Customer Reviews

HP 10.4-Inch Digital Picture Frame w/2 Interchangeable Mats

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

 

 

Paid $129 at a local warehouse club... It is worth that much to me, but not worth what Amazon is asking today ($198).

Pros:

*Good picture quality.

*Easy to use the core features.

*Nicer looking than most e-frames. It actually looks like a picture frame instead of a gadget.

Cons:

*Made in China. (but try finding one that isn't)

*In spite of its ease of basic use, configuration settings are not very intuitive.

*When copying photos to internal memory, it often errors out. Requires some patience.

*Shuffle mode is weak, not random. Always starts with the same photo and although I have hundreds of photos loaded I see the same 20 or so repeatedly.

*There are known problems/bugs that HP knows about and are working on a firmware upgrade for--but according to what I've read in other product forums HP has been promising the bug fix for a long time:

*On mine, the built-in clock/calendar function has been flakey, causing the auto-on/off and the calendar view functionality to be useless. I have mine at the office and set it to turn on at 8 and turn off at 5... Worked great for the first few days. Then one day I noticed it was on in the morning before the scheduled time so I checked the time. The clock setting was way off. I think it was agravated by the fact that I unplug it and lock it up every weekend. Over the last 2 weeks it worsened until the clock didn't even move anymore. I read on a blog somewhere that there is a CR2032 battery inside that is the culprit. Opened mine up and replaced the battery this morning. So far, the clock appears to be moving again. I also saw mention of other clock problems and HP promised firmware upgrades.

Overall I like the frame and would recommend it.

If my problems were an anomaly due to a weak backup battery then I'll be fully satisfied with the purchase. HP would be well advised to make that battery externally accessable and incorporate a battery insulator tab to prevent battery drain during shipping like my 2-year old son's toys always arrive with.

Update: The battery thing seems to have worked. I also got a reply from HP (in broken English) advising to do a full reset & if that doesn't fix it then the frame is 'faulty' and I'd need to contact the retailer for help. Sure hope I don't have to go there...

I was extremely skeptical as to whether I would be able to navigate this digital frame after hearing stories from friends who had problems with frames other than HP. To say it handles very easily is an understatement. I bought it as a Christmas gift, put about 500 pics on a card and couldn't be more happy with the clarity of the pictures and ease of operation. Have already recommended the HP 10" frame to others.

Lots of problems!

The show-stopper was the inability to copy files to the frame via USB. It would get midway through my ~400 files, (170 Mb total, so I was't running out of room) and start throwing errors. Windows found hundreds of bad file fragments, which it copied to .CHK files.

Had that worked, the UI is horrible! The buttons on the frame are unusable: You keep mysteriously ending up at the menu to choose which memory to read from. You can only view one settings menu item at a time: You have to go all the way back to the home screen and then menu, then the next item. Oops, We're back at memory selection. Third base!

The remote is a bit better, but you are still stuck with choosing photos one at a time to copy them into internal memory (which is what lead me to trying to do the USB copy). Ever try to browse 500+ photos (that's probably a low estimate of what most camera cards hold these days) a dozen at a time? Not fun.

The USB copy does not resize the pictures (the one-at-a-time memory card method does), so you can't get very many images onto the frame this way, unless you resize them yourself. Since I was going to pre-load the frame, I was willing to live with that, but c'mon, anything that requires "OK, mom, we're going to fire up photoshop..." utterly fails the "grandma" test, even though my particular mom is reasonably computer literate.

Now all I have to do is find a *good* frame...

I purchased this picture frame a year and a half ago. I just mostly wanted my pictures to show as a slideshow, which it did with great clarity in an attractive frame. I got many compliments. Then it just stopped working. Doesn't turn on, doesn't do anything. HP is totally overwhelmed with pissed off customers like me. They have no solution, nothing. Now I have to dispose of it because it will never work again. What a waste of money. Google the phrase "hp digital picture frame stopped working" you will see TONS of people with the same problem. And HP tech support SUCKS, I can't believe they actually tout how they get awards for their customer service...what a joke.

Well I purchased two of these for Christmas presents. Went to set this up for my Father tonight and couldn't get it to power on. It was clearly defective.

I got home and opened the second Frame and plugged it in to make sure it powered up, it did.

I'll take the frame back to local store for an exchange. Will pull the exchange out of the box and plug it in before leaving the store.

It appears to be a solid piece of electronics but must have some pretty lame quality control in China to not even power on.

It's not my M.O. to post a review this soon after purchasing a product. Due to the no power issue, it seemed important to post this warning. I'll post back with an update on final opinions after these have been used for a while.

UPDATE: The store I purchased the defective frame from finally got more in stock. I purchased another frame and tested to make sure it would power on (it did). Take the frame to my Father's house and go to set it up.

It would not read any images from a USB flash/thumb drive. I tried both 2 and 8 gig flash drives made by different manufactures.

Next I attempt to connect the frame up to my Father's Computer (XP). It was flaky about finally recognizing it but finally did. However, it would not let me load any pictures. So... after an hour, can't load pictures with either a USB flash drive OR by hooking it up to the computer.

Called the HP support number in the manual and they were closed. Said they were open Monday through Friday... it was Friday morning.

I'm finally able to get the frame to read the pictures from a compact flash card (from a camera). Just so I didn't have to waste any more time with this faulty piece of... equipment, I gave my Dad a 500 MB compact flash card to make the frame work.

Bottom Line, some very very poor quality control (I'd say none).

To save yourself a lot of time, I'd test this before you leave the store.

Otherwise, your chances of frustration are pretty good.

just got this digital frame because I wanted a larger screen. I'm not impressed with image quality and the viewing angle is horrendous. You can only view this when you look at it straight on. Would not recommend for the money.

I've had the DF-1000 for almost a year but I see the same issues in customer reviews of the newer units. Initially, there were problems getting the unit to function and customer support had me format the memory and re-load the jpegs. That got it up and running and the quality of the display is very good.

What I'm seeing in reviews is that the random feature still doesn't work. Seems the processor selects a handful of photos and didplays them repeatedly for hours. Some repeated every other photo. It was supposed to randomly display photos without repeating and does not.

Another issue was the automatic on / off feature. It worked until daylight savings time when I had to set the clock forward an hour. After that, the automatic on/off feature no longer functioned. Customer Support told me I'd have to send it back so I've lived without the feature since. It's just a matter of reaching behind the unit and feeling around for the button.

It's nearly a year old now and the display is still crisp but it doesn't do all that it was supposed to. A few times it had hung and would not power up but that was easily fixed by unplugging the power supply for a short time which reset it. Why is HP ignoring the flaws? It makes no sense when their reputation is at stake.

I just bought the frame and put a 16GB sd card in it; works great. Took a while to copy the over 9GB of picture to it but had no errors.

My one complaint is that the picture frame starts over from the beginning of the pictures everytime you power it up. With over 5200 photos it would be great it would remember the current picture at power off and start from there the next time it starts up. This would be such a simple upgrade to the firmware I'm surprised HP has not done this yet.

I have had this picture frame for about 2 years and love it, however, it suddenly stopped working and, because, it is not under warrenty I am out of luck. No one will help me!!! I would buy another one if it goes on sale. Easy to upload pictures.

Compared to other brands, we love the brightness of the HP as well as the ease of use. Insert your SD card, select slide show, and you're all set. (There are more options if you chose.) While the slide show is playing, you can press the button on the remote to go backward or forward. So simple. We have 2 of our own and have given 3 away as gifts. Everyone has been so happy to be looking at their photos that were once just sitting on their hard drive. Good image quality too!