Digital photo frames

[johnd]

Has anyone had any experience with digital photo frames?
The ones that you can plug a card into and it cycles thru a slide show of pics.
I'm looking for an inexpensive way of displaying a slide show of pics on my desk.

Cheers
John

[Oz_Beachside]

Hi John,

I first saw one of these on my Baristers desk, and his was a Sony, about 3x5", and was very personal, nice desk feature, scrolling pics of his family etc.

I have since had a look, and could only see them overseas for a large size.

Most were around $200-300.

I dont know any more than that...

Oz

[phillipb]

I've seen them in the window of a photo shop, I think it may have been Camera house, not real sure. I do remember thinking that they were way overpriced at the time. The frame was about 8"x10" but the screen itself was more like 6"x8". Sorry I cant be more specific

[phillipb]

When in doubt, try google or ebay
This is one from ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/7-Genuine-Wood-D ... dZViewItem

[Yi-P]

I think they display pictures at 680x480 resolution size. But okay for a screen of somewhere like 4x6"

At the moment, this technology is still at its high price range, and Im sure newer models and lower price will kick in a few months time.

I'd say to buy one now if you really want one, or if you can wait, just a little bit more until price jumps down.

[Razor]

Pretty cool gift idea for xmas... but some of the frames on ebay seem a bit cheap/dodgy

[obzelite]

i've seen a work log of a guy who bought a cheap laptop, stripped it all down and mounted it all into a picture frame for displaying images.

something like this would work well, and its got a decent screen.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Apple-G3-i-book- ... dZViewItem

[BundyB]

i've seen a work log of a guy who bought a cheap laptop, stripped it all down and mounted it all into a picture frame for displaying images.

I found an article a while ago with instructions on how to do this, and have been waiting to find an appropriate laptop for the job ... http://www.popsci.com/popsci/how20/a4a9 ... drcrd.html

I may have found a suitable one yesterday (currently waiting on confirmation) ... I can let people know how it goes if they're interested ...

[MATT]

here is one I made





This project worked OK, found glue gun was not adequate, I have yet to resolve some of the minor details but its up and running.

I think a better way would be a 17in LCD,, with a card reader/media player. Then just drop the images onto the card.



Chhers

MATT

[MATT]

When in doubt, try google or ebay
This is one from ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/7-Genuine-Wood-D ... dZViewItem

This one seems quite good value, the laptop I got was from a member here for $100 then add a frame and idealy a cf to ide adapter, sot here is no moving parts. Pricce soon adds up. If you had a lappy lying around spare and some time it may be worth it..


MATT

[johnd]

Thanks for the feedback about the photo frames. They seem about the $150 - $200 mark and all seem to run on AAs but have the disadvantage of a fairly limited battery life, like about 1 hour. I like the idea of a 17" LCD with a card reader. Are there any around that will automatically cycle thru the jpegs on the card, or is that a bit much to ask?

Cheers
John

[TonyH]

I bought my wife a 7" one a few weeks ago. She loves it. I have to use a card reader to use the CF cards though. Most appear to prefer SD cards to go into the unit and most other cards by card reader and the USB slot.

From memory I think I paid $115 off ebay.

They're good fun and it allows you to take your favourite shots away from the computer and into the lounge for all to see.

They reckon the 10" model will be quite common by Christmas.

[MATT]

Thanks for the feedback about the photo frames. They seem about the $150 - $200 mark and all seem to run on AAs but have the disadvantage of a fairly limited battery life, like about 1 hour. I like the idea of a 17" LCD with a card reader. Are there any around that will automatically cycle thru the jpegs on the card, or is that a bit much to ask?

Cheers
John

Price seems to be the biggest factor. The card reader/ media viewers are getting harder to find. Lexar made on as did SanDisk. They would cycle through. But at best had a s-video connection. There are some HDD/Divx?JPG/MP3/ with usb2 and vga out for around $100 that would be better. A cheap 17 in lcd stripped an framed would be nice. Bigger is better. My laptop one is 13 in and seems to small.

Cheers

MATT

[gstark]

Price seems to be the biggest factor. The card reader/ media viewers are getting harder to find. Lexar made on as did SanDisk. They would cycle through. But at best had a s-video connection. There are some HDD/Divx?JPG/MP3/ with usb2 and vga out for around $100 that would be better. A cheap 17 in lcd stripped an framed would be nice. Bigger is better. My laptop one is 13 in and seems to small.

I'm thinking in terms of a barebones all-in-one motherboard, some RAM, and an inbuilt reader, along with a stripped-down LCD. Install your OS onto the card, and provide some room for your images. Should have more grunt than an old laptop, and if there's a NIC in the motherboard, you can move your images to it via your LAN.

[bwhinnen]

There is also the option of installing something like Bart PE onto a USB-key and booting from that for a all-in-one solution.

I don't see that you need much grunt unless you intend on doing something fancy with the images...

[Hudo]

Hey,

I got a 5.6" frame recently from city software for around $200.00. The 8" was better simply based on size (no comments) but was $350.00. My experience has been reasonable with te purchase (Kaizen brand). However remember it only is good for JPEGS. It has CF, SD and a few other card adaptor slots as well as 32MB internal memory as well as a wireless remote.

It has a USB port (no built in WiFi which would be kool) and play movies as well. I had to buy a cheap $60 AVI to Mov convertor as the $10,000 video editing suite could not convert to the correct MOV format, go figure that. However you can only play vids or pics not both at the same time.


In summary not bad but bigger the better and price needs to fall. A great gift or promotional idea for weddings. Gift the bride a groom one loaded up with their wedding pics.

Mark

[johnd]

A great gift or promotional idea for weddings. Gift the bride a groom one loaded up with their wedding pics.

Mark

What a great idea Mark.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Cheers
John

[Alpha_7]

If you really had your act together, you could have a frame running at the reception with some selected Jpegs from the ceremony, a great feature and advertising.

[MATT]

Price seems to be the biggest factor. The card reader/ media viewers are getting harder to find. Lexar made on as did SanDisk. They would cycle through. But at best had a s-video connection. There are some HDD/Divx?JPG/MP3/ with usb2 and vga out for around $100 that would be better. A cheap 17 in lcd stripped an framed would be nice. Bigger is better. My laptop one is 13 in and seems to small.

I'm thinking in terms of a barebones all-in-one motherboard, some RAM, and an inbuilt reader, along with a stripped-down LCD. Install your OS onto the card, and provide some room for your images. Should have more grunt than an old laptop, and if there's a NIC in the motherboard, you can move your images to it via your LAN.

Do you have a specific one in mind??

Cheers
MATT

[gleff]

I'm thinking of getting this photoframe.

http://www.paxtons.com.au/products/curr ... -frame.htm

Probably a silly question since i've had my D70 for ages, but does the D70 use a CF type I or type II card?

I might go and check this one out at the local paxtons.. hopefully they have one to show me

Edit: Doh!! none in stock.

[stubbsy]

The D70 uses both CF Type I and type II - you'll most likely have Type II cards

[DaveB]

You'll most-likely have Type I cards.

Type I are 3.3mm thick, Type II are 5mm thick (e.g. Microdrives).
Thus a Type II socket (as found in the D70) will accept either type (the connector is the same, there's just more space on one side).
Most flash cards are Type I.

[Oz_Beachside]

Teds have this one...

http://www.teds.com.au/www/6/1001102/displayproduct/2015333_1991274_.html

[stubbsy]

You'll most-likely have Type I cards.

Type I are 3.3mm thick, Type II are 5mm thick (e.g. Microdrives).
Thus a Type II socket (as found in the D70) will accept either type (the connector is the same, there's just more space on one side).
Most flash cards are Type I.

I am such a moron sometimes Dave.

Yep I even knew that so why the $^@!$# did I type II

[surenj]

This may be slightly off topic but has anyone tried using their LCD or plasma TV to display photos in 42 inch size.. ?

[gstark]

Price seems to be the biggest factor. The card reader/ media viewers are getting harder to find. Lexar made on as did SanDisk. They would cycle through. But at best had a s-video connection. There are some HDD/Divx?JPG/MP3/ with usb2 and vga out for around $100 that would be better. A cheap 17 in lcd stripped an framed would be nice. Bigger is better. My laptop one is 13 in and seems to small.

I'm thinking in terms of a barebones all-in-one motherboard, some RAM, and an inbuilt reader, along with a stripped-down LCD. Install your OS onto the card, and provide some room for your images. Should have more grunt than an old laptop, and if there's a NIC in the motherboard, you can move your images to it via your LAN.

Do you have a specific one in mind??

Matt,

No, not really.

Looking at one of the local pc suppliers in Sydney, I'm seeing an all-in-one motherboard with an AMD Sempron 2800 CPU for $118. To that you'd add some memory - 512Mb $110.

You'd still need a keyboard, case with a power supply and a card reader plus a card, each of the latter should cost no more than around $50, while a keyboard is around $10-15.

That would give you enough to get a system to boot. You would need to get an OS installed, and you could temporarily connect a CD-ROM to do this, and of course you'd need your card onto which your OS is being installed.

If this were to be a standalone system, you could probably conserve storage and install W98 or a lightweight Linux distro, and you're there.

[MATT]

Matt,

No, not really.

Looking at one of the local pc suppliers in Sydney, I'm seeing an all-in-one motherboard with an AMD Sempron 2800 CPU for $118. To that you'd add some memory - 512Mb $110.

You'd still need a keyboard, case with a power supply and a card reader plus a card, each of the latter should cost no more than around $50, while a keyboard is around $10-15.

That would give you enough to get a system to boot. You would need to get an OS installed, and you could temporarily connect a CD-ROM to do this, and of course you'd need your card onto which your OS is being installed.

If this were to be a standalone system, you could probably conserve storage and install W98 or a lightweight Linux distro, and you're there.

Stand alone would be the go.. Would need to run with no keyboard or mouse. Just boot then start up slideshow or screen saver type.

Keeping it small and noiseless is the challange. Maybe better to stay with laptops for now.

Cheers
MATT

[obzelite]

An alternative to a pc or laptop is something like this.

http://www.vantecusa.com/products/avox/p_avx100tx.html

think they are round the 150 mark without a hard drive.
40gb laptop drive is about 70 bucks.

Add a 15" lcd screen from an auction house or ebay for 100 to 150 and your have a media centre picture frame.

have been tempted to get one a few times just for movies and stuff, but the xbox works fine enough.

[MATT]

An alternative to a pc or laptop is something like this.

http://www.vantecusa.com/products/avox/p_avx100tx.html

think they are round the 150 mark without a hard drive.
40gb laptop drive is about 70 bucks.

Add a 15" lcd screen from an auction house or ebay for 100 to 150 and your have a media centre picture frame.

have been tempted to get one a few times just for movies and stuff, but the xbox works fine enough.

have been looking at those on ebay, this is th first I've seen with high definition output. Most have VGA which is what I need, but I dont know of any one that has used one to tell me the quality of the output..

I looked at stripping down a DVD palyer with usb, but my version has crappy VGA output.

MATT

[stubbsy]

Here is a 7" frame for $179 at Daily Deals:

http://www.dailydeals.com.au/product_in ... s_id=10730

[gleff]

I'm thinking of getting this photoframe.

http://www.paxtons.com.au/products/curr ... -frame.htm

Probably a silly question since i've had my D70 for ages, but does the D70 use a CF type I or type II card?

I might go and check this one out at the local paxtons.. hopefully they have one to show me

Edit: Doh!! none in stock.

I bought one of these today from Paxtons in the city. I'm just trying it out at the moment. So far, it's pretty good.

It's got an internal battery which lasts approx. 50 minutes (which is pretty crap), but long enough to be able to take in the field to check a few photos if necessary. It also has AC Power.

It has a PC/USB and camera/USB cable and it will read from the Nikon D70 in Mass Storage mode. Or you can just take the CF card Type I out and put it in the photo frame.

The photo frame has an internal memory that holds apparently about 50 photo's, or you can just view what's on the memory card.

It has a slide show mode, or browse mode, and you can rotate images.

It also has the ability to read other memory card types eg. MMC, SD, MS

The screen brightness isn't bad, and the quality of the picture isn't bad either. The colour of the images looks like it matches the actual photo. I would have liked it to be a little brighter personally, but that's me.

It has the ability to auto switch on and off at certain times of the day.

All the images must be a JPEG though. No RAW images can be read.

So far I kinda like it. Takes about 10 minutes to get used to the buttons and controls, but it's pretty easy.

I got it for $399

Edit: Ok.. the more I play with this, the more I like it... The image quality is outstanding. I put some hi res images I took of the sunrise team at brekky central on it, and some of the images are absolutely brilliant.

[adam]

There's some on zazz if you can catch it in time:
http://www.zazz.com.au/
'7" for $149.80 or 8" for $258.50 '

[obzelite]

just went into jaycar.

they have them as well. 299

short url jaycar.com.au

[apsilon]

I've actually been looking at these the past few days on ebay and the 7" ones seem to go for around $110 + $20 shipping and insurance so a lot less than they are in retail stores.

Problem at the moment is I think a lot of people are looking at them for Christmas gifts and are willing to bid them up to higher prices.