern California, USA

Next

Return to Video/Photo/Music Viewing and Sharing 


Similar topics


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests

cron