Customer Reviews

Kodak EX-1011 Easyshare 10-Inch Digital Picture Frame with Wireless Capability

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I just bought one of these and was so impressed I bought a second one.

I'd been toying with the idea of getting one of these for a while and the 10" ones are now a reasonable price.

I didn't install any of the software: just copied images to a CF memory card and plugged it in. The frame detects this and starts to play images from the card.

First thing I did before any of this, was to get the latest firmware from Kodak website.

Unfotunately, the documentation is poor. It mentions nothing about optimal resolutions. I finally batch converted all my high res images (using BreezeBrowser) to 800x480 pixels, 300dpi JPG (100% quality). These resulted in files of about 5-6MB each. Quality is great and images are bright and vivid, even in normal indoor daylight conditions. I've been using digital cameras for 6-7 years and I work in the graphic arts industry, so I'm pretty picky about image quality and color. It would be nice if Kodak supplied an ICC profile for the device, so at least you can preview how they'll look in Photoshop, etc. or convert to the device color space.

A lot of reviewers complained about the remote control. It's a bit clunky, but it works. It's a picture frame after all, not a TV. I just use it to setup slide duration, transition, etc.

I'm buying a second frame one for all my protrait orientation pictures, as they are too small when displayed in the frame in landscape format. So, I'll have one frame with landscape pictures and one with portrait. This way, each image will use the maximal area of the screen.

I also use the "fit" option, not the fill. I don't want my pictures cropped.

One of my biggest bug bears is that there is no resume function. I have 200+ images on the frame which change every hour. The timer is set to turn the frame on at 6pm and off at 11pm (so 4 pictures). Problem is, when I turn it on the next day, I see the first 4 again. So I have to forward to ones I've never seen. For this reason, I'll need to leave it on 24/7.

Pros
Great picture quality
Easy to use

Cons
No fade transition (just wipes and bars)
Only one on/off schedule (would like one for morning and one for evening)
Poor documentation
Can't select a default slide show/folder on SV model (but it will play memory cards first - so just put everything you want on the memory card)
No resume - Always starts from slide 1

(I would strongly recommend some kind of batch conversion software where you can set the image size, resolution, quality, etc. Maybe the supplied software will do it, but I never installed it, as I already have something to do this.)

I was really looking forward to receiving this digital picture frame in the mail. I was like a little kid (and still am) when I opened the Amazon.com shipping box, to reveal the colorful Kodak packaging with the long awaited digital picture frame in it.

The digital frame was well packaged, protected with its own wrapping within the box, and a thin transparent sheet protecting the screen. Nothing the postman could have done could have damaged the product during shipping.

The digital frame comes with a CD, for both Windows and Macintosh, and allows you to install in ten different languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, and Turkish. During installation, you will be prompted on whether you would like to check the internet for a newer version of the software. I found that a newer version was available, and that was automatically downloaded and then seamlessly installed.

The software is very easy to use and will automatically search your computer for all stored pictures. Within seconds (depending on how many pictures you have) you will have all your pictures neatly organized in one folder.

A remote control, with battery included, is also in the package. It has a separate stand that attaches to the back of the frame, making it convenient to store your remote control. The remote control is a must, and turns the digital frame into a user friendly product. In fact, I didn't even have to read the owner's manual. It is really very easy navigating the frame's menus and settings. It is much easier setting this digital frame than your DVD player or microwave! A few tips though: The remote buttons must be pressed hard and kept pressed for a good second; you must be within a straight line and not too far away from the frame. If you are experiencing problems, change the battery.

USB cables are also included to allow you to connect to your computer or directly to your digital camera. The USB cable will also allow you to upgrade the firmware on your digital frame.

In order to upgrade your firmware, go to www.kodak.com/digitalframesupport, choose your product, and then click on downloads and drivers. Once you download the new firmware, you must first unzip it on your computer, then connect your computer with your digital frame with the included USB cable, and transfer the unzipped `img' file by dragging and dropping it on your memory card (which is not included) inserted in your digital frame. Then it is a simple three step method of going to your frame's menu, then to `settings', and clicking on `upgrading the firmware'. Once the firmware is upgraded, you need to switch off your digital frame, wait 5 seconds, and then turn it back on. You should check every month for a new firmware for your frame and EasyShare software updates for your computer.

I noticed a few important improvements once the new firmware was installed. The pictures were clearer; there were no more any error messages while displaying the pictures, and more of the pictures were displayed when `fit to screen' was selected. I highly recommend you check for a firmware upgrade as soon as you receive your digital frame.

A unique feature is that you can also communicate wirelessly with your digital frame, allowing you to share your pictures with your home network. This is really a neat feature that is fun, convenient, and just simply cool! Your digital frame can also access the internet wirelessly and keep its internal clock set to the correct time. This is useful when you set your frame to switch on only at certain times. For example, you can schedule your frame to display pictures only during the day, and automatically turn off at night, only to resume displaying pictures again in the morning at a specific time you determine. This is a unique feature that is energy saving, and will give your frame a longer life than simply keeping it on all the time.

As mentioned above, no memory cards are included on which to record your pictures. The digital frame will accept the following memory cards: SD, MS, xD, MMC, CF, and MD. The frame has an internal 128 MB of storage, hardly enough for the savvy photographer.

The memory cards need to be formatted first before you record your images on them. I first formatted my Sony SD memory card using NTFS, but my digital frame was unable to read it. This was before I did the firmware upgrade. When I formatted the memory card using FAT32, the digital frame read my memory card and displayed the pictures. I am not sure whether future firmware upgrades would allow NTFS formatting, but this is not needed. Make sure you format using FAT32!

Some additional nice features of this digital frame: the possibility of choosing different picture wipes and duration during the slideshow; brightness control; ability to print pictures directly from your digital frame; audio background during picture display; video display; and fit to screen feature.

This is really a great and very easy to use digital picture frame. It is so nice to watch all my travels, adventures, celebrations, parties, and gatherings that span a period of many years on one digital frame.
Time really does fly! And as your pictures will testify, life is beautiful.

Peace and love to everyone, God bless you all, and may you have a long and healthy life preserved in pictures for generations to come to enjoy!

I am a professional photographer, and was looking or something to put on my desk to show a continuous slideshow of my work. After holding off on buying a digital frame for years, I thought the EX1011 would be just what I was looking for.

Unfortunately, it feels like a product that is not quite done. The WiFi transfer only works with Mac OS X if you buy a $39 3rd party app called TwonkyMedia (more on this later) and you can configure the unit to go online to retrieve photos off Kodak's EasyShare gallery which works OK. The image quality is fair, but disappointing for something from Kodak. The only adjustment is "Brightness" control which normally means white point, but in this case using this adjustment distorts the image. I had to put a color test pattern on a CF card and use this to calibrate the image which is WAY too much work, and there aren't enough controls to allow for a real calibration anyway:

The web-based EasyShare feature is kinda neat, and actually works pretty well. You'll need to go to Kodak's web site and download a firmware update otherwise you'll see that the images lose some resolution, somehow, going from upload to download, plus the photos end up being shrunk in size by about 15%. In other words, you upload a 800x480 image, and it ends up being 680x408 on the screen, and the colors undergo one more level of distortion and decrease in color depth. This was fixed with firmware update 2007.7.06.

Also, when the unit starts up, there is no way to have the unit default to the online gallery. The manual talks about setting an online gallery as My Slide Show, but having talked to Kodak customer support (don't ask how long THIS took to successfully accomplish) this feature was never implemented, so you can only use the default directory to function as My Slide Show (which is what the unit uses as a "Screen Saver"). You need to replace the photos in this default folder with your own. Be advised, when the unit shuts down and restarts (for whatever reason, including if you use the frame's auto timer), it will restart by going to a slide show in this default folder. Unless you want to watch Kodak's sample images all the time, you need to go in and change these photos to your own.

Plus plus: when you update the online gallery, the frame doesn't know this, even though it's connected to the online site. You need to shut the unit down then return to the online gallery in order to have the display update.

The unit is WAY too dependent on the remote control, and sooner or later the remote WILL be lost since it's really, really tiny. Sure, Kodak provides a little compartment for you to install on the back of the frame, but how many people are going to use this? Plus, if you hang the unit on the wall, you can't install the remote control storage compartment - it goes in the same holes used for wall mounting.

The way to get the unit to work with the WiFi file sharing is to download a program called TwonkyMedia (I'd include the link to the software but Amazon won't allow this - do a Google search and you'll find it), pay $39 to register, then open up ports TCP 9000 and UDP 1030, 1900, 9080 on the Mac's firewall. In addition, you need to find the Twonky configuration screen (an HTML file hidden in the Applications folder) to set up which folders you want to share with the frame. All in all, a pain in the rear, even for an Engineer like me. Once I worked through all this, though, I have to admit it's a cool feature, and one I have found myself using frequently. Also, THIS is what separates this frame from the others on the market, which is why I stuck it out until I got it to work.

The improve how the images look on the frame, save them in the highest resolution you can (> 200 dpi if possible) and crop them to a 16:9 aspect ratio. I also wrote a PhotoShop action that optimizes the appearance on the frame, including some sharpening, contrast and levels adjustments, and now they look much better.

All in all, though, it took a LOT of work to get this thing to work as it should have right out of the box. Admittedly, I'm a perfectionist, but just to get the online file sharing to work right requires a firmware update, and to get the WiFi sharing to work require s 3rd party app, then more finagling. Honestly, how many people are gonna go through all this, especially if buying the frame for someone else, who may be less technically adept?

Update 11/15/07: Just upgraded firmware to the 2007.10.09 version. Changed some of the user interface items, and gives a few more options than before (like auto-notice of firmware update availability) but the frame still doesn't recognize ANY video formats I use (and I've tried almost every possible configuration of Quicktime, .avi, .wmv, etc.). Also, still no wireless support for Mac, so you still have to use the glitch-filled TwonkyMedia 3rd party app.

I've noticed several WiFi capable frames come on the market in the past couple months in preparation for the Holiday season, so if I were you, and WiFi were important to me (especially if you're a Mac user), I would again advise you to look elsewhere for your digital picture frame. This unit is STILL not finished.

FINAL UPDATE 9/26/08: After just over a year of use, this produce simply stopped working. Admittedly, I had it on the internal timer to come on every morning and go off every night, but now it turns on and stays on for about 5 seconds then shuts itself off.

When I finally contacted Kodak (after they hung up on me twice), I found out the standard cost of repair exceeded the clearance price my local Costco is charging for this frame by $10.

Amazing. Makes me not want to buy another Kodak product ever again. In fact, makes me want to revise my review to be 1 star, but Amazon won't allow this.

In this day and age, you expect a modern product to last more the ONE YEAR, don't you?

I bought this as a gift for my husband to use in his office. It was very easy to setup and overall I liked it. However, I ended up returning it because there was so setting where you could set the pictures to be displayed randomly. My husband set up the frame with the timer so it would turn on and off at set times, but because there was no random setting he saw the same pictures, in the same order, every day. I got a 2GB SD card to go with it, so there was a vast umber of pictures that he would never get to see. We had purchased Philips digital frames as gifts for other family members, and they had the random setting. We were happy with their performance and displays, however, the style of the frames wasn't what I was looking for. I ordered the Digital Foci Image Moments frame. It seems to have all the features that I am looking for. Oh, one other thing, and this seems to be common for quite a few digital frames I have seen in stores. When placing the frame on a tabletop, the stand is a little short, so the whole frames is leaning back further than I like.

I'm an amateur digital SLR photographer with a large collection of digital family pictures and outdoor travel sceneries. The last few months I decided to seriously start looking for the right digital picture frame that would showcase my pictures to family and friends. My main criteria in choosing the right digital picture frame were; picture clarity, vibrant color definition, easy to set-up/use, and at a good price-to-value ratio.

The Kodak EasyShare EX1011 Digital Picture frame met my expectations and then some. It wasn't my first Digital Picture Frame; I actually purchased another brand 10" digital frames based on some good reviews. Unfortunately when I received the other brand and started to use it, the picture quality was lower than I expected and was missing a lot of other functionality that the Koday EasyShare had.

The Kodak EasyShare, worked like a champ right out of the box. From the packaging to the instruction manual to the first time you see your pictures on the screen, you knew you were getting a quality product. Here's where the Kodak EasyShare picture frame shines:-

· Easy to follow instructions. Set up basic system in 15 minutes; add another 15 minutes for WiFi hook up.
· Can be viewed from different angle and has minimal glare.
· WiFi capability(EX models only). Once you activated the Wi-Fi capability you get other options like. You can share videos, music and pictures directly from your computer. Use Kodak's Gallery via the internet. Enable automatic time updates via the internet.
· Enable automatic start and stop time function.

I take away one star from my ratings because of minor issues.
· You can't hang up the EasyShare on the wall easily. Kodak provides one middle hook, but because the picture frame electronics is not balanced properly the picture frame ends up being tilted. Be careful when trying to hook the system to the wall, place a pillow or something soft to break the fall. In the end, I found that the safest place for the digital frame is on the center table.
· Price is a little higher than most picture frames, but the old adage "You get what you pay for."
· No randomize picture capability.
· Detail wireless media connections (to share files from computer) are only available online. Go online to download the wireless media connection instructions. [...]

If you are looking for a quality digital picture frame that showcases your pictures in higher definition and quality, you will be pleasantly surprise with the Kodak EasyShare.

I always liked looking at slides but with the advent of digital photography slides were "out of the picture". However this digital picture frame is the best thing going and I feel I am again looking at slides. Everyone who see this frame has shown an interest in purchasing one.

How Did I find this frame? I did an extensive search on the web and finally decided on this unit. For the money it offers so much of everything I wanted. The three features I really like are wifi from my home computer to the frame. That means I can send the picture right to the frame. Second, the price which is very competitive. Third, every memory chip I have goes directly into the frame and I can connect the frame directly to a computer using the supplied USB cable. There are many other features and all are great. If there is a better frame I do not know of it.

One slight problem. In order to use the wifi I had to install Microsoft's SP2. I did not want to do that but I eventually did. Not happy about that feature.

This is a review for the 10" wifi model kodak photo frame.

BTW walmart has this same frame for $179 (+ tax of course so it's about the same net price) But when you decide to return it because it is fairly crippled feature wise and the wifi won't work, it will be easier to take it back to Walmart.

First, I think I am an advanced intermediate level computer/wifi user. Say the 90th percentile in terms of techno-freakiness.

I have been looking for a decent frame which will show videos in sequence, which this does. (.mov and a few other formats are supported).

Picture quality is good. And it plays my .mov videos just fine. Haven't tried the music feature. End of good comments.

My frame connects to my wireless network but it does not show on my computer, and the computer does not show the frame. I have done EVERYTHING kodak has instructed me to re using latest versions of various software and firmware etc, enabled file/media sharing, etc. Still no luck so I will return the device. There are too many other non-wifi units on the market and I believe the market price is due to crash on these things.

As others have said, no random show option, no fade transition option.

Kodak "support" stinks on ice. No email response after 24 hours. No user forum. When I ask to chat, the message/send box goes away and never comes back. Plus they say the chat room is only available Sat-Thursday. The "support" must be located in some country which has a religious holiday on Friday.

And I am a Kodak retiree. Shame!on the Kodak name. Thankfully my pension is funded and held elsewhere.

This frame is one of the best I was able to find, when researching. The reasons consisting mostly of wi-fi, overall size of the screen and the cost being comparably affordable.

However, after buying I've been very disappointed. First, the size of the screen is deceptive. 10" is accurate, by the method of measuring the screen. However, while most photographs are roughly 4:3 and this screen is roughly 16:9 (800x480) -- while this is great for video, very few photos have that orientation, and are therefore severely cropped vertically, or rendered very small with wide black bars on the left and right margins. This means the efffective size is actually SMALLER than many 8" frames, so beware if you're hoping to get a large image from this!

Second problem: support. Support at Kodak is BAD. Forget email support -- it takes roughly 10 days just to get a response, which is so generic and basically assumes you're an idiot (without even bothering to read all the details of the support request) and is therefore completely unusable and not helpful, in general. Once we CALLED them, they were very confused, and seemed to not even know their product well at all! It took a very long time to find out what are my biggest issues of all -- that this is a very limited product when it comes to Wi-Fi, which brings me to...

Third problem: Wi-Fi is severely crippled, and with no good reason to be! First, you have to use the Kodak Gallery, though that is not much of a big deal. However, it will not fit images to your screen, as opposed to cropping (a feature that it readily does with wired images coming in via USB, flash memory, etc.) See problem #1 above to see why this is such a horrible problem! Second, you MUST have it set to a ONE MINUTE transition effect, no matter what you set it to or the speed of your connection. This is REALLY bogus, and makes it actually quite tedious to watch! One of the most frustrating aspects of the Wi-Fi limitations is that NONE of this is documented in the manual, online support, or something even support technicians know about -- it took a lot of escalation and asking around of other employees to come to that conclusion. Further, when going through the settings screen, nothing indicated that when we set the image to fill the screen or transition time to a few seconds that it would NOT honor those settings, and would be overridden with a much less satisfactory option!

Fourth problem: brightness. The LCD screen is of good quality, but the brightness is very poor, and therefore problematic in viewing from any reasonable distance.

Fifth problem: remote control. The remote is TERRIBLE! You have to hit the buttons very hard, and there is no tactile, audible or visual feedback to let you know that a button has actually been pressed! Also, you have to be VERY close to the frame for the remote to actually work, and with a direct line of site -- no further away than a foot or two! (Making the use of a remote pretty silly, actually.)

I've not really explored the other options of the frame, such as video capability and sound (with the built-in speakers) since the use of this frame is really limited to just needing a good photo viewer using the wi-fi connection -- so I cannot really comment on them. However, based on the experience of those problems above, I rate this product VERY poorly, and sadly feel we have wasted our money -- sad, because this product seemed to have so much promise and we were very excited to have found it.

The only reason I gave it two stars, instead of one, is that I'm giving Kodak the benefit of the doubt in that the other features must work decently, and the frame is sturdy and looks nice -- though that may be a bit too generous since that is hardly worth the money spent.

There were quite a few issues with the firmware that came with the picture frame. And thats why the poor rating I gave earlier in my review. But thankfully I was able to fix a lot of the problems after I upgraded the firmware. I'd now give it 4 stars, instead of 1. But Amazon does not allow me to update my rating.

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Well, after many days of intensive research comparing different digital photo frames and reading reviews on many different websites, I narrowed down on the Kodak 1011 10" Digital photo frame. Got it in a few days from Amazon.

I was able to set it up and get it working in almost no time at all.
Pros
- Easy setup for all features including accessing pictures from your home computer over WiFi as well as pictures shared on the online Kodak Gallery.
- Picture quality is great.

Cons

- The frame has a plastic look to it because of the thick black plastic area around the screen. A thinner border would have looked much better
- I would have liked some more software features like displaying just one picture. I cannot do that. I always have to have a slideshow on.
- The max duration of any picture on the slideshow is 1 hour. I would have liked 1 day's duration.
- If you go to the Menu screen and change any setting, you cannot continue the slideshow from where you left off. You either have to switch off/on and restart from the 1st picture or go through the gallery, and manually choose which picture to start from.
- Portrait pictures are a bit of a hassle. You need to change the frame orientation and keep the frame vertical. I have no problem doing that but the issue is that the slideshow will include all photos. So the landscape photos will become very small in portrait mode, and vice versa. The issue is that the slideshow picks up all pictures irrespective of their orientation. I tried keeping all Landscape photos in one folder and all Portrait photos in a separate folder. I was hoping that I will be able to choose a folder from which the pictures should be displayed. But once it goes through the landscape folder, it continues on to the Portrait folder and displays those pictures too. It would have been good to have the flexibility to display only Landscape or only Portrait photos. My recommendation is to keep only one type of pictures on the frame, Landscape or Portrait pictures, but not both.
- Videos take forever to load and play, and keep pausing in between.
- You would have to keep the frame at a height of 3 to 4 feet. Only then will you be able to see the pictures clearly when you are sitting / walking in the room. If you keep it at a higher level then the pictures are going to appear darker.

Overall, a great purchase!

Kodak support never responded to my questions.
There should be a sort order capability - it was difficult to get the files to play in certain order.
Movie files appear darker. I spent the most time trying to get the movie to play without any choppiness. In the end, I discovered that they are always choppy with the SD card, but the usb flash drive played them with no problem.
I'm in general very happy with it, but there's still room for improvement.