Customer Reviews

Portable USA 8-Inch Digital Picture Frame (PU8C)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I did not purchase this product from Amazon, but I did buy two of them for a "holiday special" price of $125 each. I wish I had bought more.

The pluses:

640x480 resolution - finding a digital frame that runs natively at VGA is rare for under $200.

4:3 - The display is the same size ratio as photographs. Many of the new frames are using lower resolution and video widescreen formats (16:9). This causes either black bars when viewing, or a stretched image. Neither is acceptable.

Remote control - it is present. It works.

Accepts multiple media types

Plays video - you may need to convert formats since the frame does not support Quicktime.

Portrait or Landscape - and it will resize based upon the setting.

Plays audio (MP3) - not important to me, but some like it.

Can output to a TV - I guess you could even haul this around in lieu of a computer if you were making a slideshow presentation. Remember, it has a remote.

The minuses -

I will have to pay more to get more of them for other family members.

You'll be quite pleased with this frame UNLESS you're counting on listening to music during the slideshow. The music reproduction is pretty lousy. The digital photos come through very nicely, especially in subdued room lighting. Another "pro" -- the description doesn't make this clear -- you can use a large capacity memory card in the frame. I have a 2GB card with several hundred European-vacation photos in it now. By the way, the instant-on feature means that the slideshow will start automatically when the power comes back on after a power failure -- says the voice of experience!

This is my 1st purchase of a digital picture frame and I have to admit I was a bit overwhelmed when I started researching them. A major key features that I thought to be important is that the screen have a standard monitor/camera pixel ratio. This means that the frame must be able to display images in the standard 640x480, 1024x768, 1280x1040 etc. pixel sizes. To my surprise, there were very few frames that did that as most were in the "Hi-def" widescreen format. So most pictures would have to either be stretched to remove the black areas of the screen or you accept the black areas on the screen.

This frame has the standard resolution that I've come to accept for monitors and camera images and displays picture in the standard monitor formats, so the image fills the screen 100% without any stretching and without any of the black areas. This was a key selling point for me.

Aside from that, I am 100% satisfied with this frame. In fact, I never read the instructions when I first used it. I simply wanted to see if it worked, so I popped out my SD card from my camera, popped it into the frame, pushed the power button, and in a minute my pictures were being displayed. It was that simple. In fact, I liked the default settings, that I've not changed them:-)

This frame accepts many different types of memory cards, SD, CF, and about 3 or 4 others that I can't recall off hand. It comes with a remote, plays mpeg movies as well as MP3's. There's USB cable so you can upload pictures directly from your PC to the frame too. You can configure the way the frame displays the images quite a bit as well....faster, slower, fade, etc.

In short, the cost was exceptional for me at under $120. The look was very stylish in the lines of Macintosh....glossy white and clear. And it made a wonderful birthday gift for my wife:-)

Bought one for my real estate business, and have it on during open houses, with photos of my client's homes. I get tons of compliments on the frame, and picture quality. More people are interested in the frame, than in the home. So easy to use that I will definitely buy one for my mom and auntie for Mother's Day. I called Portable USA w/a question, and the English Lad who helped me, was soooo super nice...best customer service I've had in years. A++++++++++ Love, Love, Love this frame!!

I gave this a birthday present to my wife loaded with family photos we scanned in. She loved it. Product has nice slide show features and the memory card works with my HP printer.

I bought this for my ladyfriend, who seems to be quite happy with it. Good picture, and a remote control. A bit complicated to set up, but still very manageable. At this price range, this seems to be one of the better deals...

I ordered one of these picture frames and had 2 problems with it:

1. When powered-off the LCD and backlight both power-off, but after a couple of seconds the backlight turns back on and never goes off. The only way to get the backlight to shut off is to unplug it.

2. Using pictures on an SD card, the display frequently showed "jpeg data corruption" for random pictures. It was not always the same picture. The files on the SD card were not corrupt. The "corrupt" pictures either did not display, or were displayed disfigured.

Thinking it may just be a defective frame, we exchanged it. The second frame behaved the same way. Returning the second frame for refund.

Excellent product. Seldom you see a digital frame with all the function of slide, mp3 player, video player, photo explorer, with this price. The only negative thing is when playing video. It does not play smoothly which you can see frame after frame of the video. Maybe I need to use the fastest SD card speed to watch a video which I haven't tried yet. Another thing is you cannot play slide with mp3 music playing at the background. Although, I am not sure if it supports it.

Its not the best in the market, but given the price,we are more than satisfied with the product. My husband keeps it in his office and he enjoys playing slideshows of pictures on it and remembering the good times.

Works like a charm. Picture is good quality. Frame looks a little cheap. (clear plastic) Over all we are happy with the purchase and would recomend to a friend.