Customer Reviews

Viewsonic VFD1020-12 10-Inch Digital Photo Frame with 2 GB Internal Memory

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I got this as a gift and it was easy enough for me to explain to my folks how to set it up and how to use it. Which is wonderful. I like the fact that you can play directly off of a USB drive, what I dislike is that it will display pictures of what ever is saved to memory before any external devices. The random generator to select pictures - isn't that random, and its even something that my parents have noticed, that it plays the same pictures in the same order. However it does look like a nice picture frame and the quality of the pictures is very good (as long as the original image is a decent quality picture).

I had this frame for a month so I cannot talk about the reliability, but construction quality seems good and worked right out of the box. I'll start with the positive.

The good:

1. Picture quality and color rendering are very good, especially if you resize your pictures to 1024x768 before uploading (you can do it very easily with photoshop, picasa, etc...). This is one of the few frames with 1024x768 resolution, which is a must for this size. Most other frames offer 800x600 or even lower resolutions that are fine for smaller frames but disappoint at 10'.

2. The 2Gb of internal memory again is above average for similarly priced (or even more expensive) digital frames. It allows you to upload tons of pictures, I think probably ~1000's of jpg's when resized to 1024x768. With this said, I have not tried other formats other than jpg...

3. The transition between photos is fast and the effects are selectable. I read elsewhere something to the contrary, but it may have to do with whether you resize your pictures before loading them or you use the multi MB files straight from the camera.

4. Photos are easy to transfer and set up is a breeze.

5. The remote is very handy and allows you to setup and control the frame without having to move it from its location... ideal if it is hanging on a wall.

The not so good:

6. The setup interface is beyond slow. It is barely adequate for initial setup (set the time, date, default behavior), but forget about eliminating photos or do any sort of folder management on the unit. The menus are visually appealing, but the price you pay for that nice eye candy are in the long minutes necessary to browse folder listings. If you have more than a couple dozen pictures, forget about the copy/paste/delete functions on the unit because they are unusable. In practice, this means that you cannot really use a flash card to transfer pictures to the unit. Having said so, you can do that from the computer much easier and faster by connecting the unit via the supplied USB cable. The frame behaves just like a flash drive and is much more responsive this way.

7. I cannot figure out how to get a random display that combines photos from both, the internal memory and the memory card at the same time. I think this is not possible in this unit, but again, if I need more than 2GB I'll get a larger flash card and that's it.

8. The previous two points, annoying as they are, do not really detract from the overall quality of the frame. But there is one problem that I find rather annoying and is the main reason I gave this frame 4 stars. The issue is that the frame allows you to rotate pictures that show in the wrong orientation, BUT (and this is a big BUT), it will forget about this next time you turn off the unit, so be ready to loose all the time you invested in re-orienting some of your pictures next time your power flickers or you unplug the unit. I think, not sure about this, that the frame is automatically reorienting photos that contain EXIF with orientation data. Photos taken with older cameras may not have this information and therefore may be shown with the wrong orientation. The only solution I found is to re-orient the offenders on the computer and upload them again. It works, but it is time consuming.

9. It has a calendar and clock functions that display the date and time information and a small picture on the side. I would have preferred the calendar or time overlaid on top a full size picture.

In summary, I think this is a great digital frame. Picture quality is very good and the internal memory is very convenient. I find the remote useful. Feature wise it is a bit primitive, but hey, its a picture frame! I would recommend this product to anyone who want to cycle digital photos in their living room, but don't mind taking it to the computer room to manage and upload content.

I have been purchasing Viewsonic monitors for many years. They have always been reliable, affordable, and have an excellent screen. From tube monitors to LCD's, Viewsonic has always been my choice for clarity and reduced eye fatigue for my highly sensitive eyes that notice the tiniest flicker or color degradation.
I received a Pandigital widescreen 8" digital frame as a gift. Although it was easy to use, the 16:9 aspect ratio is not conducive for standard 4:3 pictures; keep that in mind regardless of what brand you choose. Unless you shoot widescreen, the pictures will be shortened disproportionately. I returned it and, because I liked the digital frame concept, I wanted to find another model that would satisfy my particular requirements.
Overwhelmingly, the Viewsonic line could not be beat - especially this model. It has 2Gb of internal memory which can easily display more than a thousand pictures and additional memory can be added for even more. The aspect ratio is perfect and the entire picture is displayed correctly and completely. The color ratio is vibrant and can be adjusted to suit any taste, although the default setting seems perfect. It is easy to import pictures and they can be sorted in multiple folders that are accessed either randomly or in order. Although it does not have a touchscreen, the remote works fine for the rare times you need to adjust something even though the USB cord allows for fast and effortless editing via computer. The only "drawback" is the light-colored mat frame; I would have preferred something less bright. However, with that being the only "drawback", you cannot go wrong with this frame.
If it lasts as long as my monitors did, I will be ecstatic.

Many of my co-workers have those small, cheap low res frames. I found this one from another retailer for about $70. It was quite easy to setup, just plug into the computer, transfer images straight across as if it were a USB drive.... Every time you turn the frame on the pictures come up quickly and rotate automatically. You can change the interval time... I set mine quite low since I have a ton of pictures, but if you have a few prized shots, you could have them display much longer. I am going to be purchasing one of these for my parents who are running out of wall space to display pictures.

The quality is great and the images crisp.

I haven't had any problems at all. I don't really use the remote control. I only used it once for the initial setup.

Ordered this for a birthday gift from the family for a 90 year old. Since we knew she wouldn't know how to upload images or know what to do with an SD card, we liked the amount of on-board storage. It will never run out of room! We uploaded over 300 high resolution images and it didn't even take a bite out of the space.

The picture quality is clear and crisp. I've come to expect nothing less from ViewSonic over the years.

The features I gave three stars because there were only two options on the slide show for transitioning between images... either none or random. I wish you could choose one transition only. But the feature I did like was the automatic timer. You could set the frame to come on/go off at a certain time every day. You never have to touch it which is great for someone not so great with technology.

The other minsues: certain menus could only be accessed by using the remote. What happens if you lose it? Which brings me to the other minus: no on-frame storage for the remote. I've seen some with a little slot for the remote, but this frame lacks it so put that thing in a safe place!

Overall, the screen quality and storage couldn't be undone by minor issues. This is a great frame for a great value and I've been recommending it to everyone. Also, its not on my Christmas list! :)

Found a great deal on this frame around Christmas and bought a couple of them. What drew me to this frame was the higher resolution than most frames in this size, and Viewsonic's reputation for quality monitors.

Overall I'm quite pleased with the frame. While memory cards are inexpensive, having a generous amount of internal memory is a bonus. I resize my pictures to match the vertical resolution of the frame. This prevents the frame from having to resize the pictures and allows me to store many more pictures on the frame than I would have before resizing. I figure I can store about 6000 pictures in the frame's internal memory by doing this. It also gives me control over the resizing process as the frame doesn't have to perform this function.

The resolution and color depth of the frame seem to be quite good. I don't see any banding like I've seen on cheaper brand frames. The resolution is perfectly adequate for a frame of this size and the pictures look sharp and detailed.

Some reasons for the four star review instead of a five: The controls are a little tricky to figure out. I had to read the manual to figure out how to get some of the settings to work. The remote is nice but the frame responds fairly slowly. I also notice a bit of a blue cast in many of my pictures, particularly with skin tones. It could be my pictures but I don't see it on my calibrated monitor. I haven't found how to adjust this so I may have to adjust my pictures. It's minor and most people don't notice such things, (unless you read this review and are now looking for it, sorry) but I guess I do. And I agree that the mat color is too light. For photos that fill the frame it's fine, but for those that don't, it makes the black bars stand out more.

Overall I'm very pleased with this frame. It's allowed me to liberate those thousands of digital pictures stored on my computer that no one ever sees. It doesn't force people to sit though an hour long slide show or flip through endless photo albums. You just leave it running somewhere and people see a new great picture every time happen to look at it.

I highly recommend this digital photo frame for anyone who doesn't want to spend too much money for this type of gadget. I bought this as a gift, and the person who got it was very happy. I certainly believe that the more expensive frames like Sony or Kodak will give you better picture quality, but for the $80 price this frame is very good.

I found that the menu options could be more intuitive, but they were not too bad. It's quite easy to use, but takes few minutes to learn how to navigate through different photo folders. Also, I found that the frame did not sort the photos very well. It's probably best to use numbers in naming photos, if you want them to appear in order. Using: abc001, followed by abc002 did not guaranteed that order. Again, I gave this as a gift so I don't know if the owner of this frame was able to figure out everything. However, I was nicely surprised about the quality of this frame considering the $80-dollar amazon price.

This ViewSonic is a great deal for the price, especially since it is one of the few I have seen with as much internal memory as it has (2GB).

The screen resolution is very clear and good quality. It has good appearance and looks good in any room. All functions work well. The remote works quite well, despite reviews I've seen for picture frame remotes in general. You just need to make sure that the battery is inserted correclty and has a firm touch connection and it works quickly and from a good distance.

The only slight weakness I have seen is the physical control buttons on the back, as you need to make sure you firmly press them for the signal to be sent to the frame. They are also a louder click than other buttons you'll see.

Overall, highly recommend for quality product and good brand.

My Mom and Grandmother spent all night at a party admiring one of these digital frames. So my brothers and I decided for Mother's Day to get them each one. We did some comparison and read a number of product reviews before purchasing. We decided on this product. Frame size, memory and ease of setup plus a reasonable price all played in the decision. Even though we ordred late the frames came in the day before mothers day and we did not have to pay extra shipping.Not a perfect Product but very few are perfect (random is not truely random). I did not have to struggle setting it up for them or explaining how to use it. Followed the instructions for setup. Up and running in 45 minutes with 75 photos. Mom is happy and Grandma is just tickled with hers - couldn't ask for better reviews than that.

I bought mine last year, but didn't get around to using it until this year. It took me a while to figure out how to first, resize the pictures down to 1024 x 768 (I used Picasa to do it), second, to save those resized photos into another folder, then third, get the resized photos onto the unit, but once I did figure all that out, it was a breeze to do it again and again.

The screen quality and size is very good. Like others have said, you need 1024 x 768 resolution on a 10" screen. You also need this size for picture that are taken in portrait mode (long side going up and down) because on a smaller screen, the picture would get too small.

As others have said, the 2GB onboard memory is HUGE! I resized over 1000 photos to 1024 x 768 size, and it looks like the unit can hold about 8000 photos. Yup, 8000! That'll be quite enough, I'm sure.