Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I purchased this digital photo frame for my parents with the hope that they'd just hang it on their wall and then be see new photos each day that I'd uploaded to one of the free online photo sites (Flickr, Webshots, Windows Live Spaces) from wherever I was.
This frame definitely did not live up to my expectations and I ended up returning it. Here is why:
1. User Interface :: The user interface was difficult to use and often left me frustrated because it didn't act in ways that I expected it to. I wouldn't have thought that it'd be hard to design an interface that would work something like Windows Media Center where you can browse what media (pictures, videos, mp3s) you have on the frame's memory, online photo sites, or shared on the home computer, but apparently it is.
2. Wireless Connectivity :: It was difficult to setup with the wireless router and I often was left keying in the passcode for the router time after time. Extremely annoying when you have to do this via remote and a directional keypad. Once the wireless connection was established, I could only get the frame to connect to my photos on Webshots and not on Flickr or Windows Live Spaces. I don't know the reason for this, just know that was the problem that I had.
3. Video Playback :: It does play videos but only if they're resized to 320x240 despite the frame's resolution being much greater than this.
4. Photos on SD Card :: I expected to be able to take the SD card out of the back of my camera and put it into the card reader on the back of the frame and view the images on the card but here I ran into another problem. The frame would only recognize the photos on the card if they were not in any folder or subfolder on the SD card (most digital cameras place the image files into a folder or subfolder on the memory card and not straight onto the card's memory -- therefore making it impossible to just take the memory card straight from the camera and see the images on the frame).
5. Transitions :: All I really wanted was some kind of basic fade out/fade in or a crossfade would have been brilliant. Instead, the frame has cheesy wipes and slides that look terrible. The "no transition" choice was the only bearable on there -- and that says a lot.
6. Cost :: I really was hoping that the old adage "you get what you pay for" would apply here as the frame cost around 370 to my door, but in this case I found there to be no reason to pay that much for this frame unless they work out all of the problems and bugs that I listed above.
7. The Little Things :: Besides the more major problems that I listed above, there were a lot of lesser issues I had with the frame as well. For example, included in the box was a memory card reader that directly plugged into a USB port to accommodate different types of memory cards, but given the shape of this card reader, it couldn't even fit into the USB port on the back of the frame.
Overall :: I don't feel that I was expecting too much from this frame given the $350 price tag and promising product description. I think that it was a mistake to buy this product in it's first generation (the user manual was even just a few photocopied pieces of paper folded in half). The overall impression I got is that the company rushed to get this frame out (as it was supposed to be released months ago) and in doing so there were corners cut and problems that remain unresolved.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Digital Spectrum MemoryFRAME MF-8104 Premium 10.4-Inch Wireless Digital Frame
The MF-8104 Wireless Digital Picture Frame from Digital Spectrum Solutions provides much more than a great way to display your pictures, watch movies and listen to music¿ The MF-8104 includes embedded Wi-Fi connectivity allowing you to connect the frame to your wireless network to receive images, news, sports scores, weather, financial updates and much more via the web. This digital picture frame has evolved into a dynamic personal display, capable of connecting to your home media server (with MediaPlayer 11 on Windows Vista or Windows XP), photo sharing and content sites on the web, and even a Bluetooth enabled cell phone (Bluetooth USB dongle add-on required). Designed to match any décor, the MF-8104 is compatible with 8¿ X 10¿ read-made frames, available at any frame store.
