Wireless Picture Frames?

January 10, 2008 6:30pm by

Anyone have any good suggestions for a wireless picture frame?

I’ve been looking at these, and none seem to do what I really want them to:

-User definable groupings (random, by date, by album, etc.)

-Photos via iPhoto

-Rechargeable vs Wired?

Considering that I can pick up a Dell Opteron at $389, and a 20" monitor for $200, I cannot see spending $350 for a 8" frame.

Also, I have no interest in video playback — those are called "TVs" (Forget or MP3s too)

 

~~~

Can anyone recommend something worthwhile at a reasonable price?

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What's been said:

Discussions found on the web:
  1. ken h commented on Jan 10

    Speaking of puppies, anyone see the Money Honey on Jay Leno.

    Good Gravy Man! Now that’s a body!

    Patience on the frame BR. C’mon you know the game?

  2. Loren commented on Jan 10

    If you happen to have a SmugMug account, you can get a $70 discount off the Phillips Digital PhotoFrame, which comes in 7″ and 9″ sizes.

    http://www.smugmug.com/ClubSmug/

  3. George Erckert commented on Jan 10

    Barry,

    You make a seven figure income and worry about paying $350 for anything? I wish I had your problem. How about a nice puppy?

  4. Barry Ritholtz commented on Jan 10

    Its not a function of price, its a matter of getting the right item — without being excessively complex, feature-laden, bloated, etc.

    (Who said I made 7 figures?)

  6. Heather commented on Jan 10

    I’m right there with you, Barry. I have wanted a digital picture frame forever but they seem priced at too high a premium relative to other electronic items.

  7. Whammer commented on Jan 10

    Barry, if you don’t make seven figures, let me say that you deserve to ;-).

  8. pmorrisonfl commented on Jan 10

    My main goal is the ‘grandparents see the pictures without becoming windows admins’ feature, and Ceiva seems to have the closest thing, in their wireless digital picture frame. Seth Godin references them… but I haven’t yet been convinced to spend my money. It’s close, though.

  9. Dave commented on Jan 10

    Barry, I’d get a Phillips or a Kodak. I picked one up for my girlfriend. I think I was out the door with a very nice 7 inch for around $150 (incl the SD card and tax). I spent quite sometime researching them as well. The one advantage of the Phillips over the Kodak is that I don’t believe most Kodak’s have a random feature… i.e. you view the same picture order over and over.

    Hope that helps.

  11. teraflop commented on Jan 10

    Am thinking of the same thing, Barry. Most video cards, at least mine, can handle a second monitor. So for $150 you can get a nice 19″ LCD flatscreen that could be cabled to your hosting PC.

    However, it ties up some portion of your PC’s resources to run some application to rotate pictures, movies, and whatnot.

    So I also have my eye on this, as it frees up the PC, can leverage any LAN resources (films, movies, pictures), and eliminates some cabling: http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/drives/8e50/

    Cheers (happy new year!)

  12. miko commented on Jan 10

    I gave the Kodak Easyshare 8-in to my sister for Christmas. No complaints so far. I went with the wifi-enabled version…she uses Kodak’s online photo app (Easyshare?), and this lets her serve photos directly from her online account to the frame.

    $150 at Staples in early December. An Amazon seller seems to be in the neighborhood.

    http://www.amazon.com/Kodak-Easyshare-EX-811-Wireless-Capability/dp/B000MUQ3NG

  13. Brad commented on Jan 10

    Actually, the new eStarling is completely redesigned and is actually very good. $250. Makes it easy for you (or anyone) to e-mail new photos, which update automatically. It also takes SD cards if you just want to throw the day’s photos into the frame. The former eStarling was terrible and pretty much destroyed the company’s reputation, but it seems they are making a comeback. Here is a review of the new model:
    http://gizmodo.com/336220/estarling-wifi-picture-frame-verdict-third-times-the-charm

    I got one for my parents and it’s great.

  14. DavidB commented on Jan 11

    I make seven figures. Mostly zeros and usually not all at the same time.

  15. Greg0658 commented on Jan 11

    This one is bluetooth loadable:
    http://www.digiframes.com/related/1029-4819/15-Inch-Digital-Picture-Frames-Sungale-AW15S-B.html

    This one has interactive touch screen capabilities:
    http://www.digitalview.com/videoflyers/

    This one caught my eye with 178 / 178 degree (horizontal/vertical) viewing angle saw at Staples:
    http://www.staples.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StaplesProductDisplay?storeId=10001&jspStoreDir=Staples&productId=204927&cmSearchKeyword=pandigital+15%22&fromUrl=home&cmArea=SEARCH&catalogId=10051&langId=-1

    But got me wondering about the whole scope of this purchase. Searched for the chip player as a add on unit for a LCD tv screen and am now considering both of these in tandum:
    http://www.aeicomp.com/Detail.asp?Product_ID=200.933_MVP310
    and
    http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_05771297000P?keyword=visio+20%22&sLevel=0

    But the tought of that HDTV in my picture window for the street traffic is tearing me up.
    But the number crunching and multi use is, well.

    this one with the aeicomp player is the same cost as a frame (in store):
    http://www.kmart.com/shc/s/p_10151_10104_9990000081172711P?keyword=20%22lcd+dvd+combo&sLevel=0

    Aloha

  16. Dan commented on Jan 11

    Consumer Reports at last rated these in its December issue, decreeing the SmartParts SyncPix SPX8 the best. Per their comments:

    “Smartparts earned our top score overall. It has very good picture quality, can play audio along with a slideshow, and includes a remote and a USB cable. There’s also a generous 256MB of memory built-in. Landscape and portrait photos can be automatically rotated to the right orientation. A motion sensor automatically turns the frame on and off.”

    Listed at roughly $180, we bought three from Circuit City during a rebate promotion, wherein the frame was marked down $20 and an additional $30 rebate could be mailed in and funded in 8 short weeks. For $120 combined, we’ve been extremely pleased.

  17. Wayne commented on Jan 11

    7 figures when you include the cents…

  18. Greg0658 commented on Jan 31

    My Mossberg UPDATE:

    Well I invested in the aeicomp media reader and the Vizio. An attempt to get a bigger than 15″ screen for my window.

    For some reason (electronics architecture ?) my .jpg pics cropped to 16×9 would not fill the screen without curtains. I even try’d create’g a 16×9 video file to rid the curtains. Nope.

    So I returned the tv set to Sears (they were great, and I was too, no scratches all materials returned in box) and got a Sharp 20″ 4×3 lcd screen (off the shelf, 10% off).

    The curtains are gone but it is 640×480 resolution. Reseaching last night, there is not a 4×3 screen larger than 15″ at 1024×768 resolution.

    I should have just got the Pandigital 15″ picture frame I fell in love with at the store.

  19. Greg0658 commented on Jan 31

    oh and
    Sharp set has a cool feature for my use

    when the power disappears it returns to the state it was at power disappearance

    so timer’d window display can go to sleep and wake up on its own with aeicomp

    640×480 is ok in CRT (cathode ray tube) not in LCD (I guess its light blow out vs matrix seam)

    It really seemed the .jpgs on the Visio did not upconvert to the HD capabilities either and had curtains, stretched or squished.

    I don’t know, keep it or send it back

  20. Leonard commented on May 1

    I have always been a tech geek and have been searching for a cool way to display all my digital photos that are now currently stuck on my computer. I know there are digital picture frames that you can use all year, but, I was looking for a way to display them during the holidays, especially Christmas. I could only find one kind of digital photo ornament on the market and they only came in 3 colors and were round, kind of boring. Then the other day I came across a brand new Digital Photo Ornament that is not even available yet, but the company is taking pre-orders and will start shipping in June ’08. The digital photo ornaments are amazing and come in all shapes and sizes and they have free shipping. Every ornament also comes with a free digital picture frame to use year round. You just take out the LCD from the back of the ornament and insert into the frame, pretty cool idea! Go check them out http://www.thedigitalgiftshop.com

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