Digital Photo Frame Part 2 – sound

The sound from the DPF when playing music is soft and tiny, (may be due to the speaker location which is at the back) unless you place the speaker in a manner that can “bounce” the sound off a wall etc, which will help to boost up the sound.

To me, the sound is still to soft, so i hook up my computer speakers (review at http://malaysiansnapshots2.blogspot.com/2009/12/multimedia-speakers.html here ) just to see if it will help, Well to my surprise it did, and it is pretty clear too, much much better and clearer then playing the same MP3 on the laptop.

Now I can clearly hear the Music even in my room upstairs in my Double Story Terrace House with the Photo frame and Speaker down stair at the living room.

First Impression of a Digital Photo Frame

@snapshots

First Impression:

Mix, There is Good and there is Bad in the first week of use

First : The overall package

It come nicely box, good for a gift actually, the bad is the power adaptor which does not conform to our Malaysian 3 pin plug, the pin is flat type that cannot be force in, I have to buy a adaptor (lucky to find one that cost RM2.50), the good is that the box is well padded and sponge.

THE 3 PIN PLUG I PURCHASE

The Good is that the seller throw in a 8g Kington Thumb Drive, (was informed that the thumb drive is without warranty at point of purchase ) The Bad is that the thumb drive does not work properly, some files cannot read, after I transfer it to the thumb drive. Even after I reformat the entire thumb drive twice it still gives problems. So cannot use the thumb drive. Good and Bad .....

2^nd : The Manual / Operation System

The Manual is in Chinese, with some English translation, I manage to figure it out how to get it to work, quite intuitive once you grasp the English translation. By default the main menu is in Chinese and after changing it to English, it resets to Chinese once you switch the power off. Another thing is the display on TV function does not seem to work. Will keep on trying. Good and Bad again

MAIN MENU IN CHINESE ON TOP AND BELOW IN ENGLISH

3^rd : The Photo Display

Decent enough, I don’t know why some ppl advice more than 480 by 234 pixels is required to get a good. I tried out the same photo in 3MB files (from my Sony S700 super zoom camera) and resize it down to my computer desk top rez which is around 100b files, look exactly the same. Good

THE DISPLAY IN TOTAL DARKNESS! LOOK NICE

Once you hit the photo or photo & music ICON, by default it will start the slide show, however some times it does not load properly and reset back to the menu page.

Also once a while when in transition to the next photo it hangs, mid transition, and some time the music also hangs.

When it work properly its good, when it does not, it annoy me.

4^th : The Power adaptor get “Hot”

The Power Adaptor get hot!, very Hot when in use, too hot for me to feel safe leaving it on all the time. Why would I want to leave it on all the time?

CALENDAR MODE

Well, this DPF have a few other function, one function is a clock, another function is a calander and a time, it have a alarm clock function, it’s the size of a photo that you will place at your desk. The first time I switch it on, I left it on clock mode while I had my dinner, by the time I got back to the room the adaptor was very Hot.

CLOCK MODE

I was thinking that I could use this DPF as a clock / alarm / photo display either at the side of my bed or place it at my office desk.

Overall

My “experience” with this device is mix, good and bad. Certain things I can forgive or understand. Certain things no.

1. The Chinese by default and manual is understandable as its made it China for the China Market

2. Even the “Hang” in the photo display / music playing and reset to main menu when it fail to load correctly is also understandable and forgivable , as even microsoft have problems with it screen saver display. (At least my laptop have when i set a slide show as a screen saver using my own photo)

3. The Adaptor getting hot, sucks, I feel this turns a great affordable multifunction device in to a run of the mill device. From potentially a best seller where one can purchase more then one for one own use or even as gifts to just buy one .

4. I feel it’s a bad business practice to give a free (with out warranty) item and then find out that the items only work some times. Once you annoy some one, (and with this some time working thingi) ppl will in the future remember and will discount the free items even if they will buy from you again.

Overall the DPF works, it display my photos, and it is much more affordable then the rest. Will I get another one for my desk at work, or as a gift for some one? – not this DPF .

My latest Gadget - A Digital Photo Frame

My latest Gadget - A Digital Photo Frame

@snapshots

I finally got around to purchase a Digital Photo Frame, to compliment my Hand Phone Camera and my Super Zoom Camera.

My wife has been asking me to print out photos, and frankly I have been reluctant, printing out photos and keeping them in albums do not make sense to me, I want my photo to be seen, printing the photo out and framing it is costly and putting in nails in to the wall to hang this frames is out of the question (rented house), showing it on a computer, a computer may not be available and operating one may be impossible for certain ppl, MP4 players screens are just too small, so that means a Digital Photo frame are usually 7in (upwards)which is around 4R size the current photo standard size

So I have been shopping around for a Digital Photo Frame for well over a year, I have look on line at Lelong, Mudah, and at computer shops and even Hypermarkets, doing comparison and trying to find blog reviews of the DPFto help out which to buy – nada, none available.

One of Mudah On line sellers have a special offer for this Chinese New Year. (at around one of the lowerst price, and the shop is also not too far away for me to drop by and buy it with cash) for a Digital Photo Frame at RM190 with a Free 8G USB Drive included. To me it looks like a good deal at this time.

No Brand DPF (china made) Comes in a Neat Box, 8GB thumb drive (kington)

This Digital Photo Frame is a China Made Product, With No Brand name even, and have the following Functions (Just do not have the available funds to buy a Branded Photo Frame, or a larger frame – have better things to do with that type of money)

- Play, Photo, Movie & MP3 music

- Calendar

- Clock

- Alarm Clock

- Timer On and Off

(note : Can Play Photo and Music at the Same time)

And this DPF have the Following Specifications

- 7 in screen (480 by 234 pixels) decent enough for me

- Support Jpeg, MP1, MP2, MP3, MP4, VOB, WMA, AVI,DVIX

- Hot Plug and Play, SD, MMC,SD Memory Card - Up to ? GB Unknown

- Hot Plug and Play, USB drive Hopefully External Hard disk can work

- Internal Memory – can load photo screen saver

Come with the following accessories

- Remote

- AV cable

- Power adaptor (DC 12V 1.5A)

Note : Have AV out & Head Phone out

After Unboxing you can see all the accessories

Some General Comments :

Resolution - 480 by 234 pixels look decent enough for me

Memory Card Support to what size is unknown / not listed

USB Drive works – so external hard disk should work also.

Have some Internal Memory – as can upload your own photo as screen saver.