Philips 9-Inch Digital Picture Frame (Metal)
by Philips Consumer Electronics
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List Price: Category: Digital Camera See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Philips 9-Inch Digital Picture Frame (Metal)
Customer Review: Philips 9-Inch Digital Picture Frame (Metal)
Summary: 4 Stars
Firstly, I've owned this product for 1 month now, and this product has been running for 1 month now without my touching it. So rest assured that this isn't your overnight overly excited review.
----> Pros:
1) The physical construction of the frame is beautiful, sturdy and solid. You will find no creeks on this frame, and the metal-frame itself is a real eye-candy, if you're into that sort of the whole futuristic white-metal look.
2) The screen is very good, as others have pointed out. It's not as great as a HDTV screen, but it's definitely good enough to give the impression under broad daylight that it actually is a frame holding a picture.
3) I actually found the use of the user interface (UI) to be particularly simple. I believe as long as you keep your mind open and not try to compare the UI to anything, you will quickly find out how easy it is to navigate through the menus.
4) (MINOR) I consider it to be an upside when Im not forced to have to use the supplied program that came with the frame. When it comes to tech-stuff, I like to do things the manual way, so I'm not sure about you.
----> Cons:
1) (MINOR) The build of the buttons and joystick could have been a little better. There are minor annoyances when navigating throughout the UI. For example, if you're moving the stick left, it records as a push down on the stick instead. This is also due in part to the fact that the joystick is at the back and you cannot properly coordinate your joystick-push actions. It's really minor, nothing to get upset about, take my word for it.
2) In a month of use, under certain SD cards, the slideshow would stop working. The SD card would not be read in the slot (SD card was a 1 GB Sandisk). I had to physically restart the product in order to get it going again, only to have this happen again after 20 ~ 30 hours of running? However, after changing into a 2GB Micro SD with the SD adapter (Made in Japan model), the frame has been running flawlessly for a month without problems, at all.
3) (MINOR) Perhaps more internal memory could have been supplied? But I'm guessing if that were the case, the price of this product would have gone up further. I put this here because it may be an annoyance for some. It is not for me though.
4) (MINOR) The turning leg-support at the back that allowed you to switch between landscape/portrait could have been designed with more angle flexibility in mind. Again, I put this here for those who are concerned. I do not find any problem with the way it is now.
Having said that, I'd like to express my tips and tricks in knowing how to effectively use this product to its maximum potential.
1) If you plan to have a lot of pictures without placing them in folders (Just the root of the card), format your card in FAT32. If not, you may not get past 250 pictures or so.
2) DO NOT USE THE SUPPLIED PROGRAM. Simply copy your photos into the SD cards or whatever it is you're using and you're good to go.
3) If you want to edit pictures, do it on your computer. Don't toy around with the pictures through the frame.
4) Don't bother with the USB cable.
5) Use Irfanview to mass-convert photos into the frame's natural resolution (720x540).
My setup:
- No folders have been used. All pictures are stored in the root position of my SD card.
- It is set to turn on for 8 hours a day, and 12 hours during the weekends.
- Running time : a month of going without having to adjust it for whatever reason.
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I hope this has provided you with some sense of how this product is. Just remember, don't use the supplied program and you will be much happier with it. I understand that the CONS are longer than the PROS, but they're mostly just thoughts on how the thing could be improved upon for future versions. For myself, I absolutely love this product.
Cheers.
Customer Review: Brilliant pictures, but caution..
Summary: 3 Stars
Let me begin by praising the image clarity which the Philips 8-Inch Digital Picture Frame offers. One thing you can say about this item is that it brings your pictures to life! The color and clarity are outstanding.
I received one of these items as a gift, along with some recharchable batteries. Connecting it to my computer was easy (like all peripherals these days - plug it in and you are all set!). I had one minor little quibble getting the software going, but it was my own mistake really.
Once up and running this frame runs a nice slideshow if your images, and can even be programmed by turn on or off at specific times, in case you want to have it de-activate during work hours to save power and wear-and-tear.
There is something else I wish to share about Philips 8-Inch Digital Picture Frame however, which other potential buyers should take to heart.
I was watching television late one night and enjoying myself. I turned off the set, and then noticed there was still more light in the room than what I would normally expect. Puzzled, I turned around and saw that my Philips 8-Inch Digital Picture Frame was on.
Figuring I'd left it active by mistake, I walked over. Removing the A/C didn't turn it off, so I turned it around and went to remove the batteries, only to discover that I already had -- they were in a charger over on the wall.
Strange. Did it have an internal battery too, which had been charged by the power cord being in?
It was then that I noticed the photos being shuffled across the display were not my own snapshots, but something much more unusual. The colors were off - tinted in a slight sepia, with jagged white lines I recognized as damage from folding. The faces of men and women from a hundred years ago danced across the screen.
I lifted fingers to the surface unconsciously, and withdrew them with a numb flash of horror after feeling the rough, lined surface of ancient paper instead of smooth glass. My Philips 8-Inch Digital Picture Frame was haunted! Fortunately, I had a solution at hand. Out in my shop, I stashed the unearthly device in a trap door which I had earlier secured against paranormal invasion.
A friend's recommendation of powerful batteries for my cordless screwdriver saved me this time!
Amazon came through again for me when I filed a customer complaint, and replaced the faulty frame. I love this thing, and don't be too put off - what are the odds that this could happen twice?
Customer Review: Manual Lacking- Room for improvement-File Name Quirks
Summary: 3 Stars
Apple Mac users - the file name extension must be .jpg and not .jpeg for Philips digital photo frame to recognize your pictures on the memory card. I suspect it is the same if you are using a USB cable.
You think Philips could have made this Apple MAC friendlier.
MAC users - The CDROM is worthless that ships with the product. You will need to goto the customer support page to download a PDF version of the manual. Philips should have included the PDF of the manual on the CDROM.
Nowhere on the box does it say how many photos can be stored on the internal memory. The user manual says 100-150 but that depends upon their size I would think. They say that a 250Meg card can store 850 photos. This must be less than 300dpi or 5megapixel resolution as my scans at 300dpi are about 700kbytes.
Not sure what kind of rechargeable battery is used internally (Nicad etc). Philips states that the photoframe can operate on the battery for one hour without being recharged.
There are only two memory card slots - a compact flash slot and a universal SD type of memory slot. There is a USB port but it is not the standard type that would readily accept a flash memory USB drive. I have not tried hooking it directly to a computer to upload pictures.
Menu buttons take some getting used to. I am constantly hitting the power button by mistake. They should move this button to a different position. Navigating the windows of the user interface takes some getting used to.
I see what other reviewers mean about the stand positions. You think they could design this better to support greater variability in viewing angles.
The picture frame is nice to look at after you have it working. It automatically senses when you turn the frame to adjust the view - this is a nice feature if you have many vertical pictures to view versus horizontal pictures.
The multiple color frames is a nice touch so that a user can select the color depending upon where the picture frame is placed. However, a less moder more conservative wook frame would be a nice touch.
My 02 cents.
Customer Review: Philips 8-Inch Digital Frame - Fantastic!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I ordered this as a gift for my grandparents' anniversary. It was really impressive! The display is gorgeous; images look like real photos with bright, clear colors. It can be seen from across the room, or viewed from an angle, with complete clarity. The battery lets you remove the frame from the AC adaptor and hold it to view photos close up.
The most difficult part was determining what size I should save photos on my computer, in order to have them completely fill the frame's screen display. Cropping pictures to 688x468 worked perfectly. The picture is all there, without any black edge around it. The transition effects are very nice--not simply blinking to the next photo, but fading in and out in unique ways to make a nice slide-show presentation.
The interface seemed fairly easy to use, once you get the hang of it. I used a memory card from my digital camera, put it in my photo printer, saved images from my computer to the card, and then plugged the card directly into the frame. I could then transfer the photos to the frame's memory itself, or simply play the photos off the inserted card. You can divide your pictures into different folders on the frame and then select which ones to display in your current show. (I had originally planned to use my thumb drive to transfer photos, but there is no USB port in the frame. There is a cable that allows you to connect the frame directly to a USB port in your computer, but I haven't tried that option.)
I wasn't sure I wanted to spend $200 on a digital frame when there are cheaper ones available, but after reading other reviews and visiting a variety of sites, this seemed like the best choice for a quality product. (Amazon had the best price.) The frame does not have some of the flashier features that others boast, such as the ability to play music, but I just wanted a good screen that displayed images well, offered smooth slide-show transitions, and was simple to use. All in all, I was very impressed with this product. This was an excellent choice!!
Customer Review: Be patient if you have problems
Summary: 4 Stars
I've had this frame for 2 days now. I looked at lots of options & read the reviews here before choosing this one. Previously I had a Vista frame; the reason I was looking for something else is that the Vista apparently can only handle up to 500 pictures, even if your memory card holds more & the motion sensor wasn't working right any more.
I love this frame, for all the reasons that others have already mentioned here. However, the documentation is terrible & very confusing. I have an SD card with about 500 pictures that I used in my other frame. In spite of numerous tries, I could not get the frame to recognize these pictures. It listed the SD card, but none of the pictures would show up in the menu. One of the other reviewers here was very helpful & suggested reformatting the card when I asked him for help, but that didn't work. I tried some other SD cards & got the same result... the SD card was listed, but there were no pictures to choose for the slideshow.
What did work for me was to use a Compact Flash card instead of an SD card. I think another review mentioned doing that. I reformatted the CF card before ever putting it in the frame (it had been in my digital camera). I copied the same 500 pictures to the CF card and it worked right away when I put it in the frame. When you put the card in the frame the option for "PC Folder" needs to be darkened - it was always grayed out with the SD cards. All my memory cards are the same brand (Lexar) - whether that's a factor or not I can't say at this point.
Even though my pictures from the Vista frame were all sized with a 4:3 aspect, most of them look fine with the 3:2 aspect of this frame. I will have to tweak some of them, but it's much better than I expected.
I love the quality of the display with this frame, as well as the variety of options for transitions between pictures, etc. The documentation could be a lot clearer, though. Once you have it working it's simple, but getting there can be frustrating.