Customer Reviews

Matsunichi Photoblitz 8" Digital Picture Frame

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was thrilled to find an 8" LCD frame for under $150---especially one that came with two colors of interchangable wood frames. I was also excited that it came with a remote AND the ability to play MP3s. I like that the media card slots are on the side and not the top (like other frames I have seen). It was also easy enough to set the preferences (this is where the remote comes in handy!).

That said, I am not 100% thrilled with this frame...and let me tell you why.

The minor things? The remote needs to have a pause button in case you want to stop on a certain photo. You can pause it by hitting the ENTER button and then arrowing over to pause, but a pause button would be much easier. There also should be a button to start/stop the music. The only options for playing slideshows are to start the slideshow, start the slideshow with music, or start the slideshow with videos. What if I want to start the slideshow with music but want to quickly stop the music? Or start the music in the middle of the slideshow? A button on the remote would solve this issue quite nicely. But these are just little nitpicks.

The major thing wrong with this frame? Read on... I bought the Amazon-recommended 1GB SD card to go with this frame because I have A LOT of photos. I easily found and loaded 1500+ pictures (which still only filled half the card) and set the slideshow to 10 seconds each--thrilled at the prospect of having 4+ hours worth of photos to watch at work. However, that's not what happened.

I turned the frame on at 8:30am and I was quickly seeing duplicate photos--definitely not four hours worth of photos at a time. But just when I thought I was seeing all duplicates, I would see new photos--but then it was quickly back to the same photos again. At the three-hour point, I would say I'd seen about half the photos at least 4-5 times each (if not more often than that).

I looked through the manual (and actual preferences on the frame), and didn't see any information on this issue. I also didn't see anything saying that that photos were chosen randomly (even if it did run randomly, you would think it would run through all photos first before repeating). The photos also didn't seem to be running in any sort of order (i.e. alphabetical, or as they are named on the SD card, like the other LCD frames I've seen work) otherwise they would cycle through all of them before repeating.

I looked up the specs online and it didn't say ANYTHING about an allowable number of pictures. Interestingly, there was a support question asking about the 5.6" model, saying that:

"The total images supported in a SlideShow is 142 with older firmware.
FOR PF560 5.6" Picture Frame ONLY*:
To increase the limit to approximately 250, upgrade the firmware to the latest version.
*Firmware Upgrade for PF800 8" Picture Frame will be available soon."

I registered at the manufacturer's site to see more customer support answers, but there was nothing there. However, they do have an online ticket system, so I asked them about it. I just couldn't imagine there being a limit on the number of pictures shown in a slideshow, considering the size of cards you can get.

I got a fairly quick response, but I didn't like the answer:

"Yes, there is also a limitation of photo it can be read for this model too. It can only read up to 280, and the coming new firmware an only be approved to read 500 photos. we understand this issue and pushing vendor to fix it. Sorry about that."

I then asked when this firmware update would be available and how I would need to go about installing it. Again, they responded fairly quickly:

"The new firmware will be ready at early of March, we will post on our website with instruction. However, we believe the 500 photos are still not enough, we still pushing vendor to fix it to be unlimited."

I certainly hope they can convince the vendor to increase the number of photos. What good is a frame that can hold any size media card, but is limited to 280 photos? And since this is apparently a KNOWN issue, why is this information not presented ANYWHERE?

I would NEVER have bought this frame with the 1GB card had I known this (in my opinion) critical limitation!! I am quite upset about this, as I spent probably 2-3 hours going through all my photos to transfer them to the card. Also, the technology has to be there to make sure more photos are allowable in a slideshow. It is 100% unacceptable that this limitation is in place.

I really do feel like I should return this item, but I honestly don't want to go through the rigamarole (it is a very nice-looking frame and the picture quality is great).

So, buyer beware...buy a smaller media card or be upset that you can't load more than 280 photos (or 500 in the future).

UPDATE: 6/6/07 - There is STILL no software update for this model. It was promised in March and we're three months beyond that with no end in sight. I am seriously considering giving this frame away to someone who would better utilize the 300 picture limit and find myself a frame where I can actually see ALL my pictures.

UPDATE: 6/28/07 - There is STILL no software update for this model, but there is a workaround. You can create folders on the memory card (i.e. 01, 02, 03...) and copy the maximum number of images into each folder. The frame then cycles through each folder, thereby playing all photos.

UPDATE: 7/29/07 - Well, the workaround doesn't work that well. I thought it was working, because I was seeing picture from at least two different folders I had created (I have 5 folders, each with about 200 pics). However, it has been WEEKS now and I haven't seen most of the pictures on the memory card. It seems to get stuck in one folder (for example, all our honeymoon and wedding pictures) and then one hour you will suddenly see a few pictures from a different folder, and then it's back to the same folder again. You can never tell which pics you are going to see as it doesn't run through each folder in any type of order. It's very frustrating.

The pros of this frame far out way the few nominal cons that I found.

The Pros:

1) The price for this size frame is very good and when the other pros are considered it is excellent.

2) Someone finally got it right offering a screen resolution that is the same size ratio as most digital cameras (4:3). No more black bars for regular photos straight out of the camera.

3) 800x600 resolution on a screen this small (8") means a super sharp image with 125 dpi, most monitors range from 76 to 100 dpi.

4) The frames are real wood, and I must say the cherry wood is much nicer than the black which is pictured (although it is also nice).

5) Simple playback right out of the box is very easy, plug in a memory card and turn on.

6) Very smart media selection, plug in more than one card at a time.

Now for the cons:

1) There is no built in memory, usually this feature woefully small anyways and only confuses less tech savvy users, it is better off without it.

2) There is no random display option. It would be so very nice if I didn't have to start with the same images when I turn it on. On the other hand, it's better to be predictable than confusing.

3) The remote (and frame) buttons would be better if they added perhaps a couple more buttons over the 4 directional, enter, and 2 volume buttons. A few off the top of my head which would help would be: Main Menu, Escape (or turn off menu now), and a randomize option.

4) Big (and I mean really big images 8+ MP) take a little more time to render, your guests won't notice it, but a slide show set to 3 sec. per photo will last 5-10 sec. on screen instead. If you re-size them first on your PC you will get much better response times.

INTRO:
I bought two of these frames for Mother's Day, one for my wife, and one for my mother-in-law. Prior to buying, however, I have spent close to two months going to various stores, looking at different frames, comparing, and deciding which one to go with. I must have tried about a dozen of different ones, including such brands as Kodak, Philips, Portable USA, as well as others. All of them had various problems/things I didn't like, but they all shared one thing in common - poor picture quality. I mean, I could live without a wooden frame, but the quality of the displayed photograph is rather important to me, as I'm sure it is to everyone else who's on the market for a digital picture frame. So after numerous disappointed attempts to find one that satisfied my needs in local stores, I've turned my attention to the Internet, and once again, after some research, I've decided to give it a chance, and purchased this Matsunichi frame from Amazon. I haven't heard anything about the maker-company before, and that was obviously one of my concerns. However, I figured that if for any reason it didn't work out for me, I could always return it back to Amazon for a full refund (can't say enough about their great return policy, and customer service). So now, after a brief intro, I'll go straight to Pros and Cons, since I believe it's the most helpful and most favorable type of review:

PROS:
Picture Quality - This one is obvious - we all want the best possible picture quality to be produced by a digital picture frame. That's what they are designed to do in the first place - to display pictures. So who wants to look at some unrecognizable picture, with jaggies and other artifacts? I'm sure no one. So after trying other frames, I realized that it is an absolute must for a digital picture frame to have a resolution of at least 800 x 600. I repeat, it's a MUST!!! Anything lower than that, and you will be disappointed, trust me on this one. Matsunichi offered just what I was looking for - excellent resolution, nice contrast ratio, and a very good brightness. The result - beautifully displayed pictures. I was really amazed, my wife was truly excited, and my mother-in-law is still thanking us, and says it's the best Mother's Day gift that we've given her over the years.

Build Quality - This frame looks and feels very solid. No flimsy parts anywhere, and after a few months, I'm happy to report that it's still working as it was when we just got it. No problems whatsoever. Also, I love the fact that it comes with two interchangeable frames, cherry, and black, both made out of real wood. Excellent craftsmanship, and comes in handy when you want to match it against the interior of your home, and/or office.

Features - In addition to supporting regular picture formats, such as JPG, BMP, and TIFF, this frame is also capable of playing music in MP3 format through built-in speakers, as well as movies in MPEG-4 format. The sound quality is not the greatest, but to me it's still an added bonus, since some frames that I've looked at in the past didn't support movie/music formats at all.

Firmware - It's firmware upgradeable! If there is an enhancement, or a software problem that the company is aware of, and has a fix for, the firmware can be downloaded, and then easily applied to the frame via an SD card, or other media. No need to send the frame out for repairs, or taking it apart yourself. Now that's looking into the future, and caring about the customer!

Smart Media - It supports virtually all existing media types, from a somewhat standard SD card format to a "perky" Fuji specific xD card format. It's somewhat given that all frames do that these days. However, what impressed me about Matsunichi frame, is that it is truly Smart Support, meaning that you could have two different cards in it, and it will play media from both of them at the same time - very nice indeed.

Price - One of my requirements was a reasonable price. We all know how fast electronics equipment looses its value, so I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg for something that would cost half of its original price in a short period of time. Imagine my surprise, when I found the frame that met almost all of my criteria (more on that later), on Amazon (one of my favorite online retailers), for only $114 bucks! As I mentioned before, I bought two of them, and after realizing how good they are in terms of quality, and how good of a value they are, I went back to Amazon with a hope of buying another one for myself as well (for my work office). I was in for a disappointment - Amazon was sold out, and the only other place that carried them, had listed it at $150. I thought I'd wait. After some time Amazon got them back in stock, but they raised their price to $140. Couple of weeks later to $160. And then to $180! I was kicking myself for not getting it earlier. Now, the Amazon is sold out again, and the other couple of places that do have it are more than I want to spend on it. QVC had it on sale, but I also missed it. Now it's back to the original price. Several other online stores list it at a good price, but are all sold out. Oh, well. Live and learn. My advice - if you see it below $140 - grab it!

CONS:
Internal Memory - There is none. That was actually one of my requirements, but later I realized that it's not that important. It would be nice if it had some, but now I think that it only makes it worse, and more complicated. So it's not really a CON after all, but rather a matter of preference.

Remote Control - I can't quite figure it out, but I think it's missing something. I mean it's small, and easy to use, but it's like it lacks a few buttons or something. "Pause" would be nice. Perhaps a "Setup". What I'm trying to say is that I'd like to be able to do more with it than it actually offers.

TIPS/TRICKS:
A word of advice - Resize the pictures to fit 800 x 600 resolution. If you have an 8MP digital camera, then the picture size (at the highest resolution) is going to be around 4 MB. There is absolutely no need to load a memory card full of 4 MB pictures - first of all, it limits the space; secondly, it takes a long time for a picture to render when it's large; and lastly, it won't improve the picture quality.

Another thing - for some reason Matsunichi limited the number of the pictures you can load on the card to 280, which angered a lot of customers (although I don't quite understand why - I've had the same two photographs sitting on my desk for over 6 months, so to me, having a digital frame with 280 pictures would not be such a bad thing). Matsunichi planned on releasing a new firmware which would increase the number of allowed pictures to 500 (Why is there a limit in a first place? I think it should be only constrained by a size of the memory card). Up until now, they haven't released it. In any case, there is a WORKAROUND - Instead of loading all of your pictures to the "root" directory of the card, you can create folders, i.e. Folder 1, Folder 2, Folder 3, etc. on the card, and then load up to 280 pictures into each one of them - IT WORKS.

CONCLUSION:
Excellent frame for the money. Probably one of the best on the market right now. Virtually no negatives, only a few small complaints. I just wish I bought another one when I had the chance. Highly recommended!

If you are looking for a nice sized digital picture frame, do not hesitate to get this one. It is an incredible value. It's very durable feeling and the picture is bright, crisp, and just superb. I got this for my mom, but am going to buy one for myself now.

It has two annoyances that I would change and a few new ideas that would make this a perfect product.

Annoyances:
- The power switch is on the back so it makes wall hanging a bit of a problem. This is easily overcome by plugging it into a power strip or something else that has a switch.

- No random option for the slideshow (that I could find) This should be able to be addressed with a firmware upgrade.

Ideas:
- Have an option to run it off of batteries so you could pass it around the room like a stack of conventional pictures

- A mouse wheel type control on the side for easy scrolling up/down between pictures.

- A timer so you could tell it to turn itself off from 11pm to 7am or whatever.

Oh, a make sure you get the latest firmware. You just copy it to one of the cards that this frame supports, power cycle, say yes to the upgrade, and you're done.

[...]

Matsunichi seems to get it right - the price,the size, the resolution.

The main problem with *all* digital frames is resolution. While typical print gives you around 200-300 dots per inch, most digital frames offer mediocre values between 72 and 100.

Matsunichi offers you quite respectful 125 dots per inch. This means that images look absolutely perfect from a distance of two-three feet - even if you have 20/20 vision.

Other positive things that I want to mention:

- it offers excellent view angle - I would estimate it at 170 degrees and screen is bright and crisp with great (for LCD screen) color reproduction

- it has usable remote control

- it understands all major memory cards

- it plays mp4 movies with sound, though manual says they recommend to use Compact Flash card for that (I tried SD without any problem); movies and pictures may be mixed in slideshow

- it can play unprotected mp3 music in the background

- the frame internal software is upgradeable

Frankly, the frame ability to play mp4 movies is not so easy to use - because most digital cameras produce video clips in a different format. And it does not play DRM protected mp4 movies and music from iPod either.

The bottom line here - this is just a picture frame, not a TV or music player.

Now is not so good news.

This frame does not have internal memory - so you need a memory card, but do not rush to buy new 2Gb unit. It seems this frame can only display first 256 images from any memory card, so that old 16Mb memory card you have received with your camera two years ago suddenly may become useful.

Slideshow parameters are broken - on power on frame always resets to 10 seconds interval between pictures. Another problem is that maximum selectable interval is 30 seconds - I would prefer it to be in 10 minutes range.

Because software is upgradeable there is a chance Matsunichi fixes these bugs eventually.

Frame tiny internal speakers produce sound that is just laughable - do not expect anything good in this area. From other hand there is audio/video output cable (included), so you can attach external speakers and/or TV (in standard resolution) - but I do not see how it fits with product intended usage pattern.

All thing considered - this is solid 4 stars. I could give it five if not for problems mentioned above.

Matsunichi seems to go in the right direction offering affordable and useful product with great consumer value.

I had bought my mother a 7" digital picture frame from pandigital for Christmas. After using it for a couple days, my brother and I both agreed that it wasn't a good product for my mother. The remote control didn't work that well and the interface to the USB port wasn't working. So we returned the product to Linens and Things were it was orginally purchased. A month went by and my mother missed the frame. She had like being able to easily pop out the memory chip from her digital camera and plug it into the digital picture frame. So I went on line and found the Matsunichi photo frame. I had never heard of this brand before and was somewhat concerned about the quality of it's products. However the reviews by other people rated this pretty good for the price. I also upsized to 8" due to all the reviews that I had read about it being a better aspect ratio for the digital pictures coming directly off the camera memory (i.e., without having to resize). Ease of use and simple use was key for my mother who is not a technical wiz (and will not take the time to read the manual). This frame was a very good value - price was reasonable, picture quality very good and easy to use. Frame was of good construction and is not cheap looking.

I had also read reviews for other frames, but found several of them very expensive ranging from $150 to some over $300. I paid $139 for this frame. Don't understand why someone would pay $300 for this size frame.

I would buy from this company again. My mom is thrilled with her new frame!

I bought five of these frames after reading all the review of other frames and the problems with smaller frames, etc. After being on backorder for a month(!), I finally got them and was initially very impressed. The pictures display beautifully with no manipulation and no distortion. The color is great and after some fumbling, I got into the setup menu and was able to change the settings I wanted to, although straight out of the box, it was almost perfect.

The drawbacks I found were in the number of pictures it can display. I bought 2 GB SD cards specifically for the frames so we could disply the over 1000 digital pictures we have. After some examination, I realized that it's only recognizing the first 280 pictures. I double checked the card and they are there, but the frame doesn't even see them.

I went to the Matsunichi web site and put in a "support case" (since that's the ONLY way to get any support) and after several days of waiting, I still have heard NOTHING. There is no phone number listed for support or sales or anything, so you either submit a support case online or you get no support.

There was nothing in the manual or anywhere I could find that says that you can only display 280 pictures and there are no settings on the frame that would affect how many pictures it would see. I'm reserving final judgement until (or IF) I hear anything back from the company. I may be returning these since 280 pictures does me no good if I have over 1000 to view.

Gadget geeks rejoice! The Matsunichi PF800 8" Digital Picture Frame is here! With a credit card sized remote, a choice of either a black (ebony??) or a burgundy (cherry??) wood frame (both included), and a bright beautiful screen with a black border (think matte here), this is a great way to keep yourself and your guests entertained at a very reasonable cost.

The screen includes a barely-noticeable receiver for the remote along the bottom. I'm not sure why anyone would use the ebony frame with a black matte, but that's me. The cherry frame is very attractive, and presents a nice contemporary look.

The frame supports SD/MMC/MS/SM/xD/CF-I and CF-II media cards. Just insert the desired card in the frame and you're ready to go. If you don't have a card yet, just plug the frame in using its adapter (think wall wart), turn on the switch, and you get a menu that can be accessed via the remote or the buttons on the top of the frame. A demo slide show is included.

The frame's adjustable support allows you to use the frame on your favorite surface in either landscape or portrait mode. If your camera records the appropriate orientation information, the frame's AUTO Orientation mode will take care of the correct rotation automatically.

Otherwise, it's easy to rotate your images using the remote, so you don't have to worry about rotating your photos before inserting your memory card. The frame supports JPG (up to 5120 x 3840 resolution), BMP, GIF, PNG MP3 and MPEG-4 files (up to 704 x 576 resolution) files.

Not just for photos, you can play videos and music (mp3) as well. Select NTSC or PAL video output, depending on the standards in your location. Use the embedded speakers or connect a headset to listen to audio, or feed your audio and video signals to a TV, VCR or other RCA-connector-equipped video input device (R-B-Y RCA cables included).

The files play in filename order, or random order. Slideshow mode provides automatic and manual modes, and you can interrupt an automatic show using the remote if you want to go back to a photo. You may choose from a limited number of basic slide transitions, or select Random for some variety. You can also choose to auto-repeat your show, which may be useful for commercial applications. You can select 3, 5, 10 or 30 second transition times (the main reason this isn't rated a 5, for me - I would have liked to have 1,2 and 5 minute options as well, but...).

All-in-all, this frame is a wonderful value. There are newer, larger, more expensive frames available that will allow you to access photos across your network using wireless networking. But if either your home, or you aren't ready for that yet, this is a great first start to quickly and easily bring your photos out into the light for all to enjoy!

Very nice, attractive wood frames. The image is actually closer to 7" than the specified 8", but it's sharp & handles higher-resolutions well. The screen is best viewed at eye-level, or below eye-level. Hanging it on the wall would probably not be very satisfactory.

This is a good way to display images directly from a digital camera, without the need of a computer. It's also possible to use this product for displaying scanned photographs, but that takes a bit more technical skill.

It needs a USB interface for transferring files directly from a computer or jump drive (it only supports media cards - so I have to upload scanned images to a camera.) The slideshow needs a random setting - always seeing pictures in the same order is kind of boring.

This picture frame works goods and only has one flaw. It has a power switch on the back. You have to use the power switch to turn it on. It does not turn on with the remote. If you are planning on hanging this on the wall you will need to take it down every time you want to turn it on or off. Other than that it works nice.