Customer Reviews

Smartparts SP15MW 15-Inch Digital Picture Frame with Walnut Frame

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

This product seemed to work great at first, but then I started adding a few more pictures from my 7 megapixel camera and the slideshows constantly froze on random pictures. Exchanged the first frame (thank you Amazon) and the second frame did exactly the same thing. After a few hours of trial and error, I finally got the pictures suitable and the slideshows do not freeze anymore. In short, I found that cropping my pictures from my camera was not enough ... apparently the file sizes were too big for the slideshow to handle, so I had to scale the pictures down too. The pictures still look great on the frame (no loss of quality after resizing) and this would not have been a big deal at all if it would have been mentioned in the instructional manual. The manual claims that you can take your memory card straight from your camera, plug it into your digital frame, and the slideshow should work. Didn't work at all like that for me with two different frames. In addition, the control buttons on the back of my frame do nothing. Thank goodness the remote control works.
I love the quality of the pictures, the frame itself looks beautiful, and I have it working the way I want it to now ... so I will happily keep this frame, but the frame does not exactly work as advertised.

I have six of these frames - bought one, liked it a lot, bought more for both myself and to give as gifts. 4 of 6 do not function.

The image quality is quite good, but sadly this becomes irrelevant as the images freeze, sometimes after just a few minutes. Only a hard reset will start it again, and then the cycle of freezing resumes.

After I searched I discovered many reviews both on this site and elsewhere about the freezing issue (do a google search to find out). Some speculate on images sizes, types, etc.; none of this seems to matter -- I have tried it all. Basic jpeg's at a few hundred k all the way up to multi-megabyte files freeze.

A year ago there were very few 15" digital frames on the market. Now there are many. look elsewhere or you will regret it.

My Fiancé bought this for me a couple months ago and I love it BUT as everyone else seems to have already stated it does freeze on some photos but after reading these reviews I now know why! :) the only other problem I have with it is when we turn it off with the remote it won't stay off a few minutes or even an hour later it will turn on again by itself. The only way to stop this is actually turning the the ON/OFF button that is located on the bottom of the frame on off. I use a USB thumb drive for my pictures and its rather small but since the card and USB readers (along with the ON/OFF switch) is located on the bottom of the frame it doesn't fit under there so the frame is lop-sided unless we hang it up or prop something else up under the other corner.

This is a nice looking product, and the large screen really brings pictures to life. We much prefer it over the smaller digital frames we've tried. The screen probably isn't as bright as your laptop's, and there can be a glare problem depending on where you put it, but overall image quality is pretty good and the frame itself looks good.

The irksome things about the product? Foremost, it freezes if it has to deal with more than about 3,700 files on a memory card. According to the SmartProductsTech website it will also freeze if a jpeg file is too large (7 megapixel or smaller files worked fine for me). The OptiPix Pro application included for loading pictures is crude and unstable, and given the limitation in file quantity, probably unnecessary if you plan to use external memory cards. (I used the freeware program IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.net/)instead to do the batch conversions to the 1024x768 format produced by OptiPix - it proved to be more versatile with source folder selection, faster, and stable). So memory cards much larger than about 1GB are useless for this frame - don't waste your money. Finally, you may notice some radio frequency interference if the unit is placed near an FM radio.

Tech Support is very hard to reach by phone (finally connected on 5th attempt after 45 minute wait), the rep wasn't aware of the file quantity problem, and said not to expect any software updates. Also never responded to e-mail.

We've had several digital frames over the years, and they've all had their share of flaws or unexpected problems. This one is no different in that regard, but might work well for you if the aforementioned limitations don't pertain.

My Wife is an amateur Photograph buff and wanted a method to display here pictures unobtrusivily.At Christmas she recieved two- an 8' and the 15' as gifts. The contrask is startling. The 15" commands attention and shows her photos with inmeasureable detail in comparision to the 8".
This would also be an invaluible marketing tool for any buiness promoting products in any waiting room where customers are bored.
The display works as the other reviewers have stated and if it were to have a downside it would be that it's hard to know which photo is going to be displayed. But in reality that also is it's strenghth in capuring your attenton.

I baught this frame for my wife for Christmas and we love it. It is doing just what we wanted it to do, showing beautiful pictures. We do not use the frames memory but use a 2 GB SD card and just keep adding pictures to the card as time goes by. I've read some of the other reviews but, so far, we have had none of those problems. The pictures are clear and crisp. I did have to make some adjustments to get the quality pictures we wanted but that was expected. The frame is located on our entertainment center in our large family room and you can see the pictures from anywhere in the room. It has been a real joy for us!

I have one at home and gave one to my mom. Both have a 2 gig flash drive in them. Only problem I had was it stuck on one picture, so I edited that picture to make it a smaller size and that fixed the problem. They work great. Been running continuous for many weeks. Just wish they weren't so expensive. Otherwise, a good product. A great way to see all your family pictures.

The picture is excellent, the lack of upmarket software stuff like choice of folder, size of picture etc. doesn't bother me -- that's why I bought this cheapie!
However, the documentation states that you can use a Flash Drive with it as one of the external media accessories. BUT -- the Flash Drive plug is on the bottom and standard USB Flash Drives are longer than the space allowed so when you add a Flash Drive and put the frame on a flat surface (table, etc.) the frame falls over.
Plus, the On/Off switch is on the bottom so you have to lift it up each time you use it.
The only way to use the frame easily, and with Flash Drives, is to adjust the support leg so that the frame sits on its side. I happen to prefer my photo frames to be wider than higher, so this annoys me a lot.

This is an excellent product. The Smartparts SP15MW 15-inch digital frame works great and the screen display is awesome. Some people have complained because they do not understand how to load pictures. The screen resolution is 1024 X 768 pixels... for optimal performance your image should be size as close to 1024 X 768 as possible. Just because you have a 8 megapixel image does not mean you are going to get any better resolution - in fact loading large images will not provide you with clearer screen display - what it will do is simply slow....... down the screen show. ~~~ HUGE M E G A pixel images have far more resolution in a single image than the Smartparts SP15MW is capable of displaying or for that matter 8 mega pixels has far more resolution then the average computer screen. The bottom line - if you have images from a BIG megapixel camera you will need to down-size the images. This could be a pain-in-the-butt if you don't know what you are doing . . . but huge amounts of mega pixels will not display... the reason we all love big mega pixel cameras is so we can PRINT large images with great resolution... screens are not like that... in this case all you need is 1024 X 768 pixels and your images will look awesome and the digital frame will NOT run slow or simply stop running. GREAT PRODUCT!

I received the item and by using the instructions I could not turn the item ON. Also I could hear something falling around inside the case of the item. I called the number in the manual and talked to someone at the manufacturing point. They told me how to turn the item ON. I asked about the internal noise of something possiblbly loose and they said to go ahead and open the item. After opening the item I found that one of the speakers had apparently missed the installation step on the line as it was NOT mounted to the standoffs from the frame. All other hardware was there so I removed the screws and grommets and mounted the speaker and returned the item to use. I woudn't advise having the average layperson do this. I am an Electrical Engineer and had the tools and knowledge to perform this repair. The item is now working OK. John