Can anyone recommend a good digital picture frame?

[Living Dead]

I'm looking to get my dad an 8-10 inch frame as a retirement gift in the $100 to $200 range. I've read a lot of reviews online and there just doesn't seem to be any one frame that gets rave reviews. Some seem to have great images but lousy frustrating software, or vice versa. Others seem to be cheaply made or have no random display options.

Does anyone have a frame they're particularly happy with? And also, can you transfer pictures from a pc to a flash drive to the frame or do you always need a cable?

[dgc]

Originally Posted by Living Dead

I'm looking to get my dad an 8-10 inch frame as a retirement gift in the $100 to $200 range. I've read a lot of reviews online and there just doesn't seem to be any one frame that gets rave reviews. Some seem to have great images but lousy frustrating software, or vice versa. Others seem to be cheaply made or have no random display options.

Does anyone have a frame they're particularly happy with? And also, can you transfer pictures from a pc to a flash drive to the frame or do you always need a cable?

I'm happy with this one:

http://www.aluratek.com/product_info...27&display=All



It has a beautiful wood frame and a 10.5" TFT true color LCD with resolution of 1024 x 768

You can find this frame for about $160

[Jadzia]

For Christmas, I bought my mom an 8-inch Pandigital photo frame from Costco. It has 128MB of internal memory and I pre-loaded it with pictures of my son. It also has 5 slots for memory cards. You can put it on slide show.

She really liked it and I liked it so much I am thinking of getting myself one.

I think it was around $129 and I had a $15 coupon.

[Trevor]

Thanks for this thread, I've been looking to get one or two myself.

[bill_n_opus]

I have bought two of the Alurateks as gifts and fooled around with them ... it has been extensively reviewed and talked about over at redflagdeals.com.

pros - decent picture and frame, decent value
cons - clunky software, wtf were the programmers thinking.

they also sell the energizer li-ion battery pack for these frames so you can go portable without having to carry the plug around. Good for events like reunions, business parties whatever and wherever a picture frame would work.

[SoSpacey]

Phillips makes GREAT digital picture frames.

[sniper308]

Bought the mother in law a Kodak. We got the 7 inch, which had no internal memory, but had good picture resolution, etc. Even had speakers and played MP3's. I never connected it to my computer, but just used the card reader in my printer to copy pics to an SD card, along with an MP3. Got it for $79 at Staples. I'll probably pick up a bigger Kodak for us, but I think I'm going to wait for the prices to come down a bit on the models with the built in wireless.

[C_Fletch]

My Dad just picked up a Westinghouse unit that I believe was 7 to 8 inches. Not bad unit although you cannot delete pics from a USB card.

[Living Dead]

Originally Posted by SoSpacey

Phillips makes GREAT digital picture frames.

I've read in many places that Philips has wonderful resolution but awful software. I looked at them on Amazon and NewEgg. I want something that requires minimal effort, as my dad is not tech savvy. I'd have five phone calls a day for months if I got him something confusing to use. I'd hate to get him a gift that would also be the reason I finally went crazy and jumped off a cliff.

[Living Dead]

This one seems to be pretty good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882714001

It has high ratings on almost every website I've seen it. And they all praise how easy it is to use.

Decisions... decisions...

[SoSpacey]

Originally Posted by Living Dead

I've read in many places that Philips has wonderful resolution but awful software. I looked at them on Amazon and NewEgg. I want something that requires minimal effort, as my dad is not tech savvy. I'd have five phone calls a day for months if I got him something confusing to use. I'd hate to get him a gift that would also be the reason I finally went crazy and jumped off a cliff.

all i do is resize my images using ifranview to the recommended resolution. you can literally put all your pics in a folder, choose the folder and resize them in one button press.

i then copy them onto a memory card and stick it into my frame. it couldnt be any easier.

200+ reviews on amazon at just under 5 stars.

[eisenreich]

Originally Posted by Jadzia

For Christmas, I bought my mom an 8-inch Pandigital photo frame from Costco. It has 128MB of internal memory and I pre-loaded it with pictures of my son. It also has 5 slots for memory cards. You can put it on slide show.

She really liked it and I liked it so much I am thinking of getting myself one.

I think it was around $129 and I had a $15 coupon.

I second the Pandigital, got one for my Mom for Christmas. Good looking frame and no hassles getting pictures on/off.

[Living Dead]

Originally Posted by SoSpacey

all i do is resize my images using ifranview to the recommended resolution. you can literally put all your pics in a folder, choose the folder and resize them in one button press.

i then copy them onto a memory card and stick it into my frame. it couldnt be any easier.

200+ reviews on amazon at just under 5 stars.

Which specific frame are you referring to? I'd be interested to check it out... but the only ones I see on amazon with over 200 reviews say "Currently Unavailable."

[ngp]

I tried several frames without luck and then finally ended up taking a chance on the Smartparts 8 inch frame from Radio Shack for $99, right before Xmas. I got two at first for family and I liked the frame so much that I ended up getting another one for myself as well.

I had tried cheaper frames (in the $60 to $70 range) and the picture quality was poor.

The Smartparts was actually very crisp and bright and the pictures truly look as if they are prints sitting in a frame. The icing on the cake was after giving the frames to my family members on Xmas, later we were watching the news and they were talking about the most popular Xmas gifts; one of which were picture frames. According to the news story, the 8 inch Smartparts was one of the best rated frames in a recent Consumer Reports review.

[SonOfAStu]

I can't recommend this Philips frame enough:
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-6-5-In...9368335&sr=8-2

There's a reason it's so hard to find. I ordered one for my mom for Christmas when Amazon still had them in stock for $129.99 (free shipping of course).

I got one for myself from Buy.com in November when they had the $30 MIR. No offense, but a monkey could program this thing to turn on and off automatically with the timer and select from random or pre-ordered slide show modes. You want transitions? No problem. The quality of the image amazes everyone that see it.

If you must have 8-10" this is a no-brainer and in your price range. The image won't be quite as good as the 6.5" though as they use the same number of pixels.

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-8-5-In...9368335&sr=8-4

[beavismom]

I will put in another vote for the Pandigital 8". This is what we got the in-laws and it was great. We pre-loaded it and the pics looked very nice. The Smartpants frames were also well reviewed, but were more expensive when I was looking. I will be picking up another frame for my husband for Father's Day.

[Trevor]

Apparently there are some with built-in wireless. Whatever photo site you use can automatically send your newest pics to your frame, your parent's frame, your in-laws, etc.

[ngp]

Originally Posted by Trevor

Apparently there are some with built-in wireless. Whatever photo site you use can automatically send your newest pics to your frame, your parent's frame, your in-laws, etc.

That's a great point Trevor...I assumed that the wireless was just for convenience within your own house so that you can stream from your PC to the frame and therefore dismissed getting a wireless frame. With what you said, I may just have revisit them. Thanks.

[Trevor]

Originally Posted by ngp

That's a great point Trevor...I assumed that the wireless was just for convenience within your own house so that you can stream from your PC to the frame and therefore dismissed getting a wireless frame. With what you said, I may just have revisit them. Thanks.

Yep, sounds like a great feature. I haven't seen this feature in action or read much about it, just heard from one person who's tried them, so I'm not sure how prevalent that feature is or which websites support it.