Product Description

The Smartparts SP104WM is a 10.4-inch LCD digital photo frame that supports JPEG photo files, MP3 music files, and MP4 video files. With a 640 x 480-pixel resolution and built-in 128 MB memory that can store up to 2,000 photos, the frame is compatible with Compact Flash (CF), Secure Digital (SD), Multimedia Card (MMC), Memory Stick (MS), and xD memory cards. The USB 2.0 connection is compatible with Windows XP and Windows 2000. You can easily delete, rotate and/or pan pictures, create slideshows, and move pictures between the memory cards and a computer.

Product Details

• Brand: SmartParts
• Model: SP104MW
• Dimensions: 3.75" h x 14.25" w x 12.75" l, 5.00 pounds

Features

• 10.4-inch TFT LCD screen
• 640 x 480 pixel resolution with 4:3 aspect ratio
• Built-in 128 MB flash memory; supports CF, SD, MMC, MS, and xD memory cards
• Delete, rotate, pan; play MP3 music and movie clips; create slideshows
• What's in the box: Digital picture frame, AC power adapter, USB cable, composite TV out cable, remote control, user manual

Customer Reviews

A good value, once you work with it for a while
Right now the market for Digital picture frames is immature, so it is difficult to know what to purchase. Even Consumer Reports' top choice (a sibling of this frame) has many detractors (see Amazon reviews for the Smartparts 8" Syncpix). Almost half of the reviews for this frame are bad, for what seems like quality issues.

With that said, once I figured out how to use the frame (and yes, as others have said, the documentation is bad and you pretty much have to use trial and error), it does a nice job of displaying pictures with a reasonable set of features. The colors are vibrant and adjustable - one of the earlier reviewers noted that their pictures were dark, but the frame has adjustments for brightness, contrast, and color. You can randomize the transitions between pictures (or choose a consistent transition from a set of about 20), and stop and start the slide show to spend time on a particular picture. I would have probably purchased the Syncpix, which has more features, except that I wanted at least a 10" frame and the Syncpix frames are only 8" or less. I looked at many frames from multiple manufacturers (Philips, Fidelity, etc.) and this seems to have the best price/peformance ratio.

I could probably write a book to document what is missing from the instructions, but I'll try to list the high points.

1. The frame is 640 by 480, with an aspect ratio of 4:3, or 1.33. Most consumer cameras shoot at this aspect ratio; higher quality cameras shoot at an aspect ratio of 1.5. The pictures I was trying to display had the 1.5 ratio, which will cause some cropping (you can't do a direct mapping). Even though Consumer Reports said that some frames come with a native 1.5 aspect ratio, I couldn't find any.

As it turns out, this frame works fine for 1.5 aspect ratio pictures. The pictures were automatically adjusted with only minimal bars at the top and the bottom (the adjustment technique is similar to the way letter boxing works on TVs, when movies are mapped to 4:3 standard TV screens). If you're a photo expert, you can use Photoshop or other software to adjust and crop the pictures yourself.

I was also concerned about what I considered to be low resolution - other frames have 800 by 600. However, this does not pose a problem - the pictures look excellent.

2. The frame supports many different types of memory cards (SD, CF, etc.), up to 2gb. It also comes with 128mb of internal memory. If you keep your pictures on a memory card, any time you turn the frame on, you will first see a menu screen where you can choose to view the pictures from either internal memory or the memory card. If you store the pictures in internal memory, you can set the frame up to show the pictures right away.

Most cameras use .jpg images. The native jpgs are typically saved at a high resolution, often requiring 1.5mb or more. However, with 640x480 resolution, you can save the .jpgs at a lower quality and not notice any difference. Download Optipix software from the manufacturer (google Smartparts optipix) - it "optimizes" your pictures to much smaller images (typically around 50 - 100K) and allows you to download the pictures to the frame. In this way you can store probably over 1000 pictures in the frame itself. After working with this for a while, I recommend this option.

3. The frame does not have native "step by step" mode. In photo mode, you are always showing the pictures in a slide show, either at slow, medium, or fast speed. If you want to spend time looking at a picture, you must push the play/pause button on the remote to pause the show, then push play to start again. You can view pictures a step at a time in Edit mode, but when you are in this mode there is an on-screen display menu that is always visible.

4. You can't do very much in edit mode. You can copy pictures to and from card storage and delete pictures. You cannot move pictures around - I found that you need to reload the pictures in the order you want to view them.

5. The frame does not have some of the features of the Syncpix. It doesn't have a motion detector, so it won't come on when someone walks by. The Syncpix also has much better editing capability.

So to summarize - these frames seem to be in the "early adopter" phase. If you can work with it for a while, it does what it promises. I give it 4 stars.

Poor instructions but excellent product
I would agree with the previous comment that the product is difficult to setup and run basically due to the extremely poor instructions. With that said, once I downloaded the updated software from the optipix site (optipix pro) and I played around a little with the hookup between my computer and the frame, I was able to upload photos without difficulty. The frame, once photos are uploaded, works with ease and displays photos in a beautiful manner. I would have given the product 5 stars but did not due to the poor instructions.

Love It!
I bought this for my technology-challenged mother for Christmas. I get so frustrated because she can't figure out how to look at her email and I want to send her pictures of the baby. I set this up for her while we were at her house for Christmas, without even looking at the directions - it was so user-friendly. I downloaded pictures from my camera, that we had taken while we were there, to the frame's internal memory. I walked her through using the remote and now, with a couple of clicks, she can operate it by herself. I plan to mail memory cards to her so that she will have updated pictures. Hopefully, she will be able to manage sliding the memory card into the side of the frame! I love the clarity of the picture, the display size, and how simple it is to operate - I plan to purchase one for myself.