Patriot Box Office Media Tank on Sale at Amazon ($57.98 - MIR)

[pete_c]

Amazon has a "deal" on the Patriot Media tank. This media tank will work with a 2 TB Sata Drive and allows for installation of a 2.5 in Sata Drive internally. It has a good following on the forum (even new applications, new boot code, debricking etc). Interface is basic but you are able to swap out FW with other MFG's (cross firmware). Current have a PCH and Mediagate online.

Amazon Link

Forum Link

MFG Link

 

[Aaron]

it shows $64.99 after rebate for me...

 

[sda]

I hate rebates. If you want to entice me to buy something, give me the discount up front and don't make me jump through hoops.

Oh, and it looks like you can get this from newegg until 8/25 at $55 shipped ($100 less $35 rebate less $10 promo).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822219002
Patriot Box Office All-in-one Media Player with HDMI PCMPBO25
$10 off with promo code EMCYWZX59, ends 8/25(limit 5 per customer)

 

[Aaron]

I was considering this but after reading the reviews and seeing the screens I think I'll stick with XBMC.

 

[pete_c]

I've noticed the price has changed (from what I ordered it at) and mine has not shipped yet.

Personally just was looking for something similiar to what I already have relating to NMT's. I currently also have a W7 MCE setup which I occassionally utilize.

 

[pete_c]

I started to "Play" with the Home Box Office mini NMT. It arrived only yesterday. Shipping from Amazon was poor. It was floating in a larger box with no real packing. If it was plastic one or two hits would have cracked the device even in its own box.

The case is metal and the footprint is very small. The forum is very informative. While the source/boot code is not open source; it's been modified to do many things. The root and RW to the Linux OS has been documented. There are many applications that have been written for it. Last night I tested it with HD / streaming audio / internet video and it worked well. The GUI leaves something to be desired but functionality is all there in a very small package. Its about 2/3's the size of my AOpen MiniPC MCE box. Most of the OS mods come in plug n play script files while you run at the command prompt. There's even a busy box on steroids for power users.

While it works fine off the shelf; the documented modifications and support are excellent.

A quick snaphot of the bin directory:

/ # ls
Test.fat etc mnt sys usr
bin lib proc tmp var
dev linuxrc sbin tmp_orig vmlinux
/ # cd bin
/bin # ls
addgroup date false ls nice sh uname
adduser dd fgrep mkdir pidof sleep usleep
ash delgroup getopt mknod ping stty vi
busybox deluser grep mktemp ps sync
cat df hostname more pwd tar
chmod dmesg kill mount rm touch
chown echo ln mv rmdir true
cp egrep login netstat sed umount

Someone has created a web front end for the NMT with numerous features. I'm kind of looking at getting another one of these. Maybe integrate it into HA.