Digital Spectrum MemoryFRAME MF-8104 Premium 10.4-Inch Wireless Digital Frame
| ||
 |
Product Description
The MF-8104 Wireless Digital Picture Frame from Digital Spectrum Solutions provides much more than a great way to display your pictures, watch movies and listen to music¿ The MF-8104 includes embedded Wi-Fi connectivity allowing you to connect the frame to your wireless network to receive images, news, sports scores, weather, financial updates and much more via the web. This digital picture frame has evolved into a dynamic personal display, capable of connecting to your home media server (with MediaPlayer 11 on Windows Vista or Windows XP), photo sharing and content sites on the web, and even a Bluetooth enabled cell phone (Bluetooth USB dongle add-on required). Designed to match any décor, the MF-8104 is compatible with 8¿ X 10¿ read-made frames, available at any frame store.
Feature
- 10.4¿ TFT LCD Display 800X600 with 2 Wood Frames, Cherry and Black
- Wi-Fi Connectivity, Web enabled. Receive emails, RSS feeds, news, sports, finance, more¿
- 256 MB memory, 4:3 aspect ratio, 4-in-1 card reader, USB XD Card Reader
- Display photos. Play photo slideshows, movies & music
- Built-in speakers, Dual USB, clock with date
Similar Products
CustomerReviews
Would not work with Flickr
I bought two MF-8104 frames as gifts. The set up was easy and connecting to my encrypted wireless network was straightforward. However, I could not get the frames to work with Flickr as advertised. I tried both frames, multiple different Flickr accounts and made sure all the Flickr account settings were public. The network was operating properly as I could reach other sites through the frame, but it kept returning a "Flickr login failed" message when attempting to access Flickr.
Customer support from the manufacturer seems to be non-existent, they have not returned my email as of this writing. A web search seemed to reveal two categories of experiences, those for whom Flickr seemed to work seamlessly and those who could not get Flickr working with the frame. For the people who could not get Flickr working, the only remedy seemed to be to return the frame, which is what I eventually did. The fact that I had two frames and neither would connect to either of two Flickr accounts made my decision to get a refund rather than try another frame.
This product is very tempting, it seemed to be the ideal "handsfree" product for grandparents once set up. Reports seem to indicate that operation with FrameChannel and Webshots is fine, but if you are a Flickr devotee I would stay away.
Wireless doesn't work
I bought this frame because it had the features, resolution and aspect ratio I wanted. I was nervous about buying a brand I had never heard of, and those fears turned out to be well-founded.
Althought the item was packed well, there was minor damage to both of the included wooden frames. Oh well...this is just how things are made these days. However, the wireless feature did not work which is a deal-breaker. Whenever I attempted to search for a wireless network, I received a message stating an "unexpected error had occurred." The only way to get it to go away was to power the frame off and on again. I thought a firmware update would correct the issue. Updating the firmware was a pain and did not fix the issue anyway. So, the frame is going back.
What a waste of time and a terrible Christmas gift. Pictures loaded from an SD card or USB device looked fine but I still would not recommend product.
I Like It So Far
This is my first Amazon review. I just received the MF-8104 and like it very much. The picture looks great and I set up the wireless connection with WPA2 security in about 10 minutes. Although the manual is not very informative, the setup is pretty intuitive. I have 2 problems. First, I can't seem to figure out how to make slideshows loop and the instructions do not offer any info on this. Second, the [...] that allows you to remotely upload photos to the frame does not seem to work. I have contacted customer support but have not heard back yet. Overall, the frame does what it says and has a nice picture. It is great being able to have the frame connect wirelessly to my computer to play photos that are in my Pictures folder.
I should have heeded the other reviews. Serious interface and design issues ruin what could have been a great product.
As an amateur photographer armed with a Nikon D80 I have taken over 7000 pictures in the last year. A good portion are throwaways but I still have 6300 images spanning 23 or so gigabytes on various computers in my house. I subscribe to Flickr and generally upload the"best" of the lot or pictures that my family might enjoy seeing. Digital image management has turned into something of a chore and since we rarely print our pictures anymore, my wife wanted an easy way to display pictures of family events. We thought that a digital picture frame might fit the bill. I wanted one with wireless capabilities that I could literally "set and forget". Point it to my Flickr account and have it pull images automatically for a slideshow. Frames with wireless capability are still somewhat rare and expensive and after doing all my web research, I decided to try the Digital Spectrum MF-8104. I read plenty of negative reviews but chalked them up to inexperience or unwillingness to intimately learn the intricacies of a complicated device. Well, I purchased one for our 24th anniversary and as it turns out, all the negative reviews were right on the money.
It arrived yesterday and was well packed and individual pieces were all wrapped and protected. The wood frame however was damaged, scratched right through the finish in three places and also dented and dinged at the bottom and sides. Strike one. I plugged the frame in turned it on and after a short boot-up period it came up to the main menu. I pulled the protective tab from the remote battery and attempted to use the IR remote to continue the setup. No response. Checked battery polarity, ok. Pulled the battery and checked it with a volt meter and it was very close to the rated 3VDC. So, dead remote. Strike two. I used the menu controls on top of the frame to continue with the setup and although clumsy, I got fairly adept at using them. Within 5 minutes I had the frame connected to my WAP, had done an automatic software update and input my Flickr user account name(password is not required). The frame dutifully began pulling down my images. Image quality was acceptable but resolution is only 800X600 @256K colors(18 bit). Color dithering is pretty bad when viewing images closely. Back to Flickr. I noticed that the slideshow started repeating fairly quickly. For some reason, if you select "all" images in the Flickr account setup, it was only pulling the first 30 or so out of 556. I don't understand why but I think it only displayed images without a tag or in a set. You would think that it would include everything in my account, but apparently not. Besides "all", you can also set it to only display pictures with tags or in a set and so I moved all 556 images into a new set called "frame" and was able to select and display them. It is supposed to auto update the image list when new pictures are added to my account. We'll see. A few more words on the interface. It's fairly horrible. There is no "back" or "up" button to navigate back one level in the menu. You have to hit "menu" again and start over from scratch. Also, you can set time and date, which I did. I then found a "sync clock" setting which I used and then noticed that the clock was an hour slow. I checked the time zones and had set it to Eastern Standard Time (US). There was no Eastern Daylight Time setting, so clock sync via network will only work correctly when not using daylight savings time. I searched, read the user manual and could not find a "daylight savings time" setting anywhere. An onerous omission.
Another serious problem is that the frame won't read pictures that are anywhere but the root directory on your flash media. My wife asked if she could view her pictures from a recent trip. It's a Sony camera that uses Memory Sticks and like most cameras, it puts its pictures into a folder on the MS. Even though the box states Memory Sticks are supported, there is no built-in reader for them. Ok, no problem, I took the reader from my computer and plugged it into the USB port on the frame. It scanned the MS and then stated that it couldn't find any pictures. That's a serious Strike Three and an unbelievable omission. Didn't they think that people would pull their flash media from their cameras and stick it into the frame for immediate viewing? Do they seriously expect that you would want to move all of your pictures around on your flash media first?
Another minor issue is that the power connector end of the power cord (which looks exactly like a laptop power supply)has a 90 degree bend. If you hang the frame on the wall in the "landscape" position, all the weight of the cords and brick (depending on how high you hang it) will be pulling on that bend and I can guarantee that the cord will break eventually. Bad design.
I was on the fence about RMAing this back to my e-tailer (and eating shipping both ways) but the more I think about the serious flaws coupled with the premium price the more I am resolved to sending it back.
On a plus note their tech support answered the phone within minutes and agreed to send a new remote and wood frame...
**Update**- Still have not gotten my replacement remote control or wood frame. They just released a firmware update V.2.2.5.0 on 5/19/08 that fixes 2 of the major flaws. There is now a Daylight Savings Time setting and the frame now reads pictures directly from subdirectories on flash media. Still on the fence about RMAing it. My e-tailer wants a 15% restocking fee.
The fundermentals are good
I bought this for my mother after very careful research into all the frames on the market. When you boil it down you need
1. A good looking picture - has that
2. Wireless - so she can see the pictures without having to download, get emails etc. I found it easy to set up. The frame updated itself afterwards which improved the interface.
3. Good integration with picture sharing sites - let's face it Flickr is the the best and so having that built in is essential.
4. It carries on where it left off - other frames don't do this. Why the should the user have to tell the frame to pictures from the internet every time you turn it on - that's madness. So if your set it to use Flickr then it will do that even after you turn it on and off again. Plus you can set it to goto sleep at night and wake up in the morning, saving power and the screen.
I found the remote worked well, it's no different than my Bose remote that's 10 years old and still working fine.
More Info: BestSeller Digital Spectrum MemoryFRAME MF-8104 Premium 10.4-Inch Wireless Digital Frame