Smartparts SPX8 8-Inch Syncpix Digital Picture Frame by SmartParts
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Digital camera reviews of Smartparts SPX8 8-Inch Syncpix Digital Picture Frame
Digital camera Review: Good product - optimizes photos to squeeze more, lots of features, note for Macs
Summary: 4 Stars
RECENT UPDATE:
Recent uses of the picture frame with my latest MacBook Pro doesn't seem to cause the problems I had before. So things might not be as bad and more cross-platform friendly now. Finder Cleaner is still there if you have a problem.
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ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW:
Originally I had trouble loading pictures with the frame crashing/freezing or only processing at best the first photo on the card. I called Smartparts tech support this morning at 9am and got through just after a short wait. After confirming that my firmware was indeed up-to-date, the tech narrowed my problem to the hidden files that Mac OS X leaves on media. He recommended the utility FinderCleaner to remove those files while ejecting the media so that they don't get in the way. After this...it had no problem with loading photos automatically.
Having seen other quibbles about the delay in loading, I think folks have to consider what this frame is doing when it is optimizing your photos. This delay is worth the benefit of not having to preoptimize photos or being penalized with storing only a few photos at full size.
It would be great of course if the firmware could be updated to handle these Mac differences and that the Optipix software could run natively on OS X. (To customize Album names and pictures).
Well that's my early review.
Digital camera Review: Good product; but, NOT for an Apple Mac user
Summary: 2 Stars
Trying to load photos on this DPF from an Apple Mac will cause you to 'pull your hair out'. It is not impossible; but, very close to impossible !!Digital camera Review: Good resolution, so-so interface
Summary: 4 Stars
I had purchased Smartparts' other 8" frame, the SP8EM as a gift for my mother, and was really impressed with the picture quality. I decided to buy one for my office, but bought this model instead to get the motion sensor.
The resolution is just as good, but it is a little too bright, and as far as I can tell, this isn't adjustable.
The motion sensor is a little flakey, but I think it works ok most of the time. The angle of view of the sensor seems to be very narrow, so you can be looking at the frame, but just off to the side, and it will turn off. I've come in to work many times and it is on, there's no way for me to know if someone walked by or if it never turned off.
I put some videos on the memory card in the same folder as pictures, but it has never played them. I haven't investigated further.
I don't like the way this frame wants to copy the files to internal memory each time it is powered on. Can't turn this off, though. The 1GB card I bought for it cost me $8, so why bother with internal memory? You can resize all your pics very quickly yourself with a free utility such as Irfanview or Picasa.
The stand on this frame is really annoying, it falls off everytime you pick up the frame. So dumb. The stand on the SP8EM is very different and much better.
This frame has frozen a couple of times. It just gets stuck on a picture and never moves to the next. Reboot and it is ok. Hasn't done this in a while.
Overall, I like the SP8EM better, and would recommend that one unless you need the motion sensor. I'd bet money that the one I gave my mother was turned off and was never turned on again...
Digital camera Review: Great Frame and Picture Quality with One Major Flaw!
Summary: 4 Stars
After doing extensive research on other brands, we settled on this frame because of the price and features. After we bought it, we were pleasantly suprised to learn it is rated the highest by Consumer Reports magazine, and now we know why.
The picture quality is excellent. I started off with a free frame (gift) from another manufacturer that had half this resolution, and it did not give my pictures justice. Upgrading to this frame made a difference in the world to my picture quality. Do not buy anything less than 800x600, or your pictures just won't look good.
My favorite feature about this frame is the auto-sizing software available as a free download from the manufacturer's website. All you do is download it onto your computer, and any pictures you have on your hard drive will automatically be resized when transferred to your frame using the software.
One user complained about how slow it was transferring from a memory card onto the frame. This is because the frame automatically resizes your pictures to 800x600. This does take a little longer, but saves you hours of manually resizing your photos for the frame, so this *IS NOT* a flaw.
The one and only flaw I experienced (and maybe I have a defective unit) was I spent 2 hours copying thousands of photos onto the internal memory in the picture frame. So, I went and took more pictures with my digital camera, and slipped the memory card into the frame. I hit "copy" so it would copy from my card onto the internal memory. Little did I know, and the manual *DOES NOT* say this, but doing this will override any existing pictures on the memory. You can imagine how FURIOUS I was when I discovered that the thousands of photos I had stored on the frame were completely wiped out, and in their place were the 13 pictures I had copied. Please test this feature out first to see if it is indeed working on your unit before you find out the hard way, like I did. I plan on writing customer service about this (and hope I can get someone who speaks understandable English)
and seeing if this is a known flaw. The workaround on this would be to load the photos on your card onto your PC, then load them onto the internal picture frame. This is a major inconvenience, in my opinion.
I have not tried the movie files feature on this yet because it does not support the version my camera uses, and I am too lazy to figure out how to convert the movie files.
The sound is pretty decent, and adding mp3's to the slideshow is such a neat feature.
I also love the motion sensor on this frame. I never have to remember to turn the frame on and off.
All in all, this is a wonderful picture frame for ease of use, picture quality, and overall features. I would have rated it a 5 if not for the one serious flaw I mentioned. As a matter of fact, if this frame did not shine in the other areas I mentioned, I would have rated it less than a 4 because of the serious flaw. But, it has many saving graces, so a 4 is suitable, in my humble opinion. I will post an update from customer service once I hear back from them. I hope it will be easily fixed with a future firmware upgrade, etc.
****UPDATE**** 12/22/07 - I didn't get anywhere with customer service, but found out on my own when you insert a memory card and copy it to your frame, IT DOES NOT wipe out your existing pictures as originally thought.
It just overrides them with the new pictures and will not display the old pictures until you delete the new ones out. At this point, the old pictures are not listed on any menu when viewing from the frame. You have to hook up your frame to your computer, and navigate around until you see a folder in the software called "Spart Pic Software." This is where the old pictures are placed. Why this folder is not on the frame itself is beyond me, and why you have to hook up the frame to a computer to even see it is even dumber. And why this is NOT mentioned anywhere in the manual is just even stupider! (Is that even a word?) This is still a major flaw in my opinion. Why can't it just simply add the new pictures into the existing pictures folder without creating all of these inconvenient problems???? This is something I hope they fix with a firmware update.
Digital camera Review: Great Frame and Picture, Flawed Firmware
Summary: 4 Stars
Smartparts SPX8 8-Inch Syncpix Digital Picture FrameThis is a fine frame with outstanding picture quality and provision for automatically resizing photos to the 800x600 display quality. This permits close to 3000 pictures to be stored in the 256mb internal memory. The 4x3 window size is much better than 16x9 when portrait photos are intermixed with landscape oriented photos. The firmware, however has a serious flaw in how the motion detection feature operates. The frame turns itself off after a period of time which is selectable by the user. The problem is that when it turns back on in response to motion, it returns to the beginning of the picture sequence instead of resuming at the point where it turned off. Consider 3000 photos at 3 seconds each is 2.5 hours viewing time. You will never see the end of the picture sequence unless you set the motion detection delay longer than the single session viewing time.