Not All Digital Picture Frames are Created Equal
Pros:
Price, easy User Interface!
Cons:
Picture Quality, Frame Quality.
The Bottom Line:
Stay away from this unit if you want quality pictures!
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
This is the first digital picture frame I have ever bought. I had no prior exposure to or experience with them. I have however owned several digital cameras and many computers/monitors.
I purchased the Coby digital picture frame from ecost.com for $59.00 (just discovered they offered a $10 rebate during Thanksgiving weekend!!! Doh!). The price seemed like an exceptional value so I took the plunge. I figured it'd be a great present to my mom after I loaded hundreds of family photos on the 1gb SD card I purchased along with it. The contrast ratio of 300:1 sounded good since others stated 250:1. The picture frame itself is very cheap looking. The black plastic frame housing the digital picture frame is totally lacking in quality! However, you get what you pay for!
I loaded a few hi-res pictures (~800kb each) onto the SD card then tested it. The picture quality is absolutely horrid! I showed it to my bro-in-law who is an expert in the audio/visual/electronics field. That's when I learned the importance of resolution and pixels...same as with computer monitors! He said 640x480 was much clearer, and 800x600 is fantastic! That's when I looked at the box and discovered to my dismay that this unit is 480x234!
Nevertheless, I decided to continue loading the sharpest pictures I could find. After almost 3 hours of downloading, the SD card got an error and half the files were corrupted! I can't necessarily blame the Coby picture frame for this. However, this did not bode well!
After reformatting the memory stick, I spent another 2.5 hours loading 297 pics again! I plugged the frame in to see the results. I was sooo disappointed I decided to research digital picture frames in Consumer Reports before buying a replacement. After all, this was going to be a Christmas present for my mom with hundreds of family photos so I wanted it to be special.
Bottom line, if you aren't picky about picture quality, this unit will suffice...especially for $49! If you want quality however, steer clear of the DP-758.
