Patriot Box Office - Will It Be a Box Office Hit?

A Boxy Start

Today, we've a variety of consumer products from TVs to set-top boxes that can manage and play media content. However, the capability of these devices are still a work in progress and it could be a hit or miss affair other than for the most common media formats. As such, most enthusiasts are better off investing in a dedicated media player to handle a variety of formats if you're not the sort to build and maintain a HTPC. Patriot, who's more famous for memory and flash product solutions has interestingly offered the Box Office as their petite media player solution. But does small mean anything when it's the hardware and software inside that make or break the player? We shall see if it is a box office success or flop. 

As we handled the Box Office, we noted it possesses a plastic facade that is encased in aluminum, giving it a sturdy and expensive feel that would also seem to suggest it costs more than its US$92 retail price. We also wondered if the decision to use aluminum was because the aluminum will help in dissipating heat better than a plastic casing, where plastic is the usual choice for most other media players. In our professional opinion, we think the choice of the aluminum material was more of a need to give the product some class and better aesthetics since it was a seriously simple looking product. Sadly, this minimalism goes beyond just appearances as we shall soon share more with you. There's a single USB port located at the front, while the rest of the I/O ports are located behind.

On the rear of the player, we saw an almost standard set of I/O ports. The ports include composite output, an HDMI port, optical audio output, a USB port, an Ethernet port and surprise, a mini UBS port! We were also surprised to see a power switch located above the HDMI port, which allows you to switch the player off completely if you don’t want the unit sapping power while it’s in standby mode.

The accompanying remote is sized nicely; fitting into our palms with no problems and had a nice, slim feel to it. But the remote does have quite a few buttons, and some may find it too complex for their liking. On the upside, you will be satisfied to know that the buttons felt responsive. So far, it seems like the Patriot Box Office is aimed at the entry-level media player market, such as the .

Box Office Features

While not as good-looking or fancy as say, the user interface (UI), the Box Office’s UI has a very clean and simple look to it. The home screen will offer you three basic options; File Copy, Browse and Settings. The player does not come with any internal hard drive, but it does offer users to option to install one within. Do take note it only accepts 2.5-inch hard drives. Another point to note is that unlike many newer mid-tier or higher media players, the Box Office does not include any online media channels or services such as Facebook or YouTube, so you social media fanatics and internet junkies will be sorely disappointed.

Focusing on the main menu functions, File Copy is exactly what it says; it allows you to copy files from your external HDD, USB drive or network. However, this is only applicable if you install a hard drive into the player, else you can just play media off the network or attached drive.

Browse allows you to browse through all your media; be it on the internal hard drive you installed, a USB drive, or the network. To traverse through your content, the commonly used subcategories such as All, Music, Photos and Movies are available.

The Settings option will offer you options to tweak the various settings for media playback, such as audio, video, network, system and miscellaneous settings. The options offered may not be as varied as other media players and do not offer as much customization, but they do cover the basics as you can see below.

Theater Performance

After going through the player's features, it was time for the Patriot Box Office to shine. Once we powered it up, it took the Box Office about eight seconds for it to reach the home screen; not the snappiest but definitely not the slowest. To start off this round of testing, we tested its audio playback abilities. WAV, OGG and MP3 files all played without any issues. One thing of interest was that we kept searching for playback options such as repeat under the various submenus, only to find the option was assigned a unique button on the remote itself. So oddly, you won't be coming across the repeat option in the submenu itself.

Next up is of course the most important aspect of a media player, its video playback performance. We like the fact that the Box Office offered the option to display the video preview of our video files and that the Box Office plays most of the popular video formats. RMVB and other video formats didn't deter the Box Office from completing its task. Following that we tested the high-def capabilities of the player and the trailers we played did not stop the Box Office in its tracks.

Functionality-wise, the player provides options for you to ‘fine-tune’ your subtitles, such as adjusting the size or changing the color of the subtitles. The player also allows zooming of videos from 0.9x to 8x. We did find the overall functionality for video and music playback underwhelming, but at least the Box Office does the job without presenting any problems; it was more of a no-frills attached experience. Though the video performance did not falter, the UI itself was a bit on the slow side. And similar to the , the remote was a bit on the ‘selective’ side; we had to point it rather close to the IR port, anywhere else and the player might not respond.

Conclusion

The Patriot Box Office is a no frills and fuss-free player. With an aluminum casing and plastic facade, the Box Office does feel heftier, though in a solid way, than other media players. The design is nothing groundbreaking, but thankfully it's not ugly. The user interface is really very basic, so don't be expecting a host of functionality and customization settings. Though simplicity is good, in the Box Office's case, the UI offers far too little options and it isn't pretty either. In comparison to another entry-level media player like the ASUS O!Play Mini, the Patriot isn't as polished nor as intuitive.

Most of the mid-range players nowadays offer some form of internet services such as dedicated widgets to access Facebook or YouTube, and this is also one aspect which the Box Office loses out. However, you should also note that Patriot is targeting the no-frills entry-level players. The Box Office does not come with an internal HDD, though it does accept a 2.5-inch hard drive that you can opt to install on your own. As such, the Patriot Box Office is a decent offering for those on a budget and do not demand much else from their player other than to play a variety of media formats. That said, the Box Office accomplishes its basic role as a media player and at the reasonable price of US$92.

Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.