Customer Reviews

Philips 6.5-Inch Digital Picture Frame (Clear) w/3 Additional Colored Frames

5 star:		(87)
4 star:		(48)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

UPDATE: 1/30/2008
This item has been priced at nearly $200 lately. I think that price is too high. Even at $150, this should be overpriced. I would wait for the price to come down or get the same item from another source!

Below are my original comments in Nov. 2006:
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I have this product for several days now and I am very happy with it. My co-workers liked it too.

Pros:
- beautiful, crisp images even at close range
- controllable brightness level
- programmable display - can be turned on and off automatically at certain times
- has option for battery or AC
- support for multiple memory cards
- easily loads and displays file from an SD card without having to worry about filenames.
- automatically rotates images
- has internal memory for extra images. I've read that it's only 14MB though.
- resizes the pictures without cropping them.

Cons;
- Battery is not replaceable.
- No battery level indicator.
- Battery life is only 50 minutes in slideshow mode (based on published specs.)
- edges in some images have become rugged even though I have my pictures in the same ratio as 720x480.
- no touch screen input (or is that too much?)
- the controls at the back needs a little of getting used to, otherwise they are well placed
- In my first few minutes of use, I have observed that it was not displaying one image properly during a slide show. I just pressed a button to change it to Browse mode then back to Slideshow mode and it did not happen again.
- If an SD card is inserted and the digital frame is turned on, it automatically copies the files from the card to its internal memory. This process is slow. I am not sure why it's doing it. So I make it a habit to turn it on first then insert the SD card.

Not tested for:
- Software that came with the product

Some things that I did:
- I resized my huge images (I kept the original of course) and it saved me a lot of space without affecting the display quality much. I have my pictures sizes between 32KB to 250KB. If your images don't have the same ratio as 720x480, they will have dark border on the sides or on top and bottom.
- I used 2GB of SD card. All I did was insert it at the back and I started to enjoy the pictures.

Conclusion:
- This is a highly recommended product despite it's minor problems. The price is fair compared to similar products - which I've read are not as good as this. I am just wondering Why is it that their 9-inch version has a lower resolution? That is the reason why I opted for this.

The praise for this digital picture in other reviews is well deserved. I produces clear, bright pictures. I bought one for my mother, to cycle through hundreds of family and travel photos, as reminders of these good times. In the end, I'm not sure I will give it to her. It could be more trouble to her than it's worth.

I've had quite a trial getting to this point. The first unit I received had a mechanical defect: the SD card slot would not latch the card without much fiddling. Amazon replaced the unit without question. My plan was to resize my 500-600 pictures to the resolution of the display so that they would fit nicely on an SD card. I put them on my freshly-formatted 1 GB card, and none of them appeared. After much fiddling--there is no information in the manual or on line--I discovered that the folder structure and file names have to match a supported camera. I aped my Canon file structure, down to file names like IMG_0001.jpg. Yes, the funny file names seem to be required.

Past this first hurdle, I put my 568 photos on the card and let 'er go. I found that after an hour or two, the screen just went blank. This was with a photo-change-rate of 2 per minute. I tried various experiments, with no luck. Sometimes, instead of a blank screen, the unit stopped the slide show in thumbnail mode and had to be restarted. I exchanged email with Philips customer service (after finding nothing at all useful on the web site other than the user manuals). They said I should phone.

I did, and spent 30 minutes with a pleasant but inexperienced rep who went through the manual and a little bit of additional guidance Philips gave her. She could tell me nothing, though she acknowledged the problem. She said I should return the unit. I persisted, and even though Philips has no escalation procedure for this product, we agreed I should talk to her supervisor. He was more technical, and very sympathetic. He confirmed the obvious technical things--how I'd downsized the files, that I was using .jpg format, etc. He said I was doing it all right. He too acknowledged my problem. He said to be sure I was not using a card larger than 1 GB, but 1 GB was OK. Don't use the CF card slot (I wasn't, though I tried it and had the same problem). He suggested I reduce the number of photos on the card, but had no other suggestion other than to return the unit.

I took about 80 photos off the card, so that the total was under 500, and it's been behaving OK for several days, switching photos at two per hour (change every 30 minutes). I don't trust the unit not to give my mom problems.

Bottom line: This is a great picture frame in terms of size and picture quality. It's easy enough to use (but not as easy as they claim). It works just fine with 55 or so pictures stored on its internal memory. But the problems I had relate to the basic function of the unit. It's a software problem that is so basic I can only wonder whether the engineers at Philips did any meaningful testing of the product before shipping it. If showing 50 or 60 photos meets your needs, I recommend the frame. If you want to show hundreds of pictures from a camera card, seek elsewhere.

I made a big mistake and started shopping price for a digital photo frame. A big box store had a great deal for $125.00 (many more features than the Philips 7" model). BUT, one major difference, the picture quality on its screen was, absolutely, horrible. Spend the $180 and buy this product. Don't waste your time on other brands. I can't speak to the over $200 units. And, by the way, download this software: wdpv.exe v1.09. It automatically downsizes photos. You can fit 100 pix on a 16MB card.

The Philips Digital Picture Frame deserves its fine reviews. In fact, it's the first picture frame that lives up to the potential of the product category. I've found other picture frames to be disappointing. Not so with this frame. It works well on many levels; it's attractive, delivers a bright and detailed image, has a satisfying user interface with intelligent options, even the packaging is unusually clever. Nice job Philips.

If you value a quality product, this frame will not disappoint.

Well, like many of the other reviews, after a month now, we are having problems with the frame. Picture distortions, screen going blank, etc. I'm going to attempt to return or get a replacement from Amazon.


I'm really impressed with this frame. The picture is crystal clear and set up was a breeze. I was pleased to find out that it has options to change the length of time that a picture appears on the screen or you can have it stay on one picture until you manually change it. It also allows you to set the timer to have the frame turn on and off.

The display quality is stunning--bright and clear. Couldn't be happier with that aspect of it.

The documentation leaves much to be desired. It's clearly been translated into English by a non-native speaker (how hard would it be for Philips to find an editor who could correct: "This application will start automatically and reside at taskbar as tray icon when each time user login into his/her account"?) It is confusing on issues such as whether the software automatically resizes the images before transferring them. If it does, how come I can't fit more than 15 images when the documentation says 50+ should fit in the internal memory? Luckily, this will be a short-lived problem for me, because I have a 2GB SD card on its way. Anyone intending to use this frame for more than 10 photos should factor in the price of extra memory too (I paid $40 for 2GB).

You cannot go wrong with this item!! I am an investigative person and was looking for the perfect digital picture frame to give my fiance as a gift. I read many reviews and it wasn't until I read one that stated "Don't waste your money on this (name of frame omitted), just buy the Phillips." that I even considered the Phillips frames. Mainly this was because all the info I found on it did not mention that it had a card reader and most did not have any customer reviews. I did however find the same product but with out the additional colored frames, that had plenty of reviews to read. I included the link below if you would like to read those as well.

Long story short, that one piece of advice I read about "just buying the Phillips!" could not have been more right. This frame is absolutely amazing and the information/product details listed for this product on most sites doesn't come close to informing the customer about all the functions and wonderful options this frame has! I could not be more happy. I literally pulled the frame out of the box, turned it on and sat it on my desk. Without even adding any pics of my own pics, the factory loaded advertising pics stopped every single person that walked past my desk and forced them to smile in awe and ask about the frame. I firmly believe several of them are planning on buying one now. To put into perspective, these people were Design Engineers, Marketing Managers, Productive Development Engineers and other upper level management personnel. The only thing I am not happy with is the fact that I waited so long to purchase and that the advertising does not do this product justice!!! ENJOY!!!

[...].

After searching online reviews, I bought two Philips DPF as Christmas gifts. Over the last few days, I've been testing the different features and functions so I can preconfigure them before giving them as gifts. Actually, I found the setup and operation to be very simple. At first, I was concerned over the lack of a remote control. However, after playing with the intuitive menu and on-board buttons for awhile, I'm now thinking a remote control would be an unnecessary complication.

As a semi-retired professional photographer, I enjoy sharing my photos with family and friends. I use professional 8 and 10 megapixel cameras to take my photos, and I'm always concerned about image quality (sharpness, color saturation, color balance, contrast, etc.) when they are viewed. All I can say is the Philips DPF really does my photos justice. They appear crisp and bright, with all the color and depth of the original photos. The proof is in the image.

BTW, I loaded 220 jpg photos on a cheap 1GB SD card and the Philips is displaying them in slideshow mode perfectly.

For the past 3 years I have wanted to buy my wife a digital picture frame for her office. Each year I buy what I feel is the best choice in my price range (around $250.00) and each year I return it. It has become a Christmas tradition. The Philips frame has ended the tradition. The viewing quality is very good, the best I have seen so far. I went to Circuit City to purchase this because I wanted to easily return it when I figured I would be dissapointed. Fortunately, they had a number of frames on display and the Philips stood out. The others were the typical bland dark view. The Philips was bright and sharp. I was confident enough to order through Amazon and save about $40.00.

As far as set up, I didn't bother. I took some photos and resized them to the frame's resolution of 720x480, loaded them to a compact flash card, and they were displayed. If you're unfamiliar with how to do this, you will have to go through the set up process to work with your computer. The pictures look very good, so it would be worth the effort.

Quality digital picture frames for under $200.00 have arrived! Buy with confidence.

On reading the description of this product, saying "with 3 additional colored frames" my impression was that the colored frames would hide the acrylic frame i.e. go completely over it, but they actually just cover what you see in the picture as white/metal looking. I didn't even try out the frame because I will be returning this one for either the milk frame or the metal one but I look forward to playing with it! Just wanted others to be aware!