Customer Reviews

Photoco 7XL 7-Inch Digital Photo Album and Frame

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

With the recent arrival of our first grandchild I purchased for my wife this Christmas the Photoco 7XL Digital Photo Album and Frame. For the price we paid we received about what we expected, about average in its features and manufacture, but below average in certain areas.

The frame is a very low-grade plastic, so if you're looking for something to display on the mantle look elsewhere. New Grandma wanted to be able to carry the viewer in her purse so she could share photos of our new little girl. We purchased the leather case after presenting the 7XL on Christmas to safeguard it.

We also purchased a couple of unanticipated items, a Li-ion battery and a memory stick. The packaging and marketing materials are indeed misleading; this is a portable player but all that is included is an AC adapter. It was only after purchase and presentation that we discovered the need for a special Li-ion battery, and that AA or AAA batteries were not the power source when this device was mobile.

And while marketing materials lead one to conclude there's memory aboard the device, something along the lines of uploading photo files from one's computer to the 7XL, there is no such memory. That's only available with an additional flash memory device, several of which are compatible with the device.

We've not yet discovered how to show the photos in the sequence that we would like it to display. Selecting the type of play, random or otherwise, does not seem to have an effect on how the images are shown.

In Slideshow Music mode it appears impossible to show a selected folder of images with the music one loads onto the card or stick that contains the photo files. The best we can figure, when selecting Slideshow Music on the remote control all photos are shown in the sequence the 7XL chooses, along with music in the order it chooses to play these.

The Owner's Manual, like so many today, is at best poor. Online support is nothing more than a phone number and email address, with no better documentation to be found. At least Customer Support responds quickly, but their response to our question was merely to say the device could not do what one would think it would: in the calendar function, the device displays a calendar, along with the current date and time -- as well as some sort of blurry image in a sort of framed area in the upper left corner of the display. One would think changing whatever that image is with a personal photo would be fairly straightforward, as well as a nice feature. Who would want to display a cheezy calendar with some impersonal, indistinguishable graphic instead of a photo of a loved one? Apparently the folks at Photoco.

The manual also says charging the optional Li-ion battery with the AC adapter first displays a red indicator that turns to green when the battery is charged. Nope. The red indicator dims and then goes out.

Given this is a portable device, add the battery and raise the price somewhat. Replace the plastic frame with a nice, affordable protective case. Allow music to accompany photos of one's choosing and in sequence of the user's choice. And for Pete's sake, allow the customer to place a personal photo on the calendar page or get rid of the calendar.

For the price, the 7XL Digital Photo Album is, well, okay. Photoco could do much better and must if it expects repeat business.

We purchased our unit 18 months ago and it worked well in continuous use for approximately 9 months until one morning the screen went black. I found the TV video output worked fine indicating the problem was limited to the screen's drivers. We sent the unit to PHOTOCO where they "repaired" and returned the unit. We then put the unit back in service. Five months later the screen once again went black. When I called PHOTOCO they said that the unit was now out of warranty and that "repair is impossible, we only replace units, never fix them."

I'd recommend not buying the PHOTOCO product with an intent to place into continuous service.

I bought this for my father-in-law and my mother for Christmas presents this year. The viewer is great, very good size for "senior" eyes. Picture quality is as good as any digitial frame I've seen. The plastic frame it comes with is pretty cheap - if you are looking to use it as a frame I wouldn't go with this one.

My intention was for them to be able to carry the viewer around with them to show off the grandkids so I purchased the matching leather cases for both and it makes a world of difference. A must have. As cheap as the frame is that's how great the leather case is.

Maybe I just didn't see it but I didn't realize when I ordered it that it required a special battery that is sold seperately. Fortunately I was able to order them in time for Christmas. I did find them in a pretty wide variety of price ranges even here on Amazon. I ordered the cheaper one and it has worked fine. They are made by the same manufacture as the viewer so I don't think there are really any differences in the batteries only the retailers.

The viewer worked great but I did have a bit of a challenge getting it to show the pictures in the sequence I wanted it to. I loaded a 2 Gig SD card with over 200 pictures that were the best of the shots I had taken during the year. Since it was a year in review sort of thing I wanted them to come up in order. It took several tries and 2 calls to their customer support but I finally figured out that I had to use a batch processor to write the files directly to the card - renaming them ### as they went... just changing the file names to ### and copying them over to the card didn't work. Their support guy was pretty nice though. He admitted the reading of files names needed work.

I have to confess that I did not purchase this unit as a picture frame, but rather as a divx media player. I was looking to replace my portable DVD unit that died on our last trip, and was hoping to find a new one that would play Divx format movies instead. This "photo frame" fit the bill, so I took a chance. On the plus side, it handles the divix format well. I have run about 5 movies through it, and it has not had any kind of read problem. The A/V output functions as expected, and the unit is smart enough to turn off its local display when connected to an external source. It is going to serve well for its main purpose, which is to play movies in the car on long road trips. Since the divx format can be compressed down to a relatively small file (300 MB or less) you can fit 6 or so movies on one 2 GB sd card. In the car you can use a DC adapter to power it, so the battery is not so important. The remote is a huge plus for this usage, also. the best part is that since there is no optics or disks, we don't have to worry anymore about mis-tracking, disk skipping, scratched DVDs, DVDs left behind in hotel rooms, etc.
Now for the bad
1. The speakers are really too quiet, and the headphone output is low. If you use this unit to listen to music, or as a portable personal media player, you are going to need to run the signal through some kind of amplifier (hint, use the A/V outputs to run the signal through an amplified car audio or home stereo system).
2. The lack of battery was a big minus, and not clear in the description that the battery was not included.
2a. The cost of the battery is almost as much as the cost of the unit! Seriously?! A rechargeable high-output 5v battery costs as much as a 7" LCD screen with an integrated SD card reader with divx, mpeg, and mp3 codec translator?!
3. The calendar/clock display was a great idea, but ditto the previous reviewer who thought that it would've been a really good idea to be able to put your own picture in the "calendar" graphic, rather than their cheesy, blurry graphic.
All in all, though, I am satisfied with my purchase at the moment. Less than $35 for a Divx/MP3/MPEG player with AV outputs is definitely a find for me.

I purchased the Photoco PhotoShare PL-7 as a Christmas gift in 2006. My husband used it in his office, hanging on a wall so the product was not handled. By November 2007(less than a year)the display started to fade. I contacted the company and the response was "Sounds like your LCD backlight has died. Unfortunately that unit is now out of warranty." I think they have a defective part and are not willing to replace the part or product. Waste of $100.00!!!! I will look at a different brand that comes with a battery!

I too bought this photo device for my wife to carry pictures of our grand children. As the other reviewers mentioned, the unit, isn't portable unless you purchase the add-on battery for about 20 bucks. The company fails to mention the need for this in the product literature. There is also no mention of the nearly impossible task of getting your photos to display in the desired order. In addition, the customer support line was non-functional for me. I called the indicated number and was told that all agents were tied up (easy to understand with the low quality of this product and misleading documentation) and that I would receive a call shortly. This was a week ago . . . still no call. I have decided not to invest any more time or money into this loosing game. I'm looking at this as a bad decision with sunk costs and will be taking my loss and buying another viewer from a more reputable company.

I returned this product because of the poor quality. The screen resolution was very low and it was painfully slow to view the pictures. After being spoiled by an iTouch, this type of display just doesn't cut it. But I should note that I didn't buy it to sit on a desk as a picture frame viewer. I wanted to use it as a hand-held portable viewer where I can cycle through the pictures at will. For that purpose it was terrible.

Works great, nice bright picture, the first stand alone player I've seen to actually play an .AVI, also plays mpegs. It plays MP3 files separately or by folder. Menus respond flawlessly. Photos sharp and clear. Speakers sound great for the size. The only drawback that I see is the screen stays on constantly, even with the TV out function. With a song playing the backlight stays the entire time. This could shorten the screen life. If it turned off after a few seconds like the Zune, the screen I'm sure it could extend screen life. But at $37 from Geeks, this thing rocks.

We got our digital frame on December 9,2008. Finally got the battery from [...]in January 2009. Battery would not hold a charge. I began calling [...] on January 28, 2009, at 1-800-955-5505, the phone number on their invoce. I have left numerous messages and then began sending e-mails. They have never returned my calls or responded to my e-mails. I just tried to call them again and now the phone just rings and rings. I'm assuming they are out of business, and if not, should be.
DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!!!

As mentioned by another review,the manual also says charging the optional Li-ion battery with the AC adapter first displays a red indicator that turns to green when the battery is charged. Nope. The red indicator dims and then goes out.

I had the same problem with the charging indicator light as mention above. I returned the unit and recieved a new one, indicator light did not change to green on the new unit either.

Other than that it works ok for basic showing of pictures, I do not plan on doing anything more. Also it is the only battery operated one I was able to find.