Onkyo busts out HDMI-connected 10.1-inch picture frame

To cut a long story short, Onkyo's LPF10M01 is basically a netbook's screen sans (most of) the netbook. 10.1 inches of LED-backlit LCD get covered in a 1,024 x 600 pixel array and are backed up by 250 nits of brightness and a 500 to 1 contrast ratio. The big selling point here is the inclusion of an HDMI input -- still something of a rarity in picture frames -- which sidles up alongside a USB port, SDHC and Memory Stick card reader, and 512MB of integrated memory. We're fancying the flexibility of using it as a secondary display or as part of some truly minimalist desktop environment, but doubt many will be won over by the austere 140 degree horizontal viewing angle, which narrow down to a zany 110 on the vertical axis. Anyhow, it launches on August 6 in Japan for around ¥19,800 ($227).

[Zylam Posted Jul 22nd 2010 5:37AM]

will there be a "How-to install Pixel Qi’s 3Qi display" for frames in the near future

[Zylam Posted Jul 22nd 2010 5:38AM]

the iPad shakes, than runs off with angry birds!

[Einlander Posted Jul 22nd 2010 5:49AM]

@Zylam
It's Super Effective!!!

[rosss Posted Jul 22nd 2010 6:14AM]

As far as I can see its not an HDMI input, but an HDMI output... So, I'm still looking for a photo frame with HDMI input...

[m66 Posted Jul 22nd 2010 3:15PM]

@rosss
if i may ask, what for? as a tiny tv? it can't refresh fast enough to do you any good, surely? plus, i thought the lack of wires was the main appeal of these things? personally, i prefer the wider viewing angle, color fidelity, and power savings of paper photos.

[j3ff Posted Jul 22nd 2010 6:48AM]

I'm still waiting for the Samsung 700z from CES 2010; the 7" AMOLED picture frame that doubled as a monitor and was due for a March release. Oh wait it was totally vaporware.

/rant

[bufbarnaby Posted Jul 22nd 2010 6:50AM]

What did they bust it out of ? Was it mounted in something ?
Did it Bust-A-Move ?

[HPe Posted Jul 22nd 2010 6:54AM]

A picture frame with a HDMI input, isn't that the same as a small monitor?

[One Love Posted Jul 22nd 2010 6:57AM]

Hey, they found a use for the JooJoo. :)

[Silver Posted Jul 22nd 2010 7:06AM]

What is the point? Seriously. A picture frames sole purpose is to sit in the corner of the room and show pictures that you've taken. Why this desire to throw bells and whistles on it that you'll rarely need?

Because of that, you don't need HDMI, video playback, WiFi and 101 other stupid items. Just a good looking frame, good quality screen, slick (and simple) UI and a slot for holding the more popular memory cards. You don't even need internal memory for gods sake as SD cards can be picked up for less than £5. I've even gone so far as to resize my pictures in Picasa to the size of the picture frame screen so that I can fit hundreds on a cheapo 512MB card.

All the other fluff simply bumps up the price of a frame to prices which make absolutely no sense. I bought a lovely £50 Sony picture frame and it's perfect. Yes, the WiFi version would have been nice but I simply couldn't justify coughing up 1.5 times more money just so I could have random Flickr pictures or avoid hauling my ass from the frame to the computer when I wanted to update the pictures on the card.

Bah, I sound like a luddite but is the extra stuff this gives you worth paying £100 more??

[One Love Posted Jul 22nd 2010 7:39AM]

@Silver : Dude, you don't have to buy it. :|

[brlewis Posted Jul 22nd 2010 8:55AM]

@Silver A WiFi frame is great for letting grandparents see up-to-date photos of their grandkids. It doesn't sound like you need it.

When exporting from Picasa, is it easy to select all horizontal or all vertical photos from a date range? If not, do you wish it was?

[m66 Posted Jul 22nd 2010 3:17PM]

@brlewis
arguably, nobody "needs" that. it's a niche luxury item, at best.

[Silver Posted Jul 23rd 2010 7:23AM]

@brlewis It's not and I've love such a feature. At the moment, I star all the pictures I want to use in the frame and export them that way. So I have to manually check that they are landscape.

Previously I used to throw every single picture I had up onto it by exporting and resizing everything I had in Picasa, viewing all the files in Windows Explorer in details view, right clicking on the coloumns and then "More" and then adding "Dimensions".

After that, I'd then sort by dimensions and delete everything that wasn't landscape (as they'd be grouped together).

A right pain the the backside!

[barkingghos Posted Jul 22nd 2010 7:33AM]

I continue to be lost on the electronic picture frame industry and customer base. LCD is not a good choice for off-axis viewing. The size makes it only good if it were on your desk. If you are going to have HDMI input why not just buy a small monitor? The resolution is so low that cowsumers will throw away 90% of the pixel resolution of their pictures in order to display them.

Maybe someone should focus on a plasma-style solution in order to garner the off-axis view performance.

[paul34 Posted Jul 22nd 2010 7:50AM]

What? $227? You could get a used netbook for around the same price!

This should be $80, $100 max.

[Mobile Broadband Posted Jul 22nd 2010 9:43AM]

This is ridiculously over-priced and completely un-necessary in my opinion! What's wrong with a nice old fashioned print and frame?

$227 FFS!!! You could feed 100 starving children for a month for that price!

[JaeJunHa Posted Jul 22nd 2010 2:27PM]

I never got the point of these products. Its better of as screen savers, monitor has much bigger screen and clarity. Man, i love this site because i can comment. No offense to Gizmodo, but man to audition for commenting is ridiculous and irritating.