Patriot PBO Core HD Media Player Review

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.

Patriot PBO Core HD Media Player Patriot PBO Core HD Media Player Patriot PBO Core HD Media Player

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

Patriot PBO Core HD Media Player