Digital Frames Inside

I gave this product as a gift. The people I gave it to loved it. They have put pictures and music on it and it works with ease. I would recommend this item as it works well and it is very easy to use!
Rating: 5 / 5

I got this to sync with a flickr account. But, there was no configuration CD in the box, and the company appears to be nonfunctional, since I haven’t received any response to a support request asking where to download the software, and it doesn’t seem to be available online.

Even if the install CD was included, however, the configuration of this thing is so maddening, and the (very limited) documentation so poorly written, that it’s extremely frustrating to accomplish even simple tasks. Why the picture frame requires a windows computer (and a missing install CD) to configure a flickr account is beyond me — why can’t this all simply be built-in? (Hint: the developers were lazy.)
Rating: 2 / 5

Just got this digital photo frame this week and thought I’d share my experiences so far… Despite the fact that these photo frame gizmos have been around for awhile, this is my first time to play with one of these devices. This review is going to a bit rambling…

To start off here is “What is in the box”:

* The digital photo frame

* Remote control unit

* USB cable

* Power transformer

* Optional detachable stand

* Software CD

* Instruction booklet

The main reason I bought this particular item was for its impressive multimedia features. Not only does it display photos / images, it also plays MP3s (music files), and MP4s (video files). This particular unit also interfaces wirelessly to a network via WiFi, but since I don’t currently have a wireless network (no broadband internet either) – so I haven’t played with that aspect of the device (sorry).

Physical description:

The size of the device itself is roughly 9 ½” x 7″ x 1″. The display area is 8″ diagonally – which is around 6 1/4″ x 4 ¾” for those of you who would rather know HxW. Along the right side of the face of the frame, there are eight touch sensitive control buttons. These buttons are hard to see when they are not active and backlit – so when not in use, they are hardly noticeable. I found the buttons to be very sensitive – to the point of almost not even needing to touch the surface of the face.

On the back of the frame there is a standard keyhole which can be used to hang the frame on a wall – but given that there is just the one hole, the only orientation option is landscape. Also on the back is the power switch, which is cleverly built into one of the corners of the frame. There is a small green LED adjacent to the power switch, which lights when the unit is on.

Along the left side of the frame, there are connection points for headphones, a miniature USB jack (for connecting the frame to a PC), a full size USB jack for thumb drives, and last a jack for plugging in the power transformer.

One the top of the frame there is hatch which opens to reveal slots to insert a wide variety of flash memory cards. Also there is an extremely small switch which turns on/off the battery – and when I say small, I had to use the point of a toothpick to slide the switch from Off to On.

Ok, that is the gist of what the frame looks like – here are some things about how it works and such. In no particular order:

First off – taking the unit out of the box it came in and reading the booklet you are told to plug in the transformer and power up the frame. Which I did – problem was, the unit didn’t seem to want to turn on. And the power plug seemed to be prone to pulling out of the jack. I then tried switching on the battery (first finding a toothpick to do that). The unit came on fine working off the battery. I suspected that maybe I got a bad transformer. I noticed that it was the same voltage as transformer for my PSP, so I tried plugging the power plug into it. It powered the PSP fine, so no problem there – I again tried plugging the power plug into the jack on the frame – this time firmly pushing it in till I felt a slight `pop’. That was the trick; apparently I didn’t have the plug pushed completely into the jack.

Memory: The unit I bought has 1GB of built-in memory. I didn’t install any of the software that came with the unit, but I had no problems accessing the internal memory via the supplied USB cable. Also while I had the frame interfaced to my PC with the cable, the memory card I had inserted into one of the slots on top of the frame was accessible too.

Picture quality: I was impressed with the quality and brightness of the image of the 800×600 display. I read somewhere that it was a good idea to resize your images to match that of the photo frame – I tried that and there was a noticeable loss of image quality compared to just leaving the pictures in their higher resolution format. Most of the images I plan on displaying on the frame I bought are CGI renderings and technical illustrations (I plan on using this at my office to display stuff that I’ve done at work), but I also have a lot of photos taken with my Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-H3 camera. I’m happy with the image quality of both on the photo frame.

Neat feature: Auto rotation. When you turn the frame from portrait to landscape the image display adjusts – so no matter how you turn the frame the image is always “right-side-up” (assuming that the image file itself is “right-side-up”).

The unit does play MP3 (music) files – however, the built-in speaker isn’t a match for most audio systems. It’s not bad mind you, but don’t expect too much. Listening to music via the headphone jack is on par with most MP3 players. The OS of the frame has no problems finding the MP3 files on the memory card I inserted into the frame – but it doesn’t seem to have any option except playing the files in the order that it sorts them – there doesn’t seem to be a random play option or a way to make a play list. There is a volume control – both on the frame itself and via the remote.

One of the reason I pick this frame to buy is that plays MP4 (video) files. Which it does! However, the remote has to be used if you want to do more than just start/stop a video. I recently bought a Pinnacle Video Transfer unit, which allows you to transfer video onto a thumb drive (or on either a PSP or iPod) as MP4 video file. I’ve been transferring a lot of my old VHS tapes (including a couple of the old MS3K shows I recorded years ago) to play on my PSP, but the files also worked fine on this photo frame too. Keep in mind though, I’m talking about digital copies of old VHS tapes recorded – so the quality of the video image is pretty fuzzy to start with. Some of the stuff that I’ve pulled off a more modern digital camcorder looked better.

The Remote: I think this is the weakest part of the package. The remote is a credit card size device, about ¼” thick. The buttons are the plastic bubble membrane type. I had problems getting the remote to function most of the time. I don’t know if it’s the battery or me just not knowing where on the frame to aim the remote. The battery is the typical coin shaped watch battery variety. I plan on replacing it as soon as I can pick up a new one – hopefully that will make the unit function more reliably. You can do most basic things with the buttons on the frame itself, but more of the sophisticated stuff you need the remote for.

Clock / Calendar function – there is a calendar display, but just the one (unless I haven’t found how to switch to others). It’s fairly bland – wish there was a way of modifying it.

Overall, I like this gizmo. And for the price and the features it has, I think it was a good buy.

Rating: 5 / 5