Customer Reviews

Kodak Easyshare M820 Digital Frame with Home Décor Kit

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

If, like me, you want your video clips to fill the entire screen of this frame (like it does with stll photos), rather than add in the black vertical borders, please feel free to email me for a solution at andynetter AT hotmail DOT com]. I've spent many hours trying to find a solution for this (Kodak were no help by the way!) and now that I've found one I thought it fair to share it. I will edit this post with step-by-step instructions when I have time to type them.

Overall, great frame, really cant complain about anything. The iPhone-style finger-swiping to flick between pictures using the touch screen is very cool! Highly recommended prodct, shame about Kodak's rubbish customer service.

I was so excited when I received this for Christmas -- all I did was throw some pictures and music onto a jump drive, plug it into the back of the frame (where it doesn't show) and I had an instant slide show set to music! Forget the software that comes with it. Later I tried to use their software and it was horrible...but you don't need it! While the slide show was playing I played with the controls on the front of the frame (which don't even show when you are not touching it)and it took about 1/2 hour to figure out all of the different options etc. Overall, this was very easy to use and looks great having different mat color options.

I got this as a Xmas present today. I'm a computer expert. I can't believe how problematic the software is with this frame.

The picture quality is actually very good compared to others I've purchased. I like that it takes multiple types of memory cards and it is a very nice looking frame. However, I couldn't get my computer to see the internal or external memory cards no matter what I tried. I finally gave up on it and just downloaded the pictures directly to my SD card. Kodak brags that it has 128MB of internal memory. Big deal! You can buy a 2 GB SD card for less than $10 these days. When will manufactures of electronic stuff quit being so cheap with the internal memory? I can't use it anyway because I can't access it from my computer.

The navigation controls on the outside of the screen is a nice idea, but it is not intuitive to learn. Once I got the hang of it I was fine, but believe me - this is not how to do human engineering.

Now for the bad part. The software took about 1 hour to install on my very fast computer. Most of the time was downloading the outdated software that came with the CD. I actually thought it had stalled once or twice. I don't think I have ever seen software take so long to load. Once the bloated software was loaded it failed to recognize my computer. Then it started locking up on me.

I spent pretty much the entire afternoon messing with this thing not believing I couldn't get this to work. Surely it can't be this difficult to link to my computer? I must be doing something wrong? (I thought) If I was, I couldn't figure it out! (I updated firmware, uninstalled the software and reinstalled, changed the order of putting in the USB cable, rebooted the computer lots of times, looked at Kodak's website for help - which was useless!)

BTW, the box says it comes with a USB cable but it doesn't. Nice touch Kodak! The very poorly written manual tells you this. (Maybe Kodak should fix this on their box?) And...if you are lucky enough to have a double flat male USB cable on hand, (which isn't common at all )it still won't work. It also has a fire wire connection which I didn't try because I didn't have that cable.

Folks - this is bad engineering in my book. How does Kodak stay in business making products like this? I understand from others that the previous model was even worse.

IMO this is a very poorly designed product. Too bad, it could have been an outstanding one if someone would have taken the time to write a simple software interface to it. Heck, I would have been happy just to transfer files directly from my PC to the internal and external memory on the display.

I haven't decided if I'm going to keep it yet or not. I give it two stars because it wasted so much of my time this afternoon and I'm still mad about that. :)

KODAK ARE YOU LISTENING? probably not....... :(

After 1 year of use, the screen went white and I was unable to correct this problem. Then talked to Kodak which offered to repair my item for more than it costs. I will not buy a Kodak digital frame again as research online showed this to be a common problem.

Purchased this in December of 2008.

Nice looking frame. Images look good.

In June of 2009. Turn on the screen and it it stuck in a white screen. Contact Kodak and they said to send in for repair under warranty.

March of 2010. Same problem. Now, they want $95 to repair for a frame that nearly cost as much.

They said there is a 30-day warranty beyond a repair.

I have no reliability that this won't happen again if I get this repaired and unfortunately it is unrecoverable. So, I hope I can find a solution on the internet to self-repair, or this will go in the trash.

A shame.

Bought this for my mother-in-law thinking Kodak is a recognizable name photography so it must be a good product. Needless to say I was completely wrong. I too got the white screen of death after trying to load more pictures just months later. Since I did not have proof of purchase they could only offer that I send it in for repair and pay them the same as it cost to buy a new one to fix it. I plan to do my research this time when I try to replace what is now a really expensive nightlight.

The M820 has the look and feel of a 'normal' picture frame, only it will display, slide show style, as many pictures as your memory card could possibly hold and it offers some, mostly unneeded but related features such as sound, the ability to play videos and some rudimentary and difficult to use file management capabilities.

WHAT YOU GET

For you money, inside the nice cardboard box you will find:

- The frame itself with an 8" display at 800x480 resolution
- DC adapter
- 2 mattes, silver and burgundy
- A small cleaning cloth
- Kodak EasyShare software on a CD
- Manual in English/French/Spanish/Portuguese
- One-page Quick Start

SETUP AND OPERATION

Within less than 5 minutes of me opening the box, my frame was already displaying pictures. It's as simple as plugging it in and inserting a memory card or a USB drive in the back.

For fine-tuning, the touch border menu system (NEVER TOUCH THE SCREEN) will let you customize your slide shows by selecting:

- the time each picture is displayed - from 5 seconds to one hour
- the sort order (A-Z, Z-A, newest to oldest or vice-versa)
- orientation - portrait or landscape
- the source for your pictures - internal memory, or one of the 3 (THREE) external memory ports

Physically, your frame can sit on its stands that rotates 90 degrees to allow for either portrait or landscape or you can use the mounting holes to hang it on a wall. The 2 provided mattes are easy to attach and more can be purchased from Kodak.

In addition to displaying pictures and playing videos, the frame can be also used to play music.

Besides slide shows, it's possible to display one specific picture by selecting it from a display mode of thumbnails.

FEATURES

The most important parameter is, of course, the display and it's a bright, crisp, , fast, 800x480.

Kodak has built a lots of features into this frame, some most welcome, others not exactly needed. The most impressive is the frame's ability to accept just about any memory card in existence. There are 3 slots in the back:

- SD, MMC, MS, xD
- CF, MD
- USB

In addition, you can connect to a computer and load the frame's own tiny 128 MB internal memory.

Since you can have 'something' in each of the three slots at any given time, you could load this frame with, literally, tens of thousands of pictures if you so desire - slide shows will only look at one port at a time but you can switch any time you want.

Not likely to be used much, the frame does allow you to copy files between the various ports or from a camera/computer, you can magnify a picture, rotate it, save slide shows, print a picture and so on.

The EasyShare software lets you organize, print, and share your pictures. It's nice that it was in the box but I am not likely to use it - it's available as a free download, by the way.

MY RATING

Since all I wanted was a picture frame that displays pictures with bright colors without distorting the original, the M820 fully meets my expectations.

I appreciate its ability to take inputs from so many different sources - I currently have an inexpensive HP 8 GB Class 4 SDHC Flash Memory Card Q6276A-EF with over 1000 pictures on it, cycling them at a rate of one every 30 seconds. I also like the 'real picture frame' look and feel, with the nice mattes included. I don't have much use for the 'extra' features having to do with file management or music playing but them being there doesn't hurt. The border touch interface is not always as responsive as it could be but, once a slide show is set, the frame is likely to keep working for many days before there's any need of controls so this is not a big demerit.

The M820 is an easy 5-star because I am impressed and so is the rest of the family and so are friends who invariably ask me the 2 questions: where I got it from and for how much :).

I bought it for my dad and he loves it. It doesn't require to be technological savy, and can be operated very easily. His only complaint is that the frame does not save his definitions for each picture (such as the screen spreading and the magnifying). Overall, great product.

I got this to entice myself to take more photographs. It's not perfect, but I'm happy overall.

First of all, it's really easy to set up. You don't actually need to install the software. Just load your pictures onto a memory card or USB storage, plug it in, and the slide show starts. The screen is bright, it has great contrast, and the overall unit looks pretty with the included red or silver border. The frame is plastic and feels cheap when you hold it. You can't tell by just looking at it, though.

My primary complaint is with the height to width ratio. The screen has almost panoramic dimensions, and as a result, it chops off a sliver from the bottom of horizontal 4x3 pictures, or displays black bars at the sides (you can choose which behavior you want). It's not a huge deal, but it's enough to be annoying, at least initially.

The real question is if you want to spend close to $100 on this, instead of a 17 to 20" LCD monitor that you can use just for slide shows. A dedicated digital picture frame makes the most sense as something to be placed in isolation from your desk, or in guest areas.

Overall 4 stars. It hasn't changed my life, but it's a competent product.

I ordered this as a Christmas gift for my parents who are in their 70s and are a bit technologically challenged. This was very easy to operate -- you take it out of the box, plug it in, turn it on and it automatically plays a demo for you. To see pictures, all you have to do is insert a memory card from your digital camera. It was easy for them to operate, and they are very happy with it. I am glad I paid a little more to get this product as opposed to a cheaper frame that may be more complicated.