Disappointing Digital Frame

January 6, 2009

Disappointing Digital Frame.

Pandigital, and their 15" Photo Frame are each a complete disappointment. In short. 1) the Frame has very limited horizontal and vertical viewing angles; 2) a blue "forward" arrow unfortunately graces the lower right corner of every displayed picture; 3) images that you load into the frame appear in a random and uncontrollable sequential viewing order regardless of the storage media used; 4) glass covering the screen is highly reflective and creates a mirror affect; 5) the owner's manual is severely lacking good for instruction or direction; and 6) Pandigital's technical support staff isn't overly helpful and is somewhat cavalier in their attitude. On the positive side the image quality, if you are looking directly at the center of the screen, is great. A more detailed explanation follows:

First, for starters the horizontal angle of view is so narrow that only two (2) people standing shoulder-to-shoulder can view the screen without loss of brightness and image quality. Overall the angle of view is less than 60d - compare that to most computer monitors at 125-150d and flat screen LCD TV's at upwards of 170ds.

Second: the vertical lines of view are more narrow than the horizontal ones. Using a wall mount, and positioning the center of the frame at exactly 60" (5'-0"), a person six feet tall will see good brightness and image quality, while any person 5'3" (whose eye-line center point is only 2" below the centerline of the screen) [or shorter] will experience a loss of brightness and see images that are dark along the top edge. Using the frame's brightness adjustment alleviates some of this problem, but ultimately sacrifices image quality with a washed-out look to do so.

Third: A green forward ¡ú arrow appears on-screen at all times. It is located within the lower right quarter of the screen and never disappears from view. Upon contacting Pandigital technical support, Pandigital says that they are aware of the software, "flaw"(their exact words) and they "might" issue an update someday.There recommendation: somewhat cavalier - buy one of their other frames (none of which came in the same 15" size or larger) that does not have that problem.

Fourth: Image order: The Digital Photo Frame will not play pictures in the order that you load them. For example, and to be very simplistic, if you have fifty (50) images that you would like to display in chronological / numerical order (IE:1, 2, 3, 4, 5-10,11,12,13-50) and you save them to any one of the frames accepted memory devices such as a flashcard or USB thumb drive in precisely that (1-50) order, the Pandigital Frame will load them in a random sequence and then play them in the order in which the frames software loaded them. This order might be: 2, 6, 19, 41, 34, 50, 6 etc. This random recognition of the contents on a memory card was consistently inconsistent. To comparison test Pandigital's file recognition, I loaded the images onto both an SD card, and USB flash drive. When inserted into the frame each memory device, stored with the same 50 images, in the same file order, came up on the Pandigital screen in a different sequence. When inserting the respective memory devices into another computer or camera the images appeared correctly in the order that were stored. Bottom line Pandigital 15" Frame will not play a side show displaying your photos in the order in which you would like them displayed. (Note: The frame does not have a way to rotate or switch image order.)

Fifth: Glass covering the screen: The glass and matt board that cover the screen create a nice visual affect, yet the "standard" glass is highly reflective and creates a lot of glare. Couple the glass with screen resolution that is not very bright and narrow angles of view and you get a much deepened mirror effect that challenges your eye to not become distracted by reflective background images and movement; thus staying focused on the photo display can be challenging.

Overall: I would like to view my photographs: 1) in the order that they were taken and in the order that tells a story - NO CAN DO; 2) I would like more than one person to enjoy looking at the pictures at a time AND to see really good quality images - NOT WITH THIS FRAME; 3) I would like to see only the pictures on the screen without a pause symbol or forward arrow - (a genuine design flaw) NOT THIS FRAME; and 4) I would like the picture frame to display pictures and not see the reflection of my face in the glass. I truly cannot recomend this digital frame.

[Tuesday, January 06, 2009]

15 inch photo frame from Pandigital

Got this photo frame for my wife for Christmas. I looked at dozens of competing models before choosing this one - none of them were of the quality that I wanted (fuzzy images, poor color rendition, etc). The large Pandigital is really a nice machine. Its one of the more expensive photo frames, but its worth the cost in terms of performance. Easy to set up and easy to use, and the remote control allows you to perform all the functions without walking up to the unit and pressing buttons on the back of the frame. The 15MB memory isn't enough for a decent length slide show, but the capability of plugging in most of the commonly used camera cards OR a USB thumb drive allows you to make extended length programs. Finally, there were TWO nice border frames included in the package - I thought it came with just one: So now you have a choice of the dark mahogany color or the classic black. VERY NICE PHOTO VIEWER!

[Tuesday, January 06, 2009]

15 "digutal picture frame

Overall, I like the product. One thing that could be improved is to have the "shuffle" mode function in a "no repeat" manner, meaning it would randomly go through all the images without repeating one. Presently, I can see some images 3 or 4 times before I see some others even once.

Also, some of the instructions were unclear in setting up certain functions, particularly using the clock/calendar to set the slide show to start automatically. A call to their customer service was very helpful, although, after using it for a while, I may still not have it right, and will have to call back.

[Tuesday, January 06, 2009]

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