The byd:sign digital photo frame with 1Seg: like a TV, but way, way smaller

If you've been getting tired of the steady stream of ho-hum digital photo frames hitting the market lately, maybe the DP-1001DW is your density... er, destiny. The new pic-viewer from Japanese maker byd:sign has one notable feature that really sets it apart from the unruly riff-raff of the digiframe world... a 1Seg tuner. While you get a 10.2-inch, 800 x 480 display, a contrast ratio of 300:1, support for MPEG, XviD, and MP3 files, as well as a totally attractive choice of a white or black bezel, you also have the totally orginal option of... watching TV. So, really, it's more like a 10.2-inch television. That only works in Asia. In all fairness, it does appear to sport an alarm clock as well. No word on price or release date, but we don't plan to budge until this is nestled tightly in a corner of our home... being viewed by a tiny human or small animal.

[Game_playa @ Jan 24th 2009 8:20AM]

Its a video frame then?

[Ross @ Jan 24th 2009 12:47PM]

I dunno, but I thought these things you call Video Frames sound a lot like these things called TV's

[inteller @ Jan 24th 2009 8:59AM]

well considering I just got abandoned by imate on my momento, I'll be in the market for this.

[Agent .25i @ Jan 24th 2009 9:25AM]

Good idea.
You have this on your desk at work. Watching the local Dragon Boat race, your boss is seen walking on to the floor. Oh crap! If Mr. Nakamoto catches me watching TV I'm toast... Quick, show that picture of him and I at the our last New Years celebration.

[Like_A_Glove @ Jan 24th 2009 9:25AM]

The bezel is a total bummer to me.

[higeki @ Jan 24th 2009 9:44AM]

They put a 1-seg tuner is almost everything here. My radar detector has a friggan 1-seg tuner, but the screen is so small, it would be suicide to watch that tiny screen and drive at the same time. I guess it's *much* more safe watching TV on my Sanyo Gorilla GPS.

[Mike @ Jan 24th 2009 9:46AM]

I love it.

I've been looking for something sleek and sexy to keep in my kitchen and on my office desk.

Hell, I'll gladly hook up my wii or maybe the gamecube to this and play discreetly in the office.

Getting the corner office cause you introduced a free program for zero-config VPN and saved the company millions = Priceless.

[Lincoln @ Jan 24th 2009 9:47AM]

It can work in Brazil as well :)

[Jamar @ Jan 24th 2009 1:01PM]

And most of Latin America later on. Except Uruguay.

[Gregg @ Jan 24th 2009 10:14AM]

Not too overly offensive to my eyes, could work quite well in a kitchen.

Nice BTTF reference too.

[Tim @ Jan 24th 2009 10:35AM]

Would love to hang one of these in several rooms of the house, Like the bathroom. You can have pictures rotate most the time, but for those "longer" visits, you could watch some news! Hope to see an American version and affordable.

[KilgoreTrout @ Jan 24th 2009 11:26AM]

in my second floor bathroom (on the jacuzzi shelf) there is a turnable 20" Philips LCD with inbuilt dvd player ; hidden in the closet under it there's the gear that keeps it WI-FI connected to the house NAS and the audio/video receiver that ties it to the sat-receiver; a 2.1 hi fi system provides the sound.
I'm not gonna tell you about the master bathroom because you probably won't belive it.

[Demonic Minion Number 995321 @ Jan 24th 2009 2:13PM]

Hope THIS one doesn't have a virus on it....

[unzarjones @ Jan 24th 2009 3:37PM]

Will this finally break open the door to running home video files without st-st-stuttering? Probably, but will the cost be prohibitive? Probably.

[nerdherder @ Jan 24th 2009 9:52PM]

Ummm, seen Back to the Future lately?

I love that line McFly.

[Johnny @ Jan 25th 2009 6:54PM]

This company is dead here in Japan. I don't think they exist anymore...

[fukumimi @ Jan 26th 2009 1:50AM]

You ever tried watching 1-seg on anything bigger than a 3-inch screen?

Even with a 4-inch screen, the low resolution and low frame rate are irritatingly obvious.

1-seg on a 10-inch screen is totally pointless.

Wonder why the decent in-car sat navs have all migrated to full blown full(13) seg TV tuners? Because even with a 7-9inch screen which is typical for sat nav monitors, 1-seg picture quality is way too poor.