Coby 1.5-Inch Digital TFT LCD Photo Keychain DP151WHT (White) by Coby
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Digital camera reviews of Coby 1.5-Inch Digital TFT LCD Photo Keychain DP151WHT (White)
Digital camera Review: Awful photo keychain - you get what you pay for
Summary: 1 Stars
This device is awful. The picture quality is pretty grainy, and the software included is just about useless. It appears some reviewers had more luck than others with this keychain. I had a lot of problems getting the photos to upload to the keychain. I outlined the steps I used to get it to work. For me, on Windows XP using the provided Windows software, that was the only way I could get the uploads to work.
The PhotoViewer Desktop software has horrible navigation. The menus are very confusing and the phrases used haven't been grammar checked. "Upload completely!" for "Upload complete", for example. "Upload completely!" makes me think they want me to do something additional to ensure that the photos get "uploaded completely!" It makes it very difficult to do what should be very simple. About 1 hour of quality control on Coby's part could have made this process much easier and more intuitive.
For two days, the upload to the keychain kept failing. The only message on the computer screen was "Upload failed". Nothing more, no explanation, etc.
I eventually figured out that the upload is three separate processes:
1) select the pictures you want to load from your hard drive
2) move those to a "staging" location (again in the desktop software)
3) upload to keychain
If you don't do each of these things, it doesn't work.
*******STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS FOR GETTING THE UPLOAD TO WORK:******
1) load the PhotoViewer Desktop software off the CD BEFORE connecting the keychain. If the software will not load onto your computer, try selecting the "remove" option when you put in the CD, and attempt to reload the software.
2) Connect the keychain. When you connect it, you should get two menu choices "USB Charge" and "USB Upload". Select "USB Upload".
BEWARE: If you try to start the photoviewer program without connecting the keychain, you get the message "Can't find any photoviewer, or another program owns it. The program will exit!". Once again, horrible grammar. What this apparently means is that you have not connected the keychain to the computer via the mini-USB link. Therefore, the software will not start. Digital camera companies resolved such issues about 10 years ago.
SUGGESTION: You may have to charge the keychain overnight (at least 4 hours) first, close the software on your computer, reconnect the keychain, select "USB Upload", and then launch the software for all of this to work. I know that is a mouthful, but try it exactly that way, and it worked.
3) Once your keychain is charged, the PhotoViewer Desktop software is loaded, launch the PhotoViewer software. It should start.
BASICS ON NAVIGATION OF DESKTOP SOFTWARE: The left half of the software screen is where you select pictures from your desktop and upload them to the PhotoViewer software (not to your keychain!). The right half of the software screen is where you select the pictures from the left side that you want to "stage" for your keychain (again, it does NOT upload to your keychain, although the menu messages imply otherwise).
4) Select the photos you want to move to the software using the the yellow folder button that is called "Select images from disk". Select the pictures you want. You can hold down the shift or control key to select multiple pictures (Shift, click on the first picture, click on the last picture, or control, and click on only the pictures you want)These are "loaded" on the left half of the screen.
5) Click on the "Add selected images to device" button (it is on the left side of the screen). BEWARE: This does not mean the pictures are being added to your device. It actually means that it is "copying" the pictures to the right side of the screen, from where you will eventually be able to upload them to your keychain.
6) IMPORTANT: Save the album to your hard drive by clicking on the "Save images to local disk" button. Save the pictures to a new folder (I called it keychain pictures). It will not remove them from your original locations. The pictures did not upload for me if I did not do this. Once you save them, they are converted to BMP files.
7) Close the PhotoViewer Desktop software.
8) Disconnect and reconnect the keychain again. Select "USB Upload" from the two menu choices.
9) Start the PhotoViewer Desktop software again. Open the pictures from the recent location where you saved them. (again you can use the shift key to "select all" the pictures - click on the first picture in the folder, hold down the shift key, click on the last picture in the folder).
10) Again, Click on the "Add selected images to device" button (it is on the left side of the screen). When you close and open the desktop software, it does not save where you were before. AGAIN, BEWARE: This does not mean the pictures are being added to your device. It actually means that it is "copying" the pictures to the right side of the screen, from where you will eventually be able to upload them to your keychain.
11) NOW, FINALLY, Click on the "Download images" button on the far right side at the top of the right side of the screen. It should finally start the upload. Again, horrible grammar. "Download images" actually means "upload images to keychain".
12) You will get the message "Upload completely!". This means the upload to your keychain is done.
13) Unplug the keychain from the USB. The pictures should start to scroll automatically. If you want to adjust menu settings, click on the top middle button on the key chain.
I know this is a lot, but when I did this, it worked for me repeatedly and I was able to load up 3 different keychains. I wouldn't buy these again, that being said. These were a gift.
Digital camera Review: BEST MOTHERS DAY PRESENT EVER!
Summary: 4 Stars
Who would have thought a $10 gift would be the most cherished out of all Mothers Day gifts? It took me a few trys to get the download process down, but once I did, it takes less than 5 minutes to upload each. The mothers love it!Digital camera Review: Bad choice for Christmas gift!
Summary: 1 Stars
Wanted to load with pictures of the kids for my wife and sister for Christmas. Spent hours trying to get the software to load using the USB cable provided but to no avail. Finally the next day I called Coby Tech Support for assistance. Well you can guess from the other reviews that they should NOT be called Tech support as they are NOt technical at all. The best answer I got from them was to jam the USB cable into the keychain with all my might and hope for the best. If that didn't work them just return it as this is a known problem with these keychains that the USB cable stinks and doesn't work properly. The software loaded fine but they need to redesign the whole USB thing to make this a better product.Digital camera Review: Bought Several - Several Failed
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought my first Coby keychain in Oct. of 2007 to load with pictures of our new granddaughter so that I could show them to other family members I was going to visit in another state. After looking at what was in the keychain, I flew to AZ and showed the pics to our daughter & her family. The next day, she wanted to see the pics again. This time, the unit would not turn on. Later it came on with a blue screen.
Upon returning to WA I reloaded the keychain, charged the battery for 24 hours (the charging indicator just flashes and didn't show the amount of charge). After that, the unit worked once, then the blue screen. Another time it blew out all the pics I'd entered, but left the two it came with intact. Another time it had many of my pics with tears and missing pixels in the display.
Thinking I had a one-in-a-million defect, I returned the unit and took a refund - the store had no more in stock. But I liked the idea so I ordered 6 more for gifts for family members.
Now, four months later, one failed almost immediately and was returned for refund. Two more failed within a month but were not returned to me so I don't know what garbage can they ended up in. Of the other three gifts, when I ask about them I get responses like, "Gee, Dad, I haven't had time to load mine up yet." Kids!
In summary, out of seven units I bought, four failed within the first month and I don't know what has happened to the other three.
One final word, the software that came with it was slow and clumsy to use. It wouldn't even run on one Windows XP machine, even though it ran on my machine which uses the same version of Windows.Coby 1.5-Inch Digital Photo Keychain (White)
Digital camera Review: Broken when opened
Summary: 1 Stars
This product says that it can be used with a mac...but the installation disk could not be used with my mac. I learned that the software can be downloaded from coby's website for anyone else having this problem.
Then I tried hooking it up to install pictures. Went through the process and it wouldn't work. As soon as I went to sync the product with my computer and download the pictures onto the device the software would shut down and no pictures would be installed. I called Coby and they gave me a few troubleshooting tips...none of which worked. When I called back they said that the item must have been defective and to return it through amazon.
Company seems OK, but you need to call to get a return authorization number before sending it back. I have not been able to do so yet so can't comment.