| Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF | |
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Philips 8.5-Inch Digital Picture Frame (Clear) w/3 Additional Colored Frames | 
| Brand: Philips
This item is no longer available
Rating:  68 reviews
Color: Clear
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: Yes
Display Size: 9
Battery: 1 Internal Rechargeable
Removable Memory: CompactFlash Type I
Size: 8.5-Inch
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 4.3 x 10.2 x 7.8
MPN: 9FF2M4/37
Model: 9FF2M4/37
UPC: 609585125490
EAN: 0609585125490
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| Features:
| • | Displays your digital photos with professional print quality and the full spectrum of colors | | • | 8.5-inch viewable TFT LCD display screen features of adjustable brightness to match ambient light conditions, and intuitive operation that doesn't require any programming | | • | Connects via USB directly to your camera or PC; supports up to 12-megapixel photos in the JPEG format | | • | Runs on AC power via the included adapter, or lasts up to 8 hours on its included rechargeable battery | | • | Weighs approximately 2.2 pounds, and measures 10.2 x 7.8 x 4.3 inches (W x H x D) |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
How many digital pictures are hidden on your PC? See, share and relive your memories with Philips Photo Frame, the easiest way to display your digital photos in stunning quality - without a PC. This model features an Interchangeable Frame.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 68
 Good Frame, Software needs *lots* of work December 24, 2006
C. Franz (Zurich, ZH Switzerland)
29 out of 30 found this review helpful
First of all, once you got your images on the frame itself, and have an album organized, this is a great digital frame. But the road leading there is rocky indeed. It's provided software is anything but good.
This digital frame sports a 640x480 color display to show a slideshow of internally (or images stored on memory cards) stored images. The display is reasonably bright (but not very much, so it's not very usable in direct sunlight). Images can be imported directly from many different memory cards (e.g. compact flash, and others) without the aid of a computer, which is a nice touch. This feature seems to work only if you do not add any files to the card of your own (for examply, MacOS might add a '.DSstore' index file - this can cause the frame to reject the whole card). You can also run slide shows directly from the memory card inserted, which is another nice touch (see later comments on how badly this feature is implemented).
The frame comes with a number of separate differently colored, umm, frames, making it match multiple tastes, and is an extra help when giving it as a present when you do not know where the recipient will set it up.
The frame runs entirely from internal software, which means that you cannot control it through an attached computer as I had expected. This is somewhat disappointing, as the internal software is not flexible. You can, however, use the provided (Windows only) software to organize your images prior to downloading them to the frame. Even though the PC software provided is woefully inadequate for this job (it can't access network volumes, or RSS feeds, it can't rotate images, or edit images beyond a very, very limited crop), it is still infinitely preferable to the built-in image organization software.
Images are collected into albums, and these albums can be played as slide shows. And organizing images is a chore made very, very difficult by Philips. The frame has two buttons, and a 4-way hat (itself also clickable) to control album set-up, which should be enough for the task. Strangely, though, the designers chose to implement one of the most brain-dead user interfaces I have encountered. This user-hostile interface extends to the frame's configuration menu, which does offer a host of nice features (among them, for example a clock, automatic on/off features that can turn on and off the frame at pre-set times etc.) - difficult as they are to access.
Since organizing a frame's pictures is such a difficult and annoying task, I have tried a simple work-around: Organize (and edit) images on my computer, and then download them to a cheap 128 MB compact flash (that way I was also able to optimize the images to 640x480). Although it worked in the end, I discovered to my dismay that you can't simply store images on a memory card. The frame is extremely sensitive to files it does not understand, and often rejects cards that contains files it does not understand (e.g. a file called '.DSstore'). This is the first device I ever encountered that exhibits so ill-implemented functionality. Note that you allegedly *can* fill a card and have it's contents automatically transfer to the frame (the self-contradicting instructions can be found on Philip's web FAQ, and seem to work more often than not). Having the frame recognize a memory card ist still hit and miss. The simplest way I found after a lot of trial and error was to connect the frame to a computer with the memory card already inserted, and then mount the card via frame as a mass storage device. You then can transfer images to the memory card, and most of the time, it recognizese the images.
The frame also comes with a built-in 1 hour rechargeable battery. While this is a nice idea, 1 hour is nowhere near a usable time for anything but the shortest demonstrations. The frame is therefore usually used while connected to a power outlet.
Once you have set up the frame (which can be set in either landscape or portrait orientation, with the software automatically adjusting the images in the slide show - like modern cameras the frame has the ability to detect it's orientation), and downloaded images into albums, you can start it having display slideshows.
To switch between images you can either have it use random transitions that vary greatly in style (some nice, some flashy, some downright garish), or settle on a single transition. Unfortunately, the frame insist on varying the selected transition even then. If, for example, you choose a 'slide' transition for all images, the frame will then randomize the direction of the slide between all images. A fade transition (my favorite, as it is the most sublte) will, for no reason at all, alternate between an image crossfade, and fade-to-black. Since there currently is no obvious means to upgrade the frame's firmware, I'm a bit sceptic that the it's only a simple matter of upgrade to improve this situation.
The images themselves, even though they are scaled to exactly match the screen, usually look very good. Since this is the frame's primary function, I'm willing to award it 3 stars, and overlook the horrific user interface.
Still, the list of shortcomings is unusually long:
- organizing images using the frame's firmware means submitting to one of the worst user interfaces I've encountered recently. For example, to select images presented on a 5x5 grid for display, you can only use left/right to navigate, not up/down. If you have more than a few images, this gets annoying *fast*. Another example: If you end your selection on a deselected image, and press 'slideshow', the whole selection is forgotten, and all images are shown.
- the (Windows-only) PC software is only marginally better equipped to organize images. It can't, for example set up image-to-image transitions
- the PC software can't remotely control any of the frame's configuration/settings
- actually, the PC software can't be used to control anything that is shown in frame (e.g. show a particular image).
- As soon as you connect the fame to a PC, the frame blanks and shows an infomation screen. Sadly, this precludes any use of a PC to greatly improve the frame's usability (e.g. have it subsribe to an RSS feed, or use the PC's image library and continually feed it images from there like network mp3 players)
- transition between images still randomize some parameters (e.g. direction of slide), and can't be set to a fixed setting
- you can either randomize all transitions, or have only one; no way of using a selection of transitions
- there is no light sensor that adapts the frame to the current ambient light
- although you can use memory cards to store images, you must be careful not to mess up the file structure or include files the frame does not like. This is downright silly - even my printer can can access images stored arbitrarily on a card
- does not support RAW files an your cards
In summary I believe the frame is good once you got your images on it, and do not plan on changing it's contents often. It has some serious drawbacks, but the fact that you can store a limited amount of images on-frame, and that it can read memory cards without the aid of a computer is nice. It has some neat functionality (like self-timed on/off), but the software is by no means perfect. With these reservations I can recommend it to those that are willing to put up with the hassle the frame puts you through before you can actually use it.
What I would look for in future frames
- remote control capabilities from PC
- even better: a networked picture frame (preferrably wireless) that is simply a client to a PC-based image server (like networked mp3 players). This may be implemented as an additional image source
- much improved software both on-frame and PC
- improved battery life
Great digital frame December 28, 2006
Rick Groszkiewicz (Marietta, GA)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
This is a slick device that my wife has wanted to buy. We finally took the plunge and bought one.
One minor glitch is that this model does not support the Sony memory stick format. It would have been MUCH easier if I could have used my spare memory card for my Sony camera.
The software on the CD for moving pictures from a PC is pretty poor. I spent hours getting this to work. I put a detailed write-up on what I had to do at my web site, but I can't link to that from here.
Here is a summary of how to get photos from your PC to a slideshow on the Photo Frame:
1. Use Windows Explorer to copy the JPG files from your PC to the root directory on the Photo Frame
2. Use the Philips Photo Manager software to create multiple named photo albums on the Photo Frame
3. Use the software on the Photo Frame to move the photos from the default photo album to the desired photo album
4. Use the software on the Photo Frame to set up the Photo Slideshow options
After several hours of frustration, I was finally able to transfer pictures from my PC to the device. Here is how I did it.
First of all, the software that comes on the included CD-ROM is pretty flaky. You do need to install it in order to easily rename your photo albums (step 2 above). The software also allows you to copy files from the PC to photo albums on the Photo Frame device. After disconnecting the USB cable, the Photo Frame rarely was able to recognize the photos.
You need to go to the Philips web site, and download the newer version of the user manual. The newer manual has 70 pages, instead of the 20 page version on the CD-ROM.
The manual has a hint about the best way to copy files from the PC to the Photo Frame at the bottom of page 12. The previous text on page 12 says to use their Philips Photo Manager software program to copy the files from the PC to the Photo Frame. But that did NOT work for me.
Here is the text at the bottom of page 12 of the manual:
"Disconnect the USB cable. For Windows 2000 (and XP) systems, remember to safely remove hardware before disconnection. After a few seconds, all photos in the root directory will be automatically added to Photo Frame and the root directory will be emptied."
The way I got the photos to the Photo Frame was to connect the USB cable, and observe the various additional drive letters that appear in Windows Explorer. I copied the JPG files from the PC to the root directory on the Photo Frame.
Next, use the "Safely remove hardware" icon in the System tray. After Windows tells you it is "safe", unplug the Photo Frame. At this point, magic happens. You will see a notification as each picture file is copied. The firmware on the Photo Frame resizes the images to its default 720x540 resolution, and copies them to the default photo album. Then it deletes the original files from the root directory.
If you don't have many photo files, or the original JPG files are fairly small, this will go smoothly. I always take very high resolution pictures, so I got an "out of disk space" error message at this point. Apparently the Photo Frame can only hold about 12 MB of data!
The easy way way to get around this problem is to use a memory card to store the images, instead of copying them to the Photo Frame. As mentioned above, my camera uses Sony Memory Stick Duo Pro, which the Photo Frame does not support. I had to manually edit each image file (I used Paint Shop Pro), and resize it to the 720x540 resolution myself. This avoided the "out of disk space" error.
The procedure for moving the photos from the default album to another one is pretty easy. This uses the software that is built into the Photo Frame. It takes a while to get used to the navigation buttons, but it seems to work reliably.
 Fine digital frame December 16, 2006
Richard Gordon (Novato, CA USA)
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
I bought this for my wife. She loves it. Now we can have all our pictures available without proliferating frames all over the house. It has performed flawlessly. It has all the options we can use, but it took a little while to learn how to use it. We like the fact that you can have different sets of photos to choose from, so we can have vacation photos for showing to friends, and granddaughter photos for our own pleasure, and the frame can be set to cycle through just the photos in a particular set.
Wonderful hardware, terrible software December 18, 2007
Richard H. Martin (Columbia, MO USA)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
The Philips 9FF2M4 Photo Frame that is the object of this review (and I presume most of the 162 other reviews posted here) is a simply gorgeous hunk of hardware. Its sleek but hefty chrome and acrylic construction and its packaging almost make you think it was made by Apple. And once (if?) you get pictures loaded into the darn thing, it performs equally well (at least mine has... so far -- but read other reviews for more caveats).
That's the good news. Nearly all the rest is bad, or at least frustrating. Indeed, I finally found the clues I needed to get started overcoming Philips' astonishingly bad software by Googling "Philips Photo Frame" + "FRUSTRATION." Philips' poorly written documentation tells you to load photos from your computer using its Photo Manager software. Wrong. That may load a few photos, sometimes, but if your system is like mine (Windows XP with all the security and other patches installed) the process will either fail immediately or stall after loading a few. And once you discover how to work around that bug, your work has just begun.
If you accept the challenge of making it work despite all the obstacles Philips throws in your path, however, you'll find that part of the consumer experience with the Frame is actually kind of fun -- in between my curses and tantrums were any number of moments of wild exhilaration when I found that yet another work-around had overcome the lastest impasse. But if you can't spend the two days consumed by my effort to get the Frame working in time to be a Christmas gift, and you still want to buy the thing, the following notes that I made during my ordeal may be helpful.
Oh, one more caveat: from reading reviews of lots of other digital picture frames it seems clear that Philips has no monopoly on bugginess and frustration. And the most important factor in determining which one to take a chance on buying would appear to be confidence that you can return it when it doesn't work right!
How to make the Philips 9FF2M4 Photo Frame work:
1. Do NOT use it's Photo Manager software to load photos! It may load a few, or it may not. Work-arounds for this and most of Frame's various bugs:
2. Use Windows Explorer to copy the JPG files from your PC to the root directory of the Photo Frame ("Removable Disk I:" or whatever the lowest drive letter of the several ones belonging to the Frame that Windows will see plugged into the computer).
3. When loading has been completed disconnect Frame USB cable from computer. Frame will then say it is "uploading" the images you loaded into its root directory, counting as it goes along, resizing them when necessary, and automatically moving them to the default Photo Frame album.
4. Use Frame's firmware to move photos from the default album to another album on a memory card.
5. Use Frame's firmware to set up the Photo Slideshow options, rename or create new albums, etc. It works OK.
6. If a photo gives the Frame indigestion and it freezes when you hit [Photos][Photo Frame][Default album] and try to "navigate to the right to view your album thumbnail photos" here is what to do:
a. Stick a toothpick in the tiny reset hole (next to Power button). Frame will go black and then reboot itself.
b. Connect frame to computer, fire up Philips Photo Manager software (this much of it will work flawlessly), and delete the offending photo(s) from the Frame's Default album.
c. Load offending photo(s) into PhotoShop, [Save for web & devices...], uncheck the "Optimized" box, and [Save] as JPEG.
d. Now you can upload the "webbed" versions of the files that that froze the Frame into the root directory again and Frame will behave properly this time.
7. When you get through loading photos, even though you did everything right and all the photos seemed to load OK, some may show up as blanks when you view them in magnified form in the thumbnail window. They won't show up in a slideshow either. Not to worry; delete them and reload them into the root directory again. Chances are the second time will be the charm. If not, try "webbing" them (6.c above).
8. To get photos in the sequence you want them, create one or two work albums and shuffle photos from one to another using Frame's firmware "copy to" or "move to" functions.
It Makes Me Smile February 16, 2007
Grandma Diane (Somonauk, IL)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Based on other reviews I bought this digital frame to display photos on my entertainment center in the living room. It makes me smile every time I look at it! The software is hard to use and I never did figure out how to make the frame work with a memory card. The display is clear and you can see it from across the room. Even my 3 year old granddaughter is taken with it - she wondered why there was a tiny TV on the entertainment center. I have the frame set to automatically come on in the morning and go off at night and that feature is quite nice. The documentation that came with the frame should be reworked to make it user friendly. I work with computers and pictures as a pretty steady hobby and I had a hard time with the directions for this product. It was not intuitive like so many other computer related items. But I would buy it again - and in fact I gave my son one for Christmas and he loves it also. So, make yourself smile and buy one!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 68
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