Kodak announces four EASYSHARE digital picture frames

Ok, it's just another in a long line of digital picture frames. But hey, this time we're talkin' Kodak, so we're expecting the same ease of use we've seen from the rest of their EASYSHARE line-up of cams, printers, and accessories. The four new frames consist of a 10 and 8-inch (diagonal) pair with built-in 802.11b/g WiFi (EX1011 and EX811) and a couple of 8 and 7-inch standard frames (SV811 and SV710). All support the usual memory card formats (CF, SD, MMC, xD and MS) and bring a USB 2.0 host port to pull files direct from any USB digital cam or flash drive without the aid of a computer. Like many frames these days, you get support for not just JPEG images but also MPEG-1, MPEG-4, MOV and AVI video formats and a bit of MP3 audio to accompany slideshow playback. You'll also get built-in stereo speakers, 128MB of internal memory, and interchangeable faceplates including a "whiteboard' faceplate for those longing for the homey feel of the corporate conference room. The top of the line EX1011 WiFi frame features a 10-inch , 800x480 display and should retail for $280 in March. Prices drop off from there until you hit the rock-bottom, 7-inch SV710 sporting a low, low 480x234 resolution for an equally low price of $130. What, isn't your family worth the extra pixels?

[Via DPReview]

[xrmb @ Jan 7th 2007 11:11PM]

and another one that is more frame than everything else, why do they need 2" wide frames?

[Sam @ Oct 24th 2007 9:28AM]

My family is worth the pixels but the frame doesn't deliver crisp images.

SV811 is a poor design. The SV811 screen is 16:9 and the pixels are 800 x 480, which is NOT 16:9. That means the pixels are not square (maybe the screen was made for TV). The screen is re-digitizing the pictures to make them fit and this markedly lowers quality. I proved this by making three photos in an editor, one is 800x480 and the other two are 16:9 variants: 800x450 and 853x480 Each picture has cross hatch line one pixel apart. Only the 853x480 fills the screen and only the horizontal lines are crisp, the vertical lines have been extrapolated and are gray fuzz.

I'm returning my unit

[Databoss @ Dec 13th 2007 5:24PM]

So, I just bought three of the Kodak EX1011 Wi-Fi enabled digital picture frames. Let me tell you that my out-of-the box experience sucks. I've called Kodak customer support 3 times and have spent a total of 47 mins. on hold. I could here the reps flipping thru printed manuals trying to find the answer to some pretty simple questions.

So here's my situation...I've got the frame connected to the Internet. I've got pictures downloaded from the Kodak website to my picture frame, but when I add new pictures to the website, there is no way to get the frame to refresh with the new pictures. After 40 mins with customer service, I'm told to power off the picture frame and turn it back on. You know, I'd already figured that out, but was looking for a more elegant, some would say thoughtful solution.

I think Kodak came close with this product, but since a lot of these are likely to be given as gifts to grandparents, it would be nice to have a mode on the picture frame where it would go and automatically grab pictures from the website without powering it on and off, navigating thru the menus, selecting the pictures, etc.

And I just got my second question answered and I can't believe this one. There is no way to tell the picture frame what directory / folder on the PC to fetch pictures from when you stream from a local PC. So in essence, the picture frame will display all the pictures in My Documents > My Pictures and Shared Documents > Shared Pictures. You can't create a directory / folder and point the frame at it so that you only display a subset of the pictures.

Oh well, I'll continue to play with it and see what else it does and doesn't do. But at this point, my conclusion is, close but no cigar and Kodak will get killed with customer service calls trying to support this product since their website contains zero helpful information.

[Steve @ Oct 7th 2008 11:29AM]

I would never buy a Kodak product, but was given an SV811 frame as a gift, It DOESN'T play any video, despite what the box/manual says. Manual is written on the level of a 1st grade schoolbook, no useful info, and the website it points you too also has No useful info. It's hard to believe Kodak is still in business. Their camera designs are ugly and have been since the 1960's, they've made terrible business decisions - 110 film format, APS film format, etc. Now this picture frame where the frame is almost as large as the image and the aspect ratio is all wrong for still images. Someone put them out of their misery...