Review: Digital Spectrum Digital Picture Frame

July 18, 2007 | By Jared Howard | 1,208 Views

With digital cameras so popular today and everything in general moving more and more towards digital mediums, it makes sense to display those digital mediums on digital displays. Thus the digital picture frame was born and it has rapidly grown in popularity since, especially over the course of the year. There are two questions you have to ask yourself though. Number one is it worth it and number two is it easy enough to not unnecessarily complicate a relatively simple task, displaying a picture. We’ll see…

Hardware

The Digital Spectrum Digital Picture Frame (model #MF-575) sports a bright 5.6” TFT display. The viewing angles are decent although you will start to get washout the wider the viewing angle. The frame has a built in memory card reader which supports SD/MMC/MS formats. The frame also sports a USB port which allows you to connect this directly to a computer if you were to use this at your desk and also use USB thumb drives. Since the USB port points down and is recessed in the frame case, you can use it and still have the frame lay flush against a wall if you were to mount this. Although the built in memory card reader does not support xD cards directly, the package does include a USB xD card reader which you can plug into the aforementioned USB port. Overall the frame construction was pretty solid. It has a built in kick stand and a wall mounting hole on the back. One of the most unique hardware features of this frame is its ability to support pretty much any standard off the shelf 5×7 frame. There are a couple of other digital picture frames on the market that offer the option to buy additional frames but they are generally proprietary, meaning you are limited to what the manufacturer decides to make/offer. With this product you can walk into any Walmart or Target, find any frame that blends in with your room décor, and slap it on.

Performance

The frame works as advertised and is relatively easy to use. Simply plug it in, slide in a memory card and the frame automatically starts playing your pictures in slideshow format. The LCD itself is fairly bright and consistent quality-wise with the price of the frame. It’s definitely not the best LCD I have ever seen and it’s definitely not the worst. When you get real close you can see pixilation, however for how you are going to use this, probably on a wall or desk, to display small pictures, I found the quality to be more than adequate.

The menu system isn’t the prettiest or the most responsive but I don’t foresee you having to spend a lot of time in there. You can access specific pictures, change transition effects (there are 8 in total as well as the option to randomize them) and transition times but those are probably once in a while, not every day, changes you would make. A cool feature of this frame is its ability to play music through it’s built in speakers. So you can throw some MP3s on your memory card and then add music to your slideshows. The frame also supports a variety of movie formats (MPEG1, MPEG2 and MPEG4). It’s a nice feature to have but not one I would use very often as the quality of the LCD is a little more apparent when displaying video (in a bad way). On the flipside this IS a picture frame, not a video player.

Conclusion

I was pretty impressed with the Digital Spectrum Digital Picture Frame. In this price point (under $100) I would be hard pressed to find a higher quality, more feature packed package. It is relatively simple to use (especially for the less tech inclined) and not a very big investment (money wise). I found the quality and build to be adequate overall, although there are areas where they clearly skimped (like the kick stand). Although I probably wouldn’t use the music or video features, it is definitely nice to have that extra functionality built it. I think what really sets this frame apart (even from higher priced alternatives) is its ability to support pretty much any standard 5×7 frame. I could see this being a big selling point for the more image and décor conscience crowd that like the benefits of new technology but not the “look” of new technology. The ability to show slideshows in a medium that was once static is definitely appealing. Instead of showing off just ONE of your favorite photos, you can show off ALL your favorite photos and adding and removing new pictures is as easy as sliding in a memory card.

Price:$69.99 or