Great frame, but sub-par software
357734
I like this frame a lot. It's constructed really well and my photos look great on it. The onboard controls are good enough and they disappear gracefully when not in use. The frame supports all kinds of memory cards as well as a USB port for a thumb drive. And of course it supports Wi-Fi which is terrific. I have it downloading pictures from my Picasa Web Albums.

Unfortunately, the software that comes with the frame is not very good. It runs really slowly and is not very intuitive. That's not devastating because I decided to use Kodak's framechannel.com site to configure feeds for the frame. It's not great, but it works much better than the software. With either one, the menus and work-flow are frustrating at best.

The bottom-line : It works great for displaying photos loaded on a memory card or on a computer in my house. But it falls short of reasonable expectations when used to display photos from the internet.
1149544
I received the Philips Digital Photo Frame a few weeks ago. After loading some of my pictures into it, I was immediately impressed by how well it displayed my photos despite the frames resolution limitation of 720 x 540. The screen also has impressively high contrast; blacks are very black and whites are very white. There is an interesting side effect to the screens high contrast; many photos actually have a layered look to them that simulates depth in the photos. To me that is very impressive.

The frame makes transferring images to it quite easy. You can either connect it directly to your computer via a USB cable or you can use any of a variety of flash memory cards (SD, Smart Media, etc.). But what is really nice about the process of transferring your photos to the frame is that when you go to transfer them it automatically adjusts the image's size to fit into the 720 x 540 pixel limitation of the frame. You don't have to do any resizing to save space on the frame, you simply choose which photos you want to transfer over and let the frame do the rest.

The frames operation can be customized to do a random slide show or to go through your photos in order. It also uses various types of wipes to transition between your photos. The delay between photos can be adjusted anywhere from 5 seconds to a full day. One of the most import features though is that you set a on and off time for it so you can trust that it isn't running during the day when you aren't at home to look at it.

Overall, I have been very impressed with this frame. The picture quality has proved to be exemplary and I found it very easy to set up. The only thing I can find that I would like to improve is to make the auto on/off feature a bit more customizable. It would be better if it would allow you to set different times for different days. However, that is a pretty small concern.
3389789
Good:
Pictures are nice and bright with good contrast.

Bad:
1) There does not seem to be any logic to the order of photos in Slideshow mode.  I renumbered the photos according to date, but the frame plays one series of photos, then another block, then another block, but not strictly in an ascending sequence.
2) The photos do not resize to fit the entire screen.  Small photos, like from Skype that have been converted to jpeg, are really small on the screen.  Same if you use small photos sent to you by email (640x480), they'll show up smaller than full screen.  No menu option to correct this like my other digital frames.
3) I prefer real buttons after trying this "touch screen" display.  Too much latency in the response and too many multiple functions on some buttons.

I tried on-line chat with Viewsonic Customer Service, but useless.  I thought there might be new firmware to fix the issues (frame indicates Version 1.0.0), but they said they couldn't help me.  Reana was the CS, so if you get her, good luck

Coby has been the best frame I've purchased so far (800x600, 4:3, 8-inch), so you might check them out instead.
891679
First I'd like to start off by saying that anyone leaving a negative review for this frame is likely comparing it to a high end item.  Sure you can find a larger, higher resolution screen with more features however, you will easily be paying 3-4 times the price for it.

I originally purchased one as a gift for a technologically challenged grandmother who lives out state.  That being the case, I had to have it shipped to me so I could load the SD card and type up step by step procedures for turning it on if need be.  (This is a woman who required 2 pages of written instructions when I bought her first VCR as gift.)  I had read the mixed reviews but thought I'd give it a chance as (1) she wouldn't expect much nor could she utilize much, and (2) the price point.

Upon first opening the package I was impressed with the build quality, which was much better than I anticipated.  It's an attractive minimalist design which does collect finger prints but it's a picture frame, not a phone, how much will you actually be playing with it?  There is an included AC adapter, a usb port, an SD card slot, buttons for power, menu, select, and a round directional pad.  The attached kickstand is multi-directional for standing in portrait or landscape mode.

I loaded an SD card that I had laying around with about 100 or so photos saved in different resolutions and slid it into the side of the unit.  Upon powering on it immediately began playing in slideshow mode with random transitions.  (Nice! That's one step I don't have to spell out in her customized instruction manual.)  It did a adequate job in the auto-fit mode adjusting each photo for display.  I've read some reviews that claimed the unit would not display any photos edited in Picasa, I edit the majority of photos with it and had no issue, all the images that I saved on the card displayed as expected.

For those that require a little more, there is a calendar/clock mode with a 'PIP' slideshow, and lots of other features, transitions, and settings which can be adjusted from within the intuitive menu.

The screen resolution is just right for the size of the frame, as long as you are displaying decent quality images you should have no problems or complaints.

I was so pleased with the value that I immediately purchased one more for another gift.  After the holiday expenditures have subsided I will probably also pick one up for myself for use in my home office.
797658
These make a nice frame for your prize photo prints without stealing the show.  Especially nice for B & W prints.  And they come ready to hang in either the landscape or portrait positions as most all frames do.  But two caveats.
  1)  The retainer tabs that hold the picture and mat in place are a bitch to deal with getting out and putting back in, more so than with any other frame I have dealt with.
  2) The frame's glass is extremely thin making it very easy to break.  One of the frames I ordered, in fact, arrived with the glass already broken even though it was very securely packaged and cushioned.
Overall handsome frames but over priced in my opinion given these to deficiencies.
379641
This is a great looking frame with a beautiful screen. I thought the 160 ppi screen sounded anemic at first, but in hand it looks great, and you're never gonna look at a frame closer than 12 inches anyways. Gotta remember that this was the same res the original 3.5 inch iPhone came in and that was good enough for quite a few years.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of issues with the design of this frame, which makes me believe it will probably be discontinued/ updated pretty soon. First of all, the remote works well and is quite responsive, however, it's a square shape and completely symmetrical. You will never know which way is up unless you glanced at it, which isn't a problem most of the time, but if you were to use this thing in the dark, well, good luck! You can probably put some tape on it so you can tell by touch which way is up, but it's just a ridiculous design choice that makes me wonder if they hired somebody from craigslist to do this.

On the software side, things work but are quite a bit buggy. There's no way to have the photo fit the frame perfectly, it's either panning constantly or scaled to fit the screen, which means black bars on the sides or top. A zoom to fit/ center option would be the best way to view the pictures, so I hope nix play adds this option later on.
Their website only works on a desktop, my samsung galaxy s6 and galaxy tab pro won't work with it, which is a shame, but no big deal. There's no way to reorder images once they're in a playlist. Well, you can drag and drop to reorder, but you can only do that one pic at a time, and the interface is so sluggish that it'll probably take an hour to move a dozen pics around (my iMac crashed TWICE in 20 minutes trying to view my playlist, so something weird is going on there).

The remote and software is just a minor issue though, compared to the elephant in the room: the one piece stand/ usb power cable that is its "selling point." Ugh. This thing is a disaster. The cable is like a rigid bungee cord that doesn't bend easily, like Indiana Jones/ whip sticking out of your picture frame. As a stand, it's pathetic, and the frame will topple over if you touch any part of it, and as a power cord, it's just an unmanageable mess. This frame is not wall mountable, so if you plan on putting it on a desk or nightstand, you better clear up a lot of space, because this cord is gonna need its own clearing since you can't just let it dangle off to the side like every other little cord out there that can just go over and around everything else conveniently. I don't know who's responsible for this design, but Nixplay is gonna need to get a new designer fast and come up with a new model before people start moving on to the next brand, quick!

Update: I purchased the Edge 13 inch to replace this. It's way overpriced, incredibly slow (it takes about 4 seconds to get to the next picture whereas the seed only takes 1 when you hit the next button in the remote), and the remote is terrible, requiring perfect line of sight in order to work, but it's widescreen and doesn't have the usb cable stand issue. It's a hard decision but I think I'll be keeping the sluggish edge over the seed just due to those 2 benefits alone.
3473785
Really enjoy using the Frame.  Had a chance to work with their customer support -- Mac from the customer support at Nixplay was excellent and quickly resolved the issue. Great Job!!!
1914178
The picture frame has a lot of features and is user friendly.  The frame has the ability to wirlessly scan your network and collect photos, videos and music for playing.  Basically you can play items from its internal memory, SD/Memory cards attached, Your Kodak Gallery Albums, Flickr or your network by selecting the source.

It also has web channels such as weather, sports, etc. that you can see highlights.  The touch screen boarder is mostly responsive and works the majority of the time.  Sometimes I have to push the buttons multiple times to get a function to work.

The picture quality of the photos on the frame are pretty good, and the frame has various transitions, intervals, and scheduling on/off.

What I don't like.  For some reason the included Digital Display Software is not stable on my Windows XP machine and after installing/removing it about a dozen times I can't get it to work.  On my Vista machine the software works fine... but..  The software does not detect the picture frame on my network so I am unable to wirelessly drag-n-drop/copy pictures from my computer to the frame.  This is very annoying and is driving my crazy because it is a core basic function I can't get to work.  Of course, I can put a picture on my network and the frame will fine it, but I can't get a picture put on my SD card wirelessly.

I called Kodak support and they are Worthless!!  I have spoken to 3 individuals which have poor communication skills and really do not know anything about the product and offer no assistance.  Moreover, for over two weeks I have requested to speak to a product engineer without any luck.  Basically the techical support is devoid of any knowledge about the product.  This is a problem with such a large company.  I did not have these issues with my Cevia picture frame.  When I called customer service they knew the product.

In summary I really like the product, but it may go back to Amazon if I don't get a resolution to the wireless issue.
3083486
I chose the right product.

When I decided to buy a "digital frame," I would not have guessed the morass of products available. Wading thru the choices was painful, with a wide variety of price, size, and comments. Almost every product had comments about "difficult to set up" or "had to call tech support to get started." Many required uploading photos onto the company's website first. The NIX Advance seemed to have few reviewers that encountered difficulty and a general happiness with quality of image.

Uploading photos from 500kb to 10mb proved simple. Just copied from computer to a flash drive. The frame manages to show images with a wide variety of relative aspects (height:width) well, with very few cut off. The image quality is very good, shockingly good given the price. If you want a picture frame that has bells and whistle such as alarms, calendars, etc... then this is not your product. But if you want a frame that randomly displays your photos well and is easy to use at a good price, then I think this NIX is what you want.
1572023
The software is easy to install and easy to figure out how to use. With the right set of images it can produce some really WOW results.
I found that the biggest issue is grainy results with the default settings. You need to turn on noise reduction and push the value way up to solve this problem.
Would I buy it again? Yes.
2092707
I really like the frame. It is a great way to show and store photos. I bought it to digitize almost 3000 family photos. I scanned the photos and 35mm slides onto my computer in folders to organize them. When I copied them to the frame, some of the folders never showed. It would have been nice to have more information available in the users' guide related to the capacities of the frame. It seems like it doesn't go below the 4th level of folders. Also, it seems like it displays all of one level of folders before it goes to the next. It would be nice if the navigation were easier, and if browsing pictures was easier than just going down one picture at a time. I bought this frame for my almost 91-year old mother who is in a nursing home so that she can relive life memories. I'd like it to be easier for her to use. The instructions for pausing and restarting the show are not clear. I had to figure it out by trial and error. Also, when you shut the frame off and turn it back on, it starts from the beginning rather than from where you left off.
961306
Picture quality is terrible. There are better options out there for the money. Looks ok from a distance but when you look closely the pictures look out of focus. Very easy to use and the frame looks great. Unfortunately I want the pictures to look good, not just the frame.
3069440
I have looked at this frame in a retail store but I actually purchased it online from a large membership warehouse and paid a great price.  The picture and description of the product is identical to this frame but it gave no manufacturer's name.  When I received the product it was packaged in a different box and had a different brand name, but I am pretty sure it is the same frame, all made at the same facility in China no doubt.

Good news is that the set up was easy; all I did was insert my card and turn it on.  Picture is indeed nice and bright.  We used it only for photos from a SD card.  No movies or music and we did not install the wifi doogle that comes with it.  So we ask very little of the frame.  However, there are several problems.

First the design problems.  It does allow you to select random transaction effects but it does not have a random slideshow feature.  What this means is it will show your photos in the order they are listed on the card....sort of.  For instance, I have about 350 photos on a 2 GB card, listed in alphabetical order by name.  When I put the card in, for some reason it started showing all of the pictures from on particular vacation all at the same time, and once those were gone then it started the other pics in alphabetical order.  OK, that's pretty strange.  So I took out the card and resorted the pictures by size.  Then it appeared to be working fine, but I suddenly noticed that about 50 pictures with my wife in them were showing up one right after the other.  For some reason it reverted to alphabetical order and all of these were titled "Mary at the beach" and "Mary at the park" and "Mary at the lake"; you get the idea.  Even though they are not following each other on the card, the frame is showing them one after the other.  Appears to be a software glich.

Secondly, even though it has a clock it does not have a built in timer.  I have had two other frames where the screen went out after several months so I bought a 7" Pandigital frame that had a built in timer back in June 2008.  I only have it turn on in the evenings during weekdays and only from 9 AM to midnight on weekends.  It is still working fine.  This one has to be on 24 hours a day.  You can't even plug it into a timer, since when you turn it off and back on, it reverts to the setup screen and you have to go in and restart your slide show all over again.  I suspect the screen will go out within a year as a result of the constant use, as most of the material is probably of the cheapest quality.

Another problem I had was the actual wood frame itself.  In the lower part of the frame there was a light streak about 1" long and 1/4 " wide several shades lighter than the rest of the frame.  It appeared that there was a small nick in the wood that had been filled in and then they lightly sanded it smooth, but that removed some of the color.  I tried both a furniture pen for erasing scratches and Old English polish but neither would soak into the wood and would not darken the area.  I could live with this.

The deal killer was the frame quit working properly and froze up.  The second day, when we returned home from work, we discovered it was stuck on one picture.  None of the buttons on the remote or the frame would work except the power button, so we turned it off and restarted it.  Seemed to work fine but about an hour later, it was stuck again, this time on a different picture.  We restarted it again and it worked the rest of the night but this morning it was stuck again, on a different picture.  I turned it off and will be packing it up for return.

I think that if you buy this frame it is a crap shoot if it works or not.  And if it does work, I would be very surprised if it is still working in six months.  I would love to see a follow up report on owners after six months to see what they have to say about the frame.
4118429
I wanted to be able to use this to be able to show different albums. I called tech support before I bought it and they told me that it would do that with no problem. Guess what it doesn't.

You have to buy the more expensive frame. I told them which one I was looking at. I didn't want to have to scroll through 200 pictures to find a recent set from a vacation or something.
2791373
Pros:
- Decent frame for the price.
- 4"x4" is a great size for instagram photos taken with a smartphone.

Cons:
- Nothing holds the photos in place or aligns them. You have to adjust them on the flat glass surface and attempt to align them from the back, while continuously checking how they appear on the front. And the border isn't the same for every photo.

- Although you can fit nine 4x4 photos in the frame, the border around each photo obscures 0.5"x0.5" (only 3.5"x3.5" of each photo is visible). Losing a half inch around a four inch photo, is quite a lot...

I wish I could fine a frame that actually displays entire 4x4 photos... This would be a 4 star product at $10, but I'm sure there are frames without the aforementioned issues for around the same price as this one.
3975406
Great resolution and love being able to display photos from my phone. This is my second Nixplay and with both Ive had problems with the frame freezing up. It needs to be unplugged and restarted at least once a day. Pretty frustrating. Tech support had me unpair the frame and then re-pair it but that only fixed the problem for a week. Hardware is great, but the software still needs work.
4454013
I have had two Panadigital frames that I loved. Now Panadigital are out of business, so I tried ViewSonic photo frames. I was familiar with the monitors they make. The interface for navigation on the photo frame was slow and hard to use. The unit I ordered from warehouse deals would freeze often when trying to navigate through menus.