A Digital Picture Frame Without the Lock-In?

The Cisco Kid asks: "My mom, bless her soul, doesn't quite get the concept of digital photography. She always complains that we never print them out for her, and gets completely flustered at the idea of looking at them on a computer. I'm thinking of getting a digital photo frame for her, only I can't seem to find one that fits the bill. I am aware of the possibility of building one, and may end up going that way (most likely using a laptop), but I'm really hoping I can find a consumer one that meets my needs — and that's where things get tricky." One of the major features that is required is the ability to update the frame over the network, without the need of any third party software. Has anyone seen a digital picture frame that doesn't tie you to a piece of proprietary software or a proprietary network? "I'd like to be able to hang it on the wall, and leave it there, so I want to be able to update/add pictures to it over either a wireless or wired network. I've found very few that have networking capabilities, but I can't seem to find any documentation as to what application-layer protocol they use. For example, I've found one that only connects to the manufacturer's website, to which you must subscribe — there is no option to use the network, directly. Kodak seems to only support using their proprietary Windows-only software for controlling or updating their frames (and I don't use Windows).

Is anyone aware of anyone that makes a reasonably priced digital frame that has networking and uses open protocols? Or should I expect to be taking apart the display hinge of a used laptop in the near future?"

Comments

A few out there

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.photovu.com/ - expensive but nice. There are others out there.

http://www.boyink.com/splaat/comments/diy-digital- picture-frame/

Yadda yadda google works wonders for this :P

estarling

[grapeape]

Its a bit pricy but the eStarling frames have usb/media card and wifi support. You can upload pictures to a flickr, picasa, webshots, etc photosite and click to download them to the frame. They work pretty well, I picked up one for my grandmother and she seems to enjoy it.

Re:estarling

[mobby_6kl]

I just wanted to post the same suggestion. I don't have one, but I've seen it a while ago on ThinkGeek. Looks very nice and basically what the original poster asked for, although I'm not quite sure about the widescreen LCD. Most of my photos are 4:3, so they'd probably leave some screen space unused with black vertical bars unless it does some kind of ugly stretching or uses the space to show thumbnails or something.

Re:estarling

[Wabbit Wabbit]

Gizmodo had a recent review of the second rev eStarling, and had some pretty unkind things to say. FTFA:

The piss-poor image quality of this LCD panel made all that completely unimportant. The eStarling's screen is absolutely unacceptable. We tried displaying digital pictures of all different resolutions and aspect ratios on it, and all of them looked like we were viewing them on a cheap TV set. Yes, the images were in color, but that's about it. The display was just downright dim, blurry, and you could see scanlines and jaggies all through images that are normally tack-sharp. This display was so bad that it almost hurt our eyes to look at it.

I have found Gizmodo to be a reliable and unbiased source over the years, so I'd give this one a pass.

Re:estarling

[Phisbut]

I just wanted to post the same suggestion. I don't have one, but I've seen it a while ago on ThinkGeek. Looks very nice and basically what the original poster asked for

While it's pretty close, it's exactly what the original poster does not want. From the spec list :

Frame Setup requires you to run the included software on a Windows 2000/ME/XP compatible PC.

PanDigital + Single-board computer

[GiMP]

My pandigital not only accepts every media card out there, but it can act as a USB mass storage device with its own internal memory. If you really wanted to, you could take a PanDigital (or another frame that acts as Mass storage device), connect it to a single board computer, and.. voila!

Of course, a SBC with USB will easily cost over $50, maybe $100. Even if altogether it costs $200 for the frame and the SBC, thats still probably better than you would've paid for a basic frame even a year ago, let alone how much decent SBC's have dropped in price!

Re:PanDigital + Single-board computer

[jddj]

Well, calculate in the whole price.

With a Ceiva (lockin, updates via phone lines) You're dropping $100-$150 on the frame, and $100 a year for the service - for a very limited service, IMHO - the frame isn't that great and you only get 20 pictures on it (on my Dad's anyway).

So for 2 years of service, you're already into over 3 bills - that SBC with Wi-Fi is looking better and better - though that may also mean plumbing the parent's place with broadband, adding a router...

Yeah, printing out 4x6es is looking better and better. Maybe find an online service where you can print online and direct ship them.

Re:Just get prints

[acroyear]

warning on those kiosks: their card readers suck and may break your card. don't use your "originals" - take it home and burn a cdrom and take that to the shop to print.

one at the nearby kinkos totally destroyed my SD card of everything i shot from a particular vacation.

Re:Just get prints

[Anonymous Coward]

Or just use an on-line service. I upload the pictures to have the printed and have them delivered to my mother's house. Doesn't get easier than that

Costco

[lorcha]

I usually just upload some pics to Costco and have them ship 'em to my parents. Free shipping, cheap prints. Very easy.

Mom seems to like them.

Don't buy the Kodak EX-1011

[davester666]

I foolishly purchased this for my mom because the Kodak sales rep said [before I purchased it] that yes, pictures could be sent directly from a Mac to the picture frame over a wireless network. When I actually get the device, it turns out that it only supports pulling pictures [so you have to use the crappy UI on the picture frame to find/select/copy pictures from a remote picture source] and the only remote picture sources it supports is Kodaks picture gallery web site and Windows Media Sharing protocol [which operates 100% independently of Kodak's picture software]. And their picture software, both under MacOSX and Windows, doesn't directly interact with the picture frame at all. You have to export the pictures from the software, manually selecting exactly the right spot to export the pictures to, as it shows up as a generic USB mass storage device. And they botched the USB implementation, because unlike the 20-odd other USB mass storage devices, when you eject the mounted volumes, after a second or two, they automatically remount, and if you don't unplug the device at just the right moment, you get a warning saying the device was unplugged while mounted. I swear, Apple should just make one of these devices and bitch-slap everyone else out of the market.