What's most important in a digital picture frame

If you've been considering buying a digital picture frame, you may be seeing some with extras, such as a high-definition output for a wide-screen TV, or even entire gadgets built in.

The latest wrinkle is the cell-phone frame: T-Mobile's Cameo, a 7-inch picture frame made by Parrot, can be set up with a dedicated in-frame phone number to which your friends and family send images via picture messaging or email. Photos then appear on the frame. (Click on image at right for a closer look.)

It's an interesting idea, but not a cheap one. Besides the frame's $99 price tag, there's a $10 monthly charge for phone service, which T-Mobile says includes unlimited messaging to the frame. The Cameo has 64MB of on-board memory and an expandable slot for a micro-SD memory card.

Resist the temptation to buy such bells and whistles. Instead, focus on image quality, how reflective the surface is, how many connections the frame has, and how easy it is to use—the qualities we judge in our digital picture frame Ratings (available to subscribers).

For example, our top recommended digital picture frame (available to subscribers) was impressive, not because of some gizmo the manufacturer grafted on, but because it had sharp image quality, a remote control, 128MB of on-board memory, and extra interchangeable frames.

For help on how to choose a digital picture frame, see our free digital picture frame buying guide and watch our video guide to digital frames by clicking on the player at right.

—Terry Sullivan

Comments

[Craig E]

Adding to Dan Gibson's 2/25/09: I have the SPX8 with SmartPart's Synpix software. It "is" a syn. It won't always turn on unless I futz with the power supply plug/connection and on/off switch. I think the power supply may be intermittent. The remote is slow and only works within two feet. The downloadable Synpix software that allows communicaton and file transfer with your PC is OK but takes awhile to learn. The picture transition options are cool but don't work if the frame is playing a MP3 music file. Dan-all I had to do is copy any MP3 file into the picture folder I wanted. When you play that folder the music starts. Note that MP3 files use alot of the dinky 256K memory. Also had problems when downloading pic files with the camera card in the frame. It missed groups of pic files. I now only transfer files to the frame using using pic files already on my PC. Make sure you "optimize" these files or you will fill the memory fast. The SmartPart's Desktop software compresses typical 3-5MB high res pic files down to under 300KB in most cases. Do not just drag your PC pic fles over to the Synpix folder (without compressing through Synpix first). I first did this and filled the frame's memory fast. I had to delete all files and retransfer using Synpix optimization (compression). Don't use the auto resize optimization function. It cropped out and recentered in a bad way. Had to delte and reload those too. So far as customer concern? I e-mailed them with my above issues (from their website) with no response. Yet to phone them. Is SmartPart's a real company?

[DAn Gibson]

Could you laso say something about manufacturers' tech support and documentation? I just bought a Smartparts 15" frame (SP15MW), that will play AVI and MPG video, but only silently -- no sound. So far I have received no response from their Tech Support. No one answers the phone. A recorded message claims that call volume prevents them from answering. And, no one has responded to my e-mails. Also, their online documentation says the frame will play MP3s. Mine does not. The documentation that came with the frame is the worst I have ever seen with any electronic product.