Customer Reviews

Digital Spectrum MemoryVue MV-800 8-Inch Digital Frame

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

The MV-800 seemed to be the picture frame where I could get the most real-estate for the buck. I bought two of them for gifts for the grandmothers of the family.

It's pretty much exactly what I expected, nothing more nothing less. Dead pixel free, and the colors aren't dull, about average. It can be hung on a wall (but the cord would not be very eye appealing) or can be placed on a table (with a stand in the back). The stand seemed slightly flimsy; however it is more then sufficient to hold the weight of the frame.

There isn't internal memory which is good because you're not as limited to as much pictures/movies you can put on, but you'll have to add a sD card or other type of supported memory to your order.

The buttons on the right side seem a little cheap, however once again, its more then sufficient for the few times you'll use the buttons (because you have a very slim remote that comes with it).

The speakers in the back for the mp3s/audio from movie aren't impressive at all. It would probably work fine for audio of the family picnic, but don't expect to be rocking' out to 311 while playing a slide show of your concert pictures.

The matte is interchangeable, as is the frame, so you can match decor of the room; or just change it when you get bored. The matte and frame that come originally are attractive and would fit fine in almost any room.


UPDATED:
Both of the grandmothers of the family absolutely loved them. They both brought many tears seeing the sentimental pictures. Now for what you really want to know...

I noticed a few things before I gave the gifts out.

Before I wrapped them, I thought I'd be a good idea to get a few specs of dust/specs that were inside the plastic facing. Taking the frame and matte off was no problem, and would be very easy to replace. The one thing that I noticed was that the plastic from was rather cheap. I was considering cutting some glass to put in there, however was restricted on time.

The next critique is on the LCD itself. I took a much closer look to the quality of the LCD and it was below average on both. I'm not sure if its possible that I got a bad batch, but both of the ones i bought has a slight "tiger striping" effect. There were about 25-30 (guess) vertical stripes very thin in width that were slightly darker. What brought my attention to it was when they start up, it flashes a pure white screen. Upon further review, I found it affected the pictures as well. Now this didn't make me not want to get these as a gift. They are still attractive for the price, however if you're a techie and you want one for your work desk (and would notice things such as the problem described above), this may not be the LCD picture frame for you.

I just got my MemoryVue today -- a Christmas gift for the in-laws. It's simple enough to operate; simply insert a media card and turn the thing on. It defaults to a nice slide show of the pictures I had on my CF card. Apparently it can also play MP3's and video, but I got it for the photo display.

My issue is that I shoot a lot of close-ups and in doing so I often shoot portrait oriented photos. While the MemoryVue allows me to rotate photos so they display properly, it doesn't remember the setting on the second pass through the slide show. So somehow I need to figure out how to store the photos on the CF card in the proper orientation; I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to do that since my computer seems to automatically rotate photos to their proper orientation.

Another issue I have is the user guide; it is two sheets of paper apparently printed on a laser printer and folded in half. The guide shows you what all the buttons are, but doesn't go into any detail on how the different features work. I am pretty much a power user of electronic devices, so I managed, but I am a little concerned about my retired in-laws.

Also, there is a black bar at the top of the display. 35mm photos are not exactly 4:3, so to fit in the 640 x 480 display, my 35mm photos are resized to 640 x 427. I wish the frame was smart enough to split the difference between the top and bottom of the display rather than leaving a roughly 53 pixel high black bar at the top of the display. You can adjust the vertical positioning of the display but it doesn't remember the settings after you turn it off.

The quality of the display itself is fair -- good enough for the in-laws :-D You can tweek the contrast, brightness, color temp and saturation to make it look respectable, but again once you power-off the unit, the settings are lost.

All-in-all, I wish there was a better alternative at this price point, and considering the explosion of digital photography, I'm really surprised there isn't.

I purchaed this frame and the Phillips 7" digital photo frame. The Phillips screen while smaller is much much better for displaying photos. I would highly recomend NOT getting this frame. Buy the Phillips due to screen clarity, picture quality, and ease of menu navigation. I liked the wood frame on this, and I liked the larger screen size, but it does not make up for the picture quality difference. One star due to an actual frame and matting and screen size, that is, it "looks" like a picture frame, rather than an LCD screen.

I bought this frame about 6 months ago. At first I loved it. The picture quality was great. It was simple to use. And with the external card, I could load lots of pictures into it.

However, in the past few weeks, I've noticed color spots appearing in front of my pictures. At first it was one or two orange spots. Now there are hundreds in all different colors. I've tried to contact the company, but they haven't responded.

I'm now totally sold on the digital picture frame concept. I'll replace this one, but not with anything from Digital Spectrum. I would encourage others to avoid this brand as well.

After two months the remote broke, Digital Spectrum refused to replace it stateing the seller wasn't an authorized seller, they have been no help in resolveing the problem I would discourage anyone from buying this product due to the uncareing additude of Digital Spectrum.

*Generally the look is okay, the fit & finish is poor. I had to disassemble & reassemble mine.
*The feature set is a big plus. JPGs, AVIs, & MP3s in the same box is cool.
*You can load an MP3 to play over a slideshow.
*The MV-800 says it supports Microdrives, it does not (the slot is physically too small, and x-acto knife will fix the problem, but you may not be so inclined.)
*The big problem is it does not show more than 511 photos. I am a photographer, and I have a few thousand photos to show. Upon attempting to load the 512th photo, it locks up, and needs to be power cycled.
*Tech support is terrible. The phone number (888) 999-0732 is never answered, the messages are never returned.

I give it 2 stars, because it will work for a person without microdrives, and only 511 pictures.

Keeping it short.

I am on my 2nd frame (after the first was returned). This appears to be the best of the bunch of the D-picture frames... after running this fro ~6 months consistently it develops color spots on the screen.. This has now happened 2 times.

Just my thoughts.

E-

I read all the reviews and was pretty reticent about trying this product because so many seemed to have so many problems. I had seen it at CompUSA but they didn't have one in stock. It seemed nice and sturdy and was aesthically pleasing. I almost went with the Phillips but with the smaller screen I didn't think it would be as nice. Well, I went ahead and got this for my husband for this past Father's Day. The day it came I loaded a 1G CF card using a reader/writer and put into the frame & it worked immediately & perfectly. It held somewhere around 350 photos & the transitions in the slide show are awesome. I am going to get one for myself some day down the line when we can afford another one. My husband has this one in his office & he gets lots of compliments! Highly recommend!

My father gave this frame to me as a baby shower gift a few months ago. I got home all excited about a new toy only to find out the remote control was dead. It did nothing. I could only use the buttons on the side of the frame. I had the remote replaced via an RMA with Pacific Digital and when I installed my memory card again, the firmware for the LCD was hosed. All the screen says is "PC-RGB No SYNC" and then shuts back off. It's a paperweight now. I have asked for a new MV-800 as a replacement. I hope they don't play the "you missed the warranty date BS" card.

This product is faulty (a lemon), the first one stopped working after 5 months, they sent a new one after two months; that one developed spots on the screen two months later as others have reported.

A waste of money and time.