Customer Reviews

Kodak EX-811 Easyshare 8-inch Digital Picture Frame with Wireless Capability

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I bought this as a gift for the grandparents. Loaded about 800 pictures on an SD card and turned it on. The image is very nice. But I noticed that the first picture displayed was the first I added to the card.
Hmm. Turned it off, then back on. Same thing.
Then I looked at the manual (which is inside the box, obviously) where it says that pictures are displayed in the order added.
Very bad!
You'll never see the last 700 pictures unless you sit through the first 100, every time you turn it on.
I took this back and bought a Westinghouse DPF-0802 which has a random display and nice image. I wanted another one of those but everyone is sold out.
Just be careful if you get the Kodak and expect to see a different show each time you turn it on.

First off, the picture quality is excellent and in my book, that is most important. Pictures look sharp and contrasty from almost all viewing angles.

The image size is similar to a 5x7 and the overall frame size is like a matted 5x7 photo.

This thing is flexible to the max!!

* You can view pictures on a memory card.
* You can view pictures on your computer (but you have to load Microsoft Media Player 11
* You can view all of your pictures and your friends pictures on the Kodak Gallery.
* You can download pictures to the built in memory from your computer via USB2.
* You can upload pictures from a memory card inserted in the frame to your networked PC (I'm not sure why you would want to do that.)

What's wrong with it? Not much but you will have to look in the manual at least once to figure out what the icons on the remote are all about. The menus aren't that straight forward, but once you go thru them they are good enough. Finally, I had to upgrade my old 802.11 B wireless router to a newer 802.11 G router to get the wireless stuff to work. No big deal, I bought a $35 basic router and it works fine.

Highly recommended!!!

I bought the sister product - the 10" EX 1011 - same issues apply to both the 10" and this 8"

The product looks great BUT!!

I bought it to send pictures to Grandma. We thought we could post pictures on the Kodak Gallery, and she (many many miles away) could see the latest of the grandchildren. HOWEVER ... it keeps losing its contact withe Wifi and reverting to its internal memory. If Grandma was up to resetting it to point at Gallery, she would have a computer and wouldn'r need this.

The on-line documentation says that you can make the Gallery the place it automatically goes to BUT .. the menus described on the web page are NOT, in fact, availale on the device. We sent a question email to customer service .. git an autmated response that said we would get a real response within about 24 hours. 5 Days NO RESPONSE. They do not post any phone numbersw to call for this device. They have an online chat that is ALWAYS BUSY, and so does not respond.

DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!! Personally, I will never buy any Kodak product again. I expect some minimal level of support from companies that want me to buy their products.

Many digital frames are now available. In searching for a frame as a gift for elderly parents, I decided to purchase a "reliable" brand rather than a newer entrant into the market. I wanted to minimize any problems and was more than willing to pay pay a premium to ensure low-effort, high-enjoyment for my parents. Granted, George Eastman's legacy is film, not electronics - but this is the 21st century, isn't it?

If you simply want an frame to display digital pictures from a flash memory card, this unit will work fine. The picture quality is certainly acceptable. However, you will be overpaying by about 2x. The wireless connectivy with the Kodak Gallery is absolutely unreliable and unusable. You could get a frame without wireless capability with 2x the display area for the same cost.

I wanted a frame that would allow me to send pictures electronically (didn't care how: web based, email, etc.) to my parents living on the opposite coast for immediate display (or even "almost-immediate" - within 24 hours - refresh). Kodak claims that with their Kodak Gallery web site, with proper setup one can upload pictures to private/shared areas and the frame will automatically be notified and download and display the pictures. And (at the time) there were no fees or subscription required (compared to the original Ceiva frame, for example, which required yearly fees). Of course, I expected that this would function without a full-time IT support staff.

As it turned out, the frame's wireless capability is terrible. I am a computer/network professional. I had no problem setting up the frame to connect to the wireless network. Upgrading the firmware was simple. Pictures from the SD memory card displayed correctly on the screen. However, the wireless connection is totally unreliable. It is not the wireless network as it is stable and the WAP is 10 feet from the frame. I contacted Kodak support, and it was a terrible experience. After going through the scripted questions and rote responses, struggling to educate the 3rd-world support personnel, waiting for return calls that were promised and didn't happen, and interminable hold times, I was finally "allowed" to call a "technical specialist" in the US. At that time I was told that unless I was using a wireless router from an approved list, I would not be supported - so I purchased an approved router. Still the same problem. Then the "specialist" said there was a problem with the Kodak web site and I'd have to wait a week for it to be repaired. Two weeks later and still the same problems. I was finally given a RMA number to return the frame for repair. Three weeks later I received the frame, with a note from the "authorized repair facility". Along with the (same) frame there was a note included stating that they had tested the unit with a memory card, checked the display, and tested to be sure the unit would establish a wireless connection. No malfunction found. They had not even tested the ability to automatically view pictures uploaded remotely to the Kodak Gallery. I don't know if they bothered to read the very specific description I included with the frame, but I doubt it.

I've given up with this item. It is now functioning as a 2x overpriced flash-memory reader with 1/2 the display size. I send a new SD card through USPS Mail every so often with new pictures. Kodak has also now changed their policies regarding storage space on the Kodak Gallery - you have to purchase a minimum amount of product from the site to avoid having your pictures deleted.

Bottom line: the Kodak brand, in my experience and opinion, is a liablity, not something that warrants a premium price. Support is terrible, product does not function as advertised, and this was a waste of my time. I can't think of any reason to purchase this item and highly recommend against it. If you want wireless picture display this will not work; if you want flash-memory picture display many other, larger, less expensive options abound.

There are some great long reviews here but let me get to the point:

The Kodak software you get for the Mac DOES NOT directly connect via wireless to the "wireless" frame.

IMHO - this is NOT a Mac compatible product.

This review is appropriate for people who were thinking the Wi-Fi would be great for people who store lots of photos on computer and would love ability to automatically access new photos added periodically, without having to do physical transfers via mem stick etc etc.

I bought this for my parents for christmas, thinking i'd also buy one for myself later. I picked this over other frames because it came with some internal memory (watch out, many of those other cheaper frames have NO internal memory, so you end up having to buy a memory card anyway, making it not so cheap after all.) Also bought this because of its media options (taking different memory card formats) and because of positive reviews from other people re: photo resolution (I had seen comments that cheaper frames had worse and sometimes weird picture resolutions). This seemed like a flexible and safe bet. Turns out I didn't read deeply enough about the wi-fi option and how it works.

Bottom line, i paid extra for an option that does not work in a practical way. I should have just bought the SV model (no wi-fi) and then I would have been 95% satisfied. As it is, I'm 50% satisfied. No one should have released a product touting wi-fi with as many problems as I experienced. The only reason I'm not saying less than 50% is that at least the rest of the frame worked very well.

I'll summarize pros and cons briefly then go into the wi-fi con for those who care.

PROS:
- Came right up out of the box and played pictures in a card or USB stick attached.
- Great looking pictures. I loaded pics I had just scanned and pics that were straight from different digital cameras. No conversions required. Just rotated some before I loaded then so all would be right side up.
- Menu easy to navigate and understand for me using the little remote control. A little less intuitive for my Dad (70 yrs old, decently computer literate, just not as confident as me), but he got it OK. Nice to be able to stick his memory card in and copy from card to frame if he wanted.

CONS:
- Frame requires XP SP2 and windows Media Player 11. Former should be no big deal, everyone should have upgraded to that years ago- but beware if buying this for the grandparents. Midnight on christmas eve, everyone has finally gone to bed, and I sit down on my dad's computer to install the software and get this thing ready loaded with pics and talking to his network before I wrap up the gift. Big mistake. Hours later I'm still doing upgrades to his computer, because he had never done SP2 for XP.

SECOND part of this problem - The frame's software requires Windows Media Player 11. OMG what an evil piece of software. I installed it; actually got the wi-fi between frame and computer working quickly and started sharing pics with the frame. THEN - I wondered why my dad's computer suddenly couldn't do ANYTHING else. CPU totally taken over by WMP related files. Finally brought up my computer (because his was so taken over after a few minutes that i couldn't even get to the web to look anything up), and found tirades online about how WMP 11 in media sharing mode sucks the CPU down when talking to things like Xboxes. Long story short, on Christmas Day I showed him the wifi sharing, then turned off the sharing mode, turned off WMP 11 and apologized and told him I'd try to find a way to make it work as soon as I could. I basically blew at least $30 because the wi-fi mode of this frame is unusable.

I'm now at home doing research online trying to figure out if there's some WMP 11 fix I don't know about yet to get around this problem. How can Microsoft put a product like this out? or is it the fact that my Dad's computer's memory (256MB) just won't handle it even though he's got XP Professional loaded? (I'm going to try this media sharing on computers with 512 MB and 2 GB and see what happens and will update this review if I find antying out... but I have not been able to find ANY help online so far saying "if you just get this much memory the problem goes away.)"

Anyway, I wanted to post this review for any other folks considering this frame for grandparents who routinely use their computer for pictures. Becuase this family did NOT find a way to make it work. (and if someone out there wants to respond and tell me where I'm being stupid, I am ALL ears... this was a very frustrating experience).

- Other major problem, Easy Share software stinks, at least for me. Tried installing this on 2 different computers, had trouble both times. Installed on my dad's computer, older, but then kept locking up. I had to reboot his computer to even get the program to shut down. Wouldn't even install on mine (the one I use and abuse at work for all kinds of programs - so no reason it shouldn't install.) It first goes out to validate that you've got a legit version of Windows- which I do.... but I couldn't even get past that step on my computer. I finally un-installed it so my dad's comptuer would stop locking up. So there goes the ability to log into an online gallery account and download family pics, another reason I got this model of the frame.

Bottom line again, the frame is great except for the way the wi-fi shares pictures with the computer - more Microsofts problem than Kodaks, but I would have expected them to test this better and know that in practical setup, it is NOT USABLE! or issue better computer system requirements instructions. I I buy one for myself, it will be the SV version, no wi-fi, unless I can find some something online about how to get around these wi-fi shortfalls.

The picture quality is probably one of the best I've seen but......
There's only one problem that I have had with the Kodak SV 811. If your files are too large, i.e. 3MB+ photos you may receive the following error message "Current file is bad" on the picture frame. To resolve this problem do the following and it will correct the problem: resize your photos to 1600 X 1200 dpi(landscape mode), (1200X 1600 for portrait mode) and the frame will work fine.....Plus you'll be able to store over 300+ photos in the internal memory.
P.S. Edit the photos in a program like Adobe Photoshop (resize the images in Adobe to 1600X1200 dpi) and then reload the resized images back into the Kodak digital picture frame. I resized all my photos in the Kodak digital picture frame to 1600 X 1200 dpi and there are no more "bad files." And the quality of the photos is still very good....

Great picture frame. I would buy another

Pros:
Excellent picture Quality.
Really easy to set up. [1]
Supports WPA-PSK wireless security.
Kodak releases newer firmware for the unit.
Works with my existing PC media server software (TwonkyVision & TVersity)
16:9 aspect ratio - Great for cameras that can be set to take 16:9 photos (my Cannon).
Works with a Macintosh (manual only had instructions for Windows)

Cons:
Viewing angle poor.
Cannot set Wireless PC connection as default slide show.
Tinny sound - I don't use this so don't care
Removable Remote holder blocks the wall mount holes (this is brain dead)

1. Set up - Hints:
Set your wireless access point to broadcast it's SSID
Turn on DHCP

I did have some issues if I didn't do the above. The info can be entered manually but this is a pain. The July firmware too had wireless issues. The October 2007 firmware works great with wireless.

Cannot speak about the Kodak Software as I have not used this.

I just bought/received two of these and I've been trying to set one up for three hours now. Seems, although the pictures I've copied to an SD card are in JPEG format, this frame won't acknowledge the pictures I've taken w/my Canon and other digital cameras. Went to software to see if I needed to Sync it and the software doesnt recognize/acknowledge the frame (only cameras). Also, cant get Kodak picture transfer software to work to transfer files via computer/USB. The Kodak website contact/chat room is closed and, of course, there's no "800" number to call anyone either. Should have done more research before buying!

This was a good frame until kodakgallery started charging for photo storage. If you plan on using the wifi feature, skip this frame and go with one that syncs with flickr.

1) The Ex-811 will let you connect ONLY to kodakgallery.com
2) kodakgallery.com now charges $5 per year to store photos.

I bought this & set it up at a relatives house out of state. Whenever & where ever I, or other family members, feel compelled, we upload photos to kodakgallery.com & then, like magic, they show up on the frame. Its a great way to connect our family members & share photos with people who live all over the country. I realize $5 isn't much, however I feel the photo storage should be included as a part of the purchase price of the frame - for this reason alone I gave it 1 star.

No one charges for photo storage & Kodak Gallery has been free, but as of May 2009 they will implement the "$5+ per year or deletion policy".