Customer Reviews

Digital Spectrum MF-1041 10.4-Inch Digital Picture Frame

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this item because it was top rated by Consumer's Reports, and it has lived up to expectations. Also, when I had to contact their support people because my photos were not displaying in proper sort order, they responded quickly and with detailed instructions. (The problem turned out to be some corrupted files at my end, so the product wasn't at fault.) My single fairly minor complaint is that when switching between a display of photos only (slideshow mode) vs. photos plus calendar/clock (clock mode), the slideshow sequence reverts to the beginning. It would be nice if you could take a quick look at the date and time without always going back to the first photo. This is especially true since the photo size is quite a bit smaller when sharing the screen with the calendar/clock, so we generally prefer slideshow mode.

Let me start by saying that I have nothing to compare this to as i have never had a digital frame before. And I will say also, i love the size, price and look of it. Now, onto the criticism. As with another reviewer, the remote does not work. i went out and bought a new battery, but no luck.
Since the onboard memory is small, we bought a memory stick and began loading all the pics onto that. I recommend doing this not via the frame as it will be much slower (not USB 2.0). However, when i turn on the frame, it will not default to displaying the pics on the stick even after i removed all the pics on the built in memory. In other words, you need to fiddle with it after you turn it on. It would be great if it remembered what it was last doing when powered off. I also found that i needed to reduce (export to 800 pixels), the pictures in order for them not to "flash" (display off color) sometimes, and even in the small version, I have seen an occasional flash.
Additionaly, just as with the large size pics, video seems like a no go, perhaps not enough RAM on it?

With all that said, it looks nice on display so perhaps for the price, it may still be worth it, not being familiar with how many of my issues are solved in the more expensive ones.

Digital Spectrum MF-1041 10.4-Inch Digital Picture Frame
There are hundreds of choices in the digital picture frame world. Digital Spectrum met my needs - budget, size, capability. I wanted a large, 3X4 format frame with the ability to play background music. A knowledgeable and responsive technical assistance link was a bonus. Simple, flexible, functional. I really like it.

This is the first frame I've bought. Earlier ones were not very flexible, software-wise. I'm really happy with this selection. It runs all day showing pictures of grandkids, vacations, and family life. It has inspired us to digitize our ancient 35mm slides which have sat in the attic for the past 25 years. I loaded some soft Mediterranean instrumental music which plays in the background while our incredible pictures of Italy are showing. I have seen my wife just standing in front of the slide show, captured. I programmed the frame to run everyday, we switch SD cards every few days to keep the images fresh. It's attractive, worked flawlessly from jumpstreet, and has brought nostalgic smiles to our faces each day. Is there a downside? In my opinion, yes a small one. It cannot play pictures in random order. So when preparing an SD card you have to be mindful of putting too may similar slides together lest you bore yourself and others. This takes lots of your time when a simple software addition (hopefully for me it could be an upgrade) could make this MF1041 an even better winner.

I actually bought this item for my wife for Christmas, so I haven't used it all; but my wife quickly figured out how to program it. At the moment she has it set on a counter and it has been doing a slideshow of a day trip we took. We are both really impressed with it. Nice picture quality and she put music on as it has its own speakers. My wife is intending to put pictures on a flash drive which can be plugged into it and she can put photos on that she wants to show them. Then unplug the flash drive and revert back to the regular slideshow. The remote control is also very handy.

I recieved this digital frame today, and while the frame itself seems very good (havent really tested it out yet) - i just wanted to warn anyone else that the SONY 4GB memory card thats advertised with it in the "add both to cart section" is not suitable for this picture frame. Its a camera specific memory card!!

i wish i'd looked carefully!

Bought this as a Christmas gift for a family member and ended up keeping it. The frame is of medium qualilty looks wise.. the wooden frame is OK.. Fairly easy to setup...instructions leave a lot to be desired. You can set up folders of shows on the internal memory, or flash card, usb, etc.... but it will not let you keep that setting.. so each time you turn it on it defaults to the firt show.. a dumb feature.. Plus, there is no provision for playing the slides in the shows in random order.. Sound is not bad at all for a little frame.. and a plus feature. As it turns out this was a bit expensive compared to other frames I found later.. I would rate it as a B... but shop for a better price..

I purchased this as a gift, so I spent two days loading up a memory card and playing with the frame before gift wrapping. As a picture frame it is straight forward. I used iPhoto to export an album (using medium size) to a memory card, plugged the card in the frame and it starts with the first picture from the memory card, no additional work required. Sitting a few feet away from the frame and pictures look great. I own a 7" phillips frame and while it works good, it's nothing like having a 10" frame.
I was hoping to find a frame that supported video also. This one does, but there's room for improvement. The frame requires you to pick whether it is in photo mode, video mode and other modes which I didn't try, i.e. audio and I think calendar mode. It would be nice if somebody would release a digital frame that treats video files as it does photo files, allowing them to be displayed as part of the same "slide show". To display video with this frame you change to video mode and then it works like photo mode in that you can have it display one video after another. My issue is with the supported video formats. The manual, websites, box, etc all state AVI and MPEG support. However, there's no indication of which codecs to use, so you're left guessing. Video files from my Canon SD870 (VGA) worked perfectly fine. However, when I tried to take video from other sources and export them, they didn't work so well. The only other format which I got to work, was MPEG 1 (QVGA). If I had more time I'm sure I could have figured out which export setting to use but it shouldn't be so hard to get this information.
Since I was trying several different video formats I spent a lot of time turning the frame on and off and therefore did get to use the remote. It worked fine for me, but then I was directly in front of the frame. It has a bunch of settings, but I didn't have enough time to explore them as I spent all my time trying to figure out which video format to use! Don't remember if it has a random mode. You can adjust the picture settings, i.e. color, brightness, etc.
In summary, as a photo frame, it worked perfectly fine for me. As a video frame, it worked fine as long as you have the correct video format. The video plays back very well and with decent volume that can be controlled via the remote. Despite the flaws with video, I still recommend the product based on the large frame and price.

I purchased four of these DSI frames, at a cost of over $500, to hang on a wall in a neat looking arrangement. The frames are set to turn on/off automatically, and run about 10 hours each day. The first frame died after less than a month. Fortunately, it was still under warranty, though it took DSI 2 months to fix it and get it back to me. 6 months later, Frame #2 died. It was out of warranty so I had to buy another one to replace it and maintain the consistent look of my wall display. Three weeks ago Frame #3 of the originals died, followed by the death of #4 a week later. All four of the frames died and went black less than 18 months after purchase! $500 down the drain, and I am now faced with buying 4 new frames from some other manufacturer. I wrote to DSI about the poor longevity of their products and they have not responded to me at all. I will never buy another DSI product again, and I strongly suggest that you do not either. Their products are poorly made and their customer service stinks.

Digital Spectrum MF-1041 10.4-Inch Digital Picture Frame

My husband purchased the Digital Spectrum Frame for my birthday. I didn't get it opened and set up within the return period. When I opened it, the frame would not turn on. I contacted Digital Spectrum and it took them 10 weeks to send me a frame that also would not turn on and was so badly scratched. I again contacted them and they said to ship the frame back, at my cost, and they would send me a new one. Well today after waiting another 11 weeks, another badly scratched frame was received. I would never recommend purchasing from this company, their service is the worst that I have ever encountered and I work with a lot of technology products.