A few years ago there was a big craze for home media players these devices were intended to make the watching of digital media on a TV much easier. Unfortunately the trend did not catch on all that well due to the heavy integration of many Media Player features into HD TVs. There was also a problem with the unfortunate fact that most media players used the same SoC, Media Playback CODEC and OS. It meant that in many cases there was little to differentiate products other than the brand name. Now things have changed a little as many of the original players have dropped from the market. Now the remaining companies are looking into different processors and also operating systems. Today we are taking a look at one from Patriot, the PBO Alpine. This is an extension of the original Patriot Box Office media player and offers a few improvements to the line. One of the more interesting ones is the use of Android 2.2 as the OS. So let’s check out the PBO Alpine to see what it brings to the table and if it is worth your time and money.
The PBO Alpine –Patriot’s PBO Alpine is a very small unit. Unlike previous models it is also housed in a plastic shell. We were a little surprised at this as it meant there was no chance for an internal drive. The front of the PBO Alpine has a power LED, an IR sensor, USB port and an SD Card slot. The overall size of the PBO Alpine is very small which will allow it to fit easily onto a desk or entertainment center. You could even put it on the back of your TV (if it is large enough) with some double sided tape or Velcro. It is that light and small.
The back of the PBO Alpine has the power port, Ethernet port (Gbe) HDMI 1.4 port, a USB port and an audio out port that should be capable of at least giving you stereo sound if your monitor does not support HDMI audio or the speakers are just really bad.
We shot a video that covers the insides and also the flow of the OS in more detail. We did not include any footage of movie playback though in order to prevent a nasty letter from anyone or having the video removed from our YouTube Channel. You can check out the video below or skip past it for now and read our thoughts on performance.
