 Video clips not filling the screen - solution available |
| Review Date: November 21, 2008 |
| Reviewer: A. Netter, Wiltshire, UK |
If, like me, you want your video clips to fill the entire screen of this frame (like it does with stll photos), rather than add in the black vertical borders, please feel free to email me for a solution at andynetter AT hotmail DOT com]. I've spent many hours trying to find a solution for this (Kodak were no help by the way!) and now that I've found one I thought it fair to share it. I will edit this post with step-by-step instructions when I have time to type them.
Overall, great frame, really cant complain about anything. The iPhone-style finger-swiping to flick between pictures using the touch screen is very cool! Highly recommended prodct, shame about Kodak's rubbish customer service. |
Great Product
|
| Review Date: March 31, 2009 |
| Reviewer: researcher, Boston, MA |
| I bought it for my dad and he loves it. It doesn't require to be technological savy, and can be operated very easily. His only complaint is that the frame does not save his definitions for each picture (such as the screen spreading and the magnifying). Overall, great product. |
It's all superlatives where it matters
|
| Review Date: March 21, 2010 |
| Reviewer: A. Dent, Minas Anor, GD |
The M820 has the look and feel of a 'normal' picture frame, only it will display, slide show style, as many pictures as your memory card could possibly hold and it offers some, mostly unneeded but related features such as sound, the ability to play videos and some rudimentary and difficult to use file management capabilities.
WHAT YOU GET
For you money, inside the nice cardboard box you will find:
- The frame itself with an 8" display at 800x480 resolution
- DC adapter
- 2 mattes, silver and burgundy
- A small cleaning cloth
- Kodak EasyShare software on a CD
- Manual in English/French/Spanish/Portuguese
- One-page Quick Start
SETUP AND OPERATION
Within less than 5 minutes of me opening the box, my frame was already displaying pictures. It's as simple as plugging it in and inserting a memory card or a USB drive in the back.
For fine-tuning, the touch border menu system (NEVER TOUCH THE SCREEN) will let you customize your slide shows by selecting:
- the time each picture is displayed - from 5 seconds to one hour
- the sort order (A-Z, Z-A, newest to oldest or vice-versa)
- orientation - portrait or landscape
- the source for your pictures - internal memory, or one of the 3 (THREE) external memory ports
Physically, your frame can sit on its stands that rotates 90 degrees to allow for either portrait or landscape or you can use the mounting holes to hang it on a wall. The 2 provided mattes are easy to attach and more can be purchased from Kodak.
In addition to displaying pictures and playing videos, the frame can be also used to play music.
Besides slide shows, it's possible to display one specific picture by selecting it from a display mode of thumbnails.
FEATURES
The most important parameter is, of course, the display and it's a bright, crisp, , fast, 800x480.
Kodak has built a lots of features into this frame, some most welcome, others not exactly needed. The most impressive is the frame's ability to accept just about any memory card in existence. There are 3 slots in the back:
- SD, MMC, MS, xD
- CF, MD
- USB
In addition, you can connect to a computer and load the frame's own tiny 128 MB internal memory.
Since you can have 'something' in each of the three slots at any given time, you could load this frame with, literally, tens of thousands of pictures if you so desire - slide shows will only look at one port at a time but you can switch any time you want.
Not likely to be used much, the frame does allow you to copy files between the various ports or from a camera/computer, you can magnify a picture, rotate it, save slide shows, print a picture and so on.
The EasyShare software lets you organize, print, and share your pictures. It's nice that it was in the box but I am not likely to use it - it's available as a free download, by the way.
MY RATING
Since all I wanted was a picture frame that displays pictures with bright colors without distorting the original, the M820 fully meets my expectations.
I appreciate its ability to take inputs from so many different sources - I currently have an inexpensive HP 8 GB Class 4 SDHC Flash Memory Card Q6276A-EF with over 1000 pictures on it, cycling them at a rate of one every 30 seconds. I also like the 'real picture frame' look and feel, with the nice mattes included. I don't have much use for the 'extra' features having to do with file management or music playing but them being there doesn't hurt. The border touch interface is not always as responsive as it could be but, once a slide show is set, the frame is likely to keep working for many days before there's any need of controls so this is not a big demerit.
The M820 is an easy 5-star because I am impressed and so is the rest of the family and so are friends who invariably ask me the 2 questions: where I got it from and for how much :).
|
Kodak Easy Share Frame
|
| Review Date: January 13, 2009 |
| Reviewer: K. Beckley, |
| I ordered this as a Christmas gift for my parents who are in their 70s and are a bit technologically challenged. This was very easy to operate -- you take it out of the box, plug it in, turn it on and it automatically plays a demo for you. To see pictures, all you have to do is insert a memory card from your digital camera. It was easy for them to operate, and they are very happy with it. I am glad I paid a little more to get this product as opposed to a cheaper frame that may be more complicated. |
Nice and Easy
|
| Review Date: January 17, 2009 |
| Reviewer: T.H., California |
| Just got this frame and it is great. I stay away from the software that came with the frame and just copy my digital photos onto a zip drive. The zip drive plugs right into the back of the frame and the pictures are there. It is really easy to copy from the zip onto the frames internal memory, just follow the buttons on the touch-screen. It shows really great pictures and with music also, it makes for a great slide-show. My mom is getting one for her birthday from me. Great frame. |
|
No video reviews found for this product.
