Customer Reviews

SanDisk Digital Photo Viewer (SDV2-A-A30, Retail Package)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I recieved the unit and hooked it up to a 27" TV. I then plugged in the compact flash card and turned the unit on. This habit came from experience with card readers and operating systems before WinXP that used to threaten you with all kind of awful things when you inserted or pulled a card out without doing it "properly". Having a card in a reader and turning the power on had always worked for me in the past.

The unit came up and displayed the SanDisk logo like it says in the instructions. However, the unit seemed to be locked up. I fiddled with it, checked cables, connections etc. Turned it off and on several times. Finally, I got frustrated and commented to my wife about how the unit wasn't working. The comments included several colorful adjectives that will not be used in this review. I then pulled the card out of the slot with the power still on and the unit displayed "insert a card".

I did what it said. The little green light blinked. It read the info on the card and started working as advertised.

If you read the instructions closely. Do exactly what it says in step six of the installation instructions. Then as it says - "you will see a message to insert a memory card".

Bottom line is, if you forget to take the memory card out when you turn the unit off, it will not work correctly when you power it back up with a card installed in a slot.

After I got past the power it up without a card in a slot exercise, the unit displayed JPG photos fine. It also played the sample MPG video of the gondola ride that you get with WinXP. It was a little jerky. Don't really know how it would work with digital video out of a video camera. The specs say MPEG-1 up to 8FPS.

There seems to be a slight delay after you push a remote key before the unit responds. The unit reacts more like a VCR than a computer to a remote keypress. Once I realized this, I slowed down my double click instinct. All of the functions worked fine as long as you push the button and wait for the unit to respond.

Pictures that are taken with the camera turned sideways (taller than wide) display smaller than pictures that are taken in normal orientation (wider than tall) The rotate and zoom functions will let you rotate, move around, and "blow up" the taller than wide view. The rotate picture funtion works OK but is a bit clumsy to use during a slide show.

The unit will display only JPG format pictures up to 16MEGS in size. The pictures I displayed were about 2.3MEG JPGs (file size). The picture size was about 18MEGS. The unit showed a crisper picture when the settings were changed to display "original resolution".

I bought the unit to show pictures directly on a large TV screen without any other hardware. If you don't have a TV with three input plugs (two for sound, one for video), you need to purchase a "modulator" to convert to coax cable output for older TVs.

All in all, I like the unit. It is cheaper than buying one of the "digital frames" even when you add the "modulator".

I plan on using the unit to display images on a TV for a relative in a nursing home. Using the compact stoarge media available today, it is possible to transport, store, and view of a lot more photos than you can carry in a suticase full of 3X5 photo prints. The pictures are bigger (better viewing for 80+ year old eyes) and everyone can look and comment on the pictures as you all view them together.

In my opinion, the only thing keeping the SanDisk Photo Album from a five star rating is the lack of a "modulator" built in to allow older TVs to connect without another "gizmo" that adds tranformers, cables, plugs, & clutter to the unit setup.

The SanDisk Digital PhotoViewer (the actual model is more recent than the one pictured here) is far less expensive than the other digital photo viewers. At first, I couldn't get it to work, but then (like the other reviewer here) I went back, started over, and followed the instructions exactly.

In my case, that meant plugging it in to the tv...not to the vcr and not to the tv with the vcr still plugged in. Instead, I unplugged the vcr cables and put the PhotoViewer in their place. I imagine that might not be necessary for everyone, but with my particular tv, it solved the problem completely. AFter that...turned it on...inserted my XD card...and it worked perfectly. It's a great little viewer--lots of fun for slide shows (I haven't tried them with music yet)--and very inexpensive to boot! Definitely recommended.

I have used this device on my old 36in Toshiba TV and it worked much better than I expected. Now I have a HD Plasma the images I get are fantastic. I would recommend this device to anyone with a digital camera. I have now purchased a second one for my son and he is as pleased with the ease of use and quality of images at his home.

I purchased this Photo Viewer as a temporary solution for viewing digital photos. Long term, I intend to put something a bit more elaborate together involving a flat-panel iMac, but that's several months down the line, so I wanted to be able to look at my photos now.

Originally, I was hoping to find an affordable digital frame; nothing spectacular, just something for now. Those all turned out to be more money than I wanted to spend at this point. So, when I found the SanDisk, I thought I had it all worked out. Reviews had it as less than ideal, but again, this was a temporary solution for me.

When it arrived and I carved it out of the blister pack (can we please stop with the blister packs? I'll gladly pay an extra 10¢ for a freakin' box!) I was very anxious to get it running, as we had a mountain of photos from a trip to Africa that we had barely even peeked at. So, I grabbed a handful, threw 'em on an SD card and fired up the Photo Viewer.

Cannot display image.

Hmm. That's odd. This thing has one purpose: displaying JPGs. Sure it has a few other features, but that's all it's really for. So, I try a thumb drive instead. No luck.

Long story short, after much experimentation, I learned that it can't display progressive JPGs. Also, it gets really bogged down on JPGs saved for the web (with the extra info stripped out). Once I narrowed all of this down, it actually performed fairly well. The images "vibrate" a bit, kinda like a VCR on pause, but hey, for $35, I can see my photos on the TV screen.

So, it does what it claims. It doesn't do it well, but it does it for $35. It would have been nice to include a sentence in the instructions about file format issues.

I bought the SanDisk Photo Viewer for displaying on a TV, old photos I had stored on a USB key. I intended to do this in a nursing home, and wanted the option to include music. This unit promised operation by remote which would work for a person with limited mobility.

First, after inconsistent operation from the USB, I realized that slide show operation required all pictures be stored on a CompactFlash card in the rear slot (I had to purchase this.) Pictures must be in TV mode (640w x 480h , 72 dpi), all with the same date, 99 or less in a folder, in order to play reliably with music.

Since my files were from multiple sources, I tried to use the device to convert pictures to TV mode per the instructions, and move them from USB to CF card. After destroying one USB key and many frustrating hours of effort later, I instead laboriously converted files on a PC, then transferred them to the CF card, again using a PC.

For the purpose purchased, this device risks pictures, cards (at least USB), and possibly TV speakers (sound output at times failed, locking up and emitting a loud continuous tone.) Remote operation is slow and mushy, and locks up if not used carefully and deliberately. Then the unit must be powered down by pulling the plug and restarted. I now know how to use the device within these very limited constraints but would not recommend its purchase at any price.

Great concept - scary implementation. Needs more on-board memory (to avoid failure and lockup) and more consistent remote operation. Definitely NOT user friendly. Does not perform as advertised.

This unit is an excellent alternative to (in my opinion) overpriced digital frames.

Read the instructions, follow the instructions, enjoy your pictures.

I shot some photos on my Sony 8 megapixal camera in highest quality mode. I downloaded them to my computer and then downloaded them onto a USB flash drive.

The picture quality on my 62" 1080 TV was drop dead stunning. I zoomed in to maximum and could have counted the whiskers around my dog's mouth.

I purchased 7 of these units (6 will go out as I expect very well received christmas gifts).

I shopped around and bought a dozen USB flash drives to send pictures on. The total cost of this unit with 2 - 512MB drives each was less than $50.

Compare that to the cost of a small (6-7"), low resolution (480X232), never heard of brand, of at best unknown quality, digital frame. Read the reviews and specs of the cheap digital frames. The only brand name frame of acceptable quality to me was the Philips at $120 for a 6.5" frame. That is a tiny picture for the 70-80 somethingish relatives I'm sending this to.

The razor sharp image I'm looking at while I type this is 30.5" X 40.5" with a 51" diagonal.

To me it's a no-brainer. Hope this review was helpful.

The SanDisk digital photo viewer shows pics AND video from my camera flash card to the TV screen.
It was very easy to set up and did exactly what I had hoped for and expected.
If only all digital equipment was this easy to use.
Thank you
P Squire

The viewer performs exactly as advertised. It was easy to connect to my TV set and it is very easy to operate. While I could view my digital photos on my computer, this viewer lets me share the photos on the 32 inch TV with everyone sitting comfortably in living room. You do want to insert the memory cards after the viewer is on and ready, as you will see on your TV screen. If you have friends and family you enjoy viewing digital photos with, this device is well worth the money-even full retail. I've had this for several months and used it frequently, especially the slide show function. Would and have recommended it to family and friends.

A good solution to the "problem" of displaying digital photos, especially for those -- like grandparents -- who may not be computer savvy or want to look at photos sitting at a workstation.
Attach this gizmo to any TV -- setup isn't hard -- plug in just about any size or shape of photo memory storage card and watch the slideshow.
No need to be hooked up to a computer. No need for a computer in the house. Just send the memory card.

I wound up returning this item very shortly after purchasing it. It worked fine with a USB flash drive, but it wouldn't read the Compact Flash card from our Nikon CoolPix camera. Actually, sometimes it would start to read the CF card, but then the SanDisk Photo Album would completely lock up and not respond to any of the remote buttons. It may just be some incompatibility with the way the Nikon writes to the card, I really don't know. For my part, I'm going to seek out a similar device from another manufacturer and see if that works better. But the SanDisk will probably work just fine for others.