digital picture frames

[MoeMoe]

so Santa gave me one of these...It says it holds 3K pics. I have a bunch in my camera and have downloaded them to my computer, but they are still in the camera. . When I take the memory card out and put it into the frame, it says "no pictures"....while I have at least 100 there. So..if you download them from the camera...do they leave the memory card? I tried it 10X..the directions are very simple, and says a bunch of small frame pics should come up once the memory card is inserted. thanks all.

[Tony]

That may be because the camera stores the pictures inside other folders, and the frame is just looking at the root folder. But the pics in the camera are likely way too large to just give to the frame as-is. At the original file sizes it won't hold nearly as much as when you resize them smaller.

First, determine the exact proportions of the frame screen - should be in the user manual. Then batch resize your digital pics to match. Then copy them all to the root folder on the frame. I suppose you can use the same card that goes in the camera, but clearly that's not a long term solution.

Hard to be more specific without the make and model and user manual. Isn't there a troubleshooting section in the manual?

[LFE]

Make sure you make a back up copy of all the pics on your computer.... format the card and then just dump a few pics rgiht onto it making sure they are in .jpg format (if your camera stores RAW pics... the digital frame may not work).

In general, I have found them to be pretty easy to use, but I only used a couple of them.
good luck...

[MoeMoe]

Ummmmmmm. Tony...I dont know what a root folder on the frame is....:) and LFE . when I click on format the card, that says it would erase the whole card....and I am not sure how to put them back on the card from the computer.Can the small card go in the comouter somewhere? I have most of my pictures on the computer. Its a Nikon Cool pix camera, and some frame from brookstone...it also says it scans photo's but i didnt get to that yet.

[LazerFlash]

That may be because the camera stores the pictures inside other folders, and the frame is just looking at the root folder.The firmware in most frames doesn't just look in root dirs. FWIW, I have had several frames since they've come out and every one - even the cheapoes - will identify image file types anywhere on the memory card.

Putting all images in the root dir is pretty limiting, as well. Consider that most use FAT for directory management and there is a functional limit on the number of files storable in a root dir under that system, (512, I think).


But the pics in the camera are likely way too large to just give to the frame as-is. At the original file sizes it won't hold nearly as much as when you resize them smaller.

First, determine the exact proportions of the frame screen - should be in the user manual. Then batch resize your digital pics to match. Then copy them all to the root folder on the frame.Now, that's good advice. Even with the really large SD cards available for only a few dollars, it's much smarter (and faster) to presize your framed pictures. Even higher end frames take some time to do this on-the-fly. Also, most frames come with software that will 'optimize' pictures for display.


I suppose you can use the same card that goes in the camera, but clearly that's not a long term solution.You can buy a couple of 8gb high-speed, high-quality SD cards at Costco for under 30bucks. It's much smarter to have a card for each device than to share... Too much chance of screwing something up when sharing.

[LFE]

and LFE . when I click on format the card, that says it would erase the whole card....and I am not sure how to put them back on the card from the computer.Can the small card go in the comouter somewhere? I have most of my pictures on the computer.

So what do you do when the card is full? Hopefully you don't just keep buying new ones as you mentioned the pics are on your computer as well. Make a back up from your computer (use an external hard drive or burn them to CD/DVD's)... then you can format the card and not care about losing them as you will only lose the copy on card.

I never saw a picture frame that scans. Hopefully you bought and own what you really wanted...

[Tony]

Hopefully you bought and own what you really wanted...I believe she said it was a gift. But without a model number (better, a link to the manual), there's not too much else we can suggest.

I too am intrigued at the concept of a frame that 'scans' photos. I doubt adding a small camera to one would raise the price more than $50 or so. Just tell it to take a picture, hold a picture in front of it, and say "snap" and there ya go.

PS I'm also amazed some of them actually scan subfolders for pics automatically, if that's what LF was saying. It then assembles all the photos on the card into a slideshow, regardless how deep they're buried? How deep can FAT16 go?

[MoeMoe]

http://www.brookstone.com/digital-picture-frames_digital-picture-frame-scanner.html?bkiid=subCategoryLandingPage_Electron ics_Digital_Photography_Digital_Frames|C4CategoryP rodList1FDT|8886277 yes, it does scan...its very cool, and works in seconds. It also includes a sleeve, to put old possibly damaged pics in, so they slide thru easily. I also got a slide scanner thing. My Mom took 10000000K pics, and when she passed, I now have them all and half are old slides. I havent opened that wonderful thing yet.

[LFE]

I'm not so certain that FAT16 is a limiting factor (that is so 1980's :-)
- Although we could figure it out... how many directories deep would one really want to go?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table

I would also be surprised if the tools on these devices "assembles" anything on the card as that would require a lot of extra space. A quick guess, having set a few of these things up for folks... would indicate that the code is generally smart enough to scan different directories (start at the top like the C: drive) and if the next level does not contain another dir then search contents for .jpg, .jepg, .gif or what ever. If no files exist that it can display, keep searching for other directories and files.

MM - If you have a DVD player that supports .jpg
- Try coping the disk from your camera to a CD or DVD with the pics on it and see if that can read the files?

Just another thought. Great point from Tony below is to include a model number and type for the device in question.
Google it and your camera together and you might find some known issues (I have yet to have any problems with Nikon, Sony or Panasonic cameras and these types of things... however you never know and its worth searching on).


I believe she said it was a gift. But without a model number (better, a link to the manual), there's not too much else we can suggest.

I too am intrigued at the concept of a frame that 'scans' photos. I doubt adding a small camera to one would raise the price more than $50 or so. Just tell it to take a picture, hold a picture in front of it, and say "snap" and there ya go.

PS I'm also amazed some of them actually scan subfolders for pics automatically, if that's what LF was saying. It then assembles all the photos on the card into a slideshow, regardless how deep they're buried? How deep can FAT16 go?

[MoeMoe]

So what do you do when the card is full? UUmmmmmm, it has never told me the card is full.....is this the problem? and when I take the card out and put it in the frame, it says there are no pictures. I have sooo many actual photo's to keep me busy at the moment, but this baffles me.

[LFE]

" Next I wanted to load up some images from my camera. So I put some images on a CF card and stuck it into the frame. At first I could not find a way to see them or transfer them to the frame, that is until I remembered that I selected internal memory when I first turned on the frame. Since there isn’t an easy way to switch to a different memory I had to turn the frame off and then on again before I could tell the frame to look at the pictures on the card. Once I had selected the card I was shown the same main screen, but this time I selected “Photos” and was shown all the images on my card. If I then pressed the settings button it gave me the option to transfer the current image to the frames internal memory. This process was easy and fairly quick, but I have hundreds of images and it would take forever to transfer them all one at a time. A mass copy feature is something that would be very useful. In addition, I think it is silly to make people switch between the different memory types. It should be like a computer and just show them all."

http://www.justechn.com/2010/06/04/review-iconvert-8-digital-frame-with-built-in-scanner

[LFE]

UUmmmmmm, it has never told me the card is full.....is this the problem? and when I take the card out and put it in the frame, it says there are no pictures. I have sooo many actual photo's to keep me busy at the moment, but this baffles me.

At some point, you will not be able to take more pictures with your camera (the disk you are trying to store them to will be full and you will have to do something about it, unless of course your camera is just getting rid of the old by replacing new photos over the oldest ones. I have yet to find a camera that does this.. however its not a terrible idea)...

Pretty neat looking device. Hopefully my last update helps (the device is most likely trying to find pics on the internal disk and not looking at the compact flash card).

[MoeMoe]

wow...thanks for the review LFE..I will try again....I also have one bad thing to say abt this frame....it has to be used with a remote control....the remote is so tiny...it can certainly get lost, it would have been a good idea to make a place on the frame to store it. I am wondering if the card I have just isnt supported by this frame...I will look at it again in a bit. I am alsosurprised it says you can download pictures from the computer to the frame with the USB cord...I thought the instructions said not to do this...better read again :) thanks all.

[LFE]

Remote:
Normally I say duct tape is the answer.. however in this case:
http://www.velcro.com/

np on the post as it seemed reasonable. Worth noting is that you should consider copying the pics you really like to the internal memory and or a single flash card you use just for this device if the internal memory is not large enough for ya.


wow...thanks for the review LFE..I will try again....I also have one bad thing to say abt this frame....it has to be used with a remote control....the remote is so tiny...it can certainly get lost, it would have been a good idea to make a place on the frame to store it. I am wondering if the card I have just isnt supported by this frame...I will look at it again in a bit.

[Tony]

"Select a Storage Device" appears on page 14 of the manual, but it seems unlikely you would have missed that as it comes up when you turn the device on.