Philips 7FF1AW Digital Photo Display review

So we managed to get our sweaty mitts on a pre-release of the Philips 7FF1AW Digital Photo Display. Let's just say that having seen more than a few Ceivas in our lifetime has left us a bit, shall we say, jaded about these devices in terms of display quality and design. Well, the press photo certainly looks nice so perhaps there is hope.

Philips' push into the digital photo display arena lends some credence to a market which until now has been ignored by the big boys of display manufacturing. Another sign (as if we needed one) that digital photography has truly gone mainstream. What's driving them? Well, Philips' research claims that a paltry 20% of all digital photos and digital scans of old prints ever get pressed to paper. Oh surprise, there's product to be sold!

Now, we know that some of you have a raised-floor data center installed in your house and could always make your own digital photo display out of discarded laptop components, paper clips, and asparagus. But this product is for the average consumer, not you alpha anthropoids, dig?

Out of the box and powered on
First thing we notice — the packaging is very Apple-like with the actual box inserted into a marketing sleeve. Remove the sleeve and the box opens like a book. We like this attention to detail.

Unpacked, you get the 7-inch display, a universal power supply, a sturdy metal stand, quick start guides in multiple languages, a CD-based user manual, and two USB cables for connecting the display to a digital camera or personal computer.

The overall frame design is aesthetically pure and feels rock solid. The design reminds us of the old swing-arm iMac display or first generation iPod with its combination white and heavy plastic frame. This is probably not by coincidence given the mad popularity of Jonathan Ive designs.

The display is, unfortunately smaller than we imagined from the press photos and marketing collateral. Guess we fixated too much on those, er "7-inches" which in photography patter would indicate a device for showcasing 5 x 7-inch photos. Oh right, Philips manufactures displays so that measurement is diagonal! Thus the actual LCD is 3.6 x 5.4-inches (9 x 14-centimeters) which is still respectable and in-line with traditional frames you'll find in most homes — just not what we had expected.

The stand is (refreshingly) made from highly polished metal and is keyed for idiot-proof connection. However, don't be tempted to use it as a handle for passing the frame around to your friends. The off-center connection is likely to disconnect due to the torque created by the frame — something that nearly happened to us as we passed the unit around for closer inspection.

A toggle of the switch to "on" introduced about 2 seconds of (slightly) unsettling nothingness until the display burst to life with the Philips logo, some information about the viewing mode we were currently in, and then a built-in slideshow splashing lots of (really) happy people across the display with lives far better than our own. The slideshow was an effective demonstration of the superb quality of the display and the built-in transitions (which. looked. a. bit. jerky.). It even pointed out where those media cards go which wasn't immediately obvious when studying the back panel. The LCD quality does, as the marketing claims, easily match that of traditional prints.

By the way, it is dead quiet — the device doesn't make a peep.

Setup
It took a bit of time to get used to the controls for navigating the Setup menu but the fact the physical control buttons located on the top, back of the display...

...are mirrored positionally with their functional icons on the front of the display was very helpful indeed.

All the options we would seem to need are available: language selection; brightness; slideshow orientation (portrait or landscape), frequency (options to change photos every 5 seconds or as infrequent as once per day — with lots of choice in between), transition effect and order of photos displayed; and time functions for turning the frame off automatically or adjusting nighttime (hard coded as 6pm to 6am)brightness. It's a shame the frame doesn't simply auto-sense ambient light conditions and then adjust itself accordingly. The frame can display photos in one of three view modes with a press of the Switch View button: the automatic Slideshow mode we already saw when we powered the unit up, the Browse mode which allows for manual viewing and management of photos one-by-one, and the Thumbnail mode which shows 8 photos at a time.

This is the mode we found most useful (although most sluggish) for managing (adding, excluding, deleting) photos from the slideshow. While we're suckers for the nice graphical transition the selection window makes as it travels between photos in the Thumbnail mode, we'd sacrifice it for some speed improvement, dig? We also noted the occasional delay in response to button presses — this can get a bit annoying especially after you master the navigation and want to zip between options. Thankfully, an audible feedback follows each successful button press letting us know when patience was in order.

Finally, we were a bit surprised after rotating a picture in Thumbnail mode only to find it back in its original position in Browse mode. At least the slideshow obediently observed our command. Perhaps this is by design, after-all there's some serious cropping action performed when displaying a portrait photo in landscape view or vice versa. Regardless, it caught us off guard and we can't find this "feature" documented.

Display
This is certainly the most important feature of any digital photo display and Philips did not skimp on quality. The 5.4 x 3.6-inch (14 x 9 cm), 133ppi (720 x 480) high-resolution 16-bit display with a brightness adjustable up to 200 nits is just stellar. Visibility and brightness even at the most extreme of angles and ambient lighting conditions was very impressive.

The display is rated at 20,000 hours at 50% brightness which means trouble in a bit less than three years — make that four by taking advantage of the auto off-and-on capabilities to shut the display off over night. It should be noted that photo displays like Vialta's VistaFrame offer motion sensing capabilities to put the display to sleep after an hour of stillness presumably extending the life of the display. This seems like a pretty good idea to us.

And if you're a stalker, you'll be stoked with Philips' claims that the LCD can display the same photo for 1,000 hours continuously without any damage to the display.
 
Memory cards
The Philips Digital Photo Display supports SD, MMC, Memory Stick and CompactFlash memory cards. We inserted our 1GB SanDisk SD card and up came our photos in Thumbnail mode — fast! The card was initially loaded with just twenty or so 2.2MB photos shot at 2560 x 1920 with our 5-megapixel camera.

Even loading the card down with 250 photos did not impact performance a bit — impressive. Fortunately, if you press-and-hold the keys corresponding to the Preview/Left or Next/Right you get the equivalent of a page up/down mode which is an absolute requirement when working with high-capacity memory cards containing hundreds of snaps. However, this functionality wasn't immediately obvious to us nor was it documented in the Quick Start Guide. In Thumbnail mode, each 8-photo page took about 4 seconds to refresh — in other words, it took us an uncomfortable minute to scroll to the furthest (125th) photo. We'd rate that performance as sluggish.

Removing the card quickly sent the device right back to the internal memory store. In fact, popping the SD card in-and-out as quick as we could for about 5 seconds all Walt-Mossberg-like did not cause any problems at all — the frame neatly sorted itself out when all the nonsense stopped.

Copying photos to the display's internal storage was equally zippy taking just a couple of seconds. Pretty good when you consider that not only are the bits moving between media but they are also being scaled to an optimum storage-space-to-screen-resolution ratio before copying. Fortunately, you can select multiple photos on your memory card and then copy them all over in one fell swoop with a bit of a performance gain — nicely done Philips. Likewise, you can select and then delete multiple photos from internal memory as well. Fortunately, you can't delete photos from the memory card.

Importantly, we didn't notice any difference in performance whether running the slideshow off the card or the internal memory.

Copying files from a Mac and PC
Yes, you can do this but as Philips states (and for good reason) "it is highly recommended to put the photos on a memory card and copy the photos to Photo display from that memory card." In fact, they don't even describe the procedure in the Quick Start Guide — these details are included in the user manual stored on the included CD. Note: the CD is PC friendly with it's autolaunch feature but Mac users will have to navigate the folder hierarchy and find the temp_Index.htm file for viewing the user manual — most Mac owners will never find it.

We gave it a go anyway just to see what would happen. First thing we noticed — there is only 12MB of internal memory! Simmer down folks 'cause it's enough to store 50 to 80 photos at the appropriate resolution for the display. This optimization occurs automatically if you copy your photos off a memory card or into the root of the Internal memory. However, being the digital whiz kids we are, we instinctively copied our 2.2MB JPEGs to the /DCIM/100FRAME directory — bad decision. Although the display presented the photos just fine on the screen, we squashed the internal memory after copying just 4 photos and these photos were not tagged for automatic inclusion in the slideshow. NOTE: Philips assures us they are working on a firmware release that will resize photos copied into the DCIM directory and then tags them for inclusion in the slideshow.

After Philips set us straight we tried again, this time copying the photos to the root of the internal display. We then disconnected the USB cable and voila, the photo optimization began — a process which moves the resized photos into the /DCIM/100FRAME directory and then deletes the originals from the root directory (not your personal computer). The display provides some high level information about the copy process underway and once complete, the photo display comes up in Thumbnail mode with the new photos tagged for inclusion in the slideshow. Ok, but as you may have already guessed, that 12MB of internal memory still limits us to copying four or five photos at a time — something that would have thrown us into convulsive fits of despair had we continued to the estimated 80 (optimized) photo limit.

So save yourself some trauma and just populate a memory card with the photos you want to display. Afterall, if you're in the market for a digital photo display you more than likely have at least one or two old cards lying around just screaming for action.

It's worthwhile mentioning that the Philips display also boasts the ability to copy photos directly off cameras which support direct playback — i.e, a mass storage mode. Our Casio EX-Z55 was set to this mode yet connecting it and then putting the camera in "play" mode resulted in a nearly audible yawn from the display — i.e., it did not recognize the camera and continued playing the slide show unaffected. This was not a feature we were likely to use anyway so we didn't spend any time trying to sort out the issue. A list of compatible cameras could not be found.

Philips also claims that you can connect two of their Digital Photo Displays and copy photos as you would from a memory card. We could not test this as we only had the one display.

Battery
The battery is rated at 50 minutes of operation and is meant to enable owners to pass around the Digital Photo Display and share their pictures amongst a group of family, friends or colleagues. Our first test gave us about 80 minutes on a full charge. After charging it overnight, we unplugged the power again but this time the device flashed a "low battery" message and simply shut off. So we plugged the power in again until the display came to life and then removed it again — hmmm, things seemed ok. So we took a peak at the Status off the Setup menu which indicated a battery level of 56% charged, no wait 76, er 81... what is going on here!? Nevertheless, the slideshow chugged along for nearly 60 minutes on the battery alone. Then again, after an overnight charging (we thought) we disconnected the power cable and saw yet another "low battery" message before the display shut off. This time, we could not resurrect it on battery alone. A third test after a further 12 hour charge worked fine giving us about 70 minutes of on-battery display life. A fifth test failed after charging for 5 hours. There's something goofy here.

Price
Philips tells us to expect to see their digital photo display hit the shelves globally this month or next at a price between €199 and €229 ($243-269US) depending upon where you live.

A froogle on " photo display digital" gives you an idea who Philips is up against with this offering — tech giants like Svat, MemoryFrame, Vialta, and the yawntastic designs of Pacific Digital. The product that looks the closest to Philips in terms of design, size, and features is the Vialta Vistaframe. Like Philips' offering, it features a contemporary design and roughly the same screen size. However, the 384 x 234 resolution is about half that of the Philips frame, it lacks a battery, and can only hold 8 photos in internal memory. Yet it still sells for about $200US (€163). Philips philosophy here is that if you're in the market for a digital photo display, then quality of the LCD is utmost important. We tend to agree and are willing to pay for that.

What about Ceiva you ask? Sure, you can get a homely (we mean Gertrude McFuzz homely!) looking low-res Ceiva frame for $70 (after $50 rebate, which you'll never send in) plus another $100 per year for the subscription service. But this isn't targeting Ceiva owners. This is for people who actually own a digital camera and want to get those photos off the hard drive and onto the mantel — no provider required.

Other
This is not a networked solution so don't fantasize about remotely updating photos via a built-in WiFi connection (a la Wallflower) or modem-based subscription service all Ceiva-like, k? Philips kept it simple — an approach we agree with especially for a first offering. Having said that, we still dream of the day when we can remotely update grandma's digital photo frame via the Internet without a subscription. Philips, are you listening?

Conclusion
Philips' fledgling foray yields a digital photo display offering outstanding display quality and a swank, intuitive solution for getting those digital photos off your PC and into the living room.

Sure, as angst ridden hacks we always have a few gripes. The inclusion of some auto-sensing (instead of manual) brightness controls based on the ambient lighting conditions and a motion sensing sleep mode to extend the life of the display would be nice-to-haves. And while we're at it, how about a bump in performance to make slideshow transitions smoother and give some pep to the navigation of all those photos on our high-capacity memory cards. The battery exhibited some buggy behavior and the ability to copy files directly from your PC or Mac to the display's internal memory is almost pointless given the paltry 12MB available. And why in the world isn't there a simple hole for hanging this on the wall!? None of these, however, are serious enough to warrant a verbal slagging and do not interfere with the usability or superb quality of the display — and that's what counts in a digital photo display, dig?

Also, for $250 we'd like to see a bigger display. Then again, we'd also like to see the Road Runner give up the ghost in a messy coyote-induced ACME rocket blast — some things are tasty enough to warrant patience and these prices are certain to drop along with LCD prices in general. Regardless, the Philips unit seems priced appropriately compared to the specs of their competition.

Bottom line: If you're in the market for a digital photo display, then this is the new benchmark by which you should measure all other products.

[DaveH @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Bah - no wifi, no sale.

[zimma @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

ooooh this is nice. i did a froogle on other digital displays and those all look so ugly or too much like a "digital pictureframe" and not something I would ever want to put on my mantel. this on the other hand, is a beauty.

[David @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Does it do random slide show? If you get a 1GB+ flashcard and have 8000 pictures you don't want to see the same 100 every time you turn it on.

[Alan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

A review without a photo of the reviewed object in real world use? :|

[MRubillo @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Why did they put thier "Philips" logo on the bottom of the frame? Who wants that? If I order a frame from PictureFrames.com I don't recieve a frame with the logo "PictureFrames.com " stamped on it. Nice frame if it didn't have the logo.

[alex @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Exactly! Why in the world would you NOT put holes in the back for me to hang the damn thang. I was looking for it in the pix before reading the whole review through. They would have sold me if there were holes for either landscape or portrait framing. I'm not crazy about sticking adhevsives to hook it on the wall.

[Jon H @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

This should have a cellphone built-in, so you could send pictures to it the same way you would send a picture to any cameraphone user.

If they did that, it might also be neat if it could receive and display text messages.

[Mike @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Nice,

A little expensive, but something i would certainly stuck in a living room.

[Jon H @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

"Why did they put thier "Philips" logo on the bottom of the frame?"

I think that's only in the promotional pix. There's no sign of it in the other pictures, or even on the box photo above.

[lotech @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Take one dead laptop, replace harddrive remove battery/keyboard, add $10 Picture frame, usb wifi, VNC and about 5 hours.
A picture frame that runs XP, is remote controllable and has 40gb of storage. And probably the only geek hack my mum likes/wants.

[jacobk @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Any idea on when this will be released?

[jarrod the allen @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

that looks nothing like a 2nd generation imac display.

[LaRue @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Great. Where do I buy it? A quick, cursory online search found no retailers.

[Rainer Mueller @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Sharperimage.com sells them for $249.95.
Search for "digital picture frame" on their site.

[Victor @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

It looks as if this thing runs some sort of modified embedded Linux. If that's true, Philips can be forced to release the source code (under GPL, like the Tomtom http://gpl-violations.org/news/20041024-linux-tomtom.html), and we could be watching video on the device very soon. I think it's the perfect PVR for long flights.

[Thomas Ricker @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

A couple of responses to your Qs:

The Philips logo does not appear on the actual product. Indeed, it is only on the promotional photo.

We purposely did not post a photo of the display showing a full size photo since we could not do this with sufficient quality.

Yes, there is an option to set the slideshow to display photos in random order.

[Supi @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

At least it can't be any more worse than Nokias first take on digital image frames (or whatever they are called) back in '03: http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,,46251,00.html

Incidentally, I happen to have one of those Nokia's for sale. Feel free to contact :)

[Joe @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

I'll consider buying it for my cubicle. Surrounded by non-geeks, everyone'll keep wondering why I change the picture so often :)

As for the do-it-yourself project, there was a project written about in detail in Popular Science's How 2.0, ~August 2004. I'd rather do this myself as described above for the sheer joy of building it yourself. And with a 15" screen, that's something worth hanging up or building into a sheetrock wall.

[Paul B. @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Same here, no Wifi, no go. I mean think of how much easier everything is with Wifi included. !!!!

[Ed @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

I got one! My low tech wife got me one for my birthday this last weekend from Sharper Image.

It truly is fantastic. The review generally is right on point. A few extra notes. Mine has a hole in back I think (it is at the office now so I'll have to double check) and certainly NO Philips logo on front. I think that is just in their promo photo (and pretty dumb on their part at that).

You can do random picture selection from a memory card to answer the question above. I have a 256 SD card with 84 pictures and it is handling that fine. I found the transition effects to be just right in speed and I have mine set to random and to change pictures every 30 seconds.

At first I was ticked that I could not get my memory card to read unless the pictures came straight from the camera. I later figured out that the frame expects the pictures to come from INSIDE the DCM directory so if you copy files to there on a card you first format in a camera you should be ok, at least I was. I also found and successfully did a firmware upgrade that is supposed to fix this. (Good luck finding the support page on Philips.com. I did with a lot of searching based on the model number as I recall).

(Strangest firmware upgrade process I've seen -- it uses a memory card to do it -- but it worked fine).

(I should also note that the frame would not read a few pictures from my SD card. I am fairly sure that is because my card reader is not copying well from my computer and corrupted a few pictures. All the pics straight from the camera worked just fine. I just got a new card reader to see if that is the problem. I am pretty impressed, by the way, that my full size .jpgs were no problem. The screen scales them on the fly I would guess).

Last night after I left my office the frame 'hung' ie stuck on one picture I think when it was supposed to auto-shut off. It would not even respond to the they physical power off button (!!!) this am. I just unplugged and let the battery run out. I then replugged and turned it on and it is fine again. Curious if it will be hung again tomorrow.

I highly recommend this product. Mine is plenty bright to see in an office in direct sun and with overhead lighting. The LCD quality is high -- it looks almost like a printed picture -- and the overall look is great. Reminds me of my iMac volleyball model screen more than an iPod. And it works great. Even faily low tech people could deal with this (but for the DCM issue and firmware upgrade). I have it next to some other 3x5 pictures and this stands up very well.

(Only downside I saw is that this sort of plastic attracts fingerprints and scratches. Mine wiped clean pretty easily with a nice lens cloth, but you'll not want to overhandle it. I'm sure plenty of scratch removers will help too on the plastic issue. I also noted two horizontal lines on either side of the frame in the clear plastic. Must be mold lines. Not too bad but noticeable)

[Kramer @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

This is dumb. Only a hour of work on a battery?
Can you plug it in?
What's the point of having picture frame if it will run out in hour?
To "pass around to show photos" I am using my P900 and PSP.
This device looks like picture frame and have stand to put it on the table or something. But what's the point if it lives only an hour?

[Hattie @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Pacific Digital has a huge range of frames compared to this Philips one. They sell the MemoryFrames that are very easy to use. I have a WiFi MemoryFrame and it rocks! You can even send you pictures to it remotley and it has a much bigger screen to see them on!

[Web Design Ireland @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Aparently there is a mains adaptor, so you can hang it on your wall fter all.

[Jim @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

I had looked at creating one of these frames from a old laptop. The problem with that is the screen is not as good as the quality of a new bright low power screen. The laptop would be very heavy to mount to the wall.

I do have an old IBM laptop I am currently not using, after upgrading to new laptop last month. I will reinvestigate this possiblitly. How many more years will I get out of the screen before it will need to be replaced and can it be replaced with something of much better quality and at what cost? Something I have never looked into. Could I sell the old laptop and get enough money to buy the frame?

[Jim @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

I had looked at creating one of these frames from a old laptop. The problem with that is the screen is not as good as the quality of a new bright low power screen. The laptop would be very heavy to mount to the wall.

I do have an old IBM laptop I am currently not using, after upgrading to new laptop last month. I will reinvestigate this possiblitly. How many more years will I get out of the screen before it will need to be replaced and can it be replaced with something of much better quality and at what cost? Something I have never looked into. Could I sell the old laptop and get enough money to buy the frame?

[Gordy @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

I got a Ceiva froma thrift store...$6.99. Anybody know of any hacks for it? It seems ripe for hacking, but I don't know where to start.

[Rick(swe) @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

The philips logo is not on the consumer product. I called Philips today to confirm this. I like the product and will be one or two. I would of prefered a power cord in white though. Also a 10" display would of been nicer maybe next year :)
/ Rick

[Big Sister @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

That would make a great CHRISTMAS gift....hint hint!! I'd love to see my nephews more often!!

[Pascal @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

This makes a great gift. Ik got one this weekend and this is one of the coolest gadgets I have seen. It certainly attracts a lot of attention. The image is incredibly sharp and the product is incredible simple to install. The box the product is shipped in also adds to the WOW factor. I really hope Philips will be adding more versions to this line of products (wooden frames, metal frames, larger screensizes etc). This company seems to be adding more fancy gadgets every year...it's apparently a Dutch company...so they know what blowing your mind out means...:-)

[Darwin @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

I want one!!!! Have been waiting for couple months now. Wish it will become available in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore or Thailand soon!!!

[mary @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Where can you get one. I live in IL, USA and would consider buying online or at a store. a good one at that with gauratees and warranties and insurance and what not. Thanks

[May @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Yes, the one looks pretty similar to iMac. You can see the frame's appearance and the package. Well, main stream of design. Meantime, if you disassemble the frame, holly molly, the battery is located on a metal bracket. Price is too high. The LCD�s quality is good, but the firmware is not stable.

[Gary Parker @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

This is a good idea but not a new one!
Seems like an extension of the original Pictronic Frames (www.pictronic.co.uk) - they look very alike too!

[-camm- @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

My one has the phillips logo on it!!! Not too bad tho, if it was a no name brand I would be pissed!!! Picture quality fabulous, well impressed :-)

[-camm- @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Hi, can someone help me. I am copying pictures to my memory card but some of them wont play on either my camera's or the frame!! Is there anybody that might know what the problem is or where i might find out? I am trying it on two camera's with different types of cards with no success!!! I already formatted one card too which didnt work and I cant tell what the difference with the pictures actually is, all the same size etc and taken from the same camera's! please help, my email is [e-mail] if anyone knows whats up, cheers

[frank @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Would it be possible to use my iPod photo as a memory card for the display (maybe with the iPod camer connector ?)? That would solve the capacity problem I see. I want lots of pictures that show randomly (truly randomly) that don't start boring me within a couple of days.

[-camm- @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

I think I managed to figure out what the problem that I posted at 35 was, if you change the name of a file from what the camera records it as you have issues ie DSCN5678.jpg changed to camm.jpg will not be recognised on either the camera or the frame. I have found that a CIMG****.jpg from a casio and a DSCN****.jpg from a nikon will show on either camera whilst one without that format will not. Trick here dont change the names of files before loading onto the frame or revert them back to a camera format name that the frame will recognise. Hardware eh, Jeez!!!

[Graham @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

I made a digital picture frame from a Jornada 720 which I no longer use. It works but the viewing angle is not very good. After reading the reviews here I think I will go for the Philips, mainly for the picture quality and ease of changing pictures. Can anyone confirm that it has a wide viewing angle including looking from above when standing and below when sitting.

[Sing @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

I found out in Hong Kong, the Philips digital picture frame comes will free 3 x clip-on frame AND an extra angle adjustable table stand (looks like a APPLE stand). Wonder why they don't offer that in US.

[May @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

I have one on hand and found the issues on it were terrible. You can not image the memory card can not be read. (For some reason, I am tryinr to work it out still) If people wanna to have a machine to make you crazy, it is the best choice!!

[Dogmatix @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

I saw these displays displayed at the Funkausstellung here in Berlin, and have just got one myself. The picture quality is amazing; the instructions are not. There is a lot to be figured out yourself. The required filename format for reading images on a card, for example, should be explained properly. So should the peculiar charging behaviour. No logo on the front, by the way.

In slideshow mode, there is a random fade option with loads of fade types, but if you want to stick to a certain fade type, there are only four to choose from.

You also have to watch out with images that are not 1:1.5 ratio. If you let the display scale these images, they get cropped, sometimes unevenly intead of centrally. If you want to see the whole of a non 1:1.5 image, scale it on your PC to 720 pixels wide and/or 480 high first.

And if you don't like ipod-style white-and-acrylic, it should be possible to stick a nice wooden frame on it.

[Bob @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Does anyone know how to order the pics in the slideshow so they run in the order you want? Failing that, what is the default ordering system the frame uses?

[matthias @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

hi! can anybody tell me whether it�s possible to use a memory-card instead of the internal memory? i don�t think that 12mb are quite enough for me - but if it�s possible to save all pictures on a card and let the philips play the photo-show directly from that card ... would be a solution for my problem.

can�t find any information about that, anybody knows???

cheers
mat

[Markus @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Yes, it's possible to show all photos directly
from a memory card.
Cool Picture frame (I have got one !!) with high
quality display.
But the plastic styling is disappointing.
A frame made of glass should be possible for this price!

[Mike @ Dec 24th 2005 11:05AM]

The Production clear plastic frame DOES have a philips Logo the wooden look frame does NOT have the Philips Logo.

[Dixie Torres @ Dec 25th 2005 9:05PM]

I bought two of these frames for family. I sent to my parents one all set up so as to not have them have to. I was talking on phone to Dad as he turned it on and was watchting it. It ran for about 15 of the pictures I had on there and just turned off, went to Philips white page and would do nothting else. I had him check plug in and all the nessasary walk thrus and nothing. I had him turn it over and put a paper clip into the reset and still nothing. It than went black and that was it. I know the power was working because the lights on the turn on switch were on. Black screen and nothing else. I went to check what else on the troubleshoot page could help me with and nothing. He now has to send it back in the mail and my Christmas present is down the drain. Can anyone help me on this? I just bought this about a week ago. I love doing this for my parents, it was such a neat idea for parents of 8 children and 29 grand and 9 great grands. I am so dissapointed. Dixie

[A ndy Freeman @ Jan 5th 2006 9:34AM]

Can anyone confirm to me if the viewer supports USB Plug and Play. I want to use some kind of pen drive just to temporarily display (not store) photos but don't know what would be suitable.



Anybody got any bright ideas. Thanks