My buddy Dave Moser asked me the other day for a recommendation on a digital picture frame. Luckily it was over email and text messages and therefore he couldn't see the blank look on my face. I have a few digital picture frames in my house, but sadly none of them really stand out or come to mind as something I'm so excited about that I would joyfully recommend. The problem is that I haven't seen a digital picture frame yet that is GREAT! I haven't even seen any yet that are really good. The current selection of frames out there that I've seen are just "OK".
What I want in a digital picture frame
The problem is that when it comes to a digital picture frame it not only has to have great technology in it for loading images and seeing them, but it also has to be aesthetically pleasing because this is something that is going in your home on display. And therein lies the problem, I haven't seen one yet that's a good enough blend between art and science. So I thought I would build "my" perfect digital picture frame here. Hopefully it already exists and one of you will point me to it and if not, someone will read this and build it some day. So here goes:
- First off, it has to look like a frame and not like a gadget or have a technology feel too it. Perhaps interchangeable bezels or fronts to it to match your decor. It should also be as thin as possible.
- It HAS TO BE WIRELESS! WiFi is a MUST HAVE. Not only does it need to be wireless for sending pictures to it, but it should also work with all the major sharing sites: ie Flickr, Smugmug, MobileMe, Photoshop.com Picasa, Facebook, etc. For example, I should be able to create a "Set" on Flickr.com and subscribe to that set right on the frame. If I add/change/delete any pictures in that set, the frame should automatically update.
- In addition to WiFi it should also support memory cards too. However, if a memory card is left in, the card itself can't show. It has to be either in the frame or hidden on the side as to not be seen.
- A web interface: When you buy a wireless router, you configure the whole thing from your web browser. This makes it platform independent.
- Video support. It should support video playback of the popular formats such as .MP4, .MOV, WMV, etc. This means that it's also either going to have to have a built-in speaker (well hidden of course) and/or be able to stream the audio to my stereo. AirTunes comes to mind here.
- The Slideshows should have a variety of transitions.
- Slideshow music. You should be able to load MP3, AAC, etc. files on to optionally play in the background behind the slideshows.
- Multiple albums/sets. I should be able to have a default set of pictures that rotate, but at any time choose a different set based on my mood or the company that's over at the time.
- A variety of sizes and at least one large wall mountable model. I should be able to buy this in at least 3 sizes, with the largest size being a nice big display that can be wall mountable. For the wall mountable version I would want the option of being battery operated (rechargeable of course). The battery pack should be user removable and a separate charger so that I could always have a fresh pack to swap out. The AC plug should be able to be behind the frame itself so that there are no visible wires when on the wall. If this frame existed I'd have an electrician put a plug exactly where I wanted to hang it.
- Motion Sensor – Sony actually did this years ago when they brought out their first ($900) frame. I still have mine to this day in my living room. When you wave your hand over the sensor, the frame activates and starts the show. You set the interval before it goes back to sleep. Of course you would also have the option to keep it on for longer viewing.
- A nice remote control: The remote has to be as elegantly designed as the frame itself. Again, it not only has to be functional and easy to use, but it also has to look good in a living room. Not to mention that you should be able to program an existing universal remote to control the frame too.
- Since it would already be connected to the Internet over WiFi to bring in pics, give me the option to display a nice user configurable home page with the weather, perhaps an RSS feed of my favorite news site, calendar, to do list, horoscopes, etc. you get the idea.
Yes it's a tall order to fill, but this is one of those rare occasions that if done right I wouldn't be price sensitive to this kind of product. I wouldn't go as far as to say price wouldn't be an object, but I would say that if done right I'd be willing to pay more than what the stuff out there now costs.
What comes close?
I did do a little research to answer Dave's question and as far as I can tell these two frames are the current top picks:
The IPEVO CSFU-01IP Kaleido R7 Wireless Photo Frame "looks good"! It has a good balance of good looks and functionality. It's not quite as elegant as I would like (it looks like "technology"), but it does have a good clean design. It can also work in both portrait and landscape mode which should appeal to photographers that would want to use this to show off their work to clients.
The Kodak EasyShare W820 8-Inch Wireless Digital Frame looks more like a traditional frame. It also has better photo sharing site support than the Kaleido R7. The Kodak EasyShare has support for "Kodak Gallery" as you would expect, and Flickr. It can videos, MP3s and has a built-in memory as well as card support. So if you're looking for that traditional "frame" look with some nice sharing features that I wanted above, this is probably it!
Apple TV works too
Since many of you already have nice big HDTV's in your homes, remember that these big displays can also be used to display great high def still pictures. Apple TV does a great job in subscribing to your Flickr or MobileMe picture accounts as well as being able to load thousands of pictures on its internal 160GB drive from your Mac or PC. It has a nice interface, can play the background music I want, and has wifi and internet capabilities too. It's probably the closest thing I'm looking for from a technology standpoint. So why not just do this instead of looking for a frame? While you can put a LCD TV on the wall and even have the wires hidden, the problem is it looks like an LCD TV on the wall. It doesn't look like a picture frame. Now you could give really clever with some do-it-yourself techniques and probably build a beautiful wood frame around an LCD TV and fake it, but as I've said many times, I'm not a do-it-yourself kinda guy. So right now there's at least one of you spinning the wheels in your brain thinking of starting a business where you take Apple TVs, LCD TVs and make picture frames out of them. To you (and you know who you are), i say send me the info when it's ready 🙂
Now if someone can take what was done with Apple TV's picture capabilities and simply put that in an elegant frame package, I think we'd have a winner!
Terry,
Seems like the ideal frame! When reading all this, suddenly I thought: “Hey, this could be a tablet…”
To me the one feature I need before I buy one of these is color profiling. Give me a darn profile or allow me to profile this thing! No sense in displaying pictures of kids and family if their skin looks purple! (ok, not purple but the way I see it on my profiled monitor). Everything else can wait… Oh yes, completely agree about the frame.
I would also like to see some good software that would automatically display my photos based on metadata and other criteria. e.g. “show photos of anybody whose birthday is within on week of today.”
Terry, what do you think about the estarling photo frames?
http://www.estarling.com/
Looks good! Great from the technology side for sure and I’ll have to take a closer look at this product. However, from a design standpoint this picture says it all:
http://www.estarling.com/Imagesv2/Gallery/party.jpg
Look at this photo and you’ll see their frame on the wall vs. the prints over to the right. The one on the wall, while very modern looking and nice looks like technology. The ones on the right look like prints/photos. I want a big digital frame on my wall with many of the features I see here, but I want it to look like those frames on the right.
My eStarling frame continues to have frame freezing problems that have gone unaddressed by their “Tech Support” in seven different attempts to get some answers from them. Other users apparently have the same difficulty and have had no responses from the eStarling manufacturer.
A photo freezes during continuous play and requires rebooting to re-establish the playback sequencing of images.
The total disregard of the manufacturer can be considered nothing less than in insult to consumer who have purchased this product. I own two which are in different locations running off two different networks and the problem is in both.
Be prepared to be ignored if you purchase this product and require help from the manufacturer.
—JP
I can’t wait to check out the models you’ve listed here. Until now, we’ve been using our Playstation3 to stream photos from my iPhoto via MediaLink Helper software. I agree that we have all these big tv’s just sitting around, they should display our photos! I’m amazed television makers haven’t pushed this feature more, it seems like a no-brainer. Many newer models have wifi built in, too.
Terry,
I too have NEVER seen a photo frame that has impressed me. I think a big reason for that though is that the whole notion of marrying a backlit image with something classy and non-techno really doesn’t work. The mind just doesn’t accept the two — like wearing sneakers with a tux. I think in order for the concept to work, you’ve gotta go all hi-tech. I could someday be proven wrong, of course. Do you think it’s possible for the two to work well together, Terry?
TrevJ,
I think it’s very possible. Some have come close on the design side already, but failed on the tech side. I think the problem is that most of the current manufacturers lean strongly towards the technology and don’t think about design. Let’s take simple example. Start with a nice elegant black frame that you can find at just about any store. Give it a nice white matte. Now replace the area where photo would go with an LCD screen and you’re there. That would be a basic design that blows away everything else out there today. You could then get fancier with the frame itself.
You may well be right there, Terry. I guess maybe the idea of framed backlit photos (as part of the home decor) just doesn’t work for me. I love viewing nice photography on my 24″ LCD monitor, and think it would look pretty hi-tech hanging on my office wall, but I don’t think I’d want to see it hanging on my living room wall — no matter how you dress it up. I’ll take a nicely framed static print any day. 🙂
Thanks for the (as usual) carefully thought out and presented review.
My wife and I purchased a Kodak EasyShare W820 8-Inch Wireless Digital Frame about a year ago.
It does look good and seems to perform as advertised–except that there is no Mac support. So, for example, while it is a wireless device, you can’t do anything with it on your Mac. You can neither configure it nor copy pictures to/from it.
Every few months I check the Kodak site to see if they’ve added Mac support, but nothing yet.
I don’t get or understand the pricing of these units. I just bought an LG 21″ (widescreen) flat panel lcd monitor for my office computer for $175.00 and it’s beautiful. I keep seeing these (average) 6″ digital frames ranging from $299 to $1000 and the resolution is ususally maxed out at 600 X 400 and included is an ugly frame. It’s beyond me, I’m waiting for them to be 20″ and around $100.00. I gues I might be dreaming, but what the hay!
One thing that will never work for me with digital frames is related to aspect ratio. The value that individually framed images brings to the table is that the image is framed properly to enhance the individual photograph. If it’s a portrait, it’s in the proper ratio, and the same for landscape. Digital frames lose their luster for me when you see a nice frame with landscape photos looking dramatic, and then the portrait comes up and it’s teeny tiny. As such, the only thing that even comes close to real life is an image on a large television screen. But, unless someone makes square frames (which would look odd in general, but would allow for portrait and landscape to effectively be the same size), then the digital options will still not be all that great for my needs.
Eric, I solved this problem in 2008 on my photo-sharing site http://ourdoings.com/ by creating separate feeds for horizontal and vertical photos. Every so often I flip my Samsung SPF-83V to the other orientation and change the feed to get different pictures.
NPR ran a story a while back about some digital frames having viruses to gather your info and send it back to China. That makes me nervous, and makes me wonder what’s on the cheap cards and sticks that are available.
Hi terry,
I have a great frame…….my Panasonic 42inch plazma TV. It takes an SD card so I have a crop ratio for it in Lightroom and an export preset for the exact pixel dimensions. You can fit hundreds and hundreds of photos on old half gig cards and they look tremendous at 42 inches at 1080p!