Customer Reviews

Ceiva Digital Photo Receiver Model LF2000

5 star:		(90)
4 star:		(47)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(65)

 

 

I just got one to give to my technophobe mom on Mother's Day. I am extremely impressed. It's attractive; it looks far more like a picture frame than an electronic device. The photo quality, while not quite as good as an average computer monitor, is quite respectable. It was extremely easy to set up and get working. And it works perfectly.

The frame cycles between 20 pictures that you've uploaded to the Ceiva web site, showing each for between 5 seconds and 2 hours (the time is up to you). It downloads new pictures from the web site automatically every night; you can also force it to download immediately. You can store up to 1000 (I think) pictures on the web site, and the frame will rotate them, choosing 20 different ones each day. You can also tell it to keep pictures until further notice, or have it choose one picture randomly each day from each of 20 albums that you establish online, or show "channels" like the local weather and prime-time TV schedule, or any combination of the above.

You can send photos in JPEG or several other formats. Ceiva's web site recommends editing photos to increase color saturation and contrast, and decrease brightness, in order to optimize their appearance on the frame (as opposed to on your monitor). I think their advice is correct, but I don't want to bother saving 2 versions of each photo, one for me and one for my mom's frame; the quality is still pretty good. Ceiva also recommends saving in 640x480 pixels, but I've found that larger pictures (both slightly larger and way larger) look just as good, so I don't bother saving a small version just for the frame. (I have a fast web connection, so I don't mind the time it takes to upload the image from my PC. I'm not sure whether this results in longer time for Ceiva to download photos to the frame, but I suspect that they convert them to 640x480 before downloading them.)

Now the drawbacks:

- It's expensive. ....

- The image quality could be better.

- Th image must be viewed pretty much straight on, not at much of an angle.

- The person with the frame can do very little. Basically all they can do (besides enjoy the show) is change the brightness and force an immediate download. Anything else, including telling it what hours to go dark at night, how long to show each picture, what pictures to change the next day, or your changed phone number, must be done on their web site. The assumption is that if the owner doesn't have a PC, he/she doesn't want to get involved with these things. That's probably the case most of the time, so I think this is a reasonable design, but there are probably some users who want to do more. Also, if there are connection problems, it can be cumbersome to troubleshoot and correct them with so little control from the frame.

- The web site user interface is confusing. It's actually pretty powerful once you figure it out, but it's way too hard to figure out.

- Of course, you need your photos in digital form to send them to Ceiva's web site. If you already do digital, this is no problem. If you will have to start doing this just so you can send them to Ceiva, that's additional time and expense that you need to factor in.

- The frame comes in your choice of colors, so long as your choice is black.

- Other users have complained of hardware problems. Most of those seem to show up right away, so you can reduce the problem by getting the unit in advance and trying it out before giving it as a gift. But the number of complaints I've seen seems rather high.

I expect that most or all of these problems will be fixed over time. The price will inevitably come down, and Ceiva's web site suggests that a new model this summer will accept pictures directly from memory cards rather than requiring a service subscription. (Some competitive products already do this.) Display technology, of course, keeps improving. Their web site promises an improved UI in a few weeks. And it implies that other colors will be available eventually. In a couple of years, I think this will be a much more appealing product, perhaps good enough that I'll want several around my house.

But if you have (say) a parent who craves pictures of their grandchildren, a couple of years of pleasure is worth a lot. That's why I sprung for one for my mom last week, and I liked it so much, I ordered a second for my wife's grandma yesterday. I just packed up my mom's after having it running in my office for a few days, and I miss it already!

I was initially very excited about the idea of a digital picture frame, but my expectations were not met when I got my frames. (Yes, I ordered two!) I was very surprise regarding the quality / appearance. The front of the frame has a large black mat that has the Ceiva name in large letters on it. (They could have been more subtle...) Also, the glass on the frame makes it very difficult to see the photos due to glare. The frame itself looks like a Walgreen's special. The back is made out of cheap black cardboard and the outer frame looks like it cost pennies to make. Unless you want something that has that bargain look, I say wait until there are more options on the market. When you pay this much money, you expect something that looks nice and is built to last. Also, I think just being able to download photos from their website is an inconvenience. I want to download pictures from my computer - or - better yet, from my compact flash card! Another annoyance - when you receive photos and your frame is full (the frame has a measely ten photo capacity) - the new photo writes over an existing photo! Nice, idea, but not there yet.

I was really excited when I saw that this product was available. I ordered it, and received my Ceiva promptly. So far so good.

Hooked it up and that's where the problems started. Not only did my photos not appear (the ones I'd uploaded to the website, which seemed to work fine), but later in the evening a lady called me asking why I kept calling her. She sounded really stressed. Later she called me again and was on the point of calling the police when I realized that my brand new Ceiva was calling her. And she had caller ID.

Well, Ceiva technical support were very helpful and told me about an undocumented feature for resetting the dial-in number (I don't know WHY they didn't put that in the manual). And the poor lady didn't send the police, so, OK.

My previously uploaded features didn't appear however. Seems Ceiva had changed their software version and "forgotten" what I'd previously spent an hour setting up. I went through this again, so, finally, OK.

Now blame all the above on teething troubles. And granted, Ceiva technical support were courteous and helpful and finally sorted things out. However i have to be honest I find the basic product disappointing (I realize I seem to be in the minority of reviewers here).

Once I get over the "cool factor" and that Ceiva is one of the first companies out there, I find the picture quality poor. Other LCD products seem to be able to get a crisper, brighter picture. On Ceiva the colors just look drab. And not the same as on my PC.

I spent quite some time manually playing around with the color balance on my PC, uploading, downloading to get a good picture without complete success. It would have been nice if ceiva included some "auto-fix" tools to do this like some PC s/w packages have.

So am I glad I bought the product? Well it's certainly cool and new, though I think the category will not take off until some better products appear in the market.

We live overseas, and thought the Ceiva frame would be a perfect way to share our photos with our family in the US. We ordered one for one internet-challenged family member as a test case, and were very pleased. Here's what we found:

- Set-up - was easy, and the frame did what it was supposed to do. It only has two buttons, and holding one forces the frame to connect immediately. We had a few problems initially with establishing a connection, but after a few tries (and a call to Ceiva) we managed to get it set up. The website is very easy to use.

- Color and Resolution - we found that the pictures Ceiva included with the frame (the ones done by professional photographers) looked better than our first attempts. However, when we selected pictures with bright colors and used photo editing software to blow up the images, adjust them to the frame pixel size, and save them in the file size Ceiva suggests, we got better results. The frame is in a low light area, so it actually looks pretty good. Keep in mind that at under $300, it isn't going to look like your $x,000 laptop's active matrix display, but it isn't bad.

- Phone Connections - We found the connection time with Ceiva to be longer than they say. Even if the frame doesn't have much to do, it seems to tie up the phone line for 15-20 minutes. As one of our relatives lives in a city without a Ceiva connection, we worried about this. However, be realistic - how often are you really going to update the photos? The phone can be unplugged and the frame will still work. All the relative has to do is plug in the frame once a month or so, do a manual connect, and live with a 20 minute long-distance call - probably less than the 800-number service.

- Grandparent Satisfaction Factor - This is, of course, the most important part of the frame. The grandparent in question LOVES the frame, loves walking through the room and seeing updated photos, and has told us many, many times how much they enjoy the Ceiva. Not to mention the positive comments the grandparent has had from visiting friends!

Yes, a lot of the complaints from other reviewers are valid, but with some work, the Ceiva is a great gift. Yes, it would be nice to have an active matrix screen, but we couldn't afford it. Yes, the logo is large, but after the first five minutes, you don't notice it anymore. Yes, the pictures are very poor if the frame is in a high light area, but with a good location and careful editing, the photos can look very good. Yes, the resolution on a good computer screen is better, but how often will your parents or grandparents turn on the computer to check a website? These pictures are there, in the living room, all the time.

One additional plus - we have multiple family members who enjoy receiving photos. Ceiva allows multiple frames to be registered on the same account, and you can send pictures to all of the frames in your account. We have now purchased additional frames for the rest of the family.

This is such a good idea it hurts, but the execution is dissapointing.

Set up was a breeze and the web site is friendly and intuitive. The problem is that the 12-bit color and passive matrix display produces images of poor quality. There is noticiable dithering and color aliasing, and photos are hard to see from the side.

I'm sure a year from now they will come out with a model aith 16-bit color and an active matrix screen. And it will probably cost 1/3 as much.

I suspect my parents will still like this, but it's not as gfood as it could be.

What a wonderful idea. Too bad it doesn't live up to it's intentions. I bought the frame as a gift, hoping to bring some magic of technology and a constant flow of grandson photos to my parents who will NEVER get a computer. All I brought them after driving a hundred miles and setting everything up both on my computer and at their home was a big dissapointment.

The screen is so poor, it is not like a lap top screen it is more like an early game boy which means you have to be at just the right angle to view it and still the photos are totally washed out. Sony makes one for about three times the price but Ceiva was trying to make their's affordable. Even the guy at the Ceiva tech help agreed that the way technology is going there could be a GOOD affordable Ceiva in the future. Sadly the future is not here. I'm returning mine.

I just bought a Ceiva for my grandmother and in setting it up, was so impressed that I have now purchased a second one for myself. I am surprised at the many negative reviews, with the exception of those who obviously received defective products and had customer service problems. Please bear in mind as you read criticisms of picture quality, etc., that this is a product for NON-TECHNICAL people. Believe me, my grandmother is not going to complain about picture quality when she is getting to see pictures of her great grandkids each and every day, and neither would your granny, aunt, mother, etc. The display quality is perfectly FINE. This little gadget is inexpensive (I could have spent the money on a fruit of the month club, but somehow I think my grandmother is going to get a little more out of this particular Christmas gift!), and please do not forget, if you buy this for someone, they will not have to even push a SINGLE button to get their new pictures everytime you send them. You cannot beat that, especially for folks who are intimidated by technology. You can set the whole thing up for them remotely (you do all the work on the Ceiva website), and they will literally be able to plug it in and immediately start looking at all the cool pictures you've put up for them.(all you will need from them is the serial number off the back of the frame). I think we all realize that like all technology products, this one will get cheaper and better; however, I don't know about you, but I want my grandmother to have hers TODAY and not miss another day, week, or month of her greatgrandkids' lives.

I gave one of these digital picture frames to my parents this past Christmas. It was quite the hit with all family members who saw it (everyone wanted to go out and get one). The idea was, my siblings who have children could send images directly to the frame so that way my parents could, essentially, watch their grand children grow up. In today's age where family is spread out across the globe, this is particularly a difficult problem - only seeing your grandchildren once or twice a year just doesn't cut it. The Ceiva frame changes this!

Pros:

- Very easy to use. Plug it in, turn it on. Set desired preferences. Done. - Good image quality. Even for a DSTN display, the image is sharp and bright. - Good number of preferences (time on, time off, delay between images, etc.) - Additional content available as part of service (i.e., News, Weather, etc.) - You control who can send images directly to the frame - Automatic updates through the phone line - once set up, no computer needed. - Portable. You don't have to have it plugged into the phone line if you only want to see the 20 pictures currently on the frame. Take it to work and keep it on your desk during the day. Bring it home at night and let it call in and get more pictures in the evening!

Cons - Still need a computer to set the preferences and put pictures on it (no memory card access at all) - Monthly service fee required (though, you can purchase the lifetime subscription) - No memory card access. You can't shoot from a digital camera and just insert into frame like other digital frames allow - DSTN display. Although I say that it has a good display in the Pros section, other frames have TFT displays which are better in quality. - Need access to a phone line for nightly (or whatever your preference is) updates. When it's not updating, does not need phone line access, though. - Only displays 640x480 images. I've found that sometimes you need to increase the brightness of the pictures from digital cameras before sending it to the frame. - No contrast control, only brightness.

The frame really is a great gift for a grandparent, parent, or even yourself! My parents now get fresh images of their grand children on a weekly basis. What more could a grandparent ask for? We're now getting one for my Mother-in-law for Mother's Day - but don't tell her, she doesn't know :)

Although there are definitely better quality digital frames on the market (Kodak, Digi-Frame), they are more expensive and, in some cases more complicated, than the Ceiva. For it's price and quality, it's the best out there now.

The Ceiva digital photo receivers have become a gift-giving phenomenon in our extended families over the past 18 months, with 10 receivers given to people ranging in age from 36 to 94. (We're giving two for Christmas this year.) It can be a great gift if it meets a few criteria:

1) At least one person is committed to sending 20 new pictures to the frame at least once a week, 52 weeks a year. Think about it: the Ceiva is likely on for 12 or more hours a day and 20 pictures get pretty darn boring after a while. Even the most devoted of grandparents are apt to get bored staring at the same pictures for days on end.

If the sheer volume of pictures sounds daunting, I'll venture that you'll become pleasantly surprised at what you come to consider worthy of photographing. In my opinion, it's these pictures of everyday life that you start photographing that really keep you close to each other. If you just can't commit to 20 photos a week, you can subscribe to Ceiva channels that will send daily updates of the weather, headlines, recipes, pictures of art, etc.

2) You're willing to keep up with the subscription costs. You have to pay a monthly or yearly subscription fee in addition to buying the Ceiva frame. Consider if the folks receiving the frame want to--or have the ability to--pay $90/year (or whatever the current subscription fee is) to keep their subscription current or if it'll be the gift that you'll need to keep on giving.

3) You have the patience to deal with a hosting web site that has a lot of room for improvement. Ceiva's web interface for posting and manipulating pictures is pretty clunky. Also, the upload process is painfully slow even with a cable modem.

Despite all its flaws, the Ceiva has been well received by our families--especially the grandparents and great-grandparents!

The unit itself is great, and the website is fairly intuitive. The problem I ran into was the availability of local phone numbers. I live in rural Kentucky, and the only local #'s available are in Lexington and Louisville- both hours away. It cost me an extra $60 to get a toll-free phone number. So, check the website for availability of local phone #'s before you buy.