My Mrs wanted me to buy a digital photo frame because our friends have recently got one. So I started to look at the most common 7" frames and then she said they are a bit small. The next one up is 8" but with much less choices. That is not too bad because it is easier to make a decision. It was down to the final two - Tesco's Technika SR08 or the Linx 8" from Amazon. While I was browsing and investigating at my leisure, Amazon suddenly raised the price from £52.43 to £78.28! This makes the Linx too expensive. So I have just bought the Technika SR08 from Tesco Direct for £58.48 instead.
The set up was easy - plug and play (well not quite that straight forward, see below).
For the picture display the screen resolution is 800 x 600 pixels, better than the Linx DPF. However the manual did not mentio the screen Brightness or the Screen Contrast ratio i.e. unknown. The default brightness setting 0 is a bit dim in a bright surrounding. I have to turn it up to +1 or +2.
The maximum is +3.
This photo frame has a card reader function for SD/MMC/MS/CF card and a USB port for pen drives or PC. Also, it has a generous 1GB internal memory built-in that means you don't need to buy any extra memory card unless you want to display lots of photos in a day.
Since this is actually a basic digital photo frame, there are no speakers and it has not got the wireless battery operating option, only mains powered. Nevertheless you can rotate, zoom and pan pictures using the remote control for fun. You can toggle the screen display between 4:3 to 16:9. You can do the slide show too. The range of time per picture is from 3s to 1 hour. To display one picture per day is tricky unless there is only one picture in that folder. For the slide show, there are quite a few transition effects to choose from - door close/open, top to bottom/bottom to top, left to right and vice versa, fading, random, expand vert/horizontal top/middle/bottom. You can use the remote control (easy) or use the touch (screen) buttons on the photo frame.
The photo frame can only display JPEG files (not other formats e.g. GIF, TIFF) and the size limit per photo is 4000x4000 pixels (16 MegaPixel pictures).
Most important bit: there are three ways to load and display your pictures of your choice.
1. Use memory cards - most straight forward option. Transfer your pictures into the memory card and then insert the memory into the card slot and turn the photo frame on. It will automatically search for photos and do a slide show with random effects (default).
2. Use a pen drive - similar to that of the memory card except that the pen drive goes into the USB port. However there is no L-shape pen drive on the market that the photo frame can hide and you will definitely see the pen drive sticking out from the left hand side. Even though you can use a USB cable for the connection, the cable connector may still be visible.
3. Use the built-in memory and transfer the picture from the PC. This appears to be straight forward if the device is recognized by the PC. If it is not, it is a pain. My pain started when I plug the device into my newer PC (XP Home SP3, AMD chips). My PC can recognized a wide variety of USB devices e.g. printer, pen drives from various suppliers, digital camera, digital camcorder, ipod, mobile phones but not this Tesco digital photo frame. I have tried swapping the connection with various USB ports and the best is to get the device recognized as a mass media storage device. The built-in internal memory was not recognized and inaccessible. Fortunately my old PC is still around and it is running XP Pro and older AMD chips. I tried it on and it is okay every time. However the recognition of the device by the PC does take quite a while. Eventually I can load my pictures into the photo frame.
I am still trying to work out why this is happening. Any comments/suggestions are welcome.
So, if you computer can not recognize this photo frame and you haven't got another that can, take it back to Tesco.
In general, it is good value for money. If you want a higher quality one, go for one with twin-bulbs - better brightness and contrast, at a higher price.
Update: 9th August 2009.
For some reason this digital photo frame has no problem with my older PC running XP Pro and with an MSI 6380 motherboard. Connecting it to the USB v1.0 ports or to the USB 2.0 PCI card ports are all fine. All memory slots (SD, MMC, pen drive, CF) and the 1GB built-in internal memory are all recognised and functional.
So far I have tried a few things on my newer PC (Elonex from ASDA, see my other review for details of this machine) - upgrade the XP Home version to XP Pro. The digital photo frame is still not recognised properly. After a few attempts, the best that I can get is to get all the memory slots (SD, MMC, CF etc) recognised and the built-in memory as an 'empty' drive (I have lots of pictures in it. It is just shown zero bytes capacity and can not be formatted). I have downloaded the latest chipset driver and BIOS and also have tried the uninstalling USB controllers and then re-installing them. Nothing works. This WinFast MCP61PM2MA – 8EKRS2H motherboard is a bit rubbish on certain types of USB devices even though it is working with my other USB devices such as printer, scanner, pen drives and digital camera. Any comment to help will be appreciated.
Important Update on 21st August 2009:
One day, I thought I could try this: Unplug the USB PCI card from my older PC and plug it onto the motherboard of my new PC. It works!!! The digital photo frame is instantly recognized and also the built-in 1GB memory is accessible! The USB PCI card is with an NEC chipset. However I need this card for my old PC. So I have to buy a new USB PCI card for my new PC. Now I got a NISIS Easycard (USB 2.0 PCI card) from ExpressPro via Amazon Market Place and it works ! The digital photo frame is instantly recognized and also the built-in 1GB memory is accessible!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Screen Size: 8 in inch - without Loudspeakers - without USB, with USB - without Remote Control, with Remote Control - Screen Format: 4:3 - Resolution: 800 pixel - 600 pixel Pixels
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