Customer Reviews

Philips 8.5-Inch Digital Picture Frame (Clear) w/3 Additional Colored Frames

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

First of all, once you got your images on the frame itself, and have an album organized, this is a great digital frame. But the road leading there is rocky indeed. It's provided software is anything but good.

This digital frame sports a 640x480 color display to show a slideshow of internally (or images stored on memory cards) stored images. The display is reasonably bright (but not very much, so it's not very usable in direct sunlight). Images can be imported directly from many different memory cards (e.g. compact flash, and others) without the aid of a computer, which is a nice touch. This feature seems to work only if you do not add any files to the card of your own (for examply, MacOS might add a '.DSstore' index file - this can cause the frame to reject the whole card). You can also run slide shows directly from the memory card inserted, which is another nice touch (see later comments on how badly this feature is implemented).

The frame comes with a number of separate differently colored, umm, frames, making it match multiple tastes, and is an extra help when giving it as a present when you do not know where the recipient will set it up.

The frame runs entirely from internal software, which means that you cannot control it through an attached computer as I had expected. This is somewhat disappointing, as the internal software is not flexible. You can, however, use the provided (Windows only) software to organize your images prior to downloading them to the frame. Even though the PC software provided is woefully inadequate for this job (it can't access network volumes, or RSS feeds, it can't rotate images, or edit images beyond a very, very limited crop), it is still infinitely preferable to the built-in image organization software.

Images are collected into albums, and these albums can be played as slide shows. And organizing images is a chore made very, very difficult by Philips. The frame has two buttons, and a 4-way hat (itself also clickable) to control album set-up, which should be enough for the task. Strangely, though, the designers chose to implement one of the most brain-dead user interfaces I have encountered. This user-hostile interface extends to the frame's configuration menu, which does offer a host of nice features (among them, for example a clock, automatic on/off features that can turn on and off the frame at pre-set times etc.) - difficult as they are to access.

Since organizing a frame's pictures is such a difficult and annoying task, I have tried a simple work-around: Organize (and edit) images on my computer, and then download them to a cheap 128 MB compact flash (that way I was also able to optimize the images to 640x480). Although it worked in the end, I discovered to my dismay that you can't simply store images on a memory card. The frame is extremely sensitive to files it does not understand, and often rejects cards that contains files it does not understand (e.g. a file called '.DSstore'). This is the first device I ever encountered that exhibits so ill-implemented functionality. Note that you allegedly *can* fill a card and have it's contents automatically transfer to the frame (the self-contradicting instructions can be found on Philip's web FAQ, and seem to work more often than not). Having the frame recognize a memory card ist still hit and miss. The simplest way I found after a lot of trial and error was to connect the frame to a computer with the memory card already inserted, and then mount the card via frame as a mass storage device. You then can transfer images to the memory card, and most of the time, it recognizese the images.

The frame also comes with a built-in 1 hour rechargeable battery. While this is a nice idea, 1 hour is nowhere near a usable time for anything but the shortest demonstrations. The frame is therefore usually used while connected to a power outlet.

Once you have set up the frame (which can be set in either landscape or portrait orientation, with the software automatically adjusting the images in the slide show - like modern cameras the frame has the ability to detect it's orientation), and downloaded images into albums, you can start it having display slideshows.
To switch between images you can either have it use random transitions that vary greatly in style (some nice, some flashy, some downright garish), or settle on a single transition. Unfortunately, the frame insist on varying the selected transition even then. If, for example, you choose a 'slide' transition for all images, the frame will then randomize the direction of the slide between all images. A fade transition (my favorite, as it is the most sublte) will, for no reason at all, alternate between an image crossfade, and fade-to-black. Since there currently is no obvious means to upgrade the frame's firmware, I'm a bit sceptic that the it's only a simple matter of upgrade to improve this situation.

The images themselves, even though they are scaled to exactly match the screen, usually look very good. Since this is the frame's primary function, I'm willing to award it 3 stars, and overlook the horrific user interface.

Still, the list of shortcomings is unusually long:
- organizing images using the frame's firmware means submitting to one of the worst user interfaces I've encountered recently. For example, to select images presented on a 5x5 grid for display, you can only use left/right to navigate, not up/down. If you have more than a few images, this gets annoying *fast*. Another example: If you end your selection on a deselected image, and press 'slideshow', the whole selection is forgotten, and all images are shown.
- the (Windows-only) PC software is only marginally better equipped to organize images. It can't, for example set up image-to-image transitions
- the PC software can't remotely control any of the frame's configuration/settings
- actually, the PC software can't be used to control anything that is shown in frame (e.g. show a particular image).
- As soon as you connect the fame to a PC, the frame blanks and shows an infomation screen. Sadly, this precludes any use of a PC to greatly improve the frame's usability (e.g. have it subsribe to an RSS feed, or use the PC's image library and continually feed it images from there like network mp3 players)
- transition between images still randomize some parameters (e.g. direction of slide), and can't be set to a fixed setting
- you can either randomize all transitions, or have only one; no way of using a selection of transitions
- there is no light sensor that adapts the frame to the current ambient light
- although you can use memory cards to store images, you must be careful not to mess up the file structure or include files the frame does not like. This is downright silly - even my printer can can access images stored arbitrarily on a card
- does not support RAW files an your cards


In summary I believe the frame is good once you got your images on it, and do not plan on changing it's contents often. It has some serious drawbacks, but the fact that you can store a limited amount of images on-frame, and that it can read memory cards without the aid of a computer is nice. It has some neat functionality (like self-timed on/off), but the software is by no means perfect. With these reservations I can recommend it to those that are willing to put up with the hassle the frame puts you through before you can actually use it.

What I would look for in future frames
- remote control capabilities from PC
- even better: a networked picture frame (preferrably wireless) that is simply a client to a PC-based image server (like networked mp3 players). This may be implemented as an additional image source
- much improved software both on-frame and PC
- improved battery life

This is a slick device that my wife has wanted to buy. We finally took the plunge and bought one.

One minor glitch is that this model does not support the Sony memory stick format. It would have been MUCH easier if I could have used my spare memory card for my Sony camera.

The software on the CD for moving pictures from a PC is pretty poor. I spent hours getting this to work. I put a detailed write-up on what I had to do at my web site, but I can't link to that from here.

Here is a summary of how to get photos from your PC to a slideshow on the Photo Frame:

1. Use Windows Explorer to copy the JPG files from your PC to the root directory on the Photo Frame
2. Use the Philips Photo Manager software to create multiple named photo albums on the Photo Frame
3. Use the software on the Photo Frame to move the photos from the default photo album to the desired photo album
4. Use the software on the Photo Frame to set up the Photo Slideshow options

After several hours of frustration, I was finally able to transfer pictures from my PC to the device. Here is how I did it.

First of all, the software that comes on the included CD-ROM is pretty flaky. You do need to install it in order to easily rename your photo albums (step 2 above). The software also allows you to copy files from the PC to photo albums on the Photo Frame device. After disconnecting the USB cable, the Photo Frame rarely was able to recognize the photos.

You need to go to the Philips web site, and download the newer version of the user manual. The newer manual has 70 pages, instead of the 20 page version on the CD-ROM.

The manual has a hint about the best way to copy files from the PC to the Photo Frame at the bottom of page 12. The previous text on page 12 says to use their Philips Photo Manager software program to copy the files from the PC to the Photo Frame. But that did NOT work for me.

Here is the text at the bottom of page 12 of the manual:
"Disconnect the USB cable. For Windows 2000 (and XP) systems, remember to safely remove hardware before disconnection. After a few seconds, all photos in the root directory will be automatically added to Photo Frame and the root directory will be emptied."

The way I got the photos to the Photo Frame was to connect the USB cable, and observe the various additional drive letters that appear in Windows Explorer. I copied the JPG files from the PC to the root directory on the Photo Frame.

Next, use the "Safely remove hardware" icon in the System tray. After Windows tells you it is "safe", unplug the Photo Frame. At this point, magic happens. You will see a notification as each picture file is copied. The firmware on the Photo Frame resizes the images to its default 720x540 resolution, and copies them to the default photo album. Then it deletes the original files from the root directory.

If you don't have many photo files, or the original JPG files are fairly small, this will go smoothly. I always take very high resolution pictures, so I got an "out of disk space" error message at this point. Apparently the Photo Frame can only hold about 12 MB of data!

The easy way way to get around this problem is to use a memory card to store the images, instead of copying them to the Photo Frame. As mentioned above, my camera uses Sony Memory Stick Duo Pro, which the Photo Frame does not support. I had to manually edit each image file (I used Paint Shop Pro), and resize it to the 720x540 resolution myself. This avoided the "out of disk space" error.

The procedure for moving the photos from the default album to another one is pretty easy. This uses the software that is built into the Photo Frame. It takes a while to get used to the navigation buttons, but it seems to work reliably.

I bought this for my wife. She loves it. Now we can have all our pictures available without proliferating frames all over the house. It has performed flawlessly. It has all the options we can use, but it took a little while to learn how to use it. We like the fact that you can have different sets of photos to choose from, so we can have vacation photos for showing to friends, and granddaughter photos for our own pleasure, and the frame can be set to cycle through just the photos in a particular set.

The Philips 9FF2M4 Photo Frame that is the object of this review (and I presume most of the 162 other reviews posted here) is a simply gorgeous hunk of hardware. Its sleek but hefty chrome and acrylic construction and its packaging almost make you think it was made by Apple. And once (if?) you get pictures loaded into the darn thing, it performs equally well (at least mine has... so far -- but read other reviews for more caveats).

That's the good news. Nearly all the rest is bad, or at least frustrating. Indeed, I finally found the clues I needed to get started overcoming Philips' astonishingly bad software by Googling "Philips Photo Frame" + "FRUSTRATION." Philips' poorly written documentation tells you to load photos from your computer using its Photo Manager software. Wrong. That may load a few photos, sometimes, but if your system is like mine (Windows XP with all the security and other patches installed) the process will either fail immediately or stall after loading a few. And once you discover how to work around that bug, your work has just begun.

If you accept the challenge of making it work despite all the obstacles Philips throws in your path, however, you'll find that part of the consumer experience with the Frame is actually kind of fun -- in between my curses and tantrums were any number of moments of wild exhilaration when I found that yet another work-around had overcome the lastest impasse. But if you can't spend the two days consumed by my effort to get the Frame working in time to be a Christmas gift, and you still want to buy the thing, the following notes that I made during my ordeal may be helpful.

Oh, one more caveat: from reading reviews of lots of other digital picture frames it seems clear that Philips has no monopoly on bugginess and frustration. And the most important factor in determining which one to take a chance on buying would appear to be confidence that you can return it when it doesn't work right!

How to make the Philips 9FF2M4 Photo Frame work:

1. Do NOT use it's Photo Manager software to load photos! It may load a few, or it may not. Work-arounds for this and most of Frame's various bugs:

2. Use Windows Explorer to copy the JPG files from your PC to the root directory of the Photo Frame ("Removable Disk I:" or whatever the lowest drive letter of the several ones belonging to the Frame that Windows will see plugged into the computer).

3. When loading has been completed disconnect Frame USB cable from computer. Frame will then say it is "uploading" the images you loaded into its root directory, counting as it goes along, resizing them when necessary, and automatically moving them to the default Photo Frame album.

4. Use Frame's firmware to move photos from the default album to another album on a memory card.

5. Use Frame's firmware to set up the Photo Slideshow options, rename or create new albums, etc. It works OK.

6. If a photo gives the Frame indigestion and it freezes when you hit [Photos][Photo Frame][Default album] and try to "navigate to the right to view your album thumbnail photos" here is what to do:
a. Stick a toothpick in the tiny reset hole (next to Power button). Frame will go black and then reboot itself.
b. Connect frame to computer, fire up Philips Photo Manager software (this much of it will work flawlessly), and delete the offending photo(s) from the Frame's Default album.
c. Load offending photo(s) into PhotoShop, [Save for web & devices...], uncheck the "Optimized" box, and [Save] as JPEG.
d. Now you can upload the "webbed" versions of the files that that froze the Frame into the root directory again and Frame will behave properly this time.

7. When you get through loading photos, even though you did everything right and all the photos seemed to load OK, some may show up as blanks when you view them in magnified form in the thumbnail window. They won't show up in a slideshow either. Not to worry; delete them and reload them into the root directory again. Chances are the second time will be the charm. If not, try "webbing" them (6.c above).

8. To get photos in the sequence you want them, create one or two work albums and shuffle photos from one to another using Frame's firmware "copy to" or "move to" functions.

Based on other reviews I bought this digital frame to display photos on my entertainment center in the living room. It makes me smile every time I look at it! The software is hard to use and I never did figure out how to make the frame work with a memory card. The display is clear and you can see it from across the room. Even my 3 year old granddaughter is taken with it - she wondered why there was a tiny TV on the entertainment center. I have the frame set to automatically come on in the morning and go off at night and that feature is quite nice. The documentation that came with the frame should be reworked to make it user friendly. I work with computers and pictures as a pretty steady hobby and I had a hard time with the directions for this product. It was not intuitive like so many other computer related items. But I would buy it again - and in fact I gave my son one for Christmas and he loves it also. So, make yourself smile and buy one!

I gave this Philips frame to my wife for Christmas. She loves the clarity of the pictures on the screen. The various display settings are also very nice. The only thing that keeps me from giving this frame 5 stars is the software and control functions. Although I'm not a computer tech or programmer, I am fairly computer literate well versed in Windows and Mac OS. The software (for Windows was not very useful) and there was none for MAC. However, the frame is relatively easy to with Mac without software. I opted for using my frame with the Mac as it a simple matter of dragging and dropping the pictures into the frame. I'm hopeful that at some point in time someone will develop software that allows easy access to iPhoto. Despite the Philips frame's software shortcomings it is still a wonderful frame.

Item could be rated 4 stars if Philips stood behind their product. Mine could not connect to my PC via the USB connector. This connection is needed for transferring pictures from the PC to the Frame. After trying to obtain help from tech support they determined it was faulty and asked me to return it. They would not pay for the shipping even though it was brand new. It costs, from Hawaii, about $40.00 to ship this product back insured. This company is not like Dell who never asks customers to ship back products under warranty at their own cost! Hooray for Dell. Thumbs down for Philips. Philips website Mission Vision states under Our Values, "Delight customers". I am far from delighted, but becauser this is such an expensive item, just under $300.00, I am returning it, at my cost, for replacement. Beware that if this product is faulty you will have to pay for returning it. I feel their warranty service is bad!

The frame produces nice pictures but has a few annoying flaws:

1. The hardware does a poor job displaying pictures that do not have the same aspect ratio as the frame itself. Particularly frustrating is how it displays vertically oriented pictures when the frame itself is horiztonal (and vice versa): instead of shrinking a picture so that it fits entirely in the frame, it cuts off some of the top and bottom of the vertical picture, often with undesirable results such as cutting off the heads of people. The default should have been to display the entire image, even if this means more blank space around the picture. An option could then be provided to autocrop the picture to reduce the amount of unused space in the frame.

2. There are not enough choices for the amount of time that a picture is displayed during a slide show. The shortest display time is about 3 seconds, which is a bit too short, but the next longest option is 10 seconds which is too long. Why not let the user choose the number of seconds as desired?

3. When the frame is in browse mode, it makes a beep every time you advance to the next picture with a pull on the joystick. This is annoying, especially for people nearby in the same room who are not watching pictures.

Given the overall good quality of the LCD image and of the frame itself, it is unfortunate that the product is marred by software that was not well designed.

I own a Nikon SLR, which shoots in the 3:2 ratio (4'X6" print ratio). I received another brand photo frame for Christmas with the 4:3 ratio (common ratio for many non-SLR digital cameras) but returned it because I do not want to go through all the trouble to crop my pictures in a ratio other than what my files already are.

I researched photo frames quite a bit and selected the Philips for not only the 3:2 ratio but also the LCD picture quality and frame features. Important features for me are:

-on-board memory is convenient if you just want to hook the USB to your computer and not use the memory card option (the USB cord is kind of short, though at only 38")
- the ability to choose between one of the multiple transition options (fade is my favorite) or random transitions
- show pictures in order of sequential or random
- choose background colors of black, white, or gray
- ability to "collage fill" on the sides of a vertical image so there is no empty space on the screen.
- internal clock to set a timer to turn it on/off (includes an options for different time settings for weekday and weekend - great feature for office and home to automatically get the most out of LCD's lifespan)
- my favorite feature, the ability to unplug it to pass around, or in my case take it with me without the plug to show family and friends my latest pictures. I do not know how long the battery lasts but last week I used it in the "on" position without the plug to show pictures for about 30 minutes and a total of 8 hours off the plug in the "off" position without running down the battery and losing settings. The manual says about one hour in the "on" postion.

The acrylic frame and interchangeable magnetic colored frame insets are of high quality and look great. The only complaint I have is really a matter of personal taste in that the frame has a small inside silver bevel. I do not care for the silver bevel (some may like it) but it is somewhat reflective and shows the picture colors so it is not that noticable. I have had no problems getting the right "tilt" on the frame stand for the optimal angle for viewing quality.

I updated the included Photo Manager software at the Philips support site. It is pretty easy to use to load pictures from PC to frame but that is about all it does. It would be nice if you could also change the frame's settings at the keyboard rather than having to use the joystick to access all the many, many options. After a few minutes though with the joystick, I did get used to it and now appreciate that it is a very efficient way to access all the options without having to hook up to a computer.


The only bad thing I can say about the screen is that it is smaller than you might think. The actual screen size is about 4 3/8" length X 6 5/8" width (or reverse if you stand it "portrait" vertical).

If you are buying a digital frame, my advice is to do your homework. I found it very difficult to compare photo frame specifications to how my picture files will appear because specs are quoted in TV diagonal sizes and many manufacturers do not quote the frame's photo ratio aspects nor even the height and width of the viewable area. If your camera shoots in the 3:2 ratio or you shoot in 4:3 ratio but crop anyway for 4"X6" prints I think you will be very happy with this frame. However, if your camera only shoots in the 4:3 ratio (standard computer screen ratio) this frame will require one to manually crop and resize the picture file to make sure you fill up the screen and/or to make sure the image shown on the screen is not cropped in an undesirable manner.

After much hesitation I made the purchase. i had already read the customer comments on Amazon and since I use a mac OS I did have some trepidation. I exported images from iPhoto after first downsizing the file size to 720 x540. I exported the image file to the Miscell file that had been on the 1Gb SD memory card which I had previously moved to my desktop using a cardreader. Then I moved the miscell folder which contained all the previously downsized jpeg photo images back into memory card and inserted the card in the picture frame with the power off. As others had said the software on the Picture Frame isn't as intuitive as one is used to with Mac OS, but it is workable. I now have over 1,800 images on the memory card and plan on adding another 1,100. Random sequence with fade is what I have been using to view the photos. The picture is sharp and the system has worked without a problem. I have been very pleased with the purchase. I would probably buy a new one when and if the screen size is made larger.